[00:00:00] Today's episode is going to be a little bit different, but this is going to be the most valuable episode of the Creative Biz Launch Podcast so far. This is a conversation I had with Anthony Ewing, the co-founder and c e o of Tumtum is a consulting firm here in Chicago. Anthony's show is called Navigating Now, where he interviews business leaders in his community.
On this episode, we really dive into my story of how I founded Pieta Productions and more recently. How I've been able to make the shift from mainly working inside my production company to teaching other creatives how to start and scale their businesses with Creative Biz Launch. I'm excited for you guys to listen to this one.
There's so much value inside here. Welcome to the Creative Biz Launch Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your creative business and scale to six figures. Whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, or designer, you'll find something of value here today. Episode 1 35 is all about. How to build and scale a client services business being a client services business in [00:01:00] service of, uh, other B2B businesses.
Uh, we are in this game every day and we are so passionate about the work that we do with our clients, but we're also very passionate. About building and creating our own story as a client services business. And today we have Chris pta, founder and creative director at PTA Productions who has built and scaled his own client services business that has evolved multiple times.
Over the course of the last, now four years, and we've brought him back to the table to, uh, give us some insights and some updates as to the evolution of his business. And these are gonna be great insights for anybody who is thinking about starting a business of your own, particularly the client services business, where you are the service.
Or you are the product. Um, today is gonna be all about the, the dirt, right? We have a little bit of the clouds and the dirt today is gonna all be, is gonna be all about the dirt, the, the, the day-to-day execution that's required and the day-to-day mentality that's required to start your own [00:02:00] business.
That's what this, uh, round table is all about. And Chris, we wanna multi you back to the table. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be back for round three now. Yeah, absolutely. And thankfully we get to do a couple of these in person. It's always nice. Um, Chris actually joined us for, uh, a big networking event that we just came out of, uh, here at WeWork in Chicago.
And we were sitting around a table of other small business owners. Um, really just for the first time in a couple years, we got together as a WeWork community and we started talking about, you know, those, um, issues and opportunities that we're all here to solve. And I would say, you know, 80% of the conversation today with a group of 20 other business owners was around how we tell our story in service of our business, and also in service of our brand.
Mm-hmm. Um, people are still really trying to figure out how to develop and grow brand. That is supportive of, you know, building successful and sustainable businesses. Um, and that's something we're very passionate about and it's something that's been really the [00:03:00] backbone of building p PTA production, so.
Mm-hmm. Um, Chris, tell us what you're focused on currently. Yeah, so these days I'm primarily focused on my newer company, uh, biz Launch, which is an education company. So I've been really focused on building my. Photography business for the past three years, and this year I sort of pivoted towards this education company, um, as I was building that.
Photography company for the past three years, I was sharing lessons online through social media, uh, through email newsletters with, uh, my audience. And a lot of people resonated with a lot of those lessons and so much so that people were able to even, like, quit their jobs based on like the stuff I was saying.
So I, I saw how impactful this was. So I started building out an education business on top of my photography business, and I just started spending more and more time with that. I found I was impacting more and more people with that. And this year I've kind of flipped to being 80% education company and 20%, uh, p productions my photography business, which [00:04:00] has been a big shift for me.
And you just launched your third, is it your third co, uh, cohort of Creative Biz launch? Yeah. We're open, uh, this week. You're enrolling currently this week? Mm-hmm. And how's that going? Good so far. It's been a strong marketing push, a lot of, um, interest in the program. Um, a lot of the enrollments come the last couple days of the, of the cohort, but I'm really excited to get new students inside the program cuz so far, um, the results I've heard from have been just mind blowing.
I'm shocked how, uh, yeah. How. How much the students have been, um, enjoying the course and seeing results from it. Uh, so it's exciting to get more people in there and be able to help more and more students cuz that's really what the mission's all about. Just being to help more creatives who don't know how to really monetize their passion.
Yeah, I kind of step in and. Like, this is how you get clients. This is how you scale your business. This is how you build to be something bigger than just yourself. I love that. And I want to get a little bit into this transition into, you know, you becoming an education company, if you will. Um, but I almost want to go back to, I think the.
