Episode Transcript
What's going on everyone, Mike Myers here, back on the Video Galaxy podcast. And uh, yeah, got a new, even newer background from the last time. Um, decided that I was done working from home, I had kind of bounced around for a little while here. Um, so, setting up in a new office space in downtown Worcester, right on the square.
I'm looking right now, off screen, at the courthouse, it's a beautiful, beautiful view. As you can see behind me, I'm really good at furnishing, and I decided. I, I think I signed a lease at the beginning of October and it's October 17th, and instead of moving furniture in, I've just been focused on getting work done.
So I'm, I'm sitting, I do have my, my actual office chair, but then I'm sitting at like a card table with a monitor and a computer. So that's how we're rolling right now. Anyways. So, um, I don't know. I just kinda, I, uh. Anyways, this is the Video Galaxy podcast. This podcast is made for video producers, videographers, photographers, um, and really just focusing on, um, doing business, being creative.
Um, but also the, the, the inside of things, how, how your heart is, how our hearts are, how our mental health is, how we're functioning. Um, especially if you're doing this by yourself day in and day out, um, it's a lot of, um, I think can be a lot of anxiety inducing turmoil, internal. Dialogue of what am I doing with my life?
Why do I do? Why do I subject myself to this type of conversation? So I like this podcast. This is my way of kind of talking to the community But even if no one is listening, which I don't know if they are It's cathartic for me to kind of just talk about this kind of stuff so Back up a little bit Like I said, I moved into, well, I signed the lease at the 1st of October, but, um, I, um, right on, on the 1st of October, I drove to Detroit to join another like videographer community, another podcast that I listened to called Studio Sherpas, sorry, the podcast is called Grow Your Video Business, that's a great podcast, um, and the kind of community that Ryan Coral, who's the host of that podcast that's built, is called Studio Sherpas and um, so anyways, I've been part of this community for a long time.
We talked, uh, sorry, um, I was part of a mastermind class earlier this year. I'd gone down to Florida and met with like six guys and like we just kind of stayed in the house and like hung out and we kind of just talked through, um, what our biggest, you know, Um, thing is right now, like our biggest problem or the, you know, and it's, it can be a whole slew of things.
Everybody's in a different season and a different phase of business. So anyways, we, each year they have a Ryan and this community have a, I guess for lack of a better term, a conference, um, it's a few days up in Detroit. Um, and. Typically, I guess it's traditionally a little bigger than it was this year, but, um, this year was just 12, 12 guys.
Not that it's just for guys, but there were only men there, um, and spent that time, you know, obviously you go to these things and you're, well, number one, you're investing money and you're investing time. You're hoping that you get something out of it. I was confident that I would get something. Um, but I didn't really quite know what, as I mentioned in my last podcast, um, this is probably it is, has been the most challenging year as far as just continuous, consistent work where it's not a question of, you know, what's going to happen next type of thing.
Um, and that's just kind of been this year. And so I kind of went through that, uh, in the, in the last episode of this podcast. Um, and so I came, came into this event, you know, everyone, like I said, is, is in different phases and different seasons of their business, but you quickly, quickly realize, you know, Ryan, who has, is leading this group has been doing this almost 20 years, you know, um, Um, I shared on his podcast recently that it's been a very similar year where it's just been like really slow and people aren't as eager to pull the trigger on things, excuse me, and, uh, and so those stories kind of started coming out and, and it wasn't, but then there was other, other people who, um, one guy in particular who, uh, Um, went to the event last year and had a similar year, like where it was really slow.
And then after he left this event, like almost immediately, um, booked like over three quarters of a million dollars in, in sales. So, so his year, this year has been really good, like the best year he's ever had. So everybody's in different seasons and, and you kind of start talking about talking through with these guys, like, you know.
business and you talk and shop and everything like that. And one of day one was very like businessy salesy, which was great. A lot of amazing takeaways, more than my brain could handle. I still haven't had a chance to go back and watch rewatch the videos and look at my notes as much as I'd like to. And then the second day, you know, Kind of started off with a session.
