WEBVTT
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Let's talk small business. I'm Windsor
Dalton, a digital content and branding creator,
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and I'm a small business owner and
digital a junkie. We're best friends.
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Are going back the curtain too.
All Thanks small business, get started,
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Hello, and welcome to Let's Talk
Small Business. Welcome. I'm sitting
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here in my robe at Windsor's because
we just took a mini photo shoot at
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his house, a MANI photo shoot, and this week we're going to be
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talking about something that I think Sasha
and I a lot of creative people and
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just people in general, but Sasha
and I specifically both have had issues with
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this in the last month, which
is getting inspired, and I think for
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small business owners, especially more creative
businesses, when you're doing the same thing
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day in and day out for so
long, it gets really hard to stay
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inspired and feel like what you're doing
is different and exciting. So we're both
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going to tell some kind of experiences
we've had, um some like tips and
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tricks that we think help you kind
of move past it, and then also
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give you some um easy kind of
d I y tips and tricks also of
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making quick and easy content. Yeah, I think it's really hard, especially
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when you're a one person operation to
get inspired, because it's like you're dealing
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with My mom calls them like the
fleas of life every day. It's like
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a good expression. It's so true
because it's like these things that are just
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you have to check them off your
your list of things to do. No
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one else is going to do it
unless you hire an intern. But if
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you're bite, if you here by
yourself, it's like, Okay, I
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wake up. I have to do
this, this and this, check emails,
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do my order. I have to
like call my vendors, place orders,
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plan my marketing calendar, like all
this ship that you have to do,
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and on top of that be inspired
to create more things and come up
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with like great ideas. And sometimes
it really just you get bogged down.
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And that's how I've been feeling,
honestly up until like what last week.
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I also just think it's one of
those things in life where it's like it's
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easier to tell your friend which dress
looks better on her than it is yourself.
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And it's easier to tell somebody which
you know couch or pillow they would
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put in their house versus like telling
yourself. Um, so what I try
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to do a lot of times is
like, take myself out of the situation
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and sorry, if you hear growling
nuts, that's kind of a lady,
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she's trying to be a part of
a podcaster with us. Lady, do
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you want to say hello to anybody? Oh? I thought she'd grow anyway.
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But I try to take myself out
of those situations and just kind of
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think like, Okay, if this
wasn't me and my vanity is not involved,
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which I think that's a huge thing
because like you're putting your name sometimes
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your face on it. So I
think if you take yourself out and just
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think, like I've got to do
a sale and I gotta take pictures,
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Like if I was doing this for
somebody else, what would my idea be?
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Um? But I think if you're
getting stuck even getting to the point
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of being inspired, A lot of
times, what I'll do is just stop
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from my personal brand or for other
people that I work with. If I'm
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not feeling like I have an idea
or something, I'll just stop everything I'm
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doing, like close my computer and
I will go to my Apple Music and
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just start being like, what are
some of my favorite songs right now?
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I listened to those, and I
think, like, are there any common
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themes in any of these songs?
Like is it pop heavy, is it
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spooky? Is it whatever? And
then I will sometimes get on TikTok,
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and then I'll also go to my
saved section on Instagram, so like pictures
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and videos that I've saved on Instagram, and then I'll go through and just
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look at like normal things that make
me inspired on a day to day basis
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that I'm maybe not thinking of on
like a whole project level. So I
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look at that, and then before
I know what, I'm like, wait,
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this was so cool, like I
could do something like this, or
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like we actually have a picture dislike
this, or like this song would be
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perfect for this, And I stopped
and then I start kind of getting the
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train moving again. Yeah. Remember
when we lived in Beverly Hills next door
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to each other and we would walk
to South Beverly Drive and go to the
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Iconic Owl's newsstand, which if you
don't know, look it up because it's
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really cool. We actually met the
the awl we met al Yeah, I
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think it was, Oh it is. I'm pretty sure I saw someone instagram
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at it not too long ago.
Well, Owls had the best magazines that
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you could not get anywhere else.
He had Vogue Italia, he had v
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Magazine, Purple Magazine, all of
these incredible magazines, fashion, design,
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architecture, even his old Playboys,
which you love the vintage Playboys from him.
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So we'd go there and we just
buy these magazines. Sometimes they were
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expensive, like thirty bucks a pop, but it didn't matter because they were
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so good. I of a stack
of them in my house. I shipped
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all of mine from California to here, a single one away. They're incredible,
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and I have in my office like
I don't change it out as much
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anymore. But when I was doing
like a ton of graphic design stuff all
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the time, I would get my
magazines and I have a lot of them
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shipped to me, and I would
go through and I would just anything I
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liked. If it was a picture, if it was an ad, if
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it was a fun I would just
rip the page out and I take it
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to the wall. And I have
a whole wall in my office dedicated two
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just like inspiration. But Matt,
hey, man, if you're listening,
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I remember my very first job at
Tucker Blair. I had never I had
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done like a little bit of graphic
design stuff in college, like an internships
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and things, but I definitely was
not like a, you know, taking
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graphic design classes and things like that. That wasn't my major. And I
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remember when I got to Tucker Blair, we were working part time with a
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designer, so like I could go
in and change the color or something after
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she sent us the file, or
like we could reuse something and swap out
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the picture or whatever. And then
she moved on to like a full time
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job somewhere and it was just me
and I remember being so excited to do
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this, but I will never forget. We were sending like a I don't
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know, Christmas email or whatever it
was, and I opened up Photoshop and
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put in the dimensions we needed and
I remember just looking at it and it's
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a white It's like a white screen. It's just a blank screen. And
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I remember being like, oh my
god, like I've never done anything from
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scratch. And it was the craziest
thing because I was like I was on
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the one hand excited because I was
like I can literally do anything I want,
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and then on the other hand,
I was like, wait, how
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do I even start with this?
But the same thing, I just stopped
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and I was like, okay,
well let me think of a funt,
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let me think of a picture whatever. And I remember Matt used to do
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the same thing with magazines. We
always had like Brazilians and magazines in the
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office, and he would say he
would be like he would be like,
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these people have huge teams, um
you know of fifteen designers and editors and
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all these things, so like they're
obviously going to have the best system,
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so look at what they do and
like just take inspiration from it. And
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I remember this. Maybe it's not
the best advice, but it helped me
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at least understand the guidelines of things
for emails and graphic design a little bit
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better, I think for the the
market we were in. But he would
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be like, you know what,
just go on there and like copy a
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layout and he would be like,
I want it so exact that the only
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thing that's different is the images.
And it's kind of like drawing or coloring
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by number or whatever, where it's
like when you're setting the guidelines, you
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do realize a little more. You're
like, oh, I can I can
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do this and doing that a couple
of times, you learn patterns. You
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learn like okay, this should be
the biggest thing, that should be the
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smallest thing, this should be first, whatever, and it and it really
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helps. But I think the whole
jumping off point was just like where do
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I even get started from here?
And doing that made it so much easier.
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It's so true and to your point. Um, that's why I love
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to look at old emails from brands
and I make TikTok's about this. I
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have talked about on my Instagram and
I show people I said, Okay,
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like, look at this brand's email, subscribe to them and just use it
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as a template. If you think
about Shopify, they have templates for websites,
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so there's a bunch of different brands
using the same template, but they're
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just plugging in different images. Yeah, another thing that I think works in
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like multiple facets of your life.
But figuring out what you don't want when
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you're not inspired too is important because
I think that helps you just identify your
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brand a little better. So I've
had times with personal things or with like
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people's instagrams that I run or email
marketing platforms that I run, and I'll
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get uninspired and I'll go through my
whole email list of all the promotional emails
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I got that day, and I
can look at half of them and be
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like, this is definitely not what
I want to do, and same thing
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like for me at least everybody's different, but like it's just like a little
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bit of wind in the flag.
It's like getting that momentum just helps your
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brain start to fire and people.