[00:05:00] Foundation of what makes you a successful entrepreneur, uh, is a strand of d n a that I know that you and I share, and a lot of people on the team share. And that is that, uh, you are so, uh, focused on and celebrating of the process. Mm-hmm. Uh, and I know that that's a term that's thrown out there a lot.
Like it's all about the process. It's, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. But more specifically, uh, when I first met you a handful of years ago, what I learned right away. Is that you are a systems oriented individual. Mm-hmm. And, um, you then leverage that, um, as almost like your superpower of.
Building and scaling a business that really is fairly lean, right? Mm-hmm. For the first few years it was just you. Mm-hmm. And then you started kind of building a team, but the only way that, that I saw you successfully build and scale PTA productions was the fact that you had incredible systems in place.
Mm-hmm. Tell me a little bit about that mentality. Um, tell [00:06:00] me at times, maybe there was. Um, there were, there were times when maybe you questioned that mentality and tell me what are the one or two or three systems that you've put in place, uh, from day one mm-hmm. That have really served you well. Yeah, that's, um, that's spot on.
Like, I'm very like process over outcome driven, which I think is. Um, kind of required as like an entrepreneur, cuz the work you do today, you might not see results for a week. You might not see results for six months down the road. So it's important to be able to focus on the process rather than the outcome, which is super cliche, but that's.
Always worked for me. I have like evidence that that works for me. So I continue doing that and um, mentally that's easier for yourself because if your goal is to do these 10 actions today, you just have to do those 10 actions. You're not worried about whether you're gonna sign a client deal today or, um, get a course enrollment or whatever.
You're just worried about the work that you can do. So love that. Um, building systems that enable yourself to perform the things that you need to do every single day. I think that's important. Um, when we talk in terms of [00:07:00] systems, there's. It's kind of like a somewhat vague term that a lot of people do throw around, and it's, some people might not know what like a system is.
For me, it's just like a, it could be as simple as like a checklist that I want to go through before I sent an, uh, an email out to my students. So to make sure to change the subject line, proofread it, uh, make sure all the links work. So a simple system like that, but it can get really complex with, um, with my photography company, I was doing a lot of client outreach, uh, cold emailing, so I built a.
Really incredible system around that. All the way from finding the right people to reach out to at the right companies and within those companies, finding the marketing directors, uh, systemizing that approach through various softwares and then automating parts of it, using other softwares and bring it all together so that, um, you're, you're only required to do.
Certain amounts of the puzzle and software as to other pieces of the puzzle, and then just kind of hop in at the end to, um, book those sales calls with those leads. That's part of the stuff that I teach, like my students. Yeah. Um, because I think [00:08:00] systemizing a process makes it a lot less intimidating because reaching out to a hundred companies sounds very intimidating, but you have a system in place that allows you to do that consistently.
It becomes more about like playing this game rather than, um, Trying to cold pitch all these companies. Yeah. Every single time. So it's, I think systems are really key to building a successful business, especially as a solopreneur. It, it's so, um, underrated. The, the value of putting good systems in place.
And again, this is not just theory, this is practical application. I mean, I, I saw you in four years build a very successful business from. Uh, from like your department here in the West Loop. Hmm. Yeah. And you know, you and I very early on talked about like how fortunate we are as, as business owners, as small business owners, that we have the tools, uh, that we do today to be able to put these systems in place without huge capital investment.
Mm-hmm. Um, your email outreach system is on the back of consumer [00:09:00] grade tools that everybody has access to. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, it requires, uh, the, the, the, the kind of mentality of, of being able to design effective communications. Mm-hmm. But in terms of like scaling that and, and, and building a, a, a user database and building an outreach database like.
The tools are there and they're free. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, that was part of the discussion that we had with this group of small business owners today, is that just acknowledging that there's never been a better time to start a small business. Now that means that you are one of. A lot more. Mm-hmm. Uh, product photographers, uh, educators in the space that are out there trying to do the same thing.
