The Hold System

Speaker 0 00:00:01 Hi, I'm Erin SK Speaker 1 00:00:03 And I'm Austin Shaw. Speaker 0 00:00:05 This is between the key frames. Speaker 1 00:00:14 Welcome. Welcome to between the key frames. What's up Erin. Speaker 0 00:00:18 Hi. Speaker 1 00:00:19 Hello. So today we're gonna talk about the hold system. Uh, this is a very important system to understand. It's something that I was introduced to in the early two thousands as I transitioned from being an intern to being a freelancer. Um, and it's something that I, I talk about with my students, especially those who are, who are preparing to graduate, getting ready to enter, uh, the workforce and being prepared. You know, even if they're getting hired right outta school, I want them to understand how this freelance hold system works. Aaron, what about you? What was your first introduction to, uh, to the hold system? Speaker 0 00:01:04 Well, I mean, I was just around it, like at DK, it was like, oh, what artists are available? When do we have them for, so I don't think I really like understood the ins and outs of it, but I certainly knew that there was such thing as a hold and a booking. And the nuance of holds was, I didn't know, like the super details, like, but I knew that you had like a first hold, which meant somebody's essentially guaranteed unless you passed on them or a second hold, which is something that means that the artist is not guaranteed. <laugh> like you have to check in with them first. So I knew that like, kind of from the jump, um, and then of course starting a company, I learned very much so why the whole system is both important for us as a studio, but also potentially the individual artists that are freelancing also some of the drawbacks and, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's kind of an interesting thing to talk about because it's really about how freelancers run their business from a very practical standpoint. You know what I mean? Like there's gonna be some nuance to it. That's maybe individual to each person, especially as they develop their career. But by and large, like if nobody like agrees to the whole system, like, I don't know what it would be. It would be chaos, Speaker 1 00:02:23 Be a mess. Right. Speaker 1 00:02:29 So we're, we're gonna, we're gonna read a, a definition from a motion for article. This is from 2019, and then we're gonna, we're gonna build on that and we're gonna, we're gonna get into the ins the outs we're gonna dissect this whole system. Yeah. So, okay. A hold is a voluntary courtesy offered by a freelancer to a studio to help in the early stages of staffing. The potential job. A first hold says the freelancer will not take on other work or make other plans that could interfere with a potential booking for an agreed onset of days in the event. The free Lancer would like to exit that hold for any duration of time. A challenge must first be set with the studio, holding the days the studio can either choose to release the time or book the time. And this is from Josh V Prague. Speaker 1 00:03:19 Yeah. Uh, yeah, so there's a lot there. I think that that's a pretty good definition. Uh, we'll unpack all that. Here's a little, little something we wrote up from, uh, the, between the key frames kind of point of view. The hold system exists to help studios staff projects with freelance talent. As a studio looks at its existing and potential production schedule. They may need to bring freelance help into complete projects. Often they're pitching on projects, managing the ebb and flow of their in-house staff and adjusting to real time project or client changes. The whole system is an attempt to forecast a studio schedule and ensure they can complete projects that are in production. A studio schedule is never static and staffing talent is a constantly shifting puzzle, right? So that's kind of some big picture and, and we'll get into all the nitty gritty. I think it's important to just understand that the system's in place for a reason, right. And it has to do with scheduling. It has to do with somewhat trying to predict changing schedules. There are real consequences to not respecting the system. Absolutely. And not clearly communicating or not operating within its boundaries. Speaker 0 00:04:37 I do think it's important to like, kind of take a top level, look at what you just kind of talked about, because when you think about your own freelance practice, you might be juggling two or three, hold extrapolate that out from a studio perspective, we have stuff that we're pitching, so it's not guaranteed, but it might hit optimistically. You're gonna win 50% of your pitches, but that means 50%. You're not. So what you're trying to do with your hold is predict, like you say, what's gonna happen. And a lot of times that's in flux because you might be pitching on something, but then all of a sudden something might hit single bid. You might win something that you expect to go into production right away, but maybe something's going on with a client and they push it two months. So what you are dealing with in terms of your holds like a company, a studio is dealing with times 20 with all of their projects going on. Speaker 0 00:05:34 We don't expect people to be pliable outside of what is communicated, but at least empathetic. I think studios try and be empathetic with artists and communicative with artists as much as they can. But the other way is true. There has to be some empathy <laugh> and understanding