I think it I think the morning started off with this session
The speaker was
I Won't go into like exactly what he was talking about but
We did an exercise that was really vulnerable and really Authentic, in the sense, a few of us, myself included, got up and we were supposed to start the, we're supposed to use the phrase, If you really knew me, fill in the blank. Um, and they would kind of start off a little surfacy, but you know, and you would kind of just go until he stopped you.
So you would just kind of keep going a little deeper, a little deeper. If you really knew me, you'd know. that blank. Um, and this, um, this was a powerful exercise in the moment. Um, and I guess throughout the week, um, a lot, a lot of conversations. Yeah. They were talking shop and we're talking about. Our businesses and the work that we're doing and sales and those types of things, but, um, a lot of conversations would always kind of revert back to like, Oh, how many kids you have?
Yeah, we do this. Isn't it great that we get to do this for our families and, Oh yeah, you're struggling this year. That must be really hard for you as a father and a husband. Um, and. you know, maybe the sole income provider of your family. Um, that must be really difficult. I'm sorry. You're going through that.
So conversations always kind of turned back towards that point. So it really became more, obviously it is a community and it's not just about like, Oh, what cameras are you using? What? You know, what, you know, how many people do you usually have on a crew and those types of things? Um, those, that's valuable stuff, but I think what a lot of us do, especially men, we tend to kind of push away.
We just kind of work, work, work. We grind, we grind. One, one day we'll get to that. You know, if we just hit a million dollars in sales, or five million, or a hundred million dollars, or whatever that goal is, you know, then we'll be, phew, okay, now I can breathe type of thing. But it never really happens. Um, and we kind of bottle everything up inside, and we don't really, we isolate ourselves, and we live on an island.
Um, we work in an island, I work in an office by myself, at a desk by myself. I can at least have some sort of view that there is a world out there, but, um, for the most part, I'm by myself. I'm making decisions for the company, for my future, for the family, by myself, by myself, making all of these decisions.
And, you know... Maybe sometimes bouncing ideas off of a couple of my friends that have are in this industry that live nearby that are good friends of mine. But other than that, I'm by myself on an island by myself. And so a lot of amazing things happened. A lot of good conversations came out of that week.
And I've just kind of been thinking through that week and kind of reflecting on
If everyone were to
use that phrase, if you really knew me, what we would learn about each other in those moments, we walk around, um, we have conversations all the time. How's business? Great. It's been a bit of a super busy year, or whatever, and I think in this day and age, and as I go into the next year, kind of winding this, I mean, this year's picking up as far as, funny enough, in this quarter, uh, the fourth quarter, um.
Um, like as far as business and sales is concerned, but kind of now I'm thinking already, what, what is 2024 going to look like goals and how do I want to operate my life? I guess. And, and I just keep, um, I keep, I keep coming back to like, if you really knew me, if I'm having conversations with People that I consider my friends.
Am I comfortable enough? Kind of, you know, reading the room, obviously, but like, am I comfortable enough saying like this is what's going on? This is what's bothering me, you know, surround myself with other older, um, guys who have been in the, not even necessarily video, but just have been in business for longer than me, some longer than I've been alive.
Um, and just saying like, how would you approach this? How would you do this? And to not always live on that island of just trying to take on all of the mental and emotional stress that comes along with running a business or being a freelancer, whatever term you're using. Like, that's, There's just a ton of weight that we carry around a lot.
Um, and I, so, so I think, I think my point is, number one, to find a community. Number one, in, in your... In what you do to the people that do what you do day in and day out that can relate on a real real level But also finding people outside of that who have been in business or have done This type of thing for a long time that you can lean on and say I know you don't know anything about video But that this should translate lines of what would you do in this situation?
How would you approach the situation? And um, so, so number one, I think it's finding a community. And once you've found that community, it's being vulnerable and authentic within that community. Because if you find your community and you just,
Kind of putting up a facade, or a shield, you don't really want to tell because you see, it's so easy. Especially in those environments where I was in Detroit, like, there's 11 other guys. My presumption could be, man, these guys all have it figured out. They all have it together. They're all doing the number of sales that they want.
They're all just killing it. They're crushing it right now. But I'm like... It's just not, I could think like that and then just hold it up and, but then once you kind of open up and say, man, this has been, if you really knew me, if you really knew what was going on, you would know that this, and then, and then, and then like, you know, five or 10 or 11 other people in the room would be like, yeah, I'm going through that exact same thing.
