Is working for exposure worth it?

Have you ever been offered to be paid in exposure? My baby is my boss. And can you grow your business exponentially? Listening to get all the valuable insights on this episode of The Digital Monkey Show, brought to you by AM Visuals. Cue music.

Drove. These guys. Seriously? Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Digital Monkey podcast.

Sorry, the digital monkey show. We literally just came up with this name, and I think this is gonna stick from now on. Uh, how are you doing? J I'm good, man. I'm good.

So this week, we've changed our name from the AM show to our podcast, The Digital Monkey Show. This just goes to show people do your due diligence, diligence before you come up with a podcast. Because the names, there's a lot of podcasts out there with the same name that you might have come up already. So too many people have been having the same thought. Well, you know what's funny?

Actually, before we get started, we actually were talking to one of our marketing agencies. Um, I guess, uh, friends that has owned an agency. Agency. And she said that her, um, husband was looking to start a recruitment company called Ted recruitment. Um, and they thought that it would be cool because, you know, it plays on, you know, that Ted Ted talks kind of thing.

But luckily, before they actually started the business, she's, um, like, I guess an SEO wizard. And she said that that would be a horrible idea because they wouldn't be found on Google search due to SEO. And, you know. So you're not you wouldn't be niched down enough. It's like, you.

Know, what I'm trying to say is that you should really consider when you're starting a business or searching for a name, you should really consider, um, consider the name and how you'll be searched and how easily people will be able to search your name. Um. So now. Good, good, good on her for picking that up for her husband. There's there's also the thought of, like, how you don't pick your name.

The name kind of picks you. So no matter what, like you choose in terms of the business names. Eventually the name sticks, but the project might be different. So it sometimes the name really doesn't define what your company does. You know what I mean?

Yes and no. But at the same time, we've had a client where they chose a name for one of their podcasts, but they didn't really do the research properly. And then. There's like five. Of them.

There's five of different podcasts here. So I know. It's. Just not really standing out. I mean, you know, isn't that the whole point of marketing in the first place to stand out, you know, to be true?

The funny thing with that is there's no trademarking on podcast, so anyone can have the same name, and it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Yeah. That's right. But look, let's get started with our topics this week. We're starting off with, um, getting paid with exposure.

Tell us a scenario for you. Just the one. Like I say, this is this is when I think about getting paid with exposure. I'm always thinking about hotels. So let me.

Let me go say I'm a hotel manager. Hey, J, your videographer. Right? Yes, man. You do animation?

Sure. Why not? Do you have that? Really? What about that flying thingy that you have?

Like that takes nice pictures from a boat? Drone stuff. We do that too. So that's why it's quite strong. All right, so look, here's the gist.

I have no money to pay you, but I'm a hotel. How about I pay you in exposure? Can I feed my baby with exposure? Potentially. Someone might pay you later down the track, seeing your work that goes onto my website.

Okay. All right. This is not how you're supposed. To do it. Where do we go from here?

Well, I'm thinking, like, first of all. As a videographer, I mean, as a new videographer. Like, this is what you're portraying, right? You're most likely to say yes. That might be okay in most of, in some respect, in the sense like, hey, you just started out, you don't know how to get into the game and whatnot.

But the way I think about this for, for, for a second is, look, this is not like an internship where internship you get you get, you get to join a company for the experience and you have nothing to offer on the table. So it's like really a one way sort of transfer value. But with the videographers, here's here's a thought. Videographers are not people who are coming who who have zero experience. Would you agree?

No, I think look, I think there's obviously a time and place for exposure, work for exposure. I think that, um, the good thing about working for exposure is that you get an experience that you wouldn't have had the opportunity to, um, to have. Right. So technically, you do this job, you don't have an experience, but then you develop that experience and use that for your portfolio for for future work. But you're saying that actually Gary V says that if no one's paying you to do the job that you're asking to be paid for, maybe then that means that your net, your value for the service is zero.

Do you know what I mean? So you have no value to to to given correct. Give to until. Right? Yeah.

Until until you get your name out there. Until you until you get your product out there and they see that your, you know, your worth something. Um, but I also think that, uh, you know, exposure. Don't get me wrong. Like, even at this stage of our business, I think we'd we'd I'd be still inclined to accept work for exposure.

So let's say for, you know, partnerships or networking opportunities. But that's not a zero zero transfer of value at that point, because you're obviously giving yourself like, we've done this with one of our partners where we do a couple of videos for you. In return, you will get a website out of it so that there is still getting paid for something. This is not just exposure. So the scenario I was giving given to you before, it's very prominent.