I think this is at least in the
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creative world for small business owners or
people that have to do this. Being
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creative is not like mowing your yard
or doing a spreadsheet or something that is
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like you know, an A,
B and C process, And it's very
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emotionally draining and like creatively draining to
have to do something creative and cool every
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single day, and it really is
like a muscle that you have to work
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to be able to do it.
But that's where, like I've gotten with
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so many things, it's like you
have to have time where you're getting super
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creative and thinking out of the box, and then once you kind of find
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something you like, you can turn
on autopilot a little bit until that starts
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to feel stale, and then go
through the process again exactly. And also,
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you cannot force creativity. I think
it's better to suffer and wait instead
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of putting out something that you don't
like. And I know that I've said
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before, like you know you should
always post. It doesn't matter if it's
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trash or not. But I mean, I'm talking about like when you're a
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designer, your eating a collection,
right, Like I'm not going to just
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put any thing out there. I
have to feel inspired. And to your
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point, going on, TikTok has
been such a huge inspiration for me.
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Even today when we did our photo
shoot, I got the idea from a
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TikTok that I saw, So just
be open, like you can be inspired
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by anything in life. Like I
was inspired by one of my ladies that
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I played tennis with this morning.
She had this vintage sweatshirt on and it
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said East Carolina and I'm like,
that is so cool, the font,
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the whole thing. I was like, all right, I'm making that like
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I'm doing something like something um So
you never know where it can come from.
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And it's okay to not feel inspired. And I know, like you
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and I talk about this, We
talked about it all the time. When
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you feel stuck, it feels like
the worst thing in the world. I
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remember when we were at Milk Barn
years ago and you were having this meltdown
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and you were like, I just
don't know, like what am I doing?
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Like what's my vibe? Like what
is it? And I thought to
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myself, is this guy kidding?
He's so cool, He's such a beautiful
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Instagram He's such a great photographer,
like such a cool style, and you
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were there having like a fucking meltdown, and I'm like, because I couldn't.
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The problem was too And this I'm
sure happens to people all the time.
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Um, I had planned on some
thing's happening, and I had planned
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my Instagram out around those things that
were coming up in my life this season,
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all this stuff. It was fall, like I was really getting set
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on in Boston. I wanted to
make it very New England, very like
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just warm and cozy vibes, all
this stuff. And then Chris See,
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who I work with and love.
Um was the first time we had like
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started a project together. And the
project was going to Paris and Dubai to
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shoot fashion Week and then like a
show in Dubai, which I was like
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thrilled about. Obviously, however my
pictures I went and I would just like
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we were super busy and I would
just snap a picture of me here there
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or whatever, just to say like, oh, I'm in Paris, I'm
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doing this, like all that kind
of stuff. And I came back.
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This was right before we went to
Milk Barn, and I was like,
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oh my god. I just went
from like New England preppy fall to like
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fashion forward Paris fashion Week, like
skinny jeans and all this stuff, to
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like literally having a turban on my
head. And I got back and we
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were in Upstate, New York,
and I was like, okay, well
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now I'm back to this and I'm
like none of this stuff is matching,
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like whatever. But rather than trying
to look back at what was there,
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Literally I can't even remember what sparked
it, but the same thing. It
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was like one photo or one filter
or one thing I saw and I was
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like, this is it. And
I just started going wild and like taking
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pictures and doing all this stuff.
And then I planned out this huge Instagram
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grid and I was like, Okay, this is it, Like this is
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this is what I want now,
Like I'm back in the swing of things.
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But that's why I think it's so
great too. Again, do you
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remember what moment, like what sparked
that inspiration, Like what, what was
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a moment for you? I don't
remember the exact moment, I just I
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do remember it was like the like
I knew what I wanted right when I
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saw it. It was like the
editing style and like what I was just
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going to go for, which ended
up kind of being like a hybrid because
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the pictures were very like dark and
moody, which kind of correlated in my
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brain back to the Fall aesthetic.
But then they blended well with the new
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pictures that were in there from Paris
and Dubai and everything. But it what's
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so great about again going back to
your marketing calendar and planning ahead, is
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that then I had whatever fifteen posts
of like thirty days or whatever worth of
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posting done, so then if the
next day I wasn't feeling super inspired,
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or I didn't look my best,
or I didn't have a good background to
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take pictures or whatever it was,
it was okay because I had all this
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time to build up for the next
section. Yeah, but I think and
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again, like I feel like a
lot of this we get like kind of
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in like a vortex of like the
fashion and kind of like design world.
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But I think it relates to everything. And I really like to I tell
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people this, especially in the interior
design world, because I don't think people
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do this as much there, and
they should. It's like everything should be
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done like the way fashion does collections
for seasons. It's a story, and
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like you talk about this all the
time, like the pordance of storytelling,
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and like the story has to have
a cohesive like beginning, middle and end
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and something that like you can look
at a Harry Potter book in the corner
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of your room and be like,
I know exactly what that's all about if
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I picked it up, or like
I'm in the mood to watch Harry Potter,
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you know exactly what you're gonna get. And that's what I think is
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nice for people like you can go
back in these times, like I think
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some musicians do it really well,
like Ariana Grande has had I think,
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like several very like super iconic and
memorable moments in her career with like sweetener
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and um, thank you next and
all these things that are such specific imagery
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and Madonna Brittany all of them,
any any of the icons the icons do
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and that's where sorry, I'm getting
off on like a whole tangent now.
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But that's where you cannot be chasing
these trends on social media. Like it's
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obviously again it's okay to stay up
to date and all that stuff, but
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it's like you every time need to
just be thinking about your brand, about
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your audience and the story that you're
telling. And the story is basically never
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ending until you're done with the job. So where is the story going to
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go? And like, are you
setting this up to keep people's interest around
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exactly? So I don't even know
if that makes sense, but it's like
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it's one of those things that I
feel like I can understand in my head,
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but it's hard to verbalize. No, I totally understand what you're saying,
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because, for example, a perfect
example yesterday, one of my friends
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and I were deem ng and she's
she's working with the brand and she creates
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content for them, and she said
they're looking for a new person to help
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with ads, and I was like, oh, let me see, like
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what the ads look like. She
sends me what the ads look like.
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Then I'm like, oh, what's
the website? Shows me the website you
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would think it was two different brands, Like you've got to think about cohesiveness,
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and you gotta to think about,
like what you said, keeping your
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brand identity consistent and not reaching for
every single trend that's happening. So when
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we talk about feeling inspired, you
can be inspired to create a whole new
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brand, you know, Like that's
how it happens. Like Ralph Lauren,
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Ralph Lauren's real name is Ralph Lipshits. The guy was from Brooklyn, Okay,
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Like he had this he had this
idea, He had this idea in
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his mind that he wanted to create
this reality for himself that is now Ralph
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Lauren. Right, you know what
that brand is. It's like the American
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dream for everybody now exactly. You
know how long he's been around for since
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what the late seventies, early eighties
something like that. Has it changed?
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M No? And he has different
collections. He has like purple label,
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then he has like sport and this
and that, but it's all the same
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vibe. So that's what I mean
when I say you can be inspired to
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create like a whole brand. But
like you were talking about, storytelling is
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such a huge thing too, And
it's okay to take a break because you
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as a creative me as a creative. Like we're very sensitive people obviously,
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and like we get very overwhelmed,
but like when we're inspired, it's amazing.
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Um. And you know when you
feel the inspiration and you want to
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create content and you're one person or
you have a friend that can help you,
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Like there's easy ways to create that
content, just like we did today.
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Like what do we do today?
Literally? Five minute photo shoot?
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Five minute photo shoot? Yeah,
and that's I mean, I don't think
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obviously everything you have should be just
from an iPhone, but like iPhones have
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great cameras. Now it's easy,
it's quick. There's so many editing options.
