The Biggest Lessons Every Creative Entrepreneur Needs
We celebrate seven seasons of Minding My Creative Business and lead with the central message: creative entrepreneurs must build systems and clarity to scale sustainably. We recap conversations about pivoting from a product business into a marketing agency and about building one operational system at a time. We highlight the need for flexible thinking in branding and for defining what your name stands for beyond visual identity. We stress the importance of measuring growth with key numbers, tracking time, and understanding your service capacity. We explain how performers can create multiple revenue streams and why partnerships require clarity before chemistry. We invite listeners to join our Five‑Day Creative to CEO challenge to design a signature offer and make revenue more predictable.
Seven seasons. 57 episodes. Countless lessons in creative entrepreneurship.
In this special Season 7 finale, Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr. and Shai Speaks revisit the conversations, breakthroughs, and business strategies that made this season memorable.
Recorded following a season that took MMCB to Dallas during the FIFA World Cup, this recap celebrates the podcast's evolution into a growing media company while highlighting the lessons shared by creative entrepreneurs throughout Season 7.
From knowing when to pivot and building sustainable systems to evaluating business growth and creating strategic partnerships, this episode connects the ideas that help creatives move beyond simply doing what they love and start building businesses that last.
What You'll Learn
- Why successful entrepreneurs must recognize when it's time to pivot.
- How systems and structure support sustainable business growth.
- Why measuring your progress matters more than guessing.
- How strategic partnerships can create new business opportunities.
- Why creative entrepreneurs need to think beyond individual services.
- How flexibility, problem-solving, and resilience contribute to long-term success.
Key Takeaways
1. Entrepreneurship Requires Problem-Solving
Building a business means constantly navigating challenges. The ability to adapt and solve problems is essential to creating something sustainable.
2. Know When to Pivot
A change in direction doesn't always mean abandoning your vision. Sometimes a strategic pivot creates a better way to serve your audience and generate revenue.
3. Stop Guessing. Start Measuring.
Understanding where your business stands today helps you make more informed decisions about where it should go next.
4. Build Beyond Your Individual Skills
Creative entrepreneurs can expand their impact by developing signature offers, systems, and services that create value beyond one-off projects.
5. Strategic Partnerships Matter
The right collaborations can open doors, expand capabilities, and create opportunities that would be difficult to pursue independently.
6. Growth Requires Resilience
Consistency, adaptability, and intentional self-development are just as important as business strategy.
Connect With MMCB
Website: https://www.mmcbpodcast.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmcbpodcast
Ronald Lee Jr.: https://www.instagram.com/ronaldleejr
Shy Speaks: https://www.instagram.com/shyspeaks
Creative to CEO Challenge: https://www.creativetoceochallenge.com
Closing Affirmation
"All it takes is intention, consistency, and laser focus to mind my creative business."
We mark seven full seasons and fifty-seven episodes with measured pride and a clear sense of purpose. I describe how we recorded part of this season on the ground in Dallas during FIFA, using our media credentials to expand MMCB Media beyond a podcast into a media company. I recount our early technical struggles and the lessons they taught us about troubleshooting and resilience. We celebrate entrepreneurial persistence and emphasize that business is fundamentally problem solving: find a problem, craft a solution, and exchange value for compensation. We narrate Sammy Bivens pivot from six-figure jewelry sales to founding a full-service marketing agency, using her story to underscore the need for systems before scalable growth. Her experience framed our discussion on operational readiness, and I urge listeners to build one high-impact system now rather than attempting wholesale automation at once. We then summarize a series of high-value conversations with Dallas-based creatives and strategists. I highlight Noelle Laveaus warning against rigidity and the difference between conviction and stubbornness. We describe Scotty Riders guidance on converting gigs into sustainable contracts and recurring revenue. We close by inviting our audience to revisit these interviews, to subscribe, and to apply the strategies we discussed. We end with our season mantra and a firm encouragement to pursue intention, consistency, and laser focus as the pillars by which we mind our creative businesses.
Takeaways:
- We recommend building one key system now, such as lead capture or project management.
- I explain that pivoting from a product to a service can preserve and grow your revenue.
- We urge creatives to track revenue, profit, leads, conversion rates, client retention, audience growth, and time.
- I warn that rigidity kills opportunity; we must stay flexible and adapt business methods.
- We describe that partnership success requires clarity before chemistry, with clear goals, roles, and decision rights.
- I advise clarifying money matters and exit plans before entering any partnership or joint venture.
- We teach that artists must build multiple revenue streams by packaging talent into events, sponsorships, and products.
- I state that strategic collaboration is a growth tool only when it has structured roles, measurable outcomes, and written agreements.
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Minding My Creative Business podcast.
Speaker B:The number one podcast for creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker B:Learn strategy, structure and self development and sustainability all in one place.
Speaker B:I am your co host, ron Ironic.
Speaker A:Ray Jr. And I am your co host, Shy Speaks.
Speaker A:And this is about to be, oh, my favorite episode.
Speaker A:If you've watched any season of Minding My Creative Business, any episode rather than you would know that I say that about every single one.
Speaker A:I mean, pretty much every single one.
Speaker A:The reason why I'm saying it this time is because it's really going to be.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because this is the celebration for season seven, seven seasons of having a podcast.
Speaker A:And as we told you guys before, most people don't make it past seven episodes, let alone seven seasons.
Speaker A:So tell them quickly how many seasons.
Speaker B:We have.
Speaker B:Eight episodes per season and we've done seven.
Speaker B:So we've done 56 episodes.
Speaker B:This is actually 57 with the live here.
Speaker B:We've done 57 episodes with this live.
Speaker B:So yeah, listen, we, we doing a dang thing.
Speaker B:For real.
Speaker B:For real.
Speaker A:We out here, we out here, we out here.