for studios. And I think that's somewhat of the premise of why the system is in place is because there is so much fluidity and our clients are not these like rigid things where they're ordering, you know, 20 washing machines and we're putting it into the system and it's getting spit out. It's, it's much more fluid than that. It's a big puzzle that you're constantly trying to put together. Speaker 1 00:06:20 You made me think of something too. And, and coming up in the studios in New York city throughout the two thousands for me, what I saw was most studios had a core, uh, team of staff, right? Yep. Anywhere, maybe it's a half dozen, six people on staff, right. Artists, but they might have another 20 workstations. Yep. <laugh> right. That at any given time could be full and then with freelancers and then can as projects finish and then they kind of empty out. I guess the idea I'm trying to communicate here is it's a real integral part of that studio structure of like you were saying, managing between internal staff freelance, come and go and, and, and kind of having a trusted squad mm-hmm <affirmative> right. And, and the other thing is about this reputation, you know, and this is something that in terms of professionalism, work ethic, it takes time to build up that freelance reputation. And it's, it's really important because that is what is gonna get those producers or talent coordinators, which we'll talk a little bit about to actually call you and engage, ask it, you put you on hold or to bring you in on a booking and to be a trusted freelancer. That's, that's your, that's your golden ticket, you know, your reputation. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:07:37 And as a freelancer, you're gonna wanna work with multiple studios. That's the whole point of being a freelancer, right. Or I guess you could go permalance which we could talk about also. But ideally if you're a freelancer, you're, it's partly the opportunity to work with different groups and different people. So, you know, it's a delicate balance of like, you know, if you're a trusted freelancer for a company, but you don't go back after two years, it's like, why am I bothering? Like, what's going on here? Why am I bothering putting you on hold? You know? So there's just semantics involved. And I do think reputations go both ways. Like we might focus on your reputation as a freelancer, but studios also have reputations as to how they treat freelancers, how they communicate, how transparent they are, how you're onboarding and off boarding works, how you get paid, things like that. So, um, so reputation, isn't just a one way street. It is a two way street. Speaker 1 00:08:35 So, absolutely. All right. So let's talk a little bit about how this system works, why it's there. So basically we have let's, let's imagine a studio, it's got projects coming down its pipeline. It's got projects that are already in production, and usually what'll be a creative lead producer. They'll, they'll kind of figure out what, what kind of staffing is needed to get a job done. Right. And they'll look at who's on staff. Like who's, who's an employee who can maybe take the lead of a project and who, who, who else they could put on. But then they're also gonna say, Hey, we're gonna need X number of artists, freelancers, to help us finish. And that could be designers. It could be animators, it could be producers, right? Any kind of talent could be freelance in, in our design driven production, uh, scenarios. So as they figure out how many of what type of artist freelance artist is needed, the producer or talent coordinator, and maybe this is a good time to talk about what that job is, which is mm-hmm <affirmative>. I always thought the talent coordinator is kind of a junior producer role or producer in training potentially Speaker 0 00:09:47 Kind of is sometimes Speaker 1 00:09:49 Right. Sometimes who's this sometimes what would, what else would it be? Speaker 0 00:09:54 Well, it's a great way into understanding how a job comes together. Mm. And learning who the players are. So before you're kind of navigating clients and dealing with that whole side of it, it's like, okay, what are the creative directors like? Who do they like working with? What is this person doing? What is the expertise involved with making? And that's a, you know, managing freelancers and talking to the community and looking at a portfolio and understanding that we like this person, cuz they do design E 3d. And that, you know, they're in cinema and they work with Redshift and octane and we're a Redshift and octane studio. So it gives them like a good practical entry into the career. I mean, a if somebody's amazing, they could stay a talent coordinator forever because it's such a important role. But it does seem to like if somebody's doing really well, they track into being a producer. Speaker 1 00:10:56 Okay. Yeah. Cool. So they're managing a database of talent and they're doing that outreach, whether it's an email, a phone call, a text message. Uh, and as they know, okay, this is the talent that we need to put on hold. They're gonna reach out to freelancers and make inquiries about their availability. Are you available from these dates right? For the next two weeks or month out? And if a freelancer is available during those, those, uh, dates that the producer talent co coordinator are asking about, they might ask them if they can put them on hold for a hold. Right. And what that