When Tariffs Tank Your Q2

Kirk Hensler
May 29
4 min read

How we lost $400k in a week and kept shooting anyway

Here’s a fun one: imagine you’ve spent a decade building a production company that runs like a Swiss watch. You’ve got studios in L.A. and San Diego, systems dialed, a dream team of creatives, and a slate of brand clients that would make your former $300-a-day-wedding-shooter self weep with pride.

Now imagine all of that gets side-swiped by a single line item in a trade policy meeting you weren’t invited to.

That’s where we are.

The TLDR:

Due to a sudden spike in tariffs on imported goods, many of our biggest clients had to slow production down to a halt overnight. So far, we’re looking at around $500,000 in projected revenue, gone. Not because we dropped the ball. Not because they’re unhappy with the work. But because their supply chains just got strangled, and the budget cuts rolled downhill. Marking and production are always the first ones to go.

When Global Policy Becomes Local Reality

Hale has always tried to stay lean, nimble, and semi-unbothered by macroeconomic drama. But when your bread-and-butter clients are in CPG, apparel, and consumer tech, you are always at the mercy of the market—no matter how many Gantt charts you color-code.

Tariffs might feel abstract, like a footnote on the nightly news. But here’s what it looks like up close: a skincare brand delays their product launch indefinitely because packaging costs just doubled. A tech accessories company slashes its entire creative budget to keep product margins intact. A household name brand “presses pause” on all non-essential projects (read: everything but fulfillment and crisis management).

It’s wild how fast things unravel. One week, we’re finalizing treatments. The next, we’re fielding apologetic phone calls and completely redoing our revenue projections for the rest of 2025.

True Independence Is a Myth (Sorry, Hustle Culture)

There’s a popular narrative in entrepreneurship that if you work hard enough, systemize enough, build the right team and product, you can create a business that runs independently. Bulletproof. Self-reliant. Free.

But here’s the truth from someone who’s done all that: you are never untethered. Not when your clients are dependent on global freight. Not when governments are playing economic chess on a 30,000-foot level. Not when a line item in an import tax schedule can nuke your quarter.

Even the best systems break when the world hiccups. And lately, the world’s had a cough.

So… What Now?

We regroup. We tighten. We pitch new verticals. We put more energy into our evergreen partners—the ones who know that pausing content is like stopping mid-rep and expecting gains.

And we remind ourselves what Hale actually sells: not just video, not just pretty edits, but stability. Creative operations that hold up under pressure. Teams that still show up, even when the forecast shifts.

We’re also getting scrappy (again). It’s somewhat sad at this point that there’s a playbook for global pandemics, economic crisis, and just general collapses in humanity. But it’s part of millennial entrepreneurship.

In these moments, we go back to basics.

A deep dive into our online presence - if things are slowing down with our bread and butter clients, who else is on the horizon that needs our services? We’ll do an audit of our website, our SEO positioning, and we’ll reallocate funds towards Meta and Google ads that are highest performing.
A temporary pause on expansion - that means no additional team members and a reduction in billable hours to our contractors. It’s not fun at all, but we all have to squeeze during certain moments to make sure we are in this for the long run.
Relax. Its sounds ridiculous, but in the 10 years we’ve been doing this, we have been through so many highs and lows that you have to just find a way to enjoy the downtime. Regroup. Take a long weekend. And know that everyone else is experiencing the exact same thing and sometimes you just have to chill.

What We’re Learning in Real Time:

Diversification matters. If too many of your clients rely on the same global supply chain, you’re exposed. We’re investing in sectors less vulnerable to import tariffs—like digital services, local retail, and hospitality.
Speed is everything. In volatile times, brands don’t need 3-month timelines. They need three-day turnarounds. Our nimble crews, flexible studios, and hybrid production models let us move at the speed of the news cycle.
Creative isn’t optional—it’s adaptive. Brands still need content. But now they need smarter content: evergreen edits, modular formats, reusable strategies. We’re building these into every pitch.

The Final Word: We’re Still Here

At Hale, we pride ourselves on being operationally sound. But that doesn’t mean we’re untouchable. It just means we do our best to respond when sh*t hits the fan.

If your team is navigating a tough season, we see you. If you’re a brand still trying to figure out what to say, how to say it, and whether you can even afford to—call us. We’ve got ideas. We’ve got gear. We’ve got room on the calendar.

And more than anything, we’ve got experience in the trenches.

Tariffs or not—we’ll keep shooting.