Season 5 Wrap-Up: Creative Courage, CEO Mindset & the Systems That Scale
Episode Description
Two years in. Five seasons deep. And we are just getting started.
In this Season 5 Wrap-Up episode of Mind My Creative Business, hosts Ron Lee Jr. and Shai Speaks take you on a full-circle journey through one of the most powerful seasons yet — recapping the game-changing conversations, frameworks, and strategies shared by this season's guest experts. Whether you are a creative entrepreneur just finding your footing or a seasoned CEO ready to scale, this episode is your master class in one.
We are also celebrating a major milestone: two years of the Mind My Creative Business podcast. To mark the occasion, Ron and Shai officially launch the Creative to CEO Challenge — a free five-day live coaching experience designed to help creative entrepreneurs stop hustling and start building a business of purpose, profit, and peace.
What We Cover in This Episode
Creative Courage with Jalia Davis (Iconic Television)
Jalia Davis did not just climb the ladder — she bought the building. Starting as an intern, Jalia's relentless work ethic and unshakeable character led to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire Iconic Television, a 24-hour network, for pennies on the dollar. The lesson? Your reputation is your greatest business asset. Creative courage is not just about talent — it is about showing up with integrity every single time.
High Performance and the PGR Framework with Terry Williams
Mindset coach Terry Williams introduced his signature PGR Framework: Purpose, Growth, Rest — a three-part system for high-performing creative entrepreneurs. Terry's concept of "ustress" (intentional, productive stress) reframes discomfort as a growth tool. His most powerful analogy: your body is like a phone. If you never charge it, it dies and becomes useless. Rest is not a reward — it is a requirement.
Niching Down for Impact with Shadera Naymith (Stacked Up Academy)
Shadera Naymith, founder of Stacked Up Academy, proves that serving fewer people better is the path to greater impact. Her nonprofit uses creative products to teach technology and coding to youth — and her success comes from a disciplined commitment to niching down and building tiered programming that meets her audience where they are.
Strategic Positioning with Tolu Berry (T-Berry Films)
Photographer and filmmaker Tolu Berry dropped one of the season's most quotable truths: talent alone will not get you to the next level. Tolu's journey from charging $50 per shoot to landing five-figure brand campaigns was built on professional reliability — showing up on time, having clear delivery systems, and creating an experience that makes clients feel safe and valued. Your skill gets you in the room. Your professionalism keeps you there.
Data-Informed Decisions with Kira Dodson
AI and data expert Kira Dodson brought the season's most clarifying insight: internal clarity creates external authority. When you know your numbers — your KPIs, your conversion rates, your audience data — you stop making decisions based on feelings and start leading with confidence. Kira's framework challenges creative entrepreneurs to build data literacy as a core business skill.
CEO Strategy Deep Dives
Meeting Rhythms: The 4P Framework
Unproductive meetings are one of the biggest hidden costs in a creative business. Ron and Shai break down the 4P Framework for Effective Meetings: Purpose (why are we meeting?), People (who actually needs to be in the room?), Process (what is the agenda?), and Payoff (what decision or deliverable comes out of this?). Every meeting should produce something tangible — or it should not happen.
Automation: Doing More by Doing Less
The hosts challenge the "I'm overwhelmed because I'm growing" mindset and replace it with a more empowering truth: "I'm overwhelmed because I haven't optimized." The solution is a workflow audit — a systematic review of every task you touch to identify what can be automated, delegated, or eliminated. Ron shared a personal story of running his own workflow audit and discovering that nearly every task he touched was flagged red — a wake-up call that led to a complete operational overhaul.
Team Leadership: Hire Slow, Fire Fast
In response to a live audience question about team management, Ron and Shai offered a framework that every creative CEO needs to hear. Before you blame a team member for poor execution, ask yourself: Did I communicate the vision clearly? Did I give them the keys they needed to succeed? If the answer is yes and execution still fails — hire slow, fire fast.
The Creative to CEO Challenge
This season's biggest announcement: the Creative to CEO Challenge is officially open. This is a free five-day live coaching experience where Ron and Shai will walk you through building your 90-day profit plan, developing the habits of a high-performing CEO, and creating the systems that generate consistent cash flow — without burning out.
VIP Upgrade available for those who want daily behind-the-scenes Q&A and bonus coaching sessions throughout the challenge.
Partner Spotlight
Credit Savant — Helping creative entrepreneurs access up to $150,000 in business credit to fund their growth. www.creditsavant.io
Savant CRM — The CRM and sales automation platform built for creative businesses. Manage your funnels, automate your follow-ups, and close more deals. https://systems-savant.com/
Connect with Your Hosts
Ron Lee Jr. | @ronaldleejr | www.ronaldleejr.com
Shai Speaks | @ShySpeaks | www.shyspeaks.com
Subscribe, Rate & Review — If this episode added value to your business, leave us a five-star review and share it with a creative entrepreneur who needs to hear it.
Show Affirmation
"All it takes is intention, consistency, and laser focus to mind my creative business."
creative entrepreneur podcast CEO mindset creative to CEO small business strategy podcast for creatives business automation creative business growth black entrepreneurs entrepreneur podcast 2025 creative business systems how to scale a creative business mindset for entrepreneurs business coaching podcast workflow optimization creative economy
Transcript
You can't go from A to Z.
Speaker A:You got to go through the whole process.
Speaker B:A lot of people shy away from doing the work.
Speaker B:It'll be easier for you to come and help me shadow what I'm doing.
Speaker B:As you shadow me, so much more will be taught.
Speaker B:But they didn't want to shadow me.
Speaker A:He was taking photos and once again he stumbled across somebody being willing to pay him.
Speaker A:Wait a minute.
Speaker A:I can monetize this.
Speaker A:Like I can turn this into a business.
Speaker A:I made my customers and my clients feel feel comfortable.
Speaker A:I have a system in which I deliver the product and I deliver it on time.
Speaker A:The anxiety and the angst that comes from the customer or the client, he was like I was able to put them at ease.
Speaker A:And as a result of that, I like working with him because I know that I can depend on him.
Speaker A:I know what I'm gonna get.
Speaker A:Based on you listening to this podcast, you're probably a creative entrepreneur who's ready to stop hustling for clients and start building a business that runs on purpose.
Speaker A:Profit and peace.
Speaker B:If that's you, we want to invite you to join the Creative to CEO challenge.
Speaker B:A five day live coaching experience designed to help you shift your mindset and develop the habits to turn your creativity into consistent cash flow.
Speaker A:And it's all happening live on Zoom inside a private community of ambitious creative entrepreneurs just like you.
Speaker A:People who are done guessing, done grinding and ready to build with clarity and confidence.
Speaker B:By the end of the challenge, you will have a crystal clear direction on your next 90 days.
Speaker B:A profit plan that fits your lifestyle and the framework to start earning 10k plus months doing what you love without burning out or selling out.
Speaker A:So if that sounds like what you need, then tap the link in the description or scan a QR code if you're watching this on screen.
Speaker A:And do not forget to upgrade to VIP for bonus coaching and behind the scenes Q and A every day of the challenge with me and Shy.
Speaker B:We can't wait to help you unlock CEO mode and the freedom you've been looking for.
Speaker B:Now let's get back to that episode.
Speaker A:Welcome, welcome and welcome to the Mindy Market of Business podcast.
Speaker A:The number one podcast for creative entrepreneurs to learn strategy, structure and sustainability and self development.
Speaker A:I am your co host Ron Ironically.
Speaker B:Jr and I am your co host Shy Speaks.
Speaker B:And today it's going to be pretty cool.
Speaker B:Pretty cool.
Speaker B:I'm resisting the urge to say it's going to be my favorite since I say that for all the episodes, but it's going to be pretty cool.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Because this is the season five recap where we give you an opportunity to kind of come behind the episode with us in case you made it, missed it.
Speaker B:And we give you nuggets and tips of what happened with some of them.
Speaker B:Some of the guests that you like that listen, these are usually fire, so stay locked in right here.
Speaker B:And also this is also pretty cool because our season recaps are always live.
Speaker B:So if you are tuning in live, shout out to you right?
Speaker B:Feel free to drop us a comment because we are going to be interacting with you live.
Speaker B:If you're listening to this on the replay or the audio version of the podcast, shout out to you as well.
Speaker B:Please stay tuned.
Speaker B:It's pretty fun.
Speaker B:But also next time make sure you hop on the live, right?
Speaker B:So you can be interactive and not just listen.
Speaker B:But we always enjoy your listening.