means is that if as a freelancer, I agree to be put on hold by a studio that studio has the first option to book or buy my time for those dates. And that's known as the first hold. I think it's really important to define the difference between when I agree to be put on hold versus being booked by a studio. So Erin, maybe, maybe you want to talk about what is a booking? What does that mean? Speaker 0 00:12:05 So yeah, a booking is when there is an agreement in writing, not just like a verbal, but like an, an email or something that says we are booking you officially. We are transitioning that hold from a hold is like us, you know, pretending to date to actually dating, to actually working together. And when we do that in writing is, you know, the dates that you're booked for, how much we're paying you based on your day rate, things like that. So it's just like a very formal document that outlines like the terms of the engagement. So it goes from very informal to like very formal. And we're expecting you at that point to show up either in person or remotely for those days. Speaker 1 00:12:54 Right on. So the booking is an actual agreement you're coming Speaker 0 00:12:59 To work. Speaker 1 00:13:00 Yeah. By your time, your time is booked for those specified dates at that rate hold is an option to Speaker 0 00:13:08 An inquiry. Speaker 1 00:13:09 Yeah. An inquiry or an option to make that booking for those dates. Right. So there's an important difference. And I think that's for students to just understand that if a studio puts you on hold, that doesn't mean that they're, that they're gonna book you. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, it's an option to book you. There's a difference there. Speaker 0 00:13:24 Yeah. During that process, it's okay to check in on your hold, say, Hey, I have a hold coming up with you in a couple weeks. How's it looking? Ideally you would get enough communication back from them to know if it's like likely gonna happen, unlikely, gonna happen. You know what I mean? So that there's just, um, communication. Some companies don't reach out when your hold comes up and they don't need you. They don't even reach out. They might not feel like it's necessary. It's not an agreement. So it's just like, okay, we didn't need anything. So the hold isn't really a real thing anymore. It's over. I will say like, sometimes you'll have a hold and you might be a couple days into the hold and then the company will reach out and say, okay, we're ready to book. So it might be like a couple days in. Speaker 0 00:14:13 So I just think like, don't always expect the company to reach out. You kind of take ownership over your time and say, Hey, I'm checking in. Is this likely gonna happen or not happen? And if the studio is on the up and up, they they'll say something like, oh yeah, it's definitely not gonna start when your hold starts. But it's likely gonna start like five days in. So like <laugh> anything could happen. It could happen sooner. But like, ideally you would know. So that like if the date passes, you're not freaking out. Like I thought I was gonna be working and I'm not working again. It comes down to communication. Then sometimes you're gonna take the lead. Sometimes they're gonna take the lead, but it's, it's not shameful to take the lead. This is your career and livelihood. It's okay to check in. Speaker 1 00:14:55 Yeah. Right, right. On flip side, you don't want to be super high maintenance. You don't need to check in every day until the booking. Right. It's it. As the booking's approaching, it's a good time. Okay. It's a week out from the potential booking I'm on hold. Okay. Maybe shoot an email. Hey, just wanna check in how are we looking? Right. And, and more than likely there, the studio's waiting to hear whether projects are gonna be awarded and if they, they need that freelance help for that time. I think that's also important to say that there is no obligation to accept a hold. So I think for me, especially in the beginning, as I was getting into it, I mean, I basically just said yes to anything, right. Like, Hey, are you available? <laugh> like, we put you on hold. Okay. Right. But you, you don't have to accept a hold there's no, there's no, uh, there's no rules, but there are certainly reasons why you would want to take a hold, especially if you're getting started. Speaker 1 00:15:53 Right. Yeah. So, so studio studios work, this is the structure. So it's somewhat of a gatekeeper for how studios operate. So yeah. One reason is that, well, you want to get into this industry, you wanna work. And this is, this is a way of, uh, beginning the dance right. Of, of how you work as a freelancer mm-hmm <affirmative> in motion design, right? Yeah. And you maybe want to establish yourself with a particular studio. And then the other thing is like you want some clarity or certainty about your schedule. Yeah. Right. To me, that's, that's um, some of the reasons to get engaged in this hold system, but it's always important to know that it's not a guarantee of a booking and that really you're basically gonna be on hold until the producer or the coordinator. Tele coordinator says that we, we wanna book your time or the time of the hold itself passes. Speaker 0 00:16:50 Yeah. Typically somebody will release you from a hold. That's the terminology. If we, you know, have some people on hold and we have them specifically slated for something, and they're not a generalist that can be pieced