Speaker B:Yeah, listen, listen.
Speaker B:And this is, listen, this is one of them things to where, listen, we're 57 episodes in and it's, it doesn't come easy, right?
Speaker B:If, if, if y' all have been on tonight and y' all seen us go live like two or three times, technical difficulties, it come along with the territory, right?
Speaker B:I remember the very first episode that we tried to record and I'm not trying that we asked to record it, we had to record about, about four or five times because of technical difficulties and things like that.
Speaker B:So it come along with the territory and we learn how to troubleshoot.
Speaker B:And that's just a part of being a, a entrepreneur.
Speaker B:It's like you're a problem solver, like, period.
Speaker A:So seriously, that's the entire thing.
Speaker A:So even being business is to solve a problem, right?
Speaker B:So there we go.
Speaker A:You find a problem, you solve it for a lot of people, and then they'll pay you in exchange for the business, you know, the problem you solve.
Speaker A:And voila, you're in business.
Speaker A:But it's not just solving the actual problem for the client.
Speaker A:You're also just always solving problems.
Speaker A:But we don't want to make this be about problems.
Speaker A:This is about something amazing today.
Speaker A:And that is we want to recap for you and actually give you a peek inside of what happened in every single episode, what we love the most about it.
Speaker A:And yeah, some of the key insights and takeaways that we have.
Speaker A:And I'm Ready?
Speaker A:I'm ready to get into it.
Speaker A:Are you ready?
Speaker B:I'm ready.
Speaker B:Listen.
Speaker B:I stay ready.
Speaker B:So listen, let's.
Speaker B:Let's get it, let's.
Speaker B:So let's talk about the episode with Sammy Bivens.
Speaker B:Right, so Sammy Bivens.
Speaker B:No, no, before we even go there.
Speaker B:I'm sorry, let me rewind.
Speaker B:We had the opportunity of being in Dallas for this particular season, for season seven.
Speaker B:And we were in Dallas during a very phenomenal time.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We were in Dallas during FIFA when we recorded this.
Speaker B:So me and Shy had a chance to have media credentials and be a part of some of the Fever festivities.
Speaker B:And we were able to carve out time to interview these phenomenal entrepreneurs that are in Dallas.
Speaker B:Some from Dallas, but some from other places, but just have kind of migrated to Dallas.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I just wanted to highlight that, like, that's one of the things, like us being in Dallas for FIFA.
Speaker B:That was live.
Speaker A:Yeah, that just.
Speaker A:We gotta highlight.
Speaker A:Highlight that.
Speaker A:We can't just be like, you know, we were in Dallas, we were in Dallas.
Speaker A:We've been in Dallas before, but we were here.
Speaker A:We had the media credentials to be actual minding my creative business media.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We're not just a podcast.
Speaker A:It's a media company that we've been developing out here.
Speaker A:And we were on the grounds at the World Cup.
Speaker A:Yes, the FIFA World Cup.
Speaker A:This is the International World Cup.
Speaker A:And while we were here, we had the opportunity to sit down with some amazing sponsors.
Speaker A:Speakers.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And they're not just.
Speaker A:They weren't just speakers on the podcast.
Speaker A:Some of them are digital marketing agencies.
Speaker A:Some of them are.
Speaker A:I mean, I don't want to.
Speaker A:Let's listen.
Speaker B:We'll get into it.
Speaker B:So, yeah, so some of them were.
Speaker A:Just resources to creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker A:They were like, all right, come on.
Speaker A:All right, let's go, let's go.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So number one, we.
Speaker B:We the.
Speaker B:We started off or kicked off the season interviewing Sammy Bivens.
Speaker B:Sammy Business Bivens.
Speaker B:She started off making jewelry while she was in college pursuing her degree.
Speaker B:She started off making jewelry, but not just making it, but.
Speaker B:But she started selling it, Right?
Speaker B:She sold and she was able to have a six figure business as a result of that.
Speaker B:But then she kind of ran into a wall where it was like, okay, I'm having to compete with Amazon and people that can fulfill things a little bit faster and whatnot.
Speaker B:And she could have looked to put some systems in place to scale and grow it.
Speaker B:However, she took that opportunity to pivot.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And then she pivoted.
Speaker B:Now she has a full service marketing agency where she's servicing big corporations as well as small businesses as well.
Speaker B:So she kind of told us about that journey and just the importance to know when to pivot, but also to be able to put systems in place prior to you actually.
Speaker B:I mean, you need them all the time.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I think we had this conversation where you can start a business without systems, but to continue that business without.
Speaker B:To scale, to grow that business, you definitely need some system and some structure.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:I, I'm, I'm loving that we're starting right here, probably because I'm the person who loves talking about systems and operations and how all of it goes together.
Speaker A:A lot of times people think that I don't need that.
Speaker A:And so she just got into that really quickly.
Speaker A:She was like, I had this, this company and I wasn't able to grow and scale and compete, but over here I could grow and scale.
Speaker A:And I realized pretty quickly.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Pretty quick, like I need to get things order.
Speaker A:And so we talked about that's something that she probably even notices with her clients.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Digital marketing agency.
Speaker A:There's this reluctancy to kind of operationalize things because it takes time to sit down and think through your processes or get your, your system and your software and all that to sync up.
Speaker A:It's so easy to just keep doing everything manually.
Speaker A:You realize that becomes a bottleneck.
Speaker A:And so I thought it was very interesting for the marketing person to be talking much about that much about operations.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, she was, you know, that whole thing like building systems before growth forces you to.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Because it's either either either going to force you to build the system that you need, or you can wither away or become defunct.
Speaker B:And she didn't want to see that happen.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:No, it was, it was a great conversation.
Speaker B:So I encourage you guys, please go back, watch that episode.