Speaker B:You're listening and we always enjoy you watching however you tune in.
Speaker B:So again, if you live, chop in, we're gonna make it interactive.
Speaker B:Now let's get into this season five recap run.
Speaker B:First of all, season five, season five.
Speaker A:Listen, that's what I wanted to highlight as well.
Speaker A:I don't want us to brush over that because you know me and see me and shy, we are our CEO COO and we're executive.
Speaker A:So we're like in the weeds and we're keeping it moving and grinding and doing things, but sometimes we got to stop and acknowledge and celebrate.
Speaker A:So not only is this season five, but this is year two of me and shot doing this.
Speaker A:We started this in January.
Speaker A: published this in January of: Speaker A:So we just gotta, we gotta clap it up for that though.
Speaker B:Come on.
Speaker B:We gotta clap it up.
Speaker B:That's crazy.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Like, that is really crazy.
Speaker B:Also, there's something really cool that happened at the two year mark.
Speaker B:Realize that we've been experiencing entrepreneurship on our own and then we.
Speaker B:But we've also been like going behind the brands of all these six, seven figure creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker B:And so we're like, okay, I think we have something here.
Speaker B:I think we're gaining enough information that it's time for us to start sharing it back with our community, not just in conversation.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:These, these podcast conversations are really cool, but we want to invite creative entrepreneurs into something else because of the two years.
Speaker B:Let's talk about that real quick.
Speaker A:Yeah, so what we decided to do is we created a creative to CEO challenge to where we were like, listen, we can Give more of ourselves based off of what me and shot bring to the table and then based off of these conversations that we've been having.
Speaker A:So we like, listen, let's put it in this five day challenge.
Speaker A:We're going to help those creative entrepreneurs that want to transition and transform where they currently are to that next level.
Speaker A:So if they're feeling stuck, they're feeling overwhelmed because they don't have the proper strategy in place, they don't have the proper systems in place to support the sustainability that we know that they could and should have together this challenge.
Speaker A:So, I mean, it's a dope challenge where creative entrepreneurs are going to walk away with a 90 day CEO plan on the page.
Speaker A:And with that 90 day CEO plan on the page, we're going to help you generate reoccurring, predictable revenue based on your signature offer that you're going to create within this five day challenge.
Speaker A:So listen, I'm excited about it because it starts soon, right?
Speaker A:It's like literally like from this recording, it starts in a week, right.
Speaker A:So, you know, I don't know when y' all listen to it, but we're going to have it to where it's a reoccurring thing where you can participate when you, you know, when you're ready.
Speaker A:But we're encouraging you be a part of this challenge because this, it's, it's fire.
Speaker B:It really is sitting down.
Speaker B:Creating this curriculum in commemoration of our two year was like something that was like intriguing for run not to do, but we were also like, man, we're really giving them a lot in this five day challenge.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's the part that was like, man, you, you really will walk away with some, some amazing stuff.
Speaker B:And so like you were saying earlier, whenever you're ready, like we say, whenever you're ready.
Speaker B:If you miss this cohort, depending on when you watch not this, this challenge, but depending on when you watch it, you always have the opportunity to join the wait list or join the very next challenge.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Because we want to keep them coming.
Speaker B:Keep them coming.
Speaker B:Now you ready to get back into it?
Speaker A:Yes, let's get back into it.
Speaker A:Let's, let's, let's go into these episodes from season five.
Speaker A:And we were in Houston, we had opportunity and the privilege of being in Houston for season five during Afro Tech.
Speaker A:And we just had some phenomenal guests.
Speaker A:Like we started off the season with Jaleah from iconic television, right.
Speaker A:And she just was dropping so many gems and just hearing her journey to where when she was in that, what was it eighth grade, she's like, when I was in eighth grade, I knew I wanted to go into media, right?
Speaker A:And then starting from being an eighth grade to then having a chance to intern at a television company and just all the things that she did within that internship, all the skills that she developed then to transition into owning her own television company or turned on the television network.
Speaker A:Let me get the, let me get the verbiage.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:But a network, a network that provides 24 hour, 365 programming to people.
Speaker A:And it was just, it was just dope hearing, just her journey, right.
Speaker A:It was like the epitome of creative courage.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And it was like that courage took place before the ownership or before the opportunity.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:She said into who she was.
Speaker A:And that's one of the things that highlighted to me.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The creative courage.
Speaker B:She, it was, she was definitely bold because.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:In order to take on a network, right.
Speaker B:And for those of you guys who are in film, where that short film, long form movies, TV series, whatever it is that you're into, that's, that's one thing to create the one program.
Speaker B:But for her to try to reach out to all the people who are looking to get their program in place and provide 24 7, like programming on this, like on this channel.
Speaker B:Yeah, that was that.
Speaker B:Most people will be like, oh, they're gonna be able to do that.
Speaker B:Like, I don't know enough content.
Speaker B:I can't find enough content.
Speaker B:I don't know, you know?
Speaker B:And yeah, so creative courage is, is a word.
Speaker B:That's the, that would, that's.
Speaker B:I'm gonna stick with that.
Speaker B:That's the theme of her episode.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Really cool.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:No, I mean, and, and then just even hearing how she didn't have the financing to buy the network, right.
Speaker A:Her, her character, right.
Speaker A:Allowed for her to, for the person that was selling the network.
Speaker A:They was like, I saw what you did with the other network that wasn't yours.
Speaker A:Like, you deserve this network.
Speaker A:I'm going to sell it to you for pennies on the dollar.
Speaker A:I'm not even going to get what it's worth.
Speaker A:Because, you know, he had a press in this situation that he had to deal with.
Speaker A:Go back, watch the episode.
Speaker A:But it was like, yo.
Speaker A:And she didn't have the money to buy it.
Speaker A:But she had angel investors, right?
Speaker A:As we said, not even angel investor.
Speaker A:They were angel donators.
Speaker A:Where they were based on how she handled that network and how she showed up and who she was, character wise.
Speaker A:They was like, listen, we'll give this to You.
Speaker A:Because you deserve this based off who you've been consistently, how you showed up, how you handled somebody else's.
Speaker A:Right now, now it's time for you to move an ownership of your own.
Speaker A:So here, take this.
Speaker A:Don't even do it.
Speaker A:Don't even pay us back.
Speaker A:We don't want nothing bad.
Speaker A:We just want to see you shine.
Speaker A:Like, that was like, man, that was phenomenal.
Speaker B:It's so much to that one that I don't even know what to say.
Speaker B:Like, that's exactly.
Speaker B:Literally phenomenal is the word.
Speaker B:When I think about it, it reminds me of, like, of our previous seasons, and we kept.
Speaker B:Kept seeing a through line with all these creative entrepreneurs, and that was.
Speaker B:They had this mentorship type of moment.
Speaker B:Whether they sought the mentor or they were there for a job, whatever, there was this kind of breeding ground there.
Speaker B:They had a Mr. Miyagi, if you will, that was teaching them how to wax on and wax off, you know, and so.
Speaker B:But yeah, so ultimately, I feel like a lot of people shy away from doing the work.
Speaker B:That's what she kept talking about in her episode.
Speaker B:She was like.
Speaker B:Because they're like, I just want to start the thing.
Speaker B:How you just want to start the thing.
Speaker B:You don't even know how to do the thing.
Speaker B:She said.
Speaker B:So when she did it, she.
Speaker B:She started doing what she got hired for, and then she did almost every single role in the network, Right?
Speaker B:Yeah, that's putting in the work.
Speaker B:And I think sometimes we just like, I remember, matter of fact, I remember somebody personally coming to me, hey, hey, you know, I see you out here doing some of the influencer stuff.
Speaker B:It was like, you know, just tell me what to do.
Speaker B:And I was like, won't you.
Speaker B:It'll be easier for you to help.
Speaker B:Come and help me.
Speaker B:Come and let me, like, follow me.
Speaker B:Rather like, shadow what I'm doing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:As you shadow me, so much more will be taught, you know, will be caught, than I can just teach you.
Speaker B:But they didn't want to shadow me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I'm not talking about this as it relates to me, because it's not.
Speaker B:But whoever the television network was for Jaleel Davis, I guess it wasn't about that person.
Speaker B:It was really about her.
Speaker B:She wound up becoming the.
Speaker B:The main character in her own story.
Speaker B:But first she was willing to shadow him, you know, and so his inability to shadow, he didn't.
Speaker B:He didn't want to learn how to do the things.
Speaker B:He just wanted to just start doing it.