People talk about it a lot, a lot. If you Google that up on, on uh, on Google you see a lot of topics, a lot of Reddit's that talk about the issue. And it seems that when you come up to a company or a company approaches you to, uh, to, to, to employ for your service. What I was trying to say is that videographers are not people who offer zero value Because they spent the years learning how to to to do the craft. They spent the money buying the buying the equipment.

And to be I mean, come on, a camera these days for a professional end camera is like $5,000, $4,000 at least if you want like a really nice quality film. So this is what I was trying to say. When videographers come up to you, they don't come up to you with zero experience. They're not new. A lot of the time.

I think those who, um, those businesses who offer, I guess, payment as exposure or, or videographers that accept, um, exposure as, as payment are usually those that don't have much experience, you know, are new to the field, just like yourself. When you first started, you know, you're quite new, you didn't know what to charge. So and you didn't have any experience. So then yes, it would be okay to accept, um, I guess work for exposure. Like I said, it's not like you're not getting anything at that stage because you still want to develop your portfolio.

You still want to get, you know, footage to show other clients. Um, I see, but then again, it's not still a transfer value. Correct. So it's not to a certain to a certain level is when you should, uh, I guess stop accepting exposure as payment. Um, I know from when we first started, I accept we accepted, um, exposure in the sense that we got our logo onto someone's shirt.

That was. Unfortunately, we haven't actually done the job for that. We actually haven't done the job for them yet because they haven't caught us yet. But they asked us if we would we would like the opportunity to get our shirt onto our nails. Yeah, yeah, onto their shirt.

But yeah, you know, it is what it is. We're still we're still waiting for him to contact us. At the end of the day, it boils down to what are you trying to get out of, uh, out of the services that you provide them? Because at the end of the day, business is all about transfer value and what you can provide other people and what they can provide you in turn. It's always it's not just about making the money, but like the services that you provide also is a way to pay other people as well.

Mm. Um, was I going to say the the caveat to this story like I've had, I've had so many people who try to instigate or rather, what's a word for it's not instigate. It's, uh, they try to facilitate the, the deal, but they don't know what they're doing. They try to appear, they try to fake it until they make it right. Have you had to had those situations before.

To fake it before you make. It. Yeah. All the. Time.

Yeah. So do you. Do we still do it? Yeah. Um.

I think, um, I'm a I think that's the only way you do learn to be honest, especially when you're starting your own business. Unless you've already got like years and years and decades under your belt or in the industry. But I don't want to. I don't want to tell people that that's what we do here at, ehm, visuals, uh, for our, for our business. But yeah.

Look, I've, I've had, I had accepted work in the past where I didn't know what I was doing and I ended up going on YouTube in the middle of night trying to figure out how to do something. Um, but that is the allure of of being an entrepreneur. It is its. And this is my. Like one of the my favourite saying and one I, I guess kind of propelled my entrepreneurship um journey is is the book.

It's from a book called Rich dad, Poor Dad. I think everybody and the dog knows this book. Um, it's the. Everybody and their dog. Is saying that one they're saying.

Is that every man and his dog? But yeah. Yeah. Um, so in the book, I guess the Golden Nugget or the key takeaway that I got from the book is the author. He says that it's not about.

And so a lot of people what what they do is when they, they want to buy something and they see the price tag, you know, they end up saying, hey, look, I can't afford that price. Um, and then kind of just cut it, then that's a really lazy way of thinking in my opinion, anyways. Because can you, can you say that again? What does it say? So it's so when people say I can't afford it, right.

Yeah. What they end up doing is they shut off their minds from thinking about other ways they can, what they can do to afford that. Right. So you've got to really change your mindset from, you know, saying, I can't afford it to how can I afford it by. By asking yourself that question, you kind of manifest that in your in your mind, and it makes your mind work and think about ways of, I guess, generating more income or revenue so that you can afford, um, those things.

Um, same thing with business. Right. That's I guess I've taken that key takeaway and I've put in the business aspect. And every time a client asked me, can you do this? I just said yes.

And then I then I go, look. I look for a good look for. Solutions to do it, either, you know, outsourcing it or figuring it out myself. Um, but I think that's definitely a, a resilience aspect where, um, if you don't have this in business, you're not going to go far because you're not going to be able to generate more. That's, uh, that's one of the caveats I talked about, like, uh, providing services for free is like, are you also, I mean, if you're going to be approaching somebody as a videographer, as a, like a content creator, if you're going to be approaching somebody, you need to be able to learn how to sell yourself.