Speaker B:She's dropping some gems and jewels telling us about not just her journey, but just some things that you can add to your business as a creative entrepreneur.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:What was.
Speaker A:Okay, so one of the key insights, I would say, let's say, oh, am I, am I, am I?
Speaker A:You can still hear me?
Speaker B:Well, yeah, I hear you.
Speaker B:Yeah, we're good.
Speaker B:You're good, you're good.
Speaker A:So it was to build one system now, such as like your leads or your discovery call, or maybe it's how you send out your proposal or how you manage your project.
Speaker A:Like some just do one right now.
Speaker A:And I thought that was really good to give people something to do because people like I need all these systems.
Speaker A:I need a marketing system.
Speaker A:I need a LE system, outreach system.
Speaker A:I need, you know, and so you need so many different things.
Speaker A:You just found one.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And build it now.
Speaker A:If you can be.
Speaker A:It'd be even greater.
Speaker A:If you could find one that.
Speaker A:That streamlines all of them, then it'll be even greater.
Speaker A:But ultimately, you do them one at a time before it becomes a crisis.
Speaker A:And so I think the question that we were left with is, can your business grow without creating more chaos for you?
Speaker A:The reason why this became important for a digital marketing agency is because if she goes behind you and put all this digital marketing, get your SEO straight.
Speaker A:We got your website right.
Speaker A:You have popping over here, popping over there.
Speaker A:Like, if I have you popping in all of those places, can your business really sustain that?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:If I have you visible everywhere.
Speaker A:And a lot of times people think that they can, but it's like at the speed that you're going, you cannot sustain 100 new clients this month.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:You can't even probably do 10.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:May not even be able to service five.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that's okay.
Speaker A:You know, but, you know, you.
Speaker A:You have to think through what are my revenue levels, what do I need to get in order to sustain my business?
Speaker A:And if you're only able to do three people, $1,000 a piece, and that's only $3,000, then.
Speaker A:Or service three clients rather.
Speaker A:And, you know, you need to be making 5k in your business.
Speaker A:You have to figure out, how can I get exactly my capacity, What your systems are or what your processes are, or how are you doing your discovery calls?
Speaker A:Maybe you're spending too much time.
Speaker A:That's one of the things she talked about.
Speaker A:She said she realized people know they need marketing.
Speaker A:They just get on the call, and it's like a discovery call.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And they never even buy.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:She was like, I had to figure out how to get that to be on tune so that it's very precise, exact.
Speaker A:We're not wasting time on the call.
Speaker A:We're getting straight to it.
Speaker A:And so that's streamlining the process.
Speaker A:Like just.
Speaker A:And once I do that, now I realize where I. I can only do three people.
Speaker A:If I.
Speaker A:If I.
Speaker A:If I make my.
Speaker A:A little bit more efficient, then ultimately I'll be able to get to those five people I need to get to, or those six people, seven clients.
Speaker A:And so it's just something that I wanted to.
Speaker A:To.
Speaker A:To lean into.
Speaker A:I thought it was really good, especially for anybody who's watching, watching right now.
Speaker A:This May be a.
Speaker A:To you, it's a foundational question.
Speaker A:You ready to keep it moving?
Speaker B:Let's keep it moving.
Speaker B:Let's keep moving.
Speaker B:Um, then we had the pleasure of interviewing Noelle Laveau, who was a brand strategist, um, and she was actually brought in to assist with some marketing and some branding for FIFA.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So it was good to be able to interview her during FIFA and whatnot and just kind of hear her perspective and.
Speaker B:And what she brought to the table.
Speaker B:Um, one of the things that.
Speaker B:That really stood out to me that I think a lot of times us as creatives tend to do is be very, very rigid, and we put ourselves in boxes, even though we.
Speaker B:We like to say we think outside of the box and things like that.
Speaker B:But I think a lot of times we put ourselves in the box when it comes to our creative discipline and things like that.
Speaker B:So one of the things that.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:That she said that stood out to me is that rigidity.
Speaker B:You know, I have an issue with that word, being rigid.
Speaker B:I'm just gonna say being rigidity.
Speaker B:Right, Rigidity.
Speaker B:There we go.
Speaker A:Yeah, rigidity.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:It's so rigid, it's hard to even say the word, you know?
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:But, you know, rigidity can make entrepreneurs miss opportunities, Right?
Speaker B:Where it's like, okay, I'm only focused on doing it this way, right?
Speaker B:That because I'm not opening myself up to other possibilities, I'm going to miss out on opportunities.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So it's like, no, it's more than.
Speaker B:Like, we've heard the saying.
Speaker B:It's more than maybe some people maybe haven't.
Speaker B:I know we have different generations.
Speaker B:But this is the saying that says there's more than one way to skin a cat, right?
Speaker B:So there's more than one way to get to the desired goal, the desired outcome.
Speaker B:And if you're only solely focused on this way, you can be missing out on opportunities, but also missing out on being creative.
Speaker B:I think a lot of times we focus on just our creative mode of genius, but not saying, like, no, take that creative spirit into the business side of your creativity and be creative and do things out the box.
Speaker B:Stop being so rigid.
Speaker B:And that was one of the.
Speaker B:The highlights that.
Speaker B:That stood out to me personally.
Speaker A:I agree.
Speaker A:I. Rigidity is death to opportunity.
Speaker A:So we talked about the difference between.
Speaker A:Also we talked about the difference between having a conviction and just being stubborn.
Speaker A:Because some people, like, sometimes you just got to stick to it because I know you hear it.
Speaker A:Not that I'm rigid.
Speaker A:I'm just I'm.
Speaker A:I have a conviction about this.
Speaker A:We were able to talk about it.
Speaker A:I mean, we're not doing it justice right now on here, but just know she really unpacked it.