Speaker B:And it's like, yeah, I. I guarantee you he's still not doing it.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:And listen, and that's real, like she said, I, I did everything from cleaning the toilets to running the cameras to getting coffee.
Speaker A:So that, that's a part of the matriculation.
Speaker A:That's a part of the journey.
Speaker A:Like I tell people, you can't go from A to Z.
Speaker A:You can't just be like, oh, idea, okay, cool.
Speaker A:And then end up at Z, the destination.
Speaker A:No, you gotta go A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, Elemental.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:You got to go through the whole process.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, that, that, that was.
Speaker A:That's huge.
Speaker A:That's huge.
Speaker A:Go ahead.
Speaker B:Yeah, and I'm not saying that to say, like, that's everybody's past.
Speaker B:Some people just start the thing.
Speaker B:I was with a musician this past weekend.
Speaker B:He's not just a musician.
Speaker B:He also owns a production company and all that.
Speaker B:And so he's not the only person that runs the production company, has a team of people that do that.
Speaker B:But obviously he still knows how to play.
Speaker B:And I was around two musicians like that.
Speaker B:But he was saying how he never had to like, work a job, so to speak.
Speaker B:But then again, too, he was raised around musicians or musical family like his, his uncle played on these last $2.
Speaker B:So technically he always had a shadow shift there.
Speaker B:So I said that to say, I'm not just trying to emphasize going to work for somebody and shadowing somebody so that you can be somebody's.
Speaker B:But I'm talking about you're going to have to shadow in some regard.
Speaker B:And so how that shadowing is led to her knowing so much that other people who were partnering her said, hey, we want you to be able to be the person to buy this network.
Speaker B:So it was really a two for one episode.
Speaker B:It was like spotlighting that shadowship and mentorship, but also acquiring a company all in the same time.
Speaker B:It, it, it was a lot in that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:No, I mean, like I said, I know we can stay here forever, but yeah, we gonna move on.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But listen, go back, listen to the episode or watch the episode.
Speaker A:It was a lot of gems being dropped there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Next we had the Honor of interviewing Mr. Terry Williams, who is a, a, a Harvard.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Certified mindset and high performance coach.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And just kind of hearing him break down his PGR framework was dope.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I think, I think, I mean, you know, he didn't coin it that.
Speaker A:I kind of coined that.
Speaker A:So it's like, don't forget, don't forget, Terry.
Speaker A:Listen if you trademark that, just know where you got it from, right?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, that pgr.
Speaker A:But no, that was, that was phenomenal, right?
Speaker A:Where he was just talking about, you know, every, every client that he goes through, he takes them through that framework as far as helping them identify purpose, right?
Speaker A:And just the importance of purpose.
Speaker A:And then not only purpose, but then it's like, okay, cool.
Speaker A:Like, now let's focus on your growth.
Speaker A:You're here, right?
Speaker A:But now you're trying to get to here.
Speaker A:And in that growth, there's, there's, there's discomfort in that growth.
Speaker A:And that's okay because that's part of the process.
Speaker A:But even in that, once again, going to that are.
Speaker A:And then learning how to rest.
Speaker A:And like I said, because as creative entrepreneurs, CEOs, right, we have a tendency of, of focusing on hustle culture and grind culture, so we don't rest as much as we should.
Speaker A:But he was like, no, I'm encouraging people to lean into that rest because it's like your phone.
Speaker A:If you're.
Speaker A:And that's the knowledge that he gave.
Speaker A:If your phone dies, right?
Speaker A:Without.
Speaker A:If you don't charge, you don't charge your phone, then it dies and it becomes useless.
Speaker A:Same thing with you.
Speaker A:If you don't rest, rejuvenate.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:Recover.
Speaker A:Then, you know, there's that.
Speaker B:Now he wasn't.
Speaker B:So for those of you guys who are like, episode sound kind of cool, Rest.
Speaker B:No, he's a mindset and high performance coach.
Speaker B:So he didn't just talk about risk.
Speaker B:That's just one important aspect.
Speaker B:He talked about purpose and growth, right?
Speaker B:And so he realizes when it comes to being a high performer, how does he know what, what it takes to be a high performer?
Speaker B:Because he wasn't just Harvard trained.
Speaker B:He also has worked for the NBA or for teams with the NBA.
Speaker B:And he's worked with athletes like.
Speaker B:And personally training those athletes.
Speaker B:He started realizing that I'm not just personally training them, I'm actually working with them from a mindset level.
Speaker B:And then, and then in the season, there's a certain mindset, but then in playoffs there's a certain mindset.
Speaker B:And then in postseason, as I say, certain mindset.
Speaker B:And then as it relates to like keeping my family going, there's my, like.
Speaker B:So he's like, he's constantly realizing that if you're going to perform at the highest level, you have to have a certain theme.
Speaker B:That same thing showed up with high executives that he coaches like other CEOs and executives.
Speaker B:He was like, he Realizes that in order to grow, you have to expose yourself to something that he called.
Speaker B:Not he called.
Speaker B:It's a real term.
Speaker B:You can look it up.
Speaker B:It's called eustress.
Speaker B:Yeah, you remember that part?
Speaker A:Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker B:New stress is I, I really recommend it for creative entrepreneurs because it is where you take on a, something daunting, like a task that's going to, it's going to be good stress.
Speaker B:Ultimately eustress is like good stress.
Speaker B:It's like you're intentionally doing something that's going to press you and it's going to push you, but it's intentional so that it can grow you.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And it's not, it's not life altering, right?
Speaker A:If, if you don't do this thing, it's not like you didn't, you didn't lost a million dollars and it's, it's catastrophic.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:But it's just something where it's like you said, if you, if you burn, if you, you could just let you cooking a meal, when you burn the meal kind of messed up, right?
Speaker A:You're gonna feel some kind of way, right?
Speaker A:It's gonna keep you on your toes to make sure, okay, I got to make sure that the temperature is right and all that type stuff, but it ain't catastrophic.
Speaker A:But no, no, no, listen, I, I love that because I walked away with, with that there.
Speaker A:It's like, okay, what can I add?
Speaker A:What you stress can I add to my life that's going to help to develop and build me up, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, no, I, I like that.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker B:And he talked about some of them go to like CrossFit training or some of these intense high intensity, high interval training hit classes and things like that.
Speaker B:I'm not going there necessarily because I need to bulk up a beef up.
Speaker B:I've already worked out, I already did that.
Speaker B:But they're just going there because it's, it's, it's to push their brain.
Speaker B:But that's not just on the physical level like you talked about with the, with your, your cooking.
Speaker B:And that's why I said I recommend it to creative entrepreneurs because a lot of times we start creating, we start monetizing all that, all, all the hobbies.
Speaker B:You know, I even got a part in the song.
Speaker B:I say I'm monetizing my get monetizing my hobby back and forth, back and forth like it's violently something I said, who knows?
Speaker B:But the point is I was talking about getting to the point where I started realizing, oh, I can make money off this, I can make money off that.
Speaker B:But when I'm want to make money off of everything you do, perhaps you can do something that's creative, right?
Speaker B:It didn't have to be physical.
Speaker B:You can go do something that's creative and that you won't necessarily make money off of every day as you're doing it.
Speaker B:But you, you may eventually make money, who knows?
Speaker B:But it's, it's, the whole purpose is to expose yourself to good stress so that if it, when it messes up, you know, it's like, dang, I don't, I don't want to mess up now because if I mess up, it's a big deal, it's a big waste of time.
Speaker B:But it's also, at the same time it's okay, you know, So I, I, I encourage that.
Speaker B:One of the tasks I'm taking on right now is I am writing a book now.
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:That's not necessarily what you can see.
Speaker B:Come on.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm not, that's not necessarily what you would consider like new stretch typically, but it would be what you would call a big hairy, audacious goal.
Speaker B:And it's like this goal that you put in place so that you're working towards it like at the end it's going to take a lot to bring it together.
Speaker B:It's not a one time sit down process.
Speaker B:Like if you bake a cake, you can sit down and do it all in one want.
Speaker B:But this type of goal is like, you gotta write it, edit it, get the illustration, the artwork.
Speaker B:There's so much that goes into it.
Speaker B:So my goal for this year is to publish a book.
Speaker B:So that's a, that's a sort of eust that's created for me now.
Speaker B:I don't want to get off into just what's going on in my life.
Speaker B:I want you to apply these things to your life.
Speaker B:But we talked about purpose.
Speaker B:Purpose.