So tell us a little bit about, you know, uh, how maybe you've differentiated yourself in the client services space over the course of the last four years. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a good question because a lot. In my, um, industry like proc photography, photography in general. You hear, um, people say it's a saturated industry, that terms thrown out, thrown a lot, thrown around a lot because there's a lot of photographers out there [00:10:00] and a lot of photographers that are struggling to get clients.
So a lot of the time, um, they think that it's saturated, but in my head they're, a lot of times there's a disconnect between the art side of it and then like the business side of it. So a lot of photographers are trying to sell their art rather than, um, provide like, Sell the value they provide to companies.
So like product photographers, um, at the end of the day, they help companies sell more products. And if you can be clear in your communication with companies that that's what you offer, it's a lot easier to differentiate yourself in like a sea of photographers because when people say, oh, I take pretty pictures of your coffee, versus my photos will help.
Uh, we'll increase your sales 10% for your online, um, coffee shop. So I think the, the way you communicate your value is really important there. Um, and also, Oh, we're, we're not u we're in a world here where we typically have mic stands. We like to go old school. Yeah. And we hold the mics and unfortunately that makes it very sensitive.
So yeah. A little bit closer. A little [00:11:00] bit closer. Yeah. So, um, communicating your value is very important. And also the way you present, um, your self decline. So photographers. Usually will, at least from what I've experienced. And, um, my peers will try and, um, make it about themselves versus the clients. So yeah, if you put yourself in the client's shoes about why they're hiring you and.
Making that, um, top of mind for everything you do from website design to how you communicate via email to your portfolio. I think that's a great way to differentiate yourself. Just figure out like what your clients want and then build that on top of that versus what you think, um, you want. I love that.
And that mentality has, has, uh, shaped. Uh, drastically your business over the course of the last few years. Mm-hmm. So we probably could have started the episode by clarifying that, you know, Chris creative production started as a product photography business, which is client services. You were, you know, reaching out to, you know, companies that had products and you said, you were saying, Hey, you know, I've got this incredible portfolio.
Um, [00:12:00] you know, how. Do you, how would you like to kind of move your business and, and how does photography play into that? And you were mm-hmm. Gaining a, a clientele based on that. And the more that you did that, the more that you felt that your differentiator was education. Mm-hmm. And so this is like the result of what you were just speaking to, which is making sure that we have our eyes and ears open to like the market that is.
Speaking back to us saying, Hey, like, yes, you're a great product photography business, but also you're, you're doing a wonderful job and adding a ton of value, educating people. More people want education. There's a real value prop here. And that allowed you to say, I should invest more in the education side.
Mm-hmm. And ultimately that allowed you to. Uh, essentially flip your business model to where you're predominantly now educating mm-hmm. Other, uh, photographers on how to build for product photography businesses. Mm-hmm. And this all happened within four years. Yeah. So tell us about that transition. Like what were some of the leading indicators?
How was [00:13:00] the market? What were you hearing from the market saying, Hey, like you could be a successful product photographer, but you could be even more successful. If you went all in on educating mm-hmm. What were some of the indicators there? Yeah, that was definitely a very tough choice for me to make because I had a lot of success with the proc photography, but, um, I didn't know if the educational side would be successful.
So about a year, year and a half into the product photography journey, I started like a YouTube channel started posting on social media just how to take photos. Then more so how to get clients and my audience really resonated with the business side of things. So how do I, how do I get clients? How do I.
Um, negotiate a higher rate, stuff like that. And I started getting more comments like, this helped me land this client. I was able to quit my job cause of this stuff. So I just started hearing this really positive feedback, which I just was really fulfilling for me. So like a selfish reason. Like it just felt good to share this stuff.
Um, so I just enjoyed it a bit more than the, the client side of things. So I [00:14:00] tried figuring out how to build this into. A bigger company cuz it's, I wasn't going to survive off of YouTube money for this. So I had to build a product on, on top of this education, which then became a Creative Biz launch, which is the online course that teaches photographers and videographers how to get clients.
And from there it was just a. Number one was try and build like an imperfect product. So something that, um, was pretty decent, but mainly to gauge interest whether people actually wanted this product. Um, people did want it. So from there, I just built into something even bigger, um, then launched it publicly and.