Speaker A:This woman is a.
Speaker A:She works with multi million dollar brands.
Speaker A:I mean, FIFA World cup has hired her to be over in Dallas.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:She knows what she's talking about, about being able to pivot and all that.
Speaker A:But there is a difference.
Speaker A:And so the.
Speaker A:When has a.
Speaker A:A pivot or change or new partnership or revised strategy opened up a door?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So if we can think about it from our context, like you and I as owners of MMCB Media, have we had to remain flexible about the route we were taking at any regard to see if what she's saying is even true?
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, no, definitely.
Speaker B:Like I said, as we were preparing for this episode, we were talking about how now my.
Speaker B:We're media.
Speaker B:We're a media brand, we're media company.
Speaker B:And we know we have the podcast.
Speaker B:That's one of our forms of media.
Speaker B:And then me and you were in the works of.
Speaker B:Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna do a book, right?
Speaker B:We're gonna.
Speaker B:Let's do this book that's gonna be able to, you know, we better get that into the hands of our audience so they'll get a greater touch point.
Speaker B:And yeah, that'll be our, you know, our podcast and in our book, right.
Speaker B:Then we maybe get on some stages and have some conversations.
Speaker B:But then you were able to go to an event and you weren't even going for mmcb, right, because, you know, we're hyphenated entrepreneurs, right?
Speaker B:You were going for another business.
Speaker B:But hearing the conversations that were taking place within that event, you was like, wait a minute, I think maybe we have something greater that we can offer based off the information that you were receiving.
Speaker B:So you brought that information to me and that was a conversation that we had and we was like, oh, no, we can definitely pivot and now create a signature offer outside of the book and the podcast.
Speaker B:We'll still do the podcast, right?
Speaker B:And we'll still get to the book, but this is something that we can service our audience greater.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And bring in revenue at a faster speed than what we were doing.
Speaker B:If we would have just solely focused on the podcast in the book.
Speaker A:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker A:We were going to be able to launch the book one time, but with this particular offer, we can launch it multiple times throughout the year, which really helped with our.
Speaker A:The agency that services us, they were to come alongside us and support those launches.
Speaker A:And, and so it, it, it became a better, better model.
Speaker A:And through it we've been able, like you said, we've been able to serve so many creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker A:And what is that offer that we're talking about?
Speaker A:That is the five day Creative to CEO challenge.
Speaker A:Five days, one hour a day for five days.
Speaker A:You rock.
Speaker A:You lock in, we run and AKA ironically junior and then Shy, AKA shy speaks Amos, you lock in with us.
Speaker A:And for one hour over five days, we help you develop a signature offer so that it can, so that you can make your business more predictable.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A: eneurs have already made a th: Speaker A:So then the question begins to ask, how can I do this consistently?
Speaker A:What was that?
Speaker A:And we take all of those things and we help you diagnose why your business is not predictable.
Speaker A:And then we design that civic culture offer with you.
Speaker A:And that's the part that's really cool, is like, okay, I need something that I can have in my hand that can help me keep the revenue goals of 10,000 K plus.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So then you want to definitely join the five day creative to CEO challenge.
Speaker A:Trust me, it's super.
Speaker A:It's fire.
Speaker A:It's not just a diagnosis.
Speaker A:We're not just helping you design.
Speaker A:It's also a community with other creators, creative entrepreneurs like yourself.
Speaker A:And, and the cool thing is for all of that, it's only 97.
Speaker B:So it's a very only 97.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But no, it's dope because you're literally good getting a, a blueprint, but not just a blueprint, but also the systems to, to help support that blueprint and that signature offer.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Nah, it's, it's, it's solid.
Speaker A:It's solid and it's, it's, it's.
Speaker A:Most people have gone through it.
Speaker A:They give us rave reviews that gun testimonials and we'll start sharing some of those things pretty soon.
Speaker A:If we were really like committed to trying to sell you something more than just actually talking about what we're talking about, we would have hit you with one of the commercial commercial of testimonials.
Speaker A:But we're not, we're gonna keep it it rolling.
Speaker A:Talk about season seven because we're celebrating.
Speaker A:Let's keep it moving around.
Speaker A:Let's.
Speaker A:Who else do we have on there?
Speaker B:So next was actually episode that just featured me and you.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It was kind of like a, a check in episode.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Where it's like okay, listen, we, we, we checking in from FIFA, we checking in from Dallas, but we're also checking in to kind of let you know where we are as a, as a business, as a company, as individuals within the business and the company as well.
Speaker B:So I like that episode because like the focus was really kind of encouraging creative entrepreneurs to measure their progress instead of guessing.
Speaker B:So a lot of times we're just kind of guessing.
Speaker B:We really don't know.
Speaker B:I don't know and whatnot.
Speaker B:So it was like, no, like, no.
Speaker B:Sometimes you got to just stop, right?
Speaker B:We know that the busy, the everyday rigmarole, all that stuff is going, but you gotta sometimes pause and stop and see, okay, where am I at?
Speaker B:It's kind of like going into the mall, right?
Speaker B:And you know you have a goal, but okay, it's like sometimes you gotta stop at that kiosk that you are here kiosk and say, okay, but I'm here and I'm trying to get to there now what needs to happen in order for that to happen.
Speaker B:So yeah, that was a great episode.
Speaker B:Cause it made that shift from that I think it's working to hopefully we're hoping people see like, no, I know what's working.
Speaker B:I know that the marketing's working on offers was clear when working or you know how we're getting clients in.
Speaker B:Like, I know the business activity opposed to that whole guess and piece.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:So the quote of that episode was, stop guessing, start measuring your growth.
Speaker A:And then we began to discuss what key numbers creatives are avoiding.
Speaker A:Well, they.
Speaker A:What do they avoid Tracking.