Speaker B:We don't, we won't take time unpacking that P. We want you to go hear from here him because it's again, it's Harvard back training.
Speaker B:Like there's so much rich content and it's not like all like word vomiting over you and super intellectual stuff.
Speaker B:He makes it very practical and very clear.
Speaker B:And then the cool thing was not just what he was talking about, it's how he was able to monetize that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So, so we talked about Ms. Julia Davis.
Speaker B:We know that there's some money and having a television network, I mean that's probably the obvious there.
Speaker B:And advertising but he talked about being a mindset and high performance coach.
Speaker B:Coaching.
Speaker B:There has to.
Speaker B:There's a business model to coaching.
Speaker B:And he talked about coaching from a different perspective.
Speaker B:Previously on the MMCB season.
Speaker B:I can't remember which season.
Speaker B:I think maybe three.
Speaker B:Don't quote me on that.
Speaker B:But we had a, a lady who was a coach, but she was a different type of coach and she talked about coaching on the individual level.
Speaker B:He talked about high performance coaching, where you're going in and getting organizational and enterprise level contracts.
Speaker B:Huh?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm telling you.
Speaker B:You want to go watch?
Speaker A:Go watch.
Speaker B:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker B:You got something you want to say about that?
Speaker A:No, no, listen, you, you, you covered it.
Speaker A:I mean, once again, we don't want to give too much because we want to encourage you if you didn't watch it, to go back and watch it.
Speaker A:But no, I mean, Terry, because he hit it from so many angles from him being a business owner and, and just as far as just resources, like, that was the first episode that we did.
Speaker A:We opened up our resources to creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker A:You know, our, our what's.
Speaker A:What's the word?
Speaker A:Segment, right?
Speaker A:Where it's like, we want to provide resources to you.
Speaker A:So some of these.
Speaker A:You know, though, he is a creative entrepreneur.
Speaker A:That was a resource too, where it's like, okay, yeah, listen to the story, but listen to the tools that he's giving you just so that you as a creative entrepreneur can be.
Speaker A:Be okay.
Speaker A:And be on point within here.
Speaker A:Your mind, your mentality.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Your mindset.
Speaker B:Okay, moving on.
Speaker B:Because it's not.
Speaker B:Yeah, like, yeah, it's not just your mindset, but it's also the, the, the.
Speaker B:The framework around how to be that type of coach.
Speaker B:For those of you guys who are creative entrepreneurs, movers and shakers that are interested in that.
Speaker B:Now when we talk about episode, the next episode, that's an episode that was just with you and I.
Speaker B:Let's kind of keep that one brief so we can get on to the next guest.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So, because we.
Speaker B:Again, you want to go watch this.
Speaker B:This one's episode 36, right?
Speaker A:Y.
Speaker B:So it was meeting rhythms, thinking like a CEO.
Speaker B:Meeting rhythms, thinking like a CEO.
Speaker B:The reason why we thought this was important because a lot of people who are newly into the creative entrepreneur space oftentimes came out of a job.
Speaker B:And when you were at a job, that job could have ultimately had like boring meetings.
Speaker B:And so you have this disdain for meetings.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, though, not gonna work for you.
Speaker B:Now that you have become a CEO, you have to get into the point of Establishing a rhythm for meetings.
Speaker B:Go ahead, Ron.
Speaker B:Because you know, I get excited.
Speaker A:No, definitely.
Speaker A:And we talked about like the importance of those meetings and why those meetings are important.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's like these are decision environments.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:If you're not meeting, then how are you making decisions?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And sometimes you need to have a meeting of just one if it's just you.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But then we also talked about, you know, bringing other people a part of the meeting that needs to be a part.
Speaker A:And we'll kind of give you that.
Speaker A:That four is four P's that we talked about later.
Speaker A:But hold on there.
Speaker A:Let me just.
Speaker A:I just skip.
Speaker A:Let me just skip to that.
Speaker A:Like I said, we gonna keep this one brief.
Speaker A:So we introduce you to the 4Ps, the framework.
Speaker A:So it's purpose, people process and then payoff or the product.
Speaker A:So purpose.
Speaker A:Why are we having a meeting?
Speaker A:A lot of times people don't identify why they're having a meeting.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker A:So it's like, okay, we hear what's going on and that people feel and you know, it's a lot of feelings and emotion that goes along with that because they don't know what's going on.
Speaker A:Then the people.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Do you have the right people in the meeting?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It doesn't make sense on having a meeting with the wrong people because you're not being productive now.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:The right people.
Speaker A:So identifying who needs to be in there and then the process.
Speaker A:Go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker B:Let's be clear.
Speaker B:Just.
Speaker B:Because if somebody is on the team, like, well, they can be in this meeting.
Speaker B:Not everybody needs to be in every meeting.
Speaker B:And some things that you're going to be discussing as a CEO may be above their pay grade.
Speaker B:No, I just.
Speaker B:But it may be above their security clearance.
Speaker B:Okay, sorry.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's.
Speaker B:That's the military me talking.
Speaker B:But no, but seriously, it just may not.
Speaker B:It just may be outside of their scope of work and it's.
Speaker B:They probably really don't care to be in there.
Speaker B:Like, honestly, you're talking about marketing and this person is an operations person.
Speaker B:They rather go work on operations.
Speaker B:Let's not tie people's time.
Speaker B:So the right people do matter.
Speaker B:And I know when you are a creative entrepreneur and you start getting the habit of meeting, you want to just probably throw everybody all in one meeting and then just be like, let's just go brain dump.
Speaker B:But it's like, no, we don't need to be on here.
Speaker B:So that's something that you need to think through.
Speaker B:Moving to the next, next p in the 4p.
Speaker B:Framework was the process, right?
Speaker B:The process.
Speaker B:You have to have a process to begin, right?
Speaker A:And that's, you know, this, this a lot of times an agenda, right?
Speaker A:Your agenda is the process, right?
Speaker A:Okay, start, start here, want to end here and then those, you know, those things in between.
Speaker A:So you just want that, that smooth process and it be clear and it's communicated so that the people that are participating are, you know, can follow and be on track.
Speaker A:And what's the, what's the payoff?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:At the end of every meeting, there should be a payoff, whether it's been.
Speaker A:You have.
Speaker A:You had to communicate something where you had to get buy in from the team or there's a call to action, right?
Speaker A:So after this meeting, these are your tasks, these are your steps to get us to this goal.
Speaker A:Like, what's the payoff?
Speaker A:There needs to be something.
Speaker A:You should never walk away.
Speaker A:Your people should never walk away from the meeting.
Speaker A:Like, why do we.
Speaker A:What was that about?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like that should never be the case.
Speaker A:And listen, I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker A:I just left.
Speaker A:I don't say corporate America.
Speaker A:I mean in the non profit world, right?
Speaker A:I just left there and trust me, there would be meetings and I'm like, why am I in this meeting though?
Speaker A:What was the point of that?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That that should never be the case, right?
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Right, yeah.
Speaker A:Make sure you have a clear payoff.
Speaker B:The payoff.
Speaker B:That's what people think the purpose is with the.
Speaker B:No, the purpose of the meeting is to talk about whatever.
Speaker B:But what is the payoff?
Speaker B:What is the product of this meeting?
Speaker B:If there will be no product, there is no purpose.
Speaker B:So we can just scratch all the pieces.
Speaker B:Okay, so seriously, you really want to go watch that meeting?
Speaker B:We don't just talk about framework.
Speaker B:We also talk about meeting.
Speaker B:We, we.
Speaker B:That we got into like the meeting rhythms that they need to have.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:As well.
Speaker B:So it's not just a monthly meeting with all everybody.
Speaker B:There are several other meetings you need to have even with yourself.
Speaker B:So you want to def.
Speaker B:Want to watch that one.
Speaker B:Let's keep it moving.
Speaker B:Episode number 36.
Speaker B:Seven.
Speaker B:We had Ms. Shada Naismith.
Speaker B:She was with Stacked Up Academy.
Speaker B:Stacked Up Academy is a nonprofit organization that focuses on exposing youth to.
Speaker B:How would you put it?
Speaker B:She's exposing you to.
Speaker A:It's like coding and, and, and AI and.
Speaker A:Yeah, just that whole tech.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:It was like tech and like.
Speaker A:And she started them off at an early age.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That's one thing that had me taken aback.
Speaker A:I'm like, wait a minute, you're Teaching like, like preschoolers, like tech language.