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Um, just be taking pictures and
videos like all the time. And
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even reels now is offering templates,
like you can pick a song or whatever,
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our trend or something, even though
you're not supposed to do trends,
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but pick something and it'll say like
I need a three second video, I
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need a five second video, and
I need a two second video and it
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edits it for you. So um, but like what we did today,
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So let me just tell the story
about how it happened. So last week
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I'm on TikTok, I see a
TikTok and It is from this girl all
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who talks about fashion trends and like
what to wear. She's like, She's
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like, don't wear this, wear
that. Like she's very monetored. And
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she had a TikTok about Halloween and
it was um Zoe Kravitz had a Halloween
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costume and her costume was Mornings Suck
and it was her in a robe with
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vampire fangs. I was like,
holy sh it, send it to you.
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Immediately. I was like, let's
recreate this today is a few days
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later whatever. I'm sitting in Windsor's
house right now because we just did the
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photo shoot literally in my robe,
and we took a bunch of photos in
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his house in good lighting with the
iPhone and then Windsor edited them. But
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okay, that's something else that I
think is important to talk about. So
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Sasha brought over fangs, but we
couldn't get them to work, like real
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fangs to wear for the thing.
Couldn'tet them to work, and so I
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was like, Oh, don't worry
about I'll just photoshop with them, because
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I'm like a photoshop with So I
was like, no problem, will add
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in teeth. So we like went
and added in the teeth and like they
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looked fine, but it just wasn't
like we were like uh and same thing
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like because we were like we didn't
know, we didn't go in thinking this,
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but because now we were inspired by
something and then we're like taking action
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on it where we're like, okay, well now this isn't right and get
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that goes back to like I know
what I don't want, So we were
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like, well we need this,
how what are we going to do?
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And then we're like, okay,
what if we did like a clip art
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like pop like a pop art mouth
of like big lips with things so like
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blood dripping on them, that's like
obviously a cartoon overlay and put it right
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over your mouth instead of trying to
make it look real. And I actually,
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um, I heard somebody say once
like anything that you can't hide exaggerated,
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so it's like, rather than trying
to camouflage it in just like make
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it stand out as loudly as possible. But that's what we did with this,
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and it was like we've got the
clip art mouth and we literally put
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it on. It looked so cool, like Sasha slapped the filter and it
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looked really cool. And now we
were just sitting here, literally like an
307
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hour ago, saying, okay,
your next five post. You could do
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one with the sleep mask and put
this cartoon effect over it, and you
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could do this and then again suddenly
like that's a new chapter in your little
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story that something is still cohesive for
your brand, but it's different and it's
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fresh and it's new and it's just
cool. It's cool and we would have
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never thought about it until we actually
took action and did the photo shoot and
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started editing in this and that.
So you'll see, like things will just
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come to you, like you'll end
up inspiring yourself. It's just a matter
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of how do you get out of
that rut. And that's when what you
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00:24:53.400 --> 00:25:02.359
were saying earlier, music magazines,
TikTok, movies, even anything anything in
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the world. That's why you just
got to live and you can't just sit
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there eating bond bonds on your couch
all day long. Something else that I
319
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think is important to think about is
um. Another big lesson I learned when
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I was just started working. I
had UM through my job a meeting with
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the I think he his title.
He was the VP of Marketing at Rebecca
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Minkoff, which is a pretty huge. Yeah, in New York, I
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felt like so cool. I was
wearing the stupidest outfit every when I met
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him, But at the time,
I was like, this is so cool,
325
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like the dumbest like pattern pants from
Zara that I thought were like so
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chic and iconic, and they were
just tacky. But he we were talking
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to him and he was like,
well, i'll tell you this right now.
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He was like, Rebecca is the
name of our girl, because like
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it's Rebecca Minkoff, And he was
like, Rebecca lives in New York.
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She has a good job, but
her job is not a whole life.
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She likes nice things she can't afford
Louis Vuitton, like, she still takes
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the subway sometimes, so she has
to be practical. Sometimes she's carrying her
333
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laptop to work. Sometimes she's not
a lot of nights during the week.
334
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She goes out with friends and drinks. She's a little promiscuous and sleeps around,
335
00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:21.920
but she's not a slut, like
they had this chick down and this
336
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is all allegedly in case Rebecca main
Gold. You don't see me, but
337
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I mean that's what he said.
It was so enlightening because I was sitting
338
00:26:30.839 --> 00:26:36.039
there thinking like it's like a TV
show character, Like it's such a crisp
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image, and then it brings you
into something where you can tell yourself,
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if you can get that person of
who is your exact brand identity, who's
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your customer marketing too? If you
can get that image, then it's so
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easy. It's like thinking about a
friend, like when you're not chopping,
343
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like, oh, this reminds me
of Sasha. And then you can start
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thinking like, Okay, what would
I would I get this person for Christmas?
345
00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:06.079
What if I'm going to take a
picture or have a picture framed and
346
00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:10.079
matted for them for Christmas present?
Like what would the picture be of palm
347
00:27:10.119 --> 00:27:14.240
trees or of the New York City
skyline or of a cactus like or whatever?
348
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And then just from there you can
start building out and building out and
349
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building out. And I think that
that's such a cool way to look at
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it because I know, personally with
my own stuff, because from my personal
351
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like influencing brand or whatever you want
to call me, it's like my face
352
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and me like it's me, I'm
involved, I'm the the face of it.
353
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And obviously your online presence is not
who you are, and every day
354
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to day life. But because of
the aspect of vanity, it's very very
355
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hard to remove yourself sometimes, um
and so if you can't remove yourself,
356
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sometimes it's easier to create somebody entirely
new that you can just base things around,
357
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:04.319
and then it's so much easier to
make decisions and it's so much easier
358
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to stay on track. That is
so smart. And in the advertising world,
359
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:15.039
in the Facebook world, they call
it and they call it an avatara,
360
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And so when you're creating ads,
you have to think about that and
361
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you can actually um create your targeting
to reflect your avatar. So it's that's
362
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that's really helpful. I think that's
going to help a lot of people.
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And I mean not that people need
to redevelop their products and stuff, but
364
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like I think, at least for
me too, I've always put massive pressure
365
00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:44.279
on myself to be like, this
has to be the most groundbreaking Chicas thing
366
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.319
whatever. Like I mean, maybe
if that's how you want to live your
367
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life, that's great. That's how
I kind of like to do because I
368
00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:52.720
just think it's fun. But I
tell people to like look at list Arena
369
00:28:52.960 --> 00:29:00.519
and her hs in collection. It's
those dusters and slacks and big unky turtlenecks,
370
00:29:00.599 --> 00:29:04.880
and she knows that she's selling to
overweight moms in the Midwest that are
371
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going to get that and be like, oh, I love Lisa Rinna,
372
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Like I watch her on the thing
and this is soft and like I feel
373
00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:14.799
cute in it, and like she's
so fun or whatever. Like she's not
374
00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:18.440
out there marketing the crazy stuff that
she wears on the show that's like super
375
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:23.000
high fashion and all these things.
Like she's marketing something that to a customer
376
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:27.400
that she has downpat which is like
a forty to sixty year old woman who
377
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:33.279
watches the show, who is probably
casual for most days and making like a
378
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:37.000
cast roll or something. And that's
her, that's her mojo. It's so
379
00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:41.960
true. It's so true, and
it works because she's been on HSN or
380
00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:45.640
QBC wherever she's on for so many
years. I think she's actually fired now.
381
00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:49.599
But that was that's not because of
her products. She got in like
382
00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:53.920
a fight with them where she did
apparently I don't know for sure, but
383
00:29:55.039 --> 00:30:00.759
I just remember hearing somewhere that something
happened and she put on Instagram or tweeted
384
00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:06.839
or something something very negative about them, and I think they dropped her shut
385
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:11.480
or maybe they she she said something
about something that's supposed to stay behind the
386
00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:14.759
scenes. I can't remember. Also
could be totally made up, and I
387
00:30:14.759 --> 00:30:17.519
could be thinking about somebody else.