Speaker A:And that is usually the revenue revenue.
Speaker A:Or some people are like, they love bring talking about how much revenue they have coming in.
Speaker A:They don't want to talk about the profit.
Speaker A:And sometimes even over exceeding the revenue should be looking at the profit.
Speaker A:We talked about the importance of looking at the leads.
Speaker A:Looking at the conversion rate, how many leads do you have to talk to?
Speaker A:Are you talking to a thousand people before you sell one?
Speaker A:Are you only talking to 10 people before you sell one?
Speaker A:That's a different rate right there.
Speaker A:How can we help our conversion rate?
Speaker A:Then there's the client retention.
Speaker A:How many clients come back around or stay on for continued services ongoing.
Speaker A:That's the part we talked about your.
Speaker A:We talked about audience, right?
Speaker A:So now this is the one that nobody needs help.
Speaker A:Everybody, especially when it comes to social media, they're just checking to see how many views, how many followers that I get.
Speaker A:We love checking that.
Speaker A:But audience growth is something that's different as well.
Speaker A:How many people are on your email, you know, you know, are you looking, are you looking at that?
Speaker A:How many people are part of your text club, right?
Speaker A:You've been capturing phone numbers.
Speaker A:How many people can you eat?
Speaker A:Well, text blast, right, that you have consent to talk to and that's your audience growing and how many.
Speaker A:You know, I, I could give you more.
Speaker A:Just trust me.
Speaker A:You need to go check out this episode and I will give you one last one.
Speaker A:Just, just, just for, since you're on here, time spent, that's a big one.
Speaker A:Track how much time you're spending on what, Right?
Speaker A:This is how you're able to give an estimate.
Speaker A:If you can you imagine going to a car mechanic and you're asking them how much is it going to cost?
Speaker A:And they're telling you, I don't know.
Speaker A:We'll see.
Speaker A:Depends on how many hours it take, how long you need.
Speaker A:Your question is, well, how many hours does it usually take for something like that?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And they'll say usually, which means that they've been tracking their times.
Speaker A:Usually this takes two hours, this takes three hours.
Speaker A:But again, because this is behind the hood, we never know.
Speaker A:We'll let you know if it's going to exceed the estimate.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But that gives you some peace of mind, some, some solace.
Speaker A:So if you're a creative entrepreneur and you're offering custom services, you need to be tracking your time spent.
Speaker A:That is a growth measurement because that may be an area of growth for you that you to develop.
Speaker A:To say I'm spend 10 hours on, I need to really only be spending hours, five hours on that.
Speaker A:Or you know, or I'm spending, charging like I'm spending five.
Speaker A:But I'm really, it's really 10.
Speaker A:So I need to take that into consideration.
Speaker A:So trust me, go watch this episode.
Speaker A:It's, it's a, it's a valuable resource and it didn't include any other special guest besides Run and myself through the next couple of, couple of people pretty swiftly because we're taking a deep dive.
Speaker A:And we have, we have three seasons.
Speaker A:Has, has eight episodes.
Speaker A:Seven.
Speaker B:And then this one seven and then our, our, our wrap up.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:So, so yeah, I said we only on episode three.
Speaker B:So like I said, let's, let's, let's go.
Speaker B:So episode four.
Speaker B:In this season we had the pleasure of interviewing Scotty Riders and Scotty Riders.
Speaker B:So he, so though he's not an entrepreneur, right.
Speaker B:He's the VP of Cotton Bowl Classic.
Speaker B:So we kind of attacked this one from.
Speaker B:Or we attach this one to our resources for creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker B:Series that we have.
Speaker B:So we have a whole playlist for resources for creative entrepreneurs where we interview people who are not necessarily entrepreneurs, but they have information to support us and help us in our journey.
Speaker B:And one of the things that we, he kind of highlighted was just the importance of being able to break free from that, that having that gig and one time or freelance mentality is like, no, like there's some things that you can put in place as a creative entrepreneur once again, where you're functioning as a business and in doing that you want to approach business a certain way.
Speaker B:You just don't want to approach it like it's a one off thing, right?
Speaker B:You want to approach it like, no, this is something where I want to get reoccurring revenue.
Speaker B:I want to develop a relationship with these bigger brands and these entities so that I can service them continually.
Speaker B:So he kind of gave you some frameworks on some things.
Speaker B:And one of the things he talked about, which is one of the things we talk about is being consistent.
Speaker B:He's like, you got to be consistent, right?
Speaker B:So that was, that was, that was very important.
Speaker B:He talked about got to have be strong with your follow up game.
Speaker B:He was like, it's one thing to where you come in and you provide the service, but then I don't hear from you after the deliverables are met, right?
Speaker B:Like no follow up.
Speaker B:Keep the relationship strong so that your name can come up in other conversations.
Speaker B:You're keeping them top of mind.
Speaker B:So when maybe they don't have anything for you at the time, but because they have other relationships with other people, they can bring you up like, oh yeah, no, they just did this for us here.
Speaker B:Reach out to them, right?
Speaker B:And now you can get more business.
Speaker B:But if you're not following up, it's like people forget.
Speaker B:Out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker A:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker A:Out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker A:Which brought up one of the other like key moments in the conversation, which is doing it one time doesn't keep you in mind.
Speaker A:So a gig is not a business model.
Speaker A:Like your ability to go get a gig, do the gig one time is not creating a model for you.
Speaker A:And it's not necessarily probably serving their business models.
Speaker A:We, we even got into the fact that like when you're trying to get this type of gig, how do you begin to add more value to someone like Scotty who is, is, who has the power to say yes, come in and work with our marketing communications team.
Speaker A:You talked about how you can get on a retainer, how you can have like you can Provide recurring support for something.