Speaker A:You know, she created these flashcards, but she was like, yeah, it's like we, we've simplified it enough, but we want to start helping these young people understand this early.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And then we can have a, a stacked, as we call a stacked academy.
Speaker A:But it's like a ladder approach where it's like, okay, we're gonna hit him at this age, right, with this, with this level, then the next age, the next level, we're going to make that age appropriate and just so forth and so forth.
Speaker A:And no, I, it was just dope.
Speaker A:And I love the fact where she really had to niche down what it is that she was doing or who her target audience was because it was like, okay, everybody could benefit from it.
Speaker A:But it was like, okay, do we want to focus on adults?
Speaker A:Like she was like, no, I want to focus on young people and be in very specific, like early education young people.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So that, that was a highlight for me with her identifying who her, her, her demographic and audience was.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And I, and I want to go back and clarify what you were saying when you said hitting them at different levels.
Speaker B:She actually has a, the stacked up academy have a, they have a stacked up conference for, for kids, right?
Speaker B:But there's a certain group of kids, they're too young to come to the conference and there are certain group of kids that are kind of like maybe, maybe starting to age out, you know, but it's like the, for the kids who are too young, what is something that we could give them?
Speaker B:And that's when she came up with that.
Speaker B:She, she showed us, she showed us in person.
Speaker B:Like if you want to go on the episode, you'll see there's a ABC book and you'll also see like, well, okay, well, how does having a non profit organization make you a creative entrepreneur?
Speaker B:Or when you look at how the creativity that went into the book creation so that she can actually do the programming that that nonprofit says that it does.
Speaker B:See, a non profit can just do a thing with, without necessarily applying creativity to it.
Speaker B:You could, you know, some, some non profits, but there are some non profits, most of them that I know of.
Speaker B:And the reason why we would consider them creative entrepreneur.
Speaker B:There usually is a creative approach whereby they have to come up with different tools, books, materials, resources, events, all of these different things so that they can drive home what it is that the calls that they're championing.
Speaker B:And I want to bring up what you meant by that is because on this age group she has this product for this age group, we have this product for that age group, we have this service.
Speaker B:And that ultimately bars right back down to entrepreneurship, which is the tiered level of pricing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You're small, your medium, your large ultimately is what she, what she has in place.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So check that out.
Speaker A:But before we move on to this next episode, we're just going to take a little, just a little, a little sponsor break.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So don't go nowhere, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:We'll be right back in about 30 seconds, 60 seconds or so.
Speaker A:You want to know the one thing that's holding most creative entrepreneurs back?
Speaker A:It's not the talent, it's not even the vision, it's the lack of capital.
Speaker A:Every day I watch brilliant creatives miss life changing opportunities simply because they can't access business funding.
Speaker A:Traditional banks, they really don't understand creative business like that.
Speaker A:And most lenders, well, they don't care.
Speaker A:But guess what?
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Speaker A:So what I need you to do is visit Credit Savant IO now, tell them MMCB sent you.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And just like that, we are back.
Speaker B:One of the things that I was about to say right before when on break is that and when we come back, we'll be answering questions, taking live questions.
Speaker B:So if you're tuning in live, please, please, please drop us, drop a question in the comments and we're going to incorporate that into this episode, especially pertaining to what we're talking about.
Speaker B:So so far we went over the season five recap.
Speaker B:We have Jalia Davis, we had the high performance coach.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Terry Williams and we had, of course Shadari Naismith is where we left off in an episode with Ron and I. I mean we're really getting into it.
Speaker B:We were talking about meetings, thinking like a CEO and so as we go through these particular episodes and recap, if you had something that hits your mind, even if it doesn't have anything to do with it, maybe if it's applicable, we have time, we'll get to your question when to answer it right here live for this episode so that as you listen to it, you, you will be incentivized to come back and join us via the live because you can get your questions answered in real time and be a part of the podcast.
Speaker B:Speaking of being a part of the podcast, I got a question.
Speaker B:We got a question from.
Speaker B:From the live audience, we had a question from DJ J Lex, and she said, at what stage in my business planning would it be most cost effective or most effective, not cost effective, to bring everyone together in one meeting?
Speaker B:At what stage of my business planning would it be most effective to bring everyone together?
Speaker A:I would say at the beginning, right.
Speaker A:Or after you say, okay, this is what it is that I want to do.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:When you solidify that vision, then I would say bring people in so that you can kind of, you know, share with them.
Speaker A:Okay, this is what it is I want to do.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:This is my why.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So you have a strong.
Speaker A:You have your what and your why.
Speaker A:Because then at that point you may not know how to go about doing it.
Speaker A:So then you can bring in other people to assist you in figuring out that.
Speaker A:That how.
Speaker A:I mean, that's.
Speaker A:That's how.
Speaker A:That's what I say.
Speaker A:What, what you say, Sean, I agree,.
Speaker B:But I know, so typical of you because, because you're gonna say like, you know, get that vision.
Speaker B:Run love, making sure you got that vision.
Speaker B:Clarity.
Speaker B:I know that's right.
Speaker B:Get the vision together.
Speaker B:Get it clear.
Speaker B:Clear.
Speaker B:No, I agree.
Speaker B:I think that a lot of times we want to hop out there and then just start doing the business, but it's like, get crystal clear on what you're doing, seriously, and what you will need help with or what you think you'll need help with.
Speaker B:And then like, okay, this is.
Speaker B:So you don't want to invite people into chaos basically.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Right, yeah, you want to invite them into chaos.
Speaker B:You have some.
Speaker B:You have a vision.
Speaker B:And I want you guys to help me run with it.
Speaker B:You know, this is where you'll come in and so forth, so on.
Speaker B:So I would say, yes, your first planning meeting probably needs to be with somebody who's a strategist or somebody who's a coach, somebody who's a mentor or somebody who you're just simply going to bounce the ideas off of.
Speaker B:That's probably going to be the first couple of meetings that you're going to have.
Speaker B:And then once you have that crystal clear vision, what you're doing and, and you come to yourself and say, okay, here are all the people who I want to bring to the table.
Speaker B:Now I want to start having an all teams meeting just so everybody can introduce each other, introduce ourselves to each other, and then talk about.
Speaker B:There needs to be a purpose though, like, but there also needs to be A product of the meeting.
Speaker B:What are you get getting out of the meeting?
Speaker B:Hopefully that was helpful and that is something that can be more so expounded upon if you go back and watch the episode, which is what we're encouraging you to do.
Speaker B:That is episode number 36, meeting rhythms.
Speaker B:Thinking like a CEO.
Speaker B:Now let's keep it moving.
Speaker B:And again, if you have questions, please drop them in the comments.
Speaker B:We will incorporate them into this live episode.
Speaker A:Definitely, definitely.
Speaker A:Listen, make sure that y' all doing the things, the likes, the comments and the shares and things like that, right?
Speaker A:This, I'm gonna put that out there, but as you said, let's continue.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So next we go on to episode 38 with Tolu Berry, owner of T Berry Films.
Speaker A:Right, so this brother is a Nigerian immigrant, right?
Speaker A:But listen, he developed this passion for photography at a young age.
Speaker A:His mom brought him a camera, right?
Speaker A:He was doing, he was doing like graphic design and things like that.
Speaker A:So his mother saw that he was creative and she bought him this, you know, this point and shoot camera.
Speaker A:And then if he said from there he just fell in love with photography and as he was taking photos and once again he stumbled across somebody being willing to pay him for his photography.
Speaker A:And he was like, oh, wait a minute, I can, I can monetize this.
Speaker A:Like, I can turn into a business, right?
Speaker A:And then he decided to turn it into a business, right?
Speaker A:But one thing that stood out to me is that, that he emphasized that creative excellence alone, right, does not guarantee opportunity.
Speaker A:Like, he was real big on that.
Speaker A:He was like, listen, there's a lot of talented and gifted people.
Speaker A:But he was like, okay, how can I separate myself?
Speaker A:How can I.
Speaker A:Well, what can I bring to the table, right, that's going to help me stand apart, that people are going to remember me and that's going to continue to, to either give me other opportunities or I can, you know, increase their, their value as a customer, right?
Speaker A:That's one thing that really, really, really, really stood out to me, you know,.
Speaker B:And that was really important because he was, he's particular about the camera.
Speaker B:He said he was studying the shutters, the ISO, the.
Speaker B:All the different terminology.
Speaker B:He was saying so many.
Speaker B:I didn't even know the camera had that many technical features.
Speaker B:He was saying so many things.
Speaker B:So I mean, for him, somebody who is a true technician, to realize that you have to position yourself, it really goes like that should really hit your mind, like, what is, what does he mean when you say you need to position yourself?