But I'm pretty sure she doesn't sell on
388
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:19.359
there anymore. I haven't seen her
in a while now. She has those
389
00:30:19.400 --> 00:30:25.599
lip kits which well, which are
doing well. But I will tell you
390
00:30:25.640 --> 00:30:29.799
that when she launched, I think
it was like last year or something.
391
00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:34.680
I wanted to buy one because I
really liked the color, and her website
392
00:30:34.759 --> 00:30:41.079
was like not good, sorry,
but it just was not not user friendly
393
00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:45.160
and it was crashing. I mean, granted you have a lot of people
394
00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:52.359
on there, but like be prepared, you know. But anyway, Yeah,
395
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:59.519
so back to creating your own content. Um, just try, because
396
00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:03.519
I'm telling you, like, you
don't have to go to school for this
397
00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:07.240
stuff. Take out your camera,
or you don't always have to hire somebody.
398
00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:11.680
You don't always have to hire someone. Take out your camera, find
399
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:18.960
good natural light and get a friend
if you have one, to help you,
400
00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:26.200
or get a tripod. A lot
of times when you're nervous about it,
401
00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:30.279
it's embarrassing, especially if you're taking
pictures of yourself or you're talking.
402
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:33.759
I think it's kind of nice sometimes
to be like, nobody's watching this.
403
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:37.920
If I totally mess up, you
know, no one's going to see it.
404
00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:40.960
So I think that's a good way
to look at it. Sometimes too,
405
00:31:41.079 --> 00:31:44.200
is to be like I'm gonna,
you know, so in my husband's
406
00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:45.839
at work or whatever, like I'm
going to set my tripod up and I'm
407
00:31:45.880 --> 00:31:52.759
just gonna do this and just see
what happens. And I mean we used
408
00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:56.559
to say back in like the when
I was doing like full on photo shoots
409
00:31:56.599 --> 00:32:00.839
all the time, and this is
like in my professional and I say semi
410
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:06.079
because it was like we didn't have
professional hair and makeup and all that kind
411
00:32:06.079 --> 00:32:08.519
of stuff, but like we had
wardrobe. We usually had like not a
412
00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:12.160
set design, but we knew exactly
where we're going to be going and things
413
00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:16.799
like that. And generally for one
hour, we would have one solid picture.
414
00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:21.680
Yeah, there's not to say that
there weren't other ones that were fine
415
00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:25.839
or great or whatever, but for
like website worthy or things that we were
416
00:32:25.880 --> 00:32:29.720
like that's the picture, like that's
going to be the face of our email
417
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:34.079
campaign whatever. Usually one hour for
one picture. Oh yeah, what was
418
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:37.640
it? Called before the live option
where you would just burst, it still
419
00:32:37.640 --> 00:32:40.480
works. You just hold down.
You just hold the camera button down.
420
00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:45.319
It'll take like a zillion photos.
Okay, so use burst or live because
421
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:50.119
when you're moving, when you're in
motion, you're going to get a better
422
00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:57.240
shot and you're gonna be like less
nervous. Also, um, if you
423
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:00.559
have the newer iPhone and you can
know that by if they has the three
424
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:06.119
cameras on the back, do three
time zoom, back way up and do
425
00:33:06.279 --> 00:33:10.400
three times zoom. Because the three
time zoom is a telephoto lens, which
426
00:33:10.440 --> 00:33:15.039
just means it's like zoomed in,
but it has the same quality as the
427
00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:21.759
one time zoom. And what happens
in photography, So like if I'm taking
428
00:33:21.799 --> 00:33:24.440
a picture of you right now sitting
on a couch and you're a foot away
429
00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:30.319
from the wall, and I take
it on one time zoom, it's gonna
430
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:35.240
show way more of the wall.
You're gonna look smaller or whatever. Where
431
00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:39.240
if I do three time zoom,
same like for scale, your head would
432
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:44.079
be the same size. But I
back way up and do three time zoom,
433
00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:46.880
it's gonna pull your background in,
so the focus is going to be
434
00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:52.880
way more around you so always,
always always. I was at a wedding
435
00:33:52.920 --> 00:33:54.680
a couple of weeks ago and trying
to take pictures and I literally had to
436
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:59.240
be like for the person taking pictures
of me had been away, like back
437
00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:01.279
up, take three times, zoom. This is exactly what I wanted to
438
00:34:01.279 --> 00:34:05.480
look like, like whatever, and
it looks so much better. Did you
439
00:34:05.480 --> 00:34:08.679
do that today with our shoot?
Oh? I was backing up so far.
440
00:34:09.679 --> 00:34:15.800
I was wondering, Okay, the
one time zoom really has like it
441
00:34:15.880 --> 00:34:22.360
almost warps your photo, like the
wide angle, because like it's just just
442
00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:24.960
do the three times. That's good. I love this. You have such
443
00:34:25.039 --> 00:34:30.960
great tips. And then lighting always
is just super important. Yeah so,
444
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:37.039
And I mean Casey must Grove saying
about it Golden Hour. And also flash
445
00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:43.039
I think is really underrated. Like
you can take a blurry or like a
446
00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:46.639
not super great photo with flash and
the really dark or something, and you
447
00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:51.960
slap a filter on it and it
looks so cool. Yeah so, and
448
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:54.559
that's where I think, just go
back, like play around with everything and
449
00:34:54.599 --> 00:34:59.159
then do your process of elimination and
you'll know if you like it or not.
450
00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:02.760
Yeah. I love it so good. Lady loves it too. She's
451
00:35:04.199 --> 00:35:07.119
she's here for this part. She's
got an Instagram you can follow too,
452
00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:13.599
lots of three times zoom picks of
her lady the little Weener. That's good
453
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:20.079
for people to cease for examples.
Yeah, um, well, I hope
454
00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:25.679
you feel inspired. Get inspired right
us questions we think. I know I
455
00:35:25.719 --> 00:35:29.599
saw this on the list earlier,
but I want to do like an episode
456
00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:32.639
where we run through all the questions
that people just like quickly, like all
457
00:35:32.679 --> 00:35:37.400
different topics. So I think maybe
next week we'll do that. Okay,
458
00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:40.000
that's a great idea. Maybe the
next who knows. Yeah, after Halloween
459
00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:47.000
maybe spooky spooky everybody, Thank you
so much. Go get inspired, Go
460
00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:52.360
get a magazine. Yeah, go
get magazine from Alice. Yeah okay,
461
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:53.039
bye, everybody,
1
00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:07.240
Let's talk small business. I'm Windsor
Dalton, a digital content and branding creator,
2
00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:12.359
and I'm a small business owner and
digital a junkie. We're best friends.
3
00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:16.920
Are going back the curtain too.
All Thanks small business, get started,
4
00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:24.239
Hello, and welcome to Let's Talk
Small Business. Welcome. I'm sitting
5
00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:31.079
here in my robe at Windsor's because
we just took a mini photo shoot at
6
00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:34.240
his house, a MANI photo shoot, and this week we're going to be
7
00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:39.799
talking about something that I think Sasha
and I a lot of creative people and
8
00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:44.200
just people in general, but Sasha
and I specifically both have had issues with
9
00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:51.159
this in the last month, which
is getting inspired, and I think for
10
00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:58.320
small business owners, especially more creative
businesses, when you're doing the same thing
11
00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:02.840
day in and day out for so
long, it gets really hard to stay
12
00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:07.400
inspired and feel like what you're doing
is different and exciting. So we're both
13
00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:11.519
going to tell some kind of experiences
we've had, um some like tips and
14
00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:15.439
tricks that we think help you kind
of move past it, and then also
15
00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:26.079
give you some um easy kind of
d I y tips and tricks also of
16
00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:32.400
making quick and easy content. Yeah, I think it's really hard, especially
17
00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:41.680
when you're a one person operation to
get inspired, because it's like you're dealing
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00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:45.840
with My mom calls them like the
fleas of life every day. It's like
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00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:49.519
a good expression. It's so true
because it's like these things that are just
20
00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.959
you have to check them off your
your list of things to do. No
21
00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:57.959
one else is going to do it
unless you hire an intern. But if
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00:01:57.959 --> 00:02:01.680
you're bite, if you here by
yourself, it's like, Okay, I
23
00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:07.120
wake up. I have to do
this, this and this, check emails,
24
00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:12.360
do my order. I have to
like call my vendors, place orders,
25
00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:15.680
plan my marketing calendar, like all
this ship that you have to do,
26
00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:21.439
and on top of that be inspired
to create more things and come up
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00:02:21.479 --> 00:02:31.520
with like great ideas. And sometimes
it really just you get bogged down.