Speaker A:Or he talked about how you could, you know, basically you could think through the type of sponsors that they already have and say, hey, this is what we did this last time.
Speaker A:Maybe we can renew the sponsor.
Speaker A:When we renew the sponsor, we can offer them this.
Speaker A:Now in reality, it's not your job to figure out how to please and make sponsors happy.
Speaker A:You're just there to, you know, you know, do your role.
Speaker A:It's so you think, but up under that you're there to service your client and their clients and if you can figure out a way to make something, create something even more valuable for them, then you can get into like a multi phase package with one client and that is where you begin to develop a business model.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, no, it was fire.
Speaker B:So they definitely go back and watch that.
Speaker B:He was dropping gems.
Speaker B:He, he definitely, like I said, he's, he's a, he's a vice president so he knows what these corporations are looking for.
Speaker B:And he was telling you how to spruce yourself up and polish yourself up so that you look attractive to these, these, these Fortune 500 companies and things like that.
Speaker B:So, so yeah, so next we had, we had Devin Wilmot Johnson and she is a phenomenal young lady.
Speaker B:And listen, she's accomplished a lot within her 30 some odd years of life, right.
Speaker B:She's, you know, I'm, you know, we both a little, we, you know, I'm a little, I'll say I'm a little older than her.
Speaker B:So just hearing some of the things.
Speaker A:That she's accomplished, right.
Speaker B:I was in awe.
Speaker B:But just going back to that, that, that laser focus and being ambitious and, and being creative and leaning into that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Which just, it was just great to hear her talk about that.
Speaker B:But you know, she's a brand strategist so her whole thing is, you know, brand strategy is more than just your visual identity.
Speaker B:Like as a, as, as creative and as entrepreneurs, we focus a lot of times on the, the, the logo and you know, the, you know, the design aspects and things like that.
Speaker B:But it's like, no, when we talking about branding, it's much more than that and I need for you to understand it.
Speaker B:And she kind of broke down and you know, she was, she was a straight shooter, you know, I loved it.
Speaker A:She was on fire too.
Speaker A:The cool thing is I so happen to know Devin personally, consider her a friend of mine.
Speaker A:So it was really cool having her there and to think about what brand really means.
Speaker A:Not necessarily brand aesthetics, but brand reputation about.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So what is your brand known for for what are you leaving behind?
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:What impact are you to going to make?
Speaker A:Matter of fact, first starting with you.
Speaker A:What, what does your name stand for?
Speaker A:Is what we were talking about.
Speaker A:When you are not.
Speaker A:What's your brand reputation?
Speaker A:And then what is your.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:What would people say about your business?
Speaker A:Again, when you're not in the room, what is your brand's reputation?
Speaker A:We're not talking about fonts and colors and logos.
Speaker A:She was defining things beyond that.
Speaker A:It was so cool because she did this thing where she was talking about how.
Speaker A:How.
Speaker A:We're talking about how even as the owner of a business or the owner of an.
Speaker A:Or like, or the, the leader of a nonprofit or, you know, or a social enterprise of some sort, do you even have successors?
Speaker A:And like, like, you know, you know, what do you.
Speaker A:What is, what does that say about you if you do not still brand reputation?
Speaker A:And I didn't realize at the time of the conversation, but she leaned heavily into like brand reputation.
Speaker A:When we think about some of the most amazing, like musicians, music, artists, we know them by name.
Speaker A:We even have to know their last name.
Speaker A:Just Beyonce.
Speaker A:Beyonce what, what's her last name?
Speaker A:We know we talk about some of the bigger corporations like Amazon or just Walmart.
Speaker A:You don't need any disclaimers.
Speaker A:You know exactly who they are.
Speaker A:That's not what we're talking about.
Speaker A:Household name.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter who you're known by, but it's, it's all about what you're known for.
Speaker A:And there's a, there's a way to do that.
Speaker A:And she even dropped some resources as well.
Speaker A:If you're watching this and you're trying to figure out, okay, well, I'm typically the type of person that gets hired by a brand strategist or a marketing strategy or agency, but I never get brought back around.
Speaker A:And she said it's because again, what, what, what experience?
Speaker A:What do people say about you when you leave?
Speaker A:Did you make her job easier?
Speaker A:Did you make it harder?
Speaker A:Did she have to do all the thinking?
Speaker A:Are you a value add?
Speaker A:And I keep doing.
Speaker A:But we gotta keep it going.
Speaker A:Please, please go watch episode five.
Speaker A:Johnson.
Speaker A:She snapped on there.
Speaker A:And be prepared to be snapping to share.
Speaker A:Trust me.
Speaker A:You want to go watch this one?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So going in.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:So our next episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the one and only Lala Johnson.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:She is a performer and event producer.
Speaker B:So we talked about how her transition from solely being a performer.
Speaker B:She's still a performer.
Speaker B:She performs.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But she was like, nope, not I'm I'm not just going to limit myself to that, but I'm going to now create this, this package, right.
Speaker B:How she can package her talent into a multi revenue business.
Speaker B:So she went into producing, leading multiple ensembles, creating a bookable package, developing sponsorships, and she built this great event called Tina Fest.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Which it just passed not too long ago, but to my understanding, it was phenomenal event and she does it annual.
Speaker B:So she created an annual event where this big thing where people can converge on the city of Dallas to experience Tina Turner.
Speaker B:Like they've never experienced her, but you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're right.
Speaker A:And so, okay, me being a person who is mostly known as an artist, right.
Speaker A:A music, a performer, you know, most people know, oh, she's shy at raps and she can do poetry and she's can write songs and you know, all these types of things.
Speaker A:I love seeing one another, another artist, a fellow musician is able to take their talent and turn it into multiple revenue streams.
Speaker A:I love it, I love it, I love it.
