Leonardo Oliveira: I’m excited about an opportunity, but I feel underpaid, overwhelmed by scope creep, and struggling to set boundaries before signing the contract. How do I set boundaries and cut expectations before shooting starts?

• Fast, cheap, good, pick two: Use it to frame every conversation about time, budget, and quality before you sign anything.
• Use your test phase as evidence that scope creep is already happening and expectations are not realistic.
• Recognize you have leverage because you’ve already done work they like and they don’t want to replace you. Use it to negotiate the contract terms and build in boundaries and guardrails.
• Check if it’s blissful ignorance or exploitation, but set the same boundaries either way. Frame it as managing expectations and protecting quality.
• Choose your version of hard, have the difficult conversation now or let months become hard and awful. 
• Working hard doesn’t mean it’s good, protect your time, sanity, and health.

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