That's really been what I've been working on now, just making this like the best online education possible for creatives and marketing it and just, yeah, making sure everyone inside the program succeeds as well. So a lot of different, uh, yeah, it's been a busy year, so I love that. So you, you almost have like different, um, lines of business now.
You've got P productions, the product photography business. You've got, uh, creative Biz Launch, which is the [00:15:00] education side of the business. Mm-hmm. You also have Chris Pie, the, the personal brand. Mm-hmm. And one of the things that I think is so unique about the way that you have built client services businesses, uh, now businesses, plural, is that the common thread through the evolution of these businesses and the launch of these businesses is that you've built brand outside of these particular service lines.
Mm-hmm. So like from day one, you were building Crispy the brand. Which was you on YouTube providing value, uh, demonstrating your practitionership, and we joke because you know, you've done YouTube videos, you've done Instagram content on a myriad of different topics. Mm-hmm. Not just product photography, but how to build a a small business.
You've even done tech reviews. Um, which I know was, was very, um, specific and targeted. There was a, there was a very calculated, uh, reason for doing that. Drawing more eyes. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, uh, pouring into your, your, your target market. But like this through line of like, no matter where my business goes, I'm gonna continue to [00:16:00] tell the brand story of Chris pda.
Mm-hmm. Is what I believe has set you up for success. Uh, maybe that's ingredient number two, a systems thinker and doer, and secondly, building brand outside of your actual business. A brand that is universal that any business can plug into, any of your business units can plug into. Mm-hmm. So tell us a little bit about, you know, that mentality, because I think that also helps maybe folks that are thinking about, um, building small business, or they're just getting into, you know, they've just gone out as a solo practitioner or a solo consultant, or they've just started a business and they're in this paralyzed state of like, I don't want to create content.
I don't want to tell the story because I don't know what my business is yet. Mm-hmm. And I'm here to say that it's the exact opposite. You don't even need a business before you can start building brand, telling the story, becoming a media company. And that's like a mentality that I know you, you and I are very passionate about.
So tell us a little bit about how that's worked out for you. Yeah, I think brand is really, really [00:17:00] important in terms of building any business. And it's like you mentioned, it's best to start before you have a business, honestly, because yeah, people. They connect more with you as a, as the person, as the entrepreneur behind the business rather than the business itself.
So for me, like I started like posting photos on Instagram like years before I actually had a pro photography business just for fun. And through that I've just progressed to building these businesses through, um, On top of that and the entire time I was kind of like documenting it through my social media channels, just building the brand, and I think brand is, it's something that's built over years and years and years.
You can't really rush this, but. It's really important to start as soon as possible before you even have an idea of what your brand's gonna be. Just posting what you're passionate about and sharing that with the world because people will resonate with that. And then from there you can start posting about your business once you figure out what that's gonna be, and a portion of your audience will really resonate with that.
So, and like for me, like I've [00:18:00] switched what my business is and. Parts of my audience that were watching me just build my pro photography company that weren't really interested in that. Now, maybe they're interested in my education business because they want to build an education business like that for themselves.
So you never know like who's watching, and it's great to like start building as early as possible and not really seeking perfection, just like posting content out there. Oh, I love that. You know, it's, it's like you get this kind of spectrum or two different schools of thought. One is, is, you know, I've never met a successful business owner that said that they went away for two years and locked themselves in a, in a conference room and like figured out the perfect business.
And when they were ready to launch, they launched it and it was so successful. I've never met a successful business owner that didn't build a business by being in the work. Mm-hmm. And as well, I think we also have. Some entrepreneurs out there, and it's easy for me even sometimes to get. Caught in the mentality of like, well, I'll just see where the market takes me.
And once we get to a viable [00:19:00] business model, that's when we will start building brand and putting messaging and education out there. Those are two extreme ends of the spectrum that I feel like are traps for us entrepreneurs. We need to be in the middle, which is like, we need to be in the work, um, we need to be in our business, and at the same time, we need to be building brand that is universal, that sits outside of our business.