And the reverse of that, of that saying that you're saying is like, how do you how do you counter when someone says, I can't afford it, right. So you really need to lay out the value that you're providing to the customer to educate them into what you are selling them as well. So that's also a skill, uh, as what videographers, videographers and content creators should be learning so that they can people understand because, you know, art is very undervalued. Correct. So for some reason, it's always been the case writers, photographers, painters, it's hard to put a price on it.

And even even with us when we started out, it's just like in this field price is so, um, it's so non-linear that it's hard to know what to charge people. Correct. So it is up to you as the as the person selling your video to find the value to, to, to, to to give to the, to your clients. Um, a future young jay or young Jerome. This is I guess a topic for another episode.

But you know, pricing and determining value would be a good topic also. Um, how to value my work? Um, and what was the other thing you said? Uh, learning to sell yourself. Is that all.

I care how to sell yourself? Um. Yeah. So. Agreed.

Agreed. Like when I first started, I guess, working with you, I was still trying to figure out the ropes of what to charge people. And then over time, over spending, um, countless hours is working alongside, you know, you and the team are kind of figured out. You kind of get a sense of where what things cost and in what you should be charging your clients. Um, so that it kind of builds, you build more confidence and you're able to ask for those higher, higher prices.

Um, opposed to, you know, it's exponential. It's exponential. Yeah. You can you can come up to a business who, who don't really have the big marketing budget to be able to do like high, high end videos. Or you can approach another business with like a huge amount of marketing budgets so that you can go for like you can take it to a further.

I mean, I even lost my work there, but like, you can take it further in terms of like the videos that you can make for them. Right. I think that this is, um, another piece that we should probably explore on in other episodes is, is really marketing itself as premium or marketing stuff in general. Where is that social media or any other avenues of of marketing but you if you want to be commanding those higher prices, you really need to, um, be portray yourself as premium or portray stuff as you know, you know what you're doing. Um, again, this could be via social media, putting your work up there or LinkedIn or whatever the case.

Um, so yes, the beautiful guys. So the beautiful. Correct. You need to show them the value that you're, you're, you're going to be creating for their business if you want to charge those higher. And look guys.

Jay and I know Jay and I know exactly the work that you go through to, to make the videos. It takes for one minute video, it takes some time, 2 or 3 hours to edit that video to make that really look nice, to be able to sell the story. So, I mean, to end this, uh, segment, I would say that you guys are valuable. Your work is not a commodity by commodity means you can't just go on the shelf and pick something out, um, pick something off the shelf and just, like, go to the cashier. As videographers, everything is, um, how to put it unique, right?

So yeah, you are not a commodity, guys. Their skills is not a commodity. For people who don't do videos and usually want videos for cheap. Yeah, it's it's not worth paying the cheap price for a video. You won't get good quality.

I'm just saying don't cheap out. Yeah. Cheap. Um. Moving on.

Um, I guess in terms of exposure, how we respond to it is usually my, my newborn doesn't eat exposure, which ties perfectly into our next segment. My child is my boss now, balancing parenthood and business can be a very tough thing, right? Um, so yeah. So yeah, we need the we need to pay the bills, guys. We need to pay the bills, unfortunately.

Yeah. Like I said, my newborn doesn't need exposure, so I'm not allowed to. Parenthood is bloody tough. I'm. I'm a new dad of of a three month old.

And, you know, no one really tells you about the lack of sleep and, you know, the tantrums and everything else that comes with, you know, dealing with parenthood. Um, and, uh, frankly, I don't really think, um, you as an individual would be able to, to know what it feels like unless you actually go through it yourself. Um, and, man, it's hard. It's hard work, man. I can't imagine I don't have a kid yet, but, uh.

Yeah. And look. So I guess where we're going with this segment is like, how do I balance, um, having a newborn and also having, uh, I guess, you know, a new business or a business venture. How about, um, how do you balance work and life and your baby with having a videography business? Because I'm pretty sure there's it's not it's it's not like something, uh, where it's regular on the 9 to 5 sort of thing that you can have some time for your baby at the end of the day, but sometimes you're working through the night as well.

Right. Mhm. Yeah. Well you're, you're constantly thinking, but the thing is with, with business and also having a newborn is at first. In my own experience, I felt that, um.