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00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:37.159
And that's how I've been feeling,
honestly up until like what last week.
29
00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:43.719
I also just think it's one of
those things in life where it's like it's
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00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:47.520
easier to tell your friend which dress
looks better on her than it is yourself.
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And it's easier to tell somebody which
you know couch or pillow they would
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00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:58.960
put in their house versus like telling
yourself. Um, so what I try
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00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.280
to do a lot of times is
like, take myself out of the situation
34
00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:07.360
and sorry, if you hear growling
nuts, that's kind of a lady,
35
00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:10.560
she's trying to be a part of
a podcaster with us. Lady, do
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00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:15.960
you want to say hello to anybody? Oh? I thought she'd grow anyway.
37
00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:20.280
But I try to take myself out
of those situations and just kind of
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00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:24.560
think like, Okay, if this
wasn't me and my vanity is not involved,
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00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:29.120
which I think that's a huge thing
because like you're putting your name sometimes
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00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:32.800
your face on it. So I
think if you take yourself out and just
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00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:37.599
think, like I've got to do
a sale and I gotta take pictures,
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Like if I was doing this for
somebody else, what would my idea be?
43
00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:46.400
Um? But I think if you're
getting stuck even getting to the point
44
00:03:46.439 --> 00:03:50.919
of being inspired, A lot of
times, what I'll do is just stop
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00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:54.039
from my personal brand or for other
people that I work with. If I'm
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00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:59.400
not feeling like I have an idea
or something, I'll just stop everything I'm
47
00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:05.879
doing, like close my computer and
I will go to my Apple Music and
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00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:09.759
just start being like, what are
some of my favorite songs right now?
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I listened to those, and I
think, like, are there any common
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00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:16.920
themes in any of these songs?
Like is it pop heavy, is it
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spooky? Is it whatever? And
then I will sometimes get on TikTok,
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00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:28.560
and then I'll also go to my
saved section on Instagram, so like pictures
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00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.680
and videos that I've saved on Instagram, and then I'll go through and just
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look at like normal things that make
me inspired on a day to day basis
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that I'm maybe not thinking of on
like a whole project level. So I
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look at that, and then before
I know what, I'm like, wait,
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00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:47.600
this was so cool, like I
could do something like this, or
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like we actually have a picture dislike
this, or like this song would be
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perfect for this, And I stopped
and then I start kind of getting the
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train moving again. Yeah. Remember
when we lived in Beverly Hills next door
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00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.439
to each other and we would walk
to South Beverly Drive and go to the
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00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:11.519
Iconic Owl's newsstand, which if you
don't know, look it up because it's
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00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:16.120
really cool. We actually met the
the awl we met al Yeah, I
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00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:20.519
think it was, Oh it is. I'm pretty sure I saw someone instagram
65
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at it not too long ago.
Well, Owls had the best magazines that
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00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:33.720
you could not get anywhere else.
He had Vogue Italia, he had v
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00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:42.920
Magazine, Purple Magazine, all of
these incredible magazines, fashion, design,
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00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:48.519
architecture, even his old Playboys,
which you love the vintage Playboys from him.
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00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:55.199
So we'd go there and we just
buy these magazines. Sometimes they were
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00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:58.680
expensive, like thirty bucks a pop, but it didn't matter because they were
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00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:01.560
so good. I of a stack
of them in my house. I shipped
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00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:05.360
all of mine from California to here, a single one away. They're incredible,
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00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:11.279
and I have in my office like
I don't change it out as much
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00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:15.920
anymore. But when I was doing
like a ton of graphic design stuff all
75
00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:20.120
the time, I would get my
magazines and I have a lot of them
76
00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:24.279
shipped to me, and I would
go through and I would just anything I
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00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.800
liked. If it was a picture, if it was an ad, if
78
00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.279
it was a fun I would just
rip the page out and I take it
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to the wall. And I have
a whole wall in my office dedicated two
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00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:38.399
just like inspiration. But Matt,
hey, man, if you're listening,
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00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:43.639
I remember my very first job at
Tucker Blair. I had never I had
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00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.199
done like a little bit of graphic
design stuff in college, like an internships
83
00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:50.160
and things, but I definitely was
not like a, you know, taking
84
00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:56.279
graphic design classes and things like that. That wasn't my major. And I
85
00:06:56.319 --> 00:07:00.519
remember when I got to Tucker Blair, we were working part time with a
86
00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:03.560
designer, so like I could go
in and change the color or something after
87
00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:06.680
she sent us the file, or
like we could reuse something and swap out
88
00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:12.240
the picture or whatever. And then
she moved on to like a full time
89
00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:16.279
job somewhere and it was just me
and I remember being so excited to do
90
00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:21.040
this, but I will never forget. We were sending like a I don't
91
00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:27.639
know, Christmas email or whatever it
was, and I opened up Photoshop and
92
00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:31.199
put in the dimensions we needed and
I remember just looking at it and it's
93
00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:35.399
a white It's like a white screen. It's just a blank screen. And
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00:07:35.399 --> 00:07:41.079
I remember being like, oh my
god, like I've never done anything from
95
00:07:41.079 --> 00:07:45.240
scratch. And it was the craziest
thing because I was like I was on
96
00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:48.199
the one hand excited because I was
like I can literally do anything I want,
97
00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:51.879
and then on the other hand,
I was like, wait, how
98
00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:57.120
do I even start with this?
But the same thing, I just stopped
99
00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:58.839
and I was like, okay,
well let me think of a funt,
100
00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:01.399
let me think of a picture whatever. And I remember Matt used to do
101
00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:05.040
the same thing with magazines. We
always had like Brazilians and magazines in the
102
00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:11.560
office, and he would say he
would be like he would be like,
103
00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:18.439
these people have huge teams, um
you know of fifteen designers and editors and
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00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:22.240
all these things, so like they're
obviously going to have the best system,
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00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:28.240
so look at what they do and
like just take inspiration from it. And
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00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.559
I remember this. Maybe it's not
the best advice, but it helped me
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00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:39.080
at least understand the guidelines of things
for emails and graphic design a little bit
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00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:43.679
better, I think for the the
market we were in. But he would
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00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:46.200
be like, you know what,
just go on there and like copy a
110
00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:50.720
layout and he would be like,
I want it so exact that the only
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00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:58.840
thing that's different is the images.
And it's kind of like drawing or coloring
112
00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.799
by number or whatever, where it's
like when you're setting the guidelines, you
113
00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.639
do realize a little more. You're
like, oh, I can I can
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00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:09.759
do this and doing that a couple
of times, you learn patterns. You
115
00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:13.080
learn like okay, this should be
the biggest thing, that should be the
116
00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:16.720
smallest thing, this should be first, whatever, and it and it really
117
00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:20.440
helps. But I think the whole
jumping off point was just like where do
118
00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:24.320
I even get started from here?
And doing that made it so much easier.