Mm-hmm. You know, here we're a, a, a. Experience led management consulting firm. Uh, we joke that if in five years we're a T-shirt company, we have a strong brand behind TUM and some pretty incredible faces behind it that are actively telling the story in the marketplace. And that story is not just about our consulting services.
That story is about creating the space. And creating a space is the brand. And that brand is universal. And that brand has ethos, it has emotion, it has our people behind it. It has the way we develop community. There is a, a myriad of different businesses and business models that can plug into that brand.
Mm-hmm. And I feel like that's what you're building in Crisp [00:20:00] Pida the brand. Mm-hmm. Which I think is, uh, really unique and a big, big differentiator. Yeah, I think that's, that's key. Everything you said there is spot on. Yeah. Especially the, um, trying not to like, lock yourself in a room and create the perfect idea before you actually launch it.
That's been like a, Just starting has been such a core like pillar of like anything I've done from like starting a YouTube channel. Like I didn't know where it was gonna go. I thought this was gonna be like me teaching how to take great photos of like the Chicago skyline and now I'm teaching photographers how to land clients and like live their dream jobs.
And I had no idea it was gonna be that, but I started posting videos and I posted like 30 before I posted one about business. But that one really resonated with people. And if I didn't post those 30 videos before then I wouldn't have like those skills. Uh, the confidence on camera. Those things I built up with those first 30 videos that led to me actually having, um, this education company.
Yeah, I just, I started with something imperfect, [00:21:00] showed up very consistently, and then it led to these opportunities. I, it, I'll never forget, it's kind of a funny story I'll never forget when I, um, decided to go out on my own in 2016. And I decided that I was gonna launch this business as not as, you know, Anthony Ewing Consulting Services.
Mm-hmm. Or Anthony Ewing and Associates. Mm-hmm. And I was very, very passionate, uh, and intent about, uh, Starting to cultivate the, the thought name, the thought brand, the idea of creating the space well, before I even had my first client. Mm-hmm. And, um, I was spending a lot of time on this and, um, I had just left my full-time job at a very exciting, well-established, uh, mid-size, uh, startup organization.
And, um, I was living in San Francisco at the time and I came home for a weekend to tell my parents that I was gonna leave this full-time job and start my own thing. And, uh, after they, um, spent a couple minutes trying to understand how [00:22:00] to even pronounce Fian and understand what it is I told them about my approach and the fact that I was gonna be creating these, these YouTube videos, um, that were just talking about my passions in learning and development and some of the things that I was seeing working for these large organizations.
Um, and, you know, my parents asked immediately the question that most parents would ask, which is, You know, how will you make money? You know, you don't have a client, how will you make money? And I said, well, I'm gonna build this brand and I'm gonna build something bigger than, than just Anthony Ewing, the name.
And um, I'm really hoping to get a couple of great clients through that, and I'm gonna start from there. But I really wanna focus on this brand. My mom looked me straight in the eye over like a nice steak dinner on their back porch and said, So you're gonna make YouTube videos. And at the time, you know, five, six years ago, like that wasn't the, you know, that wasn't like the norm whatsoever, especially in my generation.
Um, and, um, at the time, maybe there were times when. That's kind of what it felt like, is like, I don't really know what I'm building. I just know that I'm starting to tell the [00:23:00] story. I'm starting to pour into this concept of thought team and create the space. Um, and I, I now look back and, and think, gosh, that was, um, such a great starting point for me, and I would've even tripled down on the time that I was spending on creating content.
Uh, becoming a media company first before anything, building brand, uh, and then allowing our services and our business to evolve based on. Again, kind of the ethos of that brand. Mm-hmm. That is universal. And um, and that's what's so exciting about building a business right now, but it does take a certain mentality of like kind of stepping in, um, when you don't have it all figured out and telling the story.
And I think that's what you've been doing so well. Um, we have a couple minutes left. I do wanna focus a little bit more tactically on like, you've launched this course. Mm-hmm. Creative Biz Launch and, um, You know, you have kind of shaped this over the course of the last year or so and you're pouring a lot of time into it.