together in this scheme, if we know that the job we had them on hold for, isn't gonna happen. We'll reach out and say, we're gonna release you because the thing went away and we don't have anything coming up. That's appropriate. Speaker 1 00:17:21 Which brings up an, an important question, which I think is good to dig into is, is can a freelancer have more than one hold? Can I take more than one? Hold yes. Yes. Right? So you can have multiple holds. Right? First hold second, hold third, hold. You wanna talk a little bit about what's what's the difference between a say a first and a second hold. Speaker 0 00:17:42 So when you give somebody the first hold, it means that they have the option to book you no matter what. So if you take a first hold, they are in first position. Um, first write of refusal. So if you give somebody a second, hold they're in second position. So let's say you have a first hold what's siroski with us. And then you take a second hold with imaginary forces. If imaginary forces calls to book, you formally book you before we reach back out and say, Hey, we wanna transition. You have 20, we have 24 hours to either take your first hold and book you or release you so that you can then tell imaginary forces that you are in fact available, or that you have been booked. So it's nice because it gives you like layers of options. Some people do third holds some people I wouldn't recommend. Speaker 0 00:18:39 Like if you're a very, I wouldn't recommend more than three holds, cuz it's a lot for you to manage because on your side, it's a good courtesy. Where if, if for example, we had you on a first hold SROI has you on a first hold, we call you, we book you. If you have a second and a third hold, the really the right thing to do is to shoot them a note to say, from this time to this time, I have been booked so that they can know that you're no longer an option to them. Sometimes, you know like how we forget to reach out and say, Hey, this fell apart. We're not gonna need you. It's it's courtesy on the other side to say, heck actually I got booked from this time to this time. So I'm off the table. Speaker 1 00:19:18 What Aaron just described that scenario is known as a challenge. Yes. Right? So, so if you have a hold, if OV is first hold and then imaginary forces comes along and wants to buy your time, wants to book you, that's a challenge. And as the freelancer, you, you go back to your first hold with that challenge. Right? Speaker 0 00:19:40 So yeah. You say I've been challenged for this time to this time and we either book you or release you. Speaker 1 00:19:48 So that brings a couple like nuance here. So what if, what if Ky has me on hold for, for a week and then imaginary forces wants to buy my time for that week plus three more for a month, right? Oh, wow. So basically a longer, a longer booking. What do you do in that scenario? Speaker 0 00:20:08 What we like and we respect going when it's not in our favor too. So if we were in the opposite position into imaginary forces where they only had a week and we had a month, it's nice. It's important to say, like, if somebody's being challenged, you only have them booked for a week and they're being challenged for the month. You either book them for the month or you release them. That is our opinion. That, I mean, that is not necessarily how everybody operates. There's a lot of disclaimers. But if you're, if you're being, it's not like they wanted you for a week in a day where it's like, well, whatever, we'll just book you for the week in the day. Then if it's for that much longer, you have to think about the freelancer and their livelihood. So if we only needed you for a couple days, it's probably gonna be easier for us to find somebody for that shorter amount of time or make due with the resources we have. And then you would then go work. We would release you to imaginary forces who wanted you for the month. But in our position, we would either book you for that time or release you. Did that make sense, Austin? Speaker 1 00:21:12 I think so. <laugh> yeah. So Speaker 0 00:21:14 Creating less, less clarity, Aaron Ky <laugh> Speaker 1 00:21:19 No, I think that made sense. So to sum that up, it sounds like you would E if, if you could use that person for the whole month, you would book them, you would book them or Hey, you know what? We can find someone else for this amount of time. Let's release them and let them take that monthly booking. And you'd encourage that freelancer. Cause you're thinking like, yeah, a month that's, that's important for them to be busy in books for that amount of time. Speaker 0 00:21:44 Yep. Speaker 1 00:21:45 All right. Now I got one that let's see as a studio owner. What if, uh, okay. You got me on hold <laugh> okay. Speaker 0 00:21:54 I know where this is going. Speaker 1 00:21:55 Yeah. And then somebody wants to challenge, but they wanna pay me more. They challenge not only the whole, but they're challenging the rate. They'll say we'll pay you more to get you for that time. Speaker 0 00:22:05 Well, I've never heard of this, but you've said I've heard few said this. Speaker 1 00:22:10 I've seen that. I've heard of it. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:22:12 I would be crazy insulted as a student owner. Not only, well, one I'd be like angry at that other studio because that's a nasty fucking thing to do. Right, Speaker 1 00:22:25 Right. In trying of buy, buy out the talent. Speaker 0 00:22:28 Yeah. That's like just a NA and it puts the artist in a really shitty position of saying like, Hey, I can make more here. So this whole system that is in place is now like, well, so I would say, if you are worth that much money, you should take the book. First of all, I wouldn't even tell the, the first studio that, that happened, that they offered to pay you more because it's gonna create like a lot of conflict. I would take the booking, you know, at, at your rate and then consider raising your rate. <laugh> in the future and say certainly with the other studio, as far as I'm concerned, if they offer you a higher rate, you never go back to them with a lower rate. You say, if you are, instead of paying me $500, you're willing to pay me $600 a day. That is my new rate for you. I think that's totally acceptable. But you know, I, I, I don't know that I would encourage somebody to bring that offer to a studio. I think it would really create a lot of conflict, uh, around your engagement, just internally with the other studio, with all of that stuff. That right. That feels like out of bounds to me. And Speaker 1 00:23:43 If you've accept, if you've accepted a hold at Speaker 0 00:23:47 Agreed upon rate Speaker 1 00:23:48 Rate at an agreed upon rate, you honor, you honor, Speaker 0 00:23:51 You honor that, Speaker 1 00:23:53 That agreement, right. Especially, it's like, if it's a month you work for for a month and then you raise your rate for the Speaker 0 00:23:58 Next time a hundred percent. Right. Speaker 1 00:24:00 You know? Uh, that makes sense. That makes sense. Um, Speaker 0 00:24:03 Would you do that, Austin? Would you go back to the studio and say, Hey, Speaker 1 00:24:08 I having, having now talked about it with you? I mean, it makes sense that that idea. No. I mean, I think I'm always a, I fall back on the, you gotta say, gotta follow your, your word. Right. You have to honor the agreements you make. Right. If that gives you a clue. I mean, if it's like, you know, a six months booking and you know, that's a lot of time, Speaker 0 00:24:28 Um, but then you're probably not being, don't look at that, but then you're probably not on hold for six months with the other company. Exactly. You know? So then you can come back to the original first hold position and say I'm being offered a very long booking. Speaker 1 00:24:40 That's almost like a job. Speaker 0 00:24:44 One thing we really should talk about is what if you're booked and a company cancels the booking? Speaker 1 00:24:51 Oh yeah. Yeah. That's important. Speaker 0 00:24:53 That's important. So that's when you get into Killy territory and the, the basic it's it's whatever, half it's, half of whatever you were booked for. So, but you could think of it as half your day rate or half of the booking, um, whatever that is. But if you were booked for a week, you would get two and a half days of pay and that's industry standard. Some studios might have something different in their fine print in terms of like an engagement note or something like that. So if you are gonna book with somebody and it's your first go with them, ask them what, what their guilty kind of paradigm is. It's just better to ask and know if, if it doesn't work out. So yeah, that's important to know. That's why, like, we very much take that booking very seriously, because if, if, if it doesn't work out for a studio, like they're gonna have to pay a Fil fee and that's why they will be like, that's why they'll ride the hold to the very end before doing the booking, because they're, there's accountability if you book and then on book, <laugh> just say, no, we don't need you. Speaker 0 00:25:57 Like, we can't do Speaker 1 00:25:58 That. I wouldn't say it happens that often, but it's, it happens. I've had a couple few instances over over the years and yeah. And there's, I mean, for me, the, the idea is especially like if I've turned down other work, right, mm-hmm <affirmative> during a book like, oh no, I'm already booked and now I'm outta luck. It's like, yeah, I, I need to either enforce that kill fee or there's sometimes I've thought about that. There's where I might not enforce the kill fee is if I want to really build, build some good will with a particular studio I'm trying to get in. I really wanna work with the studio and, and the booking falls apart. I might say, look, I'm not gonna charge a kill fee, but I'm, I wanna let them know that I'm hooking them up so that they're gonna put me on the top of the list for the next booking. Yeah. Right. So that's more maybe negotiating and, and kind of, uh, again, soft skills. Uh, yeah. Why that's important. Speaker 0 00:26:52 Yeah. There's also like, perhaps you get booked you're booked for a month and maybe I don't know that this ever happens, but maybe that you guys deliver early <laugh> um, the studio might be like, okay, we're gonna release shoe. Even though we have a few days left. If, if you had a good run there, like there's a lot of good will there, it might be like, oh, don't worry about a KFI for those days. But if you're wondering why a studio might have you, um, on hold for a month and then only book you a week at a time or a couple days at a time, that's why it's cuz they're not sure, like maybe it's a new client and they have, there's something weird about it. Or you're, they're they're billing in stages or doing the job in stages from dev da, da, da, da, da. And that's when it's like, okay, well we know we're gonna have this job rolling for a