Speaker B:And he began to position himself in a certain way so that he can begin to attract, move from like that very first $50 he made for moving on to four figure deals with regard to his photography and photography business.
Speaker B:So before we, before we finish this up, I just want to let you know we have another question from the live community.
Speaker B:I'm telling you guys, if you're listening to this, make sure when we're live and we're doing our live episodes, hop in because we'll answer your questions.
Speaker B:Now we're gonna get to that question.
Speaker B:But let's kind of wrap up what we were talking about with Tolu because Solo was pretty fire.
Speaker B:He had, he had, he had that four figure deal, then he moved on talking about that five figures.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B: So you know, that means: Speaker B:But then he moved on to tens and the 15s and the 20s.
Speaker B:And so let's talk about that a little bit.
Speaker A:No, and he talked about, about that came about as a result of him being able to develop and establish relationships.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:He was like, I made my customers and my clients feel comfortable.
Speaker A:So there's one thing within the shoot, they feel comfortable with me there.
Speaker A:I'm professional, I'm on time.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I'm not, I'm not late, I'm not delayed.
Speaker A:And not only am I not late during the shoot, but when it comes to me delivering, right.
Speaker A:My, the product, I have a system in which I deliver the product and I deliver it on time to they're not having to wonder when is it being delivered.
Speaker A:So it's like the anxiety and the angst that comes from the customer or the client.
Speaker A:He was like, I was able to put them at ease.
Speaker A:And as a result of that, that positions me in a place to where it's like, okay, I like working with him because I know that I can depend on him.
Speaker A:I know what to expect.
Speaker A:I know what I'm going to get opposed to it being different every time where it's like, well, I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't know if he going to show up.
Speaker A:I don't know when I'm going to get my stuff.
Speaker A:Like, no.
Speaker A:He was like, no.
Speaker A:I was very intentional about those small things that a lot of times, us as creators, if we're being honest, like, let's be real, right?
Speaker A:Sometimes we may lack in.
Speaker A:He was like, nope, I was intentional to not lacking those areas.
Speaker A:So that created the positioning and the leverage for me to be able to develop these relationships.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:He also talked about just regular old likability too, with regard to that, like, like bringing a positive energy to a situation.
Speaker B:I like a lot of times people, they think they can just show with their skill, their talent and that's, you know, but you rude, you know, right.
Speaker B:You bring your skill and your talent, but you drive, right?
Speaker B:Bring your skill and your talent, but you're not good to be around.
Speaker B:You bring a damper to the environment.
Speaker B:Like that's, that's, that's not gonna work.
Speaker B:And so especially with where he's going, he's, he was talking about seeing a photographer friend make this much money and then the next thing you know they're making that much money and they're working for these high end brands and these brands bring them on for campaigns.
Speaker B:You're talking about minimum campaigns of like $15,000.
Speaker B:And this, this type of photography that, that goes on outside of buildings and goes in Times Square, right?
Speaker B:These are high quality, it's high quality footage.
Speaker B:You got to bring the right energy to the situation.
Speaker B:And so I, I just wanted to shout out that the meticulousness that he had with the skill and the strategic positioning because ultimately, how do you, how do you wind up taking a picture that goes from your camera to on side of a billboard, a New York Times billboard?
Speaker B:How do you wind up in an editorial oppressed magazine?
Speaker B:How do you wind up in New York, Paris, Fashion Week with your photography?
Speaker B:You have to strategically place yourself.
Speaker B:And that's what he was working on with his team.
Speaker B:He had, he had a ministry.
Speaker B:I think he was like a three person team at this point.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And one person's goal is to go and try to position him in the realm of business that he wants to be.
Speaker B:And another person was handling the administrative and the operation stuff on the back end.
Speaker B:I think he had another person that may, may do some slight editing for him because he, he knows that he wants to edit his stuff a certain way.
Speaker B:He has the eye still.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But like you know that, that stuff is important.
Speaker B:All of it is very important.
Speaker B:Go watch the total episode.
Speaker B:If you're a photographer, videographer, and you're trying to go from the individual level the, the, the 300, the, the three figure deals to like the 10 figure deals.
Speaker B:Because he dropped a lot of gems.
Speaker B:Last but not least, we had episode number 39.
Speaker B:Sorry, that's not.
Speaker B:Last but not least because.
Speaker B:Last but not least is.
Speaker A:But you said you had a question.
Speaker A:Before we go to, before we go to, to that one, you want to ask the question?
Speaker B:Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker B:See, I said that.
Speaker B:So the community and you almost didn't get your question answered.
Speaker B:Yes, we're going to go to episode number 39.
Speaker B:And then last but not least, the episode that Ryan and I did.
Speaker B:So we won't stay there long on that episode that you and I did.
Speaker B:Because I do want to make room for the.
Speaker B:This question.
Speaker B:The question ask is if people, right, if people understand your vision, but does not help execute, at what point do you move on versus sticking it out, allowing time to grow together as a team.
Speaker B:If they're, if they understand the vision, but they're not, they're not really helping you execute.
Speaker A:Oh yeah, I, I believe.
Speaker A:And they say, say hires hire slow fire, fast, right?
Speaker A:And listen, this might not be somebody that you're necessarily paying.
Speaker A:This might be somebody that, you know, you maybe put together a board of advisors or whatever.
Speaker A:I mean, regardless of what it is, let them go.
Speaker A:Because you're wasting to me, right?
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:Ron, you're wasting time and energy trying to get them to execute.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:It's like, no, I don't have the time and energy because I have to do.
Speaker A:I. I'm building this, this thing and you're slowing me down from building it.
Speaker A:Because now I have to either do your job for you or I have to micromanage.
Speaker A:If I got a micromanage, then why do I have you here?
Speaker A:You want to fight.
Speaker A:You want to find people that they understand the vision, but they can execute without you having to babysit or hold hands and things like that.
Speaker A:Because once again, you as the creator, creative CEO, you have things that you have to do.
Speaker A:The reason why you brought them on is to be your hands and your feet and things like that.
Speaker A:And like I said, that's.
Speaker A:I'm kind of.
Speaker A:It's a blanket statement.
Speaker A:I'm sure there's, you know, there's more context to it, but just in general, that's.
Speaker A:That's how I work.
Speaker A:That's how I'm responding.
Speaker B:I like the response.
Speaker B:Higher, slow fire, fast.
Speaker B:I would say a lot of times we have to make sure it's not our lack of communication first.
Speaker B:I always take responsibility, ownership for that.
Speaker B:I encourage people to hire assistants and I've helped people hire like virtual assistants.
Speaker B:Like, where do I start?
Speaker B:Where do I get it from?
Speaker B:I can help you get with the whole process, but once you hire that person, right, and that doesn't have to be an assistant.
Speaker B:That's an employee and somebody who you're collaborating with, you're working with somebody who sometimes we haven't communicated what we expect of them to do.
Speaker B:They get the vision.
Speaker B:They're around.
Speaker B:They're like, hey, I'm just around, you know, but it's like, have you really communicated the expectation so that it's very clear on what you're supposed to do?
Speaker B:And then if they don't do it, then our slow, far, fast.
Speaker B:Right, so.
Speaker B:Because it's just gonna wait.
Speaker B:It's just gonna waste a lot of time because.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But the best.
Speaker B:Because sometimes you're like, well, that person is just.
Speaker B:They're not do.
Speaker B:They're doing it, but they're not quite.
Speaker B:No, like if they're.
Speaker B:If they're doing something, but they're not doing it all the way.
Speaker B:Well, verify first that it's not you as the leader who hasn't empowered them properly to do their job.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Have you empowered them because you want them to do a thing, but you hold all the keys?
Speaker B:You're gonna have to take some keys off of your key ring and let somebody else unlock the door.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The person who owns Smoothie King is not unlocking the door every day at all.
Speaker B:The Smoothie Kings somebody else is unlocking.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so.
Speaker B:And I said it to say, so make sure you've given them the power and then also make sure you've communicated well.
Speaker B:And then get them to communicate back to you that they know what the expectation is.
Speaker B:Like, hey, this is the vision.
Speaker B:I know what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker B:This is exactly what I have done.
Speaker B:I'll get it done.
Speaker B:Now if they say all that and you say all that and y' all are all systems go and they don't get it done, go with what Ron said.
Speaker B:Hire slow, fire fast, and move on quickly.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, I. I concur.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:And I appreciate you.