Um, and the same as with, you know, that more mentor, that older person of like, um, Hey, I know you don't understand my industry necessarily, but this is what I'm struggling with. Have you ever felt like that as a business owner or whatever? Yeah, most likely they have, um, we're all very similar humans are. We all think we're just the one who struggles with this.
We're the one that can't figure this out. We're the only one that can't quite do it, or quite make it, or can't quite kick the addiction, or can't quite kick the habit. I don't know why we're so self centered to believe that we're the only ones. There's 7 billion people on the planet. It's probably... Odds are pretty...
Pretty high that there's other people who are very similar to you, especially when you, when you start surrounding yourself with creatives and with videographers and photographers, the way that our brains think typically are all very similar and the way that we handle situations are all pretty similar.
We're not the same people, but. we all have our unique personalities and our, and everything like that. But when you look at the, the macro of like
a lot of people do this for a living, a lot of people, you know, even from like a logistic, like a pragmatic sense of like, When you look at the main group of these people, a lot, a lot of people take the same path as far as like, okay, we're going to start with weddings. We're going to move into commercial.
We're going to go this. It's like a sequence. Not everybody does that. I don't want to speak like that, but that's so you kind of have to, even in that sense, like they have gone that route too. They've gone that road so they can relate. And even then on a deeper level. Yeah, there have been, like, you're not the only one that has a low bank account, or you're not the only one that has had nearly, like, like, I'm not speaking to myself, like, like legal problems with a client, like where you've had to talk lawsuits and things like that.
Again, that's not me. I'm sure there's somebody out there that has, has had that. And then they think, man, there's no one that I can't lean on anyone. I can't, I don't know anybody who'd reach out to, but if you have a community, even if it's like 10 or 12 people, chances are there's going to be at least one person in that group that's like, Oh man, like, well, I've never been like sued or I've never had to sue anyone, but I can guide you.
To somebody that I know, or, you know, et cetera, et cetera, like, The point is, Is number one, find your community, And number two, When you've found that community, Be authentic, And vulnerable. And even, I would encourage you, If you find that community, And you want to use that, like, It's not my phrase, uh, Mark Ostash, he was the speaker.
Uh, that prompted us with that, if you really knew me, so I'm not, but I'm sure, you know, just go ahead and use that like as kind of a, kind of to warm things up and, and really kind of like go deep pretty fast. Um, as far as like, if you really knew me, man, you know, I'm really struggling with this. Um, and I think.
There's deep change that happens not only amongst the community, you grow closer, you have more trust, um, but you also go deeper with yourself and you dig deeper with yourself to, to figure out, number one, to reassure yourself that you're not the only one and you don't go into a deep, deep, dark depression hole of like, Oh, what was me?
I'm the only one. Um, number two, just like, I don't know what number two number, I don't know what number two was, but anyways, that's ADHD brain. Um, so I hope this is encouraging and it's encouraging me, encouraging to me to just talk about it. And, um, this podcast, this podcast doesn't always have to be about video stuff.
It's just about like, let's look. We're all, we're all in this together. We're all in this together.
Um, we're all in the same boat. We're all trying to navigate the waters of entrepreneurship or business ownership. Freelance. Whatever. Um, and we're not alone. We're not on an island. We're in, but we have to realize who's around us and who we can surround ourselves with. To encourage us in those moments where you're like, I want to give up.
I don't want to do this anymore. So that's all I got today. I hope this has been valuable to you. Um, yeah, feel free to reach out. You can text 330 600 8245 And we can connect and hopefully, um, yeah, hopefully this has been helpful for you. Um, and just maybe just like that extra bit of encouragement to like find your people.
I'm here, uh, if you need a person to talk to. Um, but good to find people anywhere and everywhere. Super good to find people close to you that you can go to in person, but however you're doing it, just find somebody, find them. And then number two, be authentic and be vulnerable with them. So, that's it for today's episode of the Video Galaxy Podcast.
Until next time...
I don't know, I was trying to do something like Galaxy, like we're shooting a rocket ship. That was stupid. I'm gonna keep it in though, because I did it. Peace.