week and that's a good opportunity to take it through development, but we're not sure if it's gonna actually turn into production. So we're only gonna book you for a week because to really do again, to do the booking is a commitment, a financial commitment for that entire length of time. Speaker 1 00:27:59 All right. All right. Last topic to talk about is, uh, can I keep a first hold for myself? Right. So this is a, uh, I would say the season freelancer trick. It's something that after a number of years, um, somebody suggested to me, or they told me, Hey, this is what I do. I keep first hold for myself. And I give out, I give out second holes and then they can choose what, which booking they want to take. Right. And I thought it was super clever. And then I realized that all the producers do that lot. Yeah, yeah. That it wasn't a big secret. Right. So can you do this? Certainly I can keep first hold for myself. I can give out second holds. And, and that gives the freelancer some flexibility, however, <laugh>, mm-hmm <affirmative> reasons, you know, what, what is this perception from the studio's point of view? Speaker 0 00:28:45 Well, let me just put it this way. Like as a studio, if every single freelancer on our roster gave us second hold, like we would have to turn down work because a second hold essentially means is something better comes along. Or if our first hold books I'm taking that. And so a studio needs first holds to be able to manage jobs. So if you're never giving a first to a studio that you actually wanna work with, you're doing yourself a very big disservice. Speaker 1 00:29:15 And it sounds like you take a freelancer only has given out second holds. It sounds like you take them less seriously. Speaker 0 00:29:22 Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Like consistently. So we have some freelancers in the mix that occasionally keep the first for themself, but will also occasionally give us a first. Right. And so then we know cuz like they might have some direct to client stuff coming up or they just communicate with us. They're saying like, oh, I'm giving you a second here. But unless this other thing pops, you know, revisions on this thing I did for a direct to client, then, then it, you essentially have the first, but they don't wanna like ruin the relationship by giving us a first and then Rene on it. So they're doing the right thing, but they're essentially communicating through it. Speaker 1 00:30:05 So, uh, let's do a quick recap, right? Yeah. So why does this system exist? <laugh> Speaker 0 00:30:13 Why does it exist? It's so that studios can plan their time, their jobs, um, and re resources like efficiently as efficiently as possible. Right. There's certainly nothing perfect about the system. Um, but it's the system we have and it's kind of the system, everybody, all the other studios have agreed to as well. So it's what we got and it creates a little bit of organization outta chaos. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:30:39 Right on. And then a hold a hold is not a Speaker 0 00:30:42 Booking, not a booking. We're gonna say that a bunch of times. Speaker 1 00:30:45 Yep. Yep. It is in a, a, uh, courtesy to give first option to buy or book a freelancer' time for specified amount of days or dates at a specific rate. Right? Yep. A, a booking means they've bought your time and those are the dates and you're expected to show up. So don't blow off a booking or you're never gonna hear from them ever again, Speaker 0 00:31:09 Never again. Speaker 1 00:31:10 Right. Don't blow off, um, a first hold either. Right. Don't give out a first hold and then take a booking with someone else without communication. Cuz you'll never hear from that. You'll Speaker 0 00:31:22 Never hear from, Speaker 1 00:31:22 From them again first hold again. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> you can a hold can be challenged, right. A studio and has 24 hours to either book your time or release your hold. So you can take a booking somewhere else. Right? Correct. And you can give out multiple holds first, second, third, and then you can get to a point where, you know, you can keep your own hold first hold and give out second holds. But you run the risk of getting off that first, first freelance. Yeah. Kind of priority. You want to know, you wanna understand these terms. So somebody asks, if they can put you on hold, do you understand what you're getting into? If you Speaker 0 00:31:59 Right. Exactly. Do you know, just to circle back that, um, Motionographer article from 2019 from Josh Prague gets really granular about it. I would highly recommend that article to people to read, but it gets into like this notion that like you, as a freelancer, as an independent contractor, you are a business as well, even if you're incorporated or not. And like, this is the system that people have kind of been using. So yeah. There's ways to skirt it a little bit or maybe operate outside of it, but there is a reason it exists and it's really important that you understand that. And if you choose to work outside of it, at least you understand it, you know? All right. Well that's the whole system <laugh> in nutshell. Yeah. I hope we held your attention. Good. One good one. I didn't do any whole jokes. I didn't like we didn't do any whole key frame jokes or anything you held back. I really held back. <laugh> all right. Until next time everybody, uh, go get your bookings, keep it real. Keep it real.