Speaker A:You know, you added that.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:There is a.
Speaker A:On some responsibility that we take as the leaders to make sure that we've done our part.
Speaker A:So I just assume that you did your part, but thank you for that.
Speaker A:All right, so.
Speaker A:All right, let's.
Speaker A:Let's.
Speaker A:Let's.
Speaker A:We're gonna.
Speaker A:We're gonna land this plane.
Speaker A:We got.
Speaker A:We got two more episodes that we want to share with you guys and highlight the next one.
Speaker A:We had the pleasure of interviewing Kiara Dotson.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Kira Dotson.
Speaker A:She has been focused on the area of AI.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We know that a lot of things going on AI, and that's kind of like was her.
Speaker A:Her expertise.
Speaker A:She unpacked how internal clarity drives external authority.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So we talked a lot about some of the tools that.
Speaker A:That she shared, but then we also talked about A lot of stuff that goes on internally inside us as the entrepreneur or as the.
Speaker A:The CEO.
Speaker A:But that in internal stuff, it translates external.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So we got to start inward a lot of times with this work so that it can makes.
Speaker A:Make.
Speaker A:Make its way out.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I like the fact that she shares some of the tools that, you know, she was using in this space.
Speaker A:I know some of the tools that I've used personal.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That I've used as thought partners and things like that.
Speaker A:Like Claude and Manus is a new one.
Speaker A:I remember her mentioning on there, just helping to be, you know, a thought leader and growing and developing in this.
Speaker A:In this space.
Speaker A:So that was, you know, those are some of the things that.
Speaker A:That stood out to me.
Speaker A:What about for you Shot?
Speaker A:When it came to Kiara's episode,.
Speaker B:I think I was more so.
Speaker B:Kind of like with two.
Speaker B:With Tolu, I was more so impressed with the level of understanding that she has about it.
Speaker B:You know, I think I've all too often saw people try to create a thing and they just know a little bit about it, but they just kind of barely barely know.
Speaker B:It's like, you know, you may want to have a deeper understanding about this as well.
Speaker B:So I. I think I. I want to shout out to her for understanding the realm that she.
Speaker B:She's walking in again.
Speaker B:Season 5 was filmed in Houston.
Speaker B:We were at Afrotech.
Speaker B:She was one of the.
Speaker B:One of the speakers or one of the presenters or she had a role there.
Speaker B:You don't have a role talking about something.
Speaker B:And she shared at other conferences as well, from what she told us, because she understands what she does pretty well.
Speaker B:And so that was the thing that.
Speaker B:That stood out to me.
Speaker B:No, no, you know, yeah, you know, yeah, I understand what I'm saying.
Speaker B:Yeah, you have an understanding.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And then the other thing is, I would say her ability to get to the point with what she knows that she says, okay, I've.
Speaker B:You got to move from, like, I'm still figuring it out because it's technology, right?
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:This data is AI.
Speaker B:It's like this stuff is always ever changing.
Speaker B:Technology is moving fast.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You're always gonna be figuring it out.
Speaker B:But at this point, at this juncture, I'm qualified enough to lead from where I am.
Speaker B:That was a moment, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, that.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:That's pretty cool.
Speaker B:You got to get to that point.
Speaker B:Every creative entrepreneur needs to get to that point.
Speaker B:Like, maybe your.
Speaker B:Your deal is not in the technological feel.
Speaker B:You could even be in the.
Speaker B:In the cosmetology, but there are Certain things in cosmetology are changing.
Speaker B:The cut styles are changing, the color styles are changing what people, different techniques people are using.
Speaker B:There's always going to be something that's going and moving, but confidence at this point, I know enough.
Speaker B:Then the other thing was the data of how she was talking about using the data.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:She, she, she talked about, she understands the importance of data.
Speaker B:She understands how companies are, are being driven by data.
Speaker B:But she was talking about making it plain for creative entrepreneurs to know how to know what to look for.
Speaker B:And I think that ultimately in the episode we landed on, get you some KPIs, like, get you some key performance indicators, whatever those are.
Speaker B:I'm sure that there's some data, data that needs to be associated with those.
Speaker B:And then she talked about making data informed decisions.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Sure, you can have your weekly meetings, you can have your team there to.
Speaker B:And everybody putting their opinion in.
Speaker B:But here in this episode, in walks data and then we're going to look at the data and we're going to let the data tell us and dictate to us what we should do.
Speaker B:That that's what I enjoyed about it.
Speaker B:It's ultimately a resource of an episode.
Speaker B:So I would just recommend that you go check it out.
Speaker B:It, it's, it's not the fastest paced episode.
Speaker B:It's a, it's a thinker.
Speaker B:You want to apply your mind to, to understanding data and to knowing what, like what data do I have?
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:I mean what data?
Speaker B:You, you think you don't have any data, but you do.
Speaker B:Every business does.
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker B:We're always collecting something and if we're not collecting something, you need to do connect.
Speaker B:Collecting something that's tied to your key performance indicators that you're trying to watch so that when you come to set meetings, when you come to see a decisions, you're making data informed decisions.
Speaker B:Let's keep it moving.
Speaker B:Before we wrap up this episode, we said we're going to end with episode number 40, which was the episode with you and I.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So the last episode, episode 40 was Automate the Ordinary so that you can focus on the extra extraordinary.
Speaker A:So this was one of Shy's.
Speaker A:I know this is.
Speaker A:So when she said it's one of her favorites.
Speaker A:This is definitely one of her favorites.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Her being the, the systems and structure queen.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So that episode literally focused on the importance of automating and we talked about the importance of doing a workflow audit to be exact.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:To where it's like, okay, go in and look at your workflow audit so that you can then see what you can automate, delegate or eliminate so that you as a creative and then you, your creative business can elevate.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So, yeah, I'm gonna let you.
Speaker A:I mean, so for me, I know that was key because like I said, we shared.
Speaker A:I share like my story when I met with a young lady that walked through my, my workflow audit and it was like everything that I touched was red.
Speaker A:And I'm like, everything was red on the thing except for maybe one or two things.
Speaker A:And she was like, yeah, you gotta come on, you're gonna burn yourself out.
Speaker A:You got to make some adjustments.
Speaker A:But the episode was just dope.
Speaker A:But I'm gonna let you lean in and kind of, you know, yeah, this your baby here.
Speaker A:So go ahead.
Speaker A:What, what was.
Speaker A:So what was your highlight?
Speaker A:I mean, once again, I know we, we only f. We kind of folk, we, we mainly focused on automation.
Speaker A:There's other aspects, but that automation piece was, was very key that we linked in on.
Speaker A:So, yeah, go ahead and share yours.
Speaker B:Yeah, so I love what you're talking about auditing, doing audience audit of what your work is before you start trying to automate.
Speaker B:But then when you start automating, the question then becomes, what software, right, am I going to use to handle this?
Speaker B:Automation, right?
Speaker B:And before you say, well, what software am I going to use to handle this?
Speaker B:This, you.
Speaker B:You're going to think about what am I touching repeatedly that can literally be done with technology.
Speaker B:Like, it can literally.
Speaker B:We don't need a person to do this nowadays.
Speaker B:Like, there's a.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker B:We don't have to manually send out the email.
Speaker B:Like once we manually write it, we can go ahead and schedule the email.
Speaker B:That's a form of automation.
Speaker B:I know people like automation.
Speaker B:Automation.
Speaker B:Automation can get pretty complex.
Speaker B:But this is what we mean sitting there.
Speaker B:The timer had to sit there, look at it go in, hit s that some that can.
Speaker B:That can be scheduled, right?
Speaker B:So when you, you want to wrap your mind around what automation is.
Speaker B:And so we are automating things that are ordinary, as in things that I'm touching repeatedly.
Speaker B:Like if I'm doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again, there's a chance that you should stop and look at it and be like, okay, what part of this process can be done through some type of software automation, workflow, trigger?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I hear people talking about those things.
Speaker B:Some kind of system that, you know, there's usually so many things that happen on automation that you don't really realize that have happened.
Speaker B:Who we're interfacing with other, with other companies.
Speaker B:Like you know, if you, you're checking onto the plane, if you scan your boarding pass, it then does this.
Speaker B:If you, you upload, like if you, if, if you have people who have to submit a form, for example, like a survey to you to say that they enjoyed your product, then after they submit that survey, it automatically sends you, you, you can automatically send out, hey, thank you so much for doing this survey.
Speaker B:You said something so well.
Speaker B:We would like to ask if you do a video in exchange for the Starbucks gift card.