We also know that there's a lot of courses out there. Mm-hmm. So [00:24:00] tell us a little bit about Creative Biz Launch and tell us some of the ways that you are crafting this and building this that allows it to be differentiated. Cuz I've seen the testimonials. Mm-hmm. And they're extremely strong. What? What makes a good educational course today?
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think. One, I think there's a, a lot of lack of educational content around like the creative space, the business space. So I think the course fills a really great gap because there's a lot of courses on how to take great photos or take videos, but none about really how to get clients consistently, which I figured out how to do, and it seemed like I was doing something that other people weren't doing, and.
Yes, I was working hard at it, but it seemed like it came easier to me than other people. So I asked myself, why is that? And the core of it is like the systems I built out. Yes. So I just teach pretty much what's led me to success, um, in a way that the actual teaching part was hard for me to like, Structure this course cuz there's so much [00:25:00] information.
Yeah. Um, like the course is like 80 videos ranging from five minutes to 30 minutes. Um, so it's a lot of info and it's really dense and a lot of it's really actionable, so it takes a while to get through it. So structuring that was really difficult for me. Um, but seeking feedback continuously from my students, how I can improve it, um, how I can provide the best resources possible to them, to lead them to success.
Um, that's really helped me seeking. Feedback, act actively from the people inside the course and then building on top of that, um, as I get that feedback. Um, but the one big thing I'm struggling with, and which is true for like most online courses is there's just a lack of trust in like the online education space right now because there's so many courses coming out and some might be a scam, some may be legit, and it's hard to know.
What's what. So overcoming that hurdle for me and like Creative BIS launch is difficult because I'm trying to like, I know it's good, my students know it's good. Um, so I'm trying to. Provide evidence to the world that it's the real deal. And we do that just through [00:26:00] testimonials. I'm money back guarantee.
So, um, yeah, I think it's like the best training out there, but my job is to communicate that to the world and prove to them that it is, which is still something I'm. I'm struggling with and still learning how to best do that, honestly. Yeah. You know, we, um, when we design, uh, educational leadership development courses, we typically structure structure them in, in three different buckets.
There's, uh, the mindset, the skillset, and the tool set. And I think one of the, one of the things that you find in the, the educational space today is a lot of the mindset. And we say that the theory in leadership skills and capabilities is a commodity. You can find that information anywhere. Mm-hmm. And as a small business owner, as a shop of one or two or 10, uh, you know, you don't have the resources that a LinkedIn learning or uh, an HBR has to develop the theory and the content.
Mm-hmm. But what we have is the practical. Skillset sets and the tool sets that have been proven for you over the course of four years, and [00:27:00] I know that that's what Creative Biz Launch is chock full of. Mm-hmm. The skillsets, the tool sets, and I kind of chuckled when you said it's very dense, it's very action oriented.
I'm like, if Chris P's mind is behind this, it is dense and it is action oriented and that's what you want. Right. As a, as a small business owner, when you're investing in. Uh, a course on how to run your business. You don't necessarily need the mindset, like you can YouTube that. Mm-hmm. It's all over H B R, but the skillset sets and the tool sets are the differentiator.
Mm-hmm. Um, and I think that's what's so exciting about, uh, creative Biz launch. So, um, congratulations on the, on the launch and, and good luck. I know that this has been an iterative process for you. Um, are you ready for a quick lightning round? Yeah. I had just one idea that popped in my head, please. Um, we were talking about brand earlier and I think a big.
Differentiator between my course and others is I built this brand up over the past few years. So when I first had like a small soft launch, people were immediately interested in it because they'd been watching my content for years before I even had a course. [00:28:00] So me putting in the time to build that brand, uh, the years prior before this business started mm, was huge for me in the launch of it too.
I think that's a really good point. I think what I'm hearing you say, and correct me if I'm wrong, is four years ago you couldn't have started with creative based launch. Yeah, exactly. Because you hadn't gone through it yourself, but as well, yeah. Like you needed to build brand behind yourself and your services mm-hmm.