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00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.360
It's so true and to your point. Um, that's why I love
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00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:31.879
to look at old emails from brands
and I make TikTok's about this. I
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00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.159
have talked about on my Instagram and
I show people I said, Okay,
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00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:41.519
like, look at this brand's email, subscribe to them and just use it
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00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:46.960
as a template. If you think
about Shopify, they have templates for websites,
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00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:50.279
so there's a bunch of different brands
using the same template, but they're
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00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:56.240
just plugging in different images. Yeah, another thing that I think works in
126
00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:01.960
like multiple facets of your life.
But figuring out what you don't want when
127
00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:07.480
you're not inspired too is important because
I think that helps you just identify your
128
00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:13.200
brand a little better. So I've
had times with personal things or with like
129
00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:18.720
people's instagrams that I run or email
marketing platforms that I run, and I'll
130
00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:22.879
get uninspired and I'll go through my
whole email list of all the promotional emails
131
00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:26.759
I got that day, and I
can look at half of them and be
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00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:31.720
like, this is definitely not what
I want to do, and same thing
133
00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:35.399
like for me at least everybody's different, but like it's just like a little
134
00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:41.200
bit of wind in the flag.
It's like getting that momentum just helps your
135
00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:45.879
brain start to fire and people.
I think this is at least in the
136
00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:50.919
creative world for small business owners or
people that have to do this. Being
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00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:56.279
creative is not like mowing your yard
or doing a spreadsheet or something that is
138
00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:01.360
like you know, an A,
B and C process, And it's very
139
00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:09.200
emotionally draining and like creatively draining to
have to do something creative and cool every
140
00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:13.919
single day, and it really is
like a muscle that you have to work
141
00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:16.679
to be able to do it.
But that's where, like I've gotten with
142
00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:20.399
so many things, it's like you
have to have time where you're getting super
143
00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:22.720
creative and thinking out of the box, and then once you kind of find
144
00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:28.720
something you like, you can turn
on autopilot a little bit until that starts
145
00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.919
to feel stale, and then go
through the process again exactly. And also,
146
00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:45.519
you cannot force creativity. I think
it's better to suffer and wait instead
147
00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:50.159
of putting out something that you don't
like. And I know that I've said
148
00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.799
before, like you know you should
always post. It doesn't matter if it's
149
00:11:52.840 --> 00:11:58.840
trash or not. But I mean, I'm talking about like when you're a
150
00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:05.519
designer, your eating a collection,
right, Like I'm not going to just
151
00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:09.519
put any thing out there. I
have to feel inspired. And to your
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point, going on, TikTok has
been such a huge inspiration for me.
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Even today when we did our photo
shoot, I got the idea from a
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TikTok that I saw, So just
be open, like you can be inspired
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by anything in life. Like I
was inspired by one of my ladies that
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I played tennis with this morning.
She had this vintage sweatshirt on and it
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said East Carolina and I'm like,
that is so cool, the font,
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the whole thing. I was like, all right, I'm making that like
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I'm doing something like something um So
you never know where it can come from.
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And it's okay to not feel inspired. And I know, like you
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and I talk about this, We
talked about it all the time. When
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you feel stuck, it feels like
the worst thing in the world. I
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remember when we were at Milk Barn
years ago and you were having this meltdown
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and you were like, I just
don't know, like what am I doing?
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Like what's my vibe? Like what
is it? And I thought to
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myself, is this guy kidding?
He's so cool, He's such a beautiful
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Instagram He's such a great photographer,
like such a cool style, and you
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were there having like a fucking meltdown, and I'm like, because I couldn't.
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The problem was too And this I'm
sure happens to people all the time.
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Um, I had planned on some
thing's happening, and I had planned
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my Instagram out around those things that
were coming up in my life this season,
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all this stuff. It was fall, like I was really getting set
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on in Boston. I wanted to
make it very New England, very like
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just warm and cozy vibes, all
this stuff. And then Chris See,
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who I work with and love.
Um was the first time we had like
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started a project together. And the
project was going to Paris and Dubai to
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shoot fashion Week and then like a
show in Dubai, which I was like
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thrilled about. Obviously, however my
pictures I went and I would just like
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we were super busy and I would
just snap a picture of me here there
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or whatever, just to say like, oh, I'm in Paris, I'm
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doing this, like all that kind
of stuff. And I came back.
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This was right before we went to
Milk Barn, and I was like,
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oh my god. I just went
from like New England preppy fall to like
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fashion forward Paris fashion Week, like
skinny jeans and all this stuff, to
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like literally having a turban on my
head. And I got back and we
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were in Upstate, New York,
and I was like, okay, well
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now I'm back to this and I'm
like none of this stuff is matching,
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like whatever. But rather than trying
to look back at what was there,
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Literally I can't even remember what sparked
it, but the same thing. It
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was like one photo or one filter
or one thing I saw and I was
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like, this is it. And
I just started going wild and like taking
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pictures and doing all this stuff.
And then I planned out this huge Instagram
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grid and I was like, Okay, this is it, Like this is
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this is what I want now,
Like I'm back in the swing of things.
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But that's why I think it's so
great too. Again, do you
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remember what moment, like what sparked
that inspiration, Like what, what was
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a moment for you? I don't
remember the exact moment, I just I
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do remember it was like the like
I knew what I wanted right when I
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saw it. It was like the
editing style and like what I was just
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going to go for, which ended
up kind of being like a hybrid because
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the pictures were very like dark and
moody, which kind of correlated in my
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brain back to the Fall aesthetic.
But then they blended well with the new
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pictures that were in there from Paris
and Dubai and everything. But it what's
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so great about again going back to
your marketing calendar and planning ahead, is
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that then I had whatever fifteen posts
of like thirty days or whatever worth of
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posting done, so then if the
next day I wasn't feeling super inspired,
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or I didn't look my best,
or I didn't have a good background to
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take pictures or whatever it was,
it was okay because I had all this
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time to build up for the next
section. Yeah, but I think and
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again, like I feel like a
lot of this we get like kind of
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in like a vortex of like the
fashion and kind of like design world.
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But I think it relates to everything. And I really like to I tell
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people this, especially in the interior
design world, because I don't think people
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do this as much there, and
they should. It's like everything should be
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done like the way fashion does collections
for seasons. It's a story, and
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like you talk about this all the
time, like the pordance of storytelling,
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and like the story has to have
a cohesive like beginning, middle and end
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and something that like you can look
at a Harry Potter book in the corner
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of your room and be like,
I know exactly what that's all about if
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I picked it up, or like
I'm in the mood to watch Harry Potter,
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you know exactly what you're gonna get. And that's what I think is
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nice for people like you can go
back in these times, like I think
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some musicians do it really well,
like Ariana Grande has had I think,
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like several very like super iconic and
memorable moments in her career with like sweetener
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and um, thank you next and
all these things that are such specific imagery
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and Madonna Brittany all of them,
any any of the icons the icons do
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and that's where sorry, I'm getting
off on like a whole tangent now.
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But that's where you cannot be chasing
these trends on social media. Like it's
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obviously again it's okay to stay up
to date and all that stuff, but
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it's like you every time need to
just be thinking about your brand, about
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your audience and the story that you're
telling. And the story is basically never
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ending until you're done with the job. So where is the story going to
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go? And like, are you
setting this up to keep people's interest around
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exactly? So I don't even know
if that makes sense, but it's like
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it's one of those things that I
feel like I can understand in my head,
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but it's hard to verbalize. No, I totally understand what you're saying,
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because, for example, a perfect
example yesterday, one of my friends
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and I were deem ng and she's
she's working with the brand and she creates
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content for them, and she said
they're looking for a new person to help
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with ads, and I was like, oh, let me see, like
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what the ads look like. She
sends me what the ads look like.