Speaker A:And one of the hot, I would say hot parts of the conversation for me is you were talking about a performance business.
Speaker A:It's not just about like the performance in and of itself.
Speaker A:And that's what took us deeper into like, okay, I'm telling.
Speaker A:I want to build a business around me because I really think I can do this, I think I can do that.
Speaker A:And I think I'm so happy as a talented musician or performer of some sort.
Speaker A:You have other things that you think you can produce.
Speaker A:Just realize it's not just producing the performance.
Speaker A:You actually have to do the business behind it, which is what we're all about here at the Mind in my creative business podcast.
Speaker A:So I loved it.
Speaker A:And like, like, okay, we got Tina Fest.
Speaker A:She's.
Speaker A:She has like 15 pieces, eight pieces, different configurations.
Speaker A:All of that is the creative side.
Speaker A:But then we start thinking through how do you package that, who do you sell that to, how do you turn this into like.
Speaker A:And it.
Speaker A:Trust me, you definitely gonna go check it out.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because it's more like you said, it's more.
Speaker B:It's like he was talking about the.
Speaker B:Not on the ticket sales, the merch, the sponsors.
Speaker B:Like, it's all, all these different facets that you have to think about putting on an event to where as a performer.
Speaker B:Yeah, you're just thinking about, okay, I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna perform.
Speaker B:But it's like, nah, like from the business.
Speaker B:These, you know,360, right.
Speaker B:It's a full circle where these different Things that are taking place.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Right, that's good ticketing and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:And she said this.
Speaker A:This was the part that kind of came up, which is being the producer means being the bank.
Speaker B:I remember that.
Speaker A:Being the bank.
Speaker A:And oftentimes we think that means I have to be the person who.
Speaker A:Who physically funds it, you know, bootstraps it myself.
Speaker A:And oftentimes you are the first investor.
Speaker A:But that doesn't mean being the bank.
Speaker A:Mean you always have to be the person where all the money is coming from.
Speaker A:I know personally, I, as a talented creator, came up with an event.
Speaker A:I funded it myself.
Speaker A:After that, somebody else decided to sponsor it.
Speaker A:After that, somebody else said that they want to sponsor it.
Speaker A:Before you know it, we had raised almost 100k in for this particular endeavor.
Speaker A:And it all wasn't from my funds per se or from the business's bank account, but I was the bank.
Speaker A:As in like a monopoly.
Speaker A:You're the person that run the money.
Speaker A:So you're just there kind of bringing in the sponsors.
Speaker A:This is how we have.
Speaker A:This is what we got from the grantors.
Speaker A:This is how much we're putting in.
Speaker A:This is what we're bringing in for ticket sales.
Speaker A:You have to literally be the monopoly bank, not necessarily the bank, if you will.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Actual of physical cash.
Speaker A:So it was.
Speaker A:I mean, it's really interesting.
Speaker A:You actually have to start having a 360 view about things when you scan.
Speaker A:When you scale, though, into multiple revenue streams.
Speaker A:Yeah, the multiple revenue streams.
Speaker A:I'm ready to talk about episodes.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, listen.
Speaker B:And this is.
Speaker B:This was one of my favorite episodes.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Once again, this was.
Speaker B:This was an episode with just me and you.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We didn't have any guests, but the conversation was so rich.
Speaker B:We talked about the importance of strategic collaboration and strategic partnerships.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Where if you are doing it strategically, right, collaboration should be used as a growth tool.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So we were talking about how understanding that a partnership is not simply just one working with somebody, but it's a structured.
Speaker B:It's structured with distinct roles.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It's adding value.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I'm coming into this relationship in this partnership, and I'm adding value.
Speaker B:They're adding value.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So there's certain expectations and then, you know, we discuss the financial implications and things like that.
Speaker B:So, yeah, no, it was.
Speaker B:It was dope.
Speaker B:Because I think even.
Speaker B:Even in that we were just.
Speaker B:We walked away with some aha moments like, okay, nah, listen, we, We.
Speaker B:There's some partnership and collaborations that.
Speaker B:That we can look into as well.
Speaker B:Like even us We.
Speaker B:We came into a partnership.
Speaker B:We were doing our individual things.
Speaker B:We kind of talked about an episode and how we kind of came together and formed a partnership, but then we elaborated on some other things as well.
Speaker B:So, no, it was one of my favorite episodes.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So partnership, though, while it's all cool and creates more revenue opportunities, it requires clarity before chemistry.
Speaker A:And actually, we can stop and pause right there.
Speaker A:That is a.
Speaker A:A big one.
Speaker A:Listen, partnership requires clarity before chemistry, and that can work for not just business, all types of relationships.
Speaker A:The reason why is because it's like, oh, man, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:We got that little thing, you know, we got below.
Speaker A:We driving.
Speaker A:No, we need to have clarity.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Y.
Speaker A:Here's the clarity we need to have when something comes up.
Speaker A:Are you going to handle that?
Speaker A:How will we do the conflict?
Speaker A:What would you be doing versus what I would be doing?
Speaker A:How will we get out of deals or how will we end this contract?
Speaker A:All of those types of things are things that wind up going inside of a contract because y' all have clarity.
Speaker A:I already know my role.
Speaker A:You know your role.
Speaker A:My know who we're going to service, what we're going to do, how much we own, what percentage do you own?
Speaker A:Which gets into one of the other things that I love talking about with this partnerships.
Speaker A:People often things.
Speaker A:They.
Speaker A:They often think that it has to be 50, 50, right.
Speaker A:Like it's a partnership.
Speaker A:But some partnerships are not that way.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Sometimes it can be 70, 30.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A: , it be: Speaker A:It just depends on what both people are bringing to the table.
Speaker A:But again, again, that's why clarity matters more than the chemistry.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And so sometimes say, for example, I'm gonna go back and say that, because.