Before you could launch a, an educational product like this. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of people that are saying, How do I start a business? How do I go on my own? I'll launch a course. Mm-hmm. And I think that might be, uh, the wrong way in a world where there's a lot of courses out there, right.
You wanna, you know, you want to put something out there that's backed by your own experience mm-hmm. And the brand that you've built. So I appreciate you sharing that insight. Okay. Lightning. Ron, you ready? Yeah, let's do it. I'm literally gonna make these up off the cuff. That, which has been super fun for me recently.
Um, but Chris, one of the things that I. Uh, learned most from you is you are so good at like providing nuggets of like [00:29:00] resources and tools that you're using. So I'll ask you, uh, you have a lot of tools that you use throughout the day to run and optimize your business and even to run and optimize yourself.
Mm-hmm. What are the two that you wouldn't give up? Um, right now, CHATT is such a big thing to my business. Yep. It's just been a game changer. It's like having one or two extra employees. It's just that impactful for me in terms of like repurposing content, um, creating marketing emails, things like that.
It's just been a game changer. Uh, the second one's hard. Um, I've started using Asana recently for just project management. I've switched from like Notion and it's been. A big game changer in terms of like working with a team. Asana has been huge for me recently, so I guess that'd be number two. But there's number two has like 20 that are Yeah.
Fighting for that spot. That surprises me. You're such a big notion guy. Yeah. I still use it for certain things. Um, honestly, it's just a little slow with how it loads for things. Okay. Um, but I, I still think notion's great for your own, like, [00:30:00] personal project management and I, um, like. Client work. It's great for that.
It's just running a team. Um, I think Asana is better for that. Maybe I'm just saying it as number two cuz it's new for me. I'm, I'm still learning it, so having a good time with it. Yeah, I'm sure I'll find things I hate about eventually. But yeah, we'll go with chat Asana. Uh, number one use case for. Chat, g p t in, in your business.
Right now it's repurposing my longer form content. So, um, I'll create like a 15 minute YouTube video and I can use chat g p t to kind of help me repurpose it so I can feed it like a script and be like, Hey, can you create this into three different Instagram reel? And it'll spit out like a 62nd script for me from that, um, video and be like, this is, these are the three subject points that you should talk about.
So, um, Taking that Love that. What it tells me and then like rewriting in my own words has been just, ooh, a game changer. Okay. It's just insane if you can prompt it correctly. I love that. I wanna teach that back cuz that was very practical and I feel like this could be really useful. [00:31:00] Uh, if you create and produce long to long form video content, you take the essentially script mm-hmm.
Uh, the captioning from that, that long form piece. Mm-hmm. And you leverage chat g p t to create the script for your 62nd mm-hmm. Blurb if you will. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of caveats in there cuz you could do this and you can get garbage out. Yeah. But if you prompt it correctly, if you're using like the latest version like G P T four, um, and you prompt it with like multiple sentences of like what you wanted to do, then you can really get it to.
It's like a, a professional marketing marketer on your team mm-hmm. Doing stuff for you. Mm-hmm. Which is crazy that we have this technology right now. It's free. Yeah. So, uh, PTA production is the, the, the overarching empire. Your education, your product photography, your, your, your personal brand is where in 10 years, no clue.
Okay, love that. Uh, I'm saying that now because in the past four years I had no idea I would [00:32:00] be where I am today, like educating other people and how I run this thing. So if I had to answer right now, it would be to build Creative Biz, launch into like the best training out there for any creative profession.
Um, scale the program to. That'd be like the best choice for education, even more so over like a college education for this, I think it's as that much potential. So that's what I'm currently working on. I'm just trying to make this into the best thing out there. Mm-hmm. And that's been like my day-to-day life, and that's what I'm enjoying right now.
Um, if I'm doing this in 10 years, I'd still be happy, but honestly have no idea where next 10 years go. Yeah. So it's, I love that. It's exciting. I love that. That's a very honest answer and I also like really res respect and appreciate that answer, especially as a, as a business owner. You're asked that question a lot.