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Then I'm like, oh, what's
the website? Shows me the website you
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would think it was two different brands, Like you've got to think about cohesiveness,
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and you gotta to think about,
like what you said, keeping your
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brand identity consistent and not reaching for
every single trend that's happening. So when
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we talk about feeling inspired, you
can be inspired to create a whole new
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brand, you know, Like that's
how it happens. Like Ralph Lauren,
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Ralph Lauren's real name is Ralph Lipshits. The guy was from Brooklyn, Okay,
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Like he had this he had this
idea, He had this idea in
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his mind that he wanted to create
this reality for himself that is now Ralph
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Lauren. Right, you know what
that brand is. It's like the American
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dream for everybody now exactly. You
know how long he's been around for since
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what the late seventies, early eighties
something like that. Has it changed?
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M No? And he has different
collections. He has like purple label,
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then he has like sport and this
and that, but it's all the same
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vibe. So that's what I mean
when I say you can be inspired to
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create like a whole brand. But
like you were talking about, storytelling is
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such a huge thing too, And
it's okay to take a break because you
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as a creative me as a creative. Like we're very sensitive people obviously,
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and like we get very overwhelmed,
but like when we're inspired, it's amazing.
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Um. And you know when you
feel the inspiration and you want to
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create content and you're one person or
you have a friend that can help you,
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Like there's easy ways to create that
content, just like we did today.
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Like what do we do today?
Literally? Five minute photo shoot?
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Five minute photo shoot? Yeah,
and that's I mean, I don't think
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obviously everything you have should be just
from an iPhone, but like iPhones have
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great cameras. Now it's easy,
it's quick. There's so many editing options.
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Um, just be taking pictures and
videos like all the time. And
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even reels now is offering templates,
like you can pick a song or whatever,
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our trend or something, even though
you're not supposed to do trends,
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but pick something and it'll say like
I need a three second video, I
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need a five second video, and
I need a two second video and it
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edits it for you. So um, but like what we did today,
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So let me just tell the story
about how it happened. So last week
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I'm on TikTok, I see a
TikTok and It is from this girl all
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who talks about fashion trends and like
what to wear. She's like, She's
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like, don't wear this, wear
that. Like she's very monetored. And
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she had a TikTok about Halloween and
it was um Zoe Kravitz had a Halloween
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costume and her costume was Mornings Suck
and it was her in a robe with
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vampire fangs. I was like,
holy sh it, send it to you.
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Immediately. I was like, let's
recreate this today is a few days
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later whatever. I'm sitting in Windsor's
house right now because we just did the
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photo shoot literally in my robe,
and we took a bunch of photos in
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his house in good lighting with the
iPhone and then Windsor edited them. But
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okay, that's something else that I
think is important to talk about. So
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Sasha brought over fangs, but we
couldn't get them to work, like real
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fangs to wear for the thing.
Couldn'tet them to work, and so I
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was like, Oh, don't worry
about I'll just photoshop with them, because
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I'm like a photoshop with So I
was like, no problem, will add
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in teeth. So we like went
and added in the teeth and like they
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looked fine, but it just wasn't
like we were like uh and same thing
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like because we were like we didn't
know, we didn't go in thinking this,
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but because now we were inspired by
something and then we're like taking action
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on it where we're like, okay, well now this isn't right and get
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that goes back to like I know
what I don't want, So we were
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like, well we need this,
how what are we going to do?
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And then we're like, okay,
what if we did like a clip art
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like pop like a pop art mouth
of like big lips with things so like
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blood dripping on them, that's like
obviously a cartoon overlay and put it right
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over your mouth instead of trying to
make it look real. And I actually,
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um, I heard somebody say once
like anything that you can't hide exaggerated,
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so it's like, rather than trying
to camouflage it in just like make
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it stand out as loudly as possible. But that's what we did with this,
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and it was like we've got the
clip art mouth and we literally put
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it on. It looked so cool, like Sasha slapped the filter and it
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looked really cool. And now we
were just sitting here, literally like an
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hour ago, saying, okay,
your next five post. You could do
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one with the sleep mask and put
this cartoon effect over it, and you
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could do this and then again suddenly
like that's a new chapter in your little
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story that something is still cohesive for
your brand, but it's different and it's
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fresh and it's new and it's just
cool. It's cool and we would have
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never thought about it until we actually
took action and did the photo shoot and
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started editing in this and that.
So you'll see, like things will just
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come to you, like you'll end
up inspiring yourself. It's just a matter
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of how do you get out of
that rut. And that's when what you
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were saying earlier, music magazines,
TikTok, movies, even anything anything in
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the world. That's why you just
got to live and you can't just sit
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there eating bond bonds on your couch
all day long. Something else that I
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think is important to think about is
um. Another big lesson I learned when
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I was just started working. I
had UM through my job a meeting with
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the I think he his title.
He was the VP of Marketing at Rebecca
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Minkoff, which is a pretty huge. Yeah, in New York, I
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felt like so cool. I was
wearing the stupidest outfit every when I met
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him, But at the time,
I was like, this is so cool,
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like the dumbest like pattern pants from
Zara that I thought were like so
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chic and iconic, and they were
just tacky. But he we were talking
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to him and he was like,
well, i'll tell you this right now.
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He was like, Rebecca is the
name of our girl, because like
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it's Rebecca Minkoff, And he was
like, Rebecca lives in New York.
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She has a good job, but
her job is not a whole life.
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She likes nice things she can't afford
Louis Vuitton, like, she still takes
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the subway sometimes, so she has
to be practical. Sometimes she's carrying her
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laptop to work. Sometimes she's not
a lot of nights during the week.
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She goes out with friends and drinks. She's a little promiscuous and sleeps around,
335
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but she's not a slut, like
they had this chick down and this
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is all allegedly in case Rebecca main
Gold. You don't see me, but
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I mean that's what he said.
It was so enlightening because I was sitting
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there thinking like it's like a TV
show character, Like it's such a crisp
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image, and then it brings you
into something where you can tell yourself,
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if you can get that person of
who is your exact brand identity, who's
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your customer marketing too? If you
can get that image, then it's so
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easy. It's like thinking about a
friend, like when you're not chopping,
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like, oh, this reminds me
of Sasha. And then you can start
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thinking like, Okay, what would
I would I get this person for Christmas?
345
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What if I'm going to take a
picture or have a picture framed and
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matted for them for Christmas present?
Like what would the picture be of palm
347
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trees or of the New York City
skyline or of a cactus like or whatever?
348
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And then just from there you can
start building out and building out and
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building out. And I think that
that's such a cool way to look at
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it because I know, personally with
my own stuff, because from my personal
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like influencing brand or whatever you want
to call me, it's like my face
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and me like it's me, I'm
involved, I'm the the face of it.
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And obviously your online presence is not
who you are, and every day
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to day life. But because of
the aspect of vanity, it's very very
355
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hard to remove yourself sometimes, um
and so if you can't remove yourself,
356
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sometimes it's easier to create somebody entirely
new that you can just base things around,
357
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and then it's so much easier to
make decisions and it's so much easier
358
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to stay on track. That is
so smart. And in the advertising world,
359
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in the Facebook world, they call
it and they call it an avatara,
360
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And so when you're creating ads,
you have to think about that and
361
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you can actually um create your targeting
to reflect your avatar. So it's that's
362
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that's really helpful. I think that's
going to help a lot of people.
363
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And I mean not that people need
to redevelop their products and stuff, but
364
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like I think, at least for
me too, I've always put massive pressure
365
00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:44.279
on myself to be like, this
has to be the most groundbreaking Chicas thing
366
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whatever. Like I mean, maybe
if that's how you want to live your
367
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life, that's great. That's how
I kind of like to do because I
368
00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:52.720
just think it's fun. But I
tell people to like look at list Arena
369
00:28:52.960 --> 00:29:00.519
and her hs in collection. It's
those dusters and slacks and big unky turtlenecks,
370
00:29:00.599 --> 00:29:04.880
and she knows that she's selling to
overweight moms in the Midwest that are
371
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going to get that and be like, oh, I love Lisa Rinna,
372
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Like I watch her on the thing
and this is soft and like I feel
373
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cute in it, and like she's
so fun or whatever. Like she's not
374
00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:18.440
out there marketing the crazy stuff that
she wears on the show that's like super
375
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:23.000
high fashion and all these things.