Speaker A:Let me go back to this.
Speaker A:When you get that clarity, that clarity goes into the contract.
Speaker A:When I said the contract, I'm talking about the partnership agreement.
Speaker A:A partnership have an agreement before you start having.
Speaker A:Before you start servicing other clients.
Speaker A:Now, let me go back to this right here.
Speaker A:When it comes to the arrangement structure, a lot of times people don't have especially creative entrepreneurs, like, man, I don't want to give up 50 of my business just to do partnership with somebody.
Speaker A:You don't have to maybe just give up 20, right?
Speaker A:And so because that person is solving about 20 of the problems, or they're bringing some capital, but they're not.
Speaker A:They're not going to be.
Speaker A:They're not going to do any managerial work or any operations work or any.
Speaker A:They're not going to put any type of sweat equity into it.
Speaker A:You're going to do all the sweat equity.
Speaker A:You put up money.
Speaker A:They just putting up money, right.
Speaker A:And you're doing the rest of that means y' all have a different distribution of labor.
Speaker A:So the, the percentage can differ there.
Speaker A:So don't always think it has to be 50%.
Speaker A:But if you want to get into the meat of that episode and how you can structure partnership deal, definitely go watch what.
Speaker B:What that will be ep, the seventh episode in season seven about partnerships and strategic collaboration.
Speaker A:Okay, so go ahead.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I wanted to tell them one more thing.
Speaker A:Here's the thing.
Speaker A:I don't want you the whole time be like, man, I didn't get anything out of this episode.
Speaker A:I want to make sure you got something here.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:It's not me pointing you just to another episode.
Speaker A:One of the key takeaways from episode seven was before you enter that partnership, you want to clarify these five things.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:You want to clarify again, the share goals, right.
Speaker A:We talked about that.
Speaker A:You want the shared roles.
Speaker A:But here's the thing, Decision rights.
Speaker A:Because again, if you own 80 and this other person almost 20, what's the weight of you all's decision making and how decisions decided?
Speaker A:You want to decide on money?
Speaker A:How much are we putting in?
Speaker A:How much are we getting out?
Speaker A:Just because you put 20 in, that doesn't mean that person doesn't think entitled to a 50 revenue share.
Speaker A:Like, you have to get clear on the money.
Speaker A:And then what happens if the partnership ends?
Speaker A:Like, so let's say, for example, we've served so many clients and we can't find.
Speaker A:We've exhausted the market.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And that's all.
Speaker A:That's all.
Speaker A:We can't do anybody else.
Speaker A:Then what.
Speaker A:How do you get out of this?
Speaker A:And so, yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:About those things.
Speaker A:So I just want to make sure we.
Speaker A:We leave you with something tangible right here in this particular episode.
Speaker A:Because end of the day, that's our goal, is to help you mind your creative business.
Speaker A:And as we're mining our creative business.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker B:So listen.
Speaker B:No, that's.
Speaker B:That's good.
Speaker B:I like that.
Speaker B:And I'm.
Speaker B:Like I said, I'm hoping y' all are.
Speaker B:Are picking up what we're laying down and that you are enjoying the.
Speaker B:Just the podcast as a whole.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And that you're gaining from it.
Speaker B:So we want you to do those things that you know that you should be doing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Hopefully you are subscribed to us.
Speaker B:If you're not subscribed, go ahead and subscribe.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I See, you know, a couple of comments have been left.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:Continue to leave those comments.
Speaker B:Share.
Speaker B:If you come across any creative entrepreneurs that needs what we have, right.
Speaker B:They, they need to hear these conversations that we're having with these six, seven and even eight figure creative entrepreneurs share with them.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Because it's like success leaves crumbs or success leaves clues, right?
Speaker B:And they're giving you the clues that if you follow, you can obtain what they have.
Speaker B:If not even more.
Speaker B:So make sure that you're doing that.
Speaker B:And yeah, we're hoping that you're walking away from this, this season.
Speaker B:Wrap up enriched from the episode itself.
Speaker B:But yes, go back and listen and continue this to enrich and grow and mature on this phenomenal journey of creative entrepreneurship.
Speaker A:Man, it's good.
Speaker A:That's good.
Speaker A:We're helping people move from an individual development into partnership structures, into system structures, into process audits, into growth and all, you know, you're just really getting into it.
Speaker A:And I like where we're going with this.
Speaker A:Again, I have enjoyed season seven.
Speaker A:I know you will as well.
Speaker A:Go tap into any of those episodes.
Speaker A:Listen to it over and over and over again.
Speaker A:And not just to hear us talk, but to get it down in we so don't want to just talk.
Speaker A:We want to give you opportunity.
Speaker A:We end every episode looking to hear from you.
Speaker A:And we don't want to hear from you by just saying, hey, drop a comment and tell us which one you like the most or you know, like hit the like or hit the subscribe button.
Speaker A:And all those things that we want you to do need to speak over yourself.
Speaker A:Because we believe in strategy, structure and self development.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because self development also ties in hand in hand with sustainability.
Speaker A:And a part of being a successful creative entrepreneur is you have to have resilience.
Speaker A:Resilience can only come if you speak well about yourself to yourself.
Speaker A:So we end every single episode with a mantra.
Speaker A:And I want you all to say it after me.
Speaker A:Y' all ready?
Speaker B:I'm ready.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:All it takes.
Speaker A:All it takes is intention.
Speaker B:Is intention.
Speaker A:Consistency.
Speaker B:Consistency.
Speaker A:And laser focus.
Speaker B:And laser focus.
Speaker A:To mind my creative business.
Speaker B:To mind my creative business.
Speaker B:On that note, peace.
Speaker A:We're out.
Speaker A:Creative CEO challenge.com peace.