Mm-hmm. And we're maybe classically trained to have like that, that vision script, if you will. Mm-hmm. Um, but I think, you know, 10 years is a long time. Yeah. And I think we're fooling anybody as small business owners, especially in today's [00:33:00] context with a, uh, a, a script in terms of where we want to go. So, mm-hmm.
I think the, the, the most important thing is that you're building a brand that is timeless. Mm-hmm. Which I think is super exciting. Yeah. Um, There's probably a handful of folks out there that have just started a small business or are thinking about starting their own business. And let's say, uh, you know, EV each of those individuals has a list of like 50 things that they have to consider when, um, starting a small business of that list of 50, what, what's like the one thing that like people typically have around, like, that's down in like 45, 50 land that you would pull up to number one or number two.
What's the thing that people are underestimating when it comes to starting a new business? I think the power of like what you're actually offering people is. Under us, like what you're actually selling. Your product has to be world class and one, you need a really good product. And two, you have to get in front of people.
Um, from, for photographers and things like that, I think a lot of [00:34:00] photographers, um, have a great product, but they just don't get it in front of enough people to make a business out of it. I think that's lacking. Hmm. Um, just getting. Your thing out there. And most business owners, I think drastically underestimate how many people actually have to see your thing to actually buy it.
Cuz a lot of photographers think they'll, they'll send their portfolio to 10 companies and they should get hear back from five of those when the reality is you have to send it to a hundred companies, you might hear back from five. And that's still plenty to like, have a fully booked like quarter. Um, so I think people just drastically underestimate the number of eyeballs that have to see your thing.
What's the best restaurant you've eaten at in the West Loop in the last six months? Uh, Kuo. My guy. Fantastic. My guy, uh, you, you turned me onto camco. Yeah. Uh, maybe eight months, six, eight months ago. And we, I've been there probably six times. So Good. And it is not McDonald's pricing that is for sure. But save it for a [00:35:00] special experience.
It is a true experience and it's pretty low key, like it's not mm-hmm. One of those like well known West Loop restaurants, so if you're in Chicago, You love the West Loop. Mm-hmm. Uh, this is at Plains and Lake. It is. Mm-hmm. Hands down. One of the best dining experiences you can possibly have. Yeah. It's so good.
Uh, Chris, I want to thank you, um, uh, for a couple things. One, I wanna thank you for stepping into this discussion, um, for sharing so much of your insight and your wisdom. But I also just want to thank you for the energy that you bring. To this show. You know, we have such a variety of, uh, folks that contribute to the Navigating Now voice and in so many ways, um, we love, uh, all of our guests because they come in and we get to kind of celebrate like the entirety of who they are, how they step into business, the life side, the business side.
I love sitting down and talking with practitioners and entrepreneurs like you, um, because we can get, there's no depth that I can go, that's not too deep for you because you are so. Naturally in [00:36:00] the work and in the business. Mm-hmm. And for that, I just want to thank you for bringing that energy to the table, bringing that energy to the relationship that you and I have.
I know I can always count on you to reach out to you to say, Hey, what do you think about this tool? How do you think this impacts your business? Mm-hmm. Thinking about taking Fatio this way. Mm-hmm. And you're just ready for that conversation. And like that is why. I consider myself an entrepreneur is because I, I'm, I'm in it with you.
Mm-hmm. And I want to have these discussions and it just feels so good to be at the table with a true practitioner. So I wanna thank you for your practitionership as always. Thank you. It's been great to hop on here and talk every time we have these conversations. I just leave really motivated to do more work and just, just feel like I need to impact the world more after these discussions.
These are the episodes that like, yeah, we've got Amanda sitting here and like we could literally hit off on this episode and I would hold this mic for another six hours and continue the conversation. But, uh, with that we will, uh, say goodbye to, uh, those folks who have joined. We wanna thank [00:37:00] everybody, uh, who are watching this live or who are joining us.
Um, on the recorded version, uh, we go live every Thursday afternoon at three o'clock central. You can find this episode and all upcoming [email protected] slash live. Chris, again, thank you so much for your time. Everybody, have a wonderful rest of the week and we will see you next Thursday.