Like she's marketing something that to a customer
376
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:27.400
that she has downpat which is like
a forty to sixty year old woman who
377
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:33.279
watches the show, who is probably
casual for most days and making like a
378
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:37.000
cast roll or something. And that's
her, that's her mojo. It's so
379
00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:41.960
true. It's so true, and
it works because she's been on HSN or
380
00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:45.640
QBC wherever she's on for so many
years. I think she's actually fired now.
381
00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:49.599
But that was that's not because of
her products. She got in like
382
00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:53.920
a fight with them where she did
apparently I don't know for sure, but
383
00:29:55.039 --> 00:30:00.759
I just remember hearing somewhere that something
happened and she put on Instagram or tweeted
384
00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:06.839
or something something very negative about them, and I think they dropped her shut
385
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:11.480
or maybe they she she said something
about something that's supposed to stay behind the
386
00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:14.759
scenes. I can't remember. Also
could be totally made up, and I
387
00:30:14.759 --> 00:30:17.519
could be thinking about somebody else.
But I'm pretty sure she doesn't sell on
388
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:19.359
there anymore. I haven't seen her
in a while now. She has those
389
00:30:19.400 --> 00:30:25.599
lip kits which well, which are
doing well. But I will tell you
390
00:30:25.640 --> 00:30:29.799
that when she launched, I think
it was like last year or something.
391
00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:34.680
I wanted to buy one because I
really liked the color, and her website
392
00:30:34.759 --> 00:30:41.079
was like not good, sorry,
but it just was not not user friendly
393
00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:45.160
and it was crashing. I mean, granted you have a lot of people
394
00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:52.359
on there, but like be prepared, you know. But anyway, Yeah,
395
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:59.519
so back to creating your own content. Um, just try, because
396
00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:03.519
I'm telling you, like, you
don't have to go to school for this
397
00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:07.240
stuff. Take out your camera,
or you don't always have to hire somebody.
398
00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:11.680
You don't always have to hire someone. Take out your camera, find
399
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:18.960
good natural light and get a friend
if you have one, to help you,
400
00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:26.200
or get a tripod. A lot
of times when you're nervous about it,
401
00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:30.279
it's embarrassing, especially if you're taking
pictures of yourself or you're talking.
402
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:33.759
I think it's kind of nice sometimes
to be like, nobody's watching this.
403
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:37.920
If I totally mess up, you
know, no one's going to see it.
404
00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:40.960
So I think that's a good way
to look at it. Sometimes too,
405
00:31:41.079 --> 00:31:44.200
is to be like I'm gonna,
you know, so in my husband's
406
00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:45.839
at work or whatever, like I'm
going to set my tripod up and I'm
407
00:31:45.880 --> 00:31:52.759
just gonna do this and just see
what happens. And I mean we used
408
00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:56.559
to say back in like the when
I was doing like full on photo shoots
409
00:31:56.599 --> 00:32:00.839
all the time, and this is
like in my professional and I say semi
410
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:06.079
because it was like we didn't have
professional hair and makeup and all that kind
411
00:32:06.079 --> 00:32:08.519
of stuff, but like we had
wardrobe. We usually had like not a
412
00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:12.160
set design, but we knew exactly
where we're going to be going and things
413
00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:16.799
like that. And generally for one
hour, we would have one solid picture.
414
00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:21.680
Yeah, there's not to say that
there weren't other ones that were fine
415
00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:25.839
or great or whatever, but for
like website worthy or things that we were
416
00:32:25.880 --> 00:32:29.720
like that's the picture, like that's
going to be the face of our email
417
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:34.079
campaign whatever. Usually one hour for
one picture. Oh yeah, what was
418
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:37.640
it? Called before the live option
where you would just burst, it still
419
00:32:37.640 --> 00:32:40.480
works. You just hold down.
You just hold the camera button down.
420
00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:45.319
It'll take like a zillion photos.
Okay, so use burst or live because
421
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:50.119
when you're moving, when you're in
motion, you're going to get a better
422
00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:57.240
shot and you're gonna be like less
nervous. Also, um, if you
423
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:00.559
have the newer iPhone and you can
know that by if they has the three
424
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:06.119
cameras on the back, do three
time zoom, back way up and do
425
00:33:06.279 --> 00:33:10.400
three times zoom. Because the three
time zoom is a telephoto lens, which
426
00:33:10.440 --> 00:33:15.039
just means it's like zoomed in,
but it has the same quality as the
427
00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:21.759
one time zoom. And what happens
in photography, So like if I'm taking
428
00:33:21.799 --> 00:33:24.440
a picture of you right now sitting
on a couch and you're a foot away
429
00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:30.319
from the wall, and I take
it on one time zoom, it's gonna
430
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:35.240
show way more of the wall.
You're gonna look smaller or whatever. Where
431
00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:39.240
if I do three time zoom,
same like for scale, your head would
432
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:44.079
be the same size. But I
back way up and do three time zoom,
433
00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:46.880
it's gonna pull your background in,
so the focus is going to be
434
00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:52.880
way more around you so always,
always always. I was at a wedding
435
00:33:52.920 --> 00:33:54.680
a couple of weeks ago and trying
to take pictures and I literally had to
436
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:59.240
be like for the person taking pictures
of me had been away, like back
437
00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:01.279
up, take three times, zoom. This is exactly what I wanted to
438
00:34:01.279 --> 00:34:05.480
look like, like whatever, and
it looks so much better. Did you
439
00:34:05.480 --> 00:34:08.679
do that today with our shoot?
Oh? I was backing up so far.
440
00:34:09.679 --> 00:34:15.800
I was wondering, Okay, the
one time zoom really has like it
441
00:34:15.880 --> 00:34:22.360
almost warps your photo, like the
wide angle, because like it's just just
442
00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:24.960
do the three times. That's good. I love this. You have such
443
00:34:25.039 --> 00:34:30.960
great tips. And then lighting always
is just super important. Yeah so,
444
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:37.039
And I mean Casey must Grove saying
about it Golden Hour. And also flash
445
00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:43.039
I think is really underrated. Like
you can take a blurry or like a
446
00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:46.639
not super great photo with flash and
the really dark or something, and you
447
00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:51.960
slap a filter on it and it
looks so cool. Yeah so, and
448
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:54.559
that's where I think, just go
back, like play around with everything and
449
00:34:54.599 --> 00:34:59.159
then do your process of elimination and
you'll know if you like it or not.
450
00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:02.760
Yeah. I love it so good. Lady loves it too. She's
451
00:35:04.199 --> 00:35:07.119
she's here for this part. She's
got an Instagram you can follow too,
452
00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:13.599
lots of three times zoom picks of
her lady the little Weener. That's good
453
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:20.079
for people to cease for examples.
Yeah, um, well, I hope
454
00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:25.679
you feel inspired. Get inspired right
us questions we think. I know I
455
00:35:25.719 --> 00:35:29.599
saw this on the list earlier,
but I want to do like an episode
456
00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:32.639
where we run through all the questions
that people just like quickly, like all
457
00:35:32.679 --> 00:35:37.400
different topics. So I think maybe
next week we'll do that. Okay,
458
00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:40.000
that's a great idea. Maybe the
next who knows. Yeah, after Halloween
459
00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:47.000
maybe spooky spooky everybody, Thank you
so much. Go get inspired, Go
460
00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:52.360
get a magazine. Yeah, go
get magazine from Alice. Yeah okay,
461
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:53.039
bye, everybody,