Speaker B:You know, like there's some things that happen every time, like whenever I do this, this happens.
Speaker B:I was going back to the example of when you're at the airport.
Speaker B:So much is happening on automation that you don't really realize it.
Speaker B:Like scan this and then boop, boop, boop.
Speaker B:This happens when I, you know, it's just so many things that are, that are unlocking the other.
Speaker B:So here's what I would, I would say when you're thinking about automation, automation is based on triggers and events.
Speaker B:Right When I do this, what happens after, when I do this thing, it's going to trigger what event?
Speaker B:Right when that person submits this survey, it usually tr.
Speaker B:It usually triggers the event for us to send them an email.
Speaker B:And then after they get their email, if they respond back with a video, we're going to also respond going back with a gift card.
Speaker B:Like, this thing makes this thing happen and that thing make that thing happen.
Speaker B:This is where you start realizing where you can find automation.
Speaker B:I'm hoping, hopefully I'm making that, that clear.
Speaker B:Yeah, and I want to talk about, I want to talk about administrative tasks.
Speaker B:A lot of times those are some of the ordinary things, especially for creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker B:They don't want to do the admin stuff.
Speaker B:You want to just go find you a manager.
Speaker B:You want to go find.
Speaker B:So now you're paying somebody to do something that you really could have done with automation.
Speaker B:And before you delegate the thing to somebody, think of is it possible for me to automate this?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And if you automate it, I'm going to have to find the software and I'm going to shamelessly plug Savant Sync.
Speaker B:It's a software that is a CRM and a sales system all in one.
Speaker B:You can run funnels and automations and all of those things all within the platform.
Speaker B:It's a platform that I am a founder of.
Speaker B:And so go check it out savantsync.com and you can have a software that does all the automation, but ultimately stop being busy doing a whole bunch of admin stuff and stop just trying to hurry up and delegate everything.
Speaker B:Look at, is some of this stuff technologically triggering a, another technological thing?
Speaker B:If it's, if it's, if this form submission is triggering an email submission, is triggering a text message, then it's trigger and that stuff can be automated.
Speaker B:I hope that helps you out.
Speaker B:Hope that makes sense for you guys.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And at the end of the day, it's all about optimization, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm, I'm trying to optimize my workflow so that you as a CEO is not overwhelmed and it can still get done.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So it's like instead of you having, you know, the, the octopus, octopus tentacles where you're trying to do 50 million things, it's like, no, let's figure out, you know, what can be automated.
Speaker A:So I can go back to excellent at what I'm great at.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So that mindset, that mindset shift is going from I'm overwhelmed because I'm growing to I'm overwhelmed because I haven't optimized.
Speaker A:So okay, I need to optimize.
Speaker A:So let me automate so I can do that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And yeah, you can.
Speaker B:And once you optimize, you'll realize you kind of eliminated some stuff off your tag off your.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:You may have not totally eliminated, but you eliminated it off your plate and yet it's still getting done.
Speaker B:Yeah, right, that's, that's, that's the thing.
Speaker B:You want to make sure it's still getting done.
Speaker B:And if you optimize as we optimize, we scale as we scale, we elevate.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So these are all things that happen with automation.
Speaker B:I was trying to stop myself from going too far in and nerding out.
Speaker B:That's really what it was.
Speaker B:As I was talking about, I tried to make it simple.
Speaker B:A technological thing triggers another technological thing that happened.
Speaker B:When we say technological, like, oh, what technology?
Speaker B:No, an email of sms, you know, something like that is happening.
Speaker B:This, A Slack channel is being seen.
Speaker B:Something is happening.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, booking is happening.
Speaker B:Just, it's simply, simply put, a lot of things that you do on a day to day basis, look at them and figure out before I start paying somebody else to do it, how can I automate it?
Speaker B:Because ultimately they may not even want to do it.
Speaker B:It may be redundant for them.
Speaker B:It may not even be a good use of their time.
Speaker B:Automation is not a bad thing.
Speaker B:Automation has been around for from the beginning.
Speaker B:And then there are certain things you cannot automate.
Speaker B:That's one.
Speaker B:One of the things that we learned when we were talking to a guest of ours.
Speaker B:She was saying she realized that she tried to have everything on autoresponder and all that.
Speaker B:And sometimes people just need a human touch.
Speaker B:But you cannot figure that out until you go in and audit, come up with a workflow and begin to start working on your workflows and what could be automated.
Speaker B:And after you figure that out, let me know, because I guarantee you I can point you in the right direction of how to get it all systematized and set up.
Speaker B:I've done it over and over again.
Speaker B:So anyway, that's pretty much concludes season five.
Speaker B:I didn't think it was gonna take us that long to say all of it, but it was so much.
Speaker A:Season five was jam packed.
Speaker A:I mean, definitely one of my favorite seasons thus far.
Speaker A:You know, Houston, y' all showed out, right?
Speaker A:We had some phenomenal guests that came through crew, so.
Speaker A:Nah, yeah, no, it was, it was dope.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:Listen, I'm so excited because, listen, we just filmed.
Speaker A:I'm letting y' all in behind the scenes.
Speaker A:We just filmed season six.
Speaker A:So season six is coming soon, and y' all gonna love season six.
Speaker A:But, you know, I'm not gonna talk about that because we still wrapping up season five.
Speaker A:I want y' all to go back and like I said, these episodes that we just talked about, go back and watch them, leave comments on them, ask questions, right?
Speaker A:Like, that's what we're here for.
Speaker A:We want you to leave comments, ask question questions.
Speaker A:We're here to support you as you're on your creative entrepreneur journey.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:This is what this whole platform is for, to empower you as the creative CEO on your creative entrepreneur journey.
Speaker B:So, yeah, yeah, that's what it's for.
Speaker B:We are empowering creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker B:How you like that?
Speaker A:No, listen, I love it.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:Listen, y' all don't understand.
Speaker A:I left my 9 to 5 job.
Speaker A:To continue to build this platform for creative entrepreneurs because me and Shy believe that creatives are make some of the best CEOs and creatives, build some of the best businesses.
Speaker A:And you just have to learn how to mind your creative business because you focus so much on the creativity that you don't build.
Speaker A:You don't.
Speaker A:You don't develop the strategy and the structure so that you can be sustainable.
Speaker A:So that's what this is all about.
Speaker A:So, like, we're, we're.
Speaker A:We're bought into this.
Speaker A:We like, this is what we're doing.
Speaker A:So I'm telling y', all, hop on this train.
Speaker A:It's because it's, it's, it's gonna be a dope ride.
Speaker B:And also, stop saying, I'm gonna do it later.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:I'm gonna work on my business stuff later.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And you keep wondering why you're frustrated from financially.
Speaker B:Work on your.
Speaker B:You need to start minding your creative business.
Speaker B:And on that note, I actually want to end this episode with a mantra that we always say as pertaining to minding your creative business.
Speaker B:This whole time, run has talked.
Speaker B:I've talked, we talked about what the guest talked about.
Speaker B:We encourage you to go back and watch episodes from season five because there's so much to glean there.
Speaker B:But we want you to talk.
Speaker B:We want you to hear yourself speak.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:Because affirmations matter.
Speaker B:So here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker B:I want you to repeat after me, everybody.
Speaker B:We're gonna say it all together out loud.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:If you don't say it out loud, I'm gonna come through the screen into your phone.
Speaker B:I'm gonna come through the screen and through your car, your audio, wherever speakers.
Speaker B:You listen to this phone, I'm coming, right?
Speaker B:But no, seriously, here's what I want you to say as we end this episode.
Speaker B:I want you to say our mantra before I tell you the mantra.
Speaker B:Please, please like this episode.
Speaker B:Please subscribe wherever you're listening to this ad.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker B:If you're watching all the way up to this point, listening to this point, you are the real mvp.
Speaker B:And again, please join the five day Creative to CEO challenge.
Speaker B:Creative to CEO challenge.
Speaker B:There's going to be some links somewhere around that you can get to that.
Speaker B:I'm telling you, you definitely want to do it.
Speaker B:Now back to this mantra.
Speaker B:You ready?
Speaker A:I'm ready.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:All it takes.
Speaker A:All it takes is intention.
Speaker A:Is intention.
Speaker B:Consistency.
Speaker A:Consistency.
Speaker B:And laser focus.
Speaker A:And laser focus.
Speaker B:To mind my creative business.
Speaker A:To mind my creative business.
Speaker B:And on that note, peace.
Speaker B:You down.