Um, the motivation dropped a bit with the business side of things because I was so into having, you know, taking care of the baby. The first month was, hell, lack of sleep. And like I said earlier, no one really tells you about that once you go through and once you start developing that routine, that's when I've noticed that, you know, I started looking back into the business, and that's when I wanted to push that again. But, you know, in between, it's not to say that I've dropped the ball completely and I stopped doing my work. I still did what I needed to do.

But in terms of like extra work for for client outreach or editing work, it's like, oh man, I want to go spend time with my kid. In saying that, um. Have you found a balance yet on that? Yeah, I'd say I'd say I've I'm now good. So I catch myself every now and again thinking about work when I'm with him.

And same thing is, when I work, I feel guilty that I'm not at home, you know. So there's a saying that there's, you know, the future. The future. Um, Chris Dove from the future. Great podcast guys.

Have you? If you if you guys are in the media game, check this podcast out. Very valuable stuff. He's a huge personality in the in this creative space, educating people. But he says that, um, there's no point feeling guilty about not being with your kid when you're at work and then feeling, um, I guess stress about work when you're at home, when you're a kid, why don't you just put all your attention at work, when you're at work and when you're at home, just be 100% there with your kid.

And I guess that's the mentality that I've recently adopted, and I've caught myself thinking about work every now and again when I'm when I'm spending time with little Mason and, um. Yeah, just told myself, hey, look, stop thinking about it. Just live for next time. I mean, I see that you've been bringing you've been leaving your laptop at work as well. You're bringing it home?

Yeah. Because you don't answer my text anymore at night. What's going. On? I don't want to talk to you anymore, man.

I used to be a type of person. Just text phone me in the middle of the night. But ideas and stuff. But no, I don't. I don't do that anymore.

Well, at the moment, I think because they say that the first four years of having a kid is the most important time to spend with them, because you never have that moment those time back because they grow so quick, man. Like they grow quick. It's crazy. Um. It's a fat little thing.

Oh, how is that little nugget? This is my little nugget. Um. But. Yeah, man, it's.

Don't get me wrong. It's an amazing experience. Having a kid is an amazing experience. Yeah. Um, but at the same time, I'm not the type of person that would want to, you know, give up my business.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, there's there's there's a question regarding, like, uh, trading your business like a baby that I have for you. There's a couple of questions I want to ask you regarding having a baby. And, like, how has your goals changed for the business?

Right. So the one I have for you is like, how much? I mean, you've told me that you want to take this company to $1 million in the first year. How has that, um, how has that goal mindset changed for you? Is it still there?

Um, or have you changed having the kid there? Good question, I think. Um, look. Oh, is there like, is there a component of of Mason in the thought of succeeding this business now? Yeah, yeah, a bit of both.

Business. Um, like, don't get me wrong, 100 $1 million business is always something I've dreamed for. And it's not because I'm vain in the sense of money, but it's about to me. It's about the freedom that comes with having that money, right? Or generating that, or the lack of stress, lack of a financial freedom that you have with a successful, successful business.

And when I think of success, I think about $1 million business. Right? It is what it is. For some reason, it's $1 million that pops up in your head. Yeah.

I don't know why. I don't know why. It's I think it's I think it's everyone's goal, to be honest. But look, um, in, in terms of, uh, my drive and hunger, I, I do feel like I've decided that I need to take a, I need to slow it down and kind of enjoy my time with my kid as well. Um, but then, but in the back of my mind, still something that I want to achieve.

Um, I still something I want to push the business to and, um. Yeah, man. Just. Yeah. So the goal hasn't changed.

It's just like you want to slow it down a little. Bit, I think. Look, don't get me wrong, I think we'll still get there. Yeah, I think it's something that I'll still, um, deep, deep inside me want to push. Uh, but at the same time, I have to find that perfect balance where I'm giving my wife time that she doesn't have to spend all the time with the kid.

Because, you know, being a full time parent is a tough thing, man. Like, you don't know it. But once, once you have your own kid, you'll see the toll that it takes on, on, on your wife. Because, you know, man, I kind of like being able to see the kid and giving it back. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

You know, I mean. Like. I don't think I'm just ready yet. Maybe in a year or so, like, um, then, then I'll start to think about it for some reason. It's it's there.

The thoughts is there for me, but it's just not like there. Yeah. There. You know what I mean? I think internally there's a couple of things I need to work out before I get to that, uh, situation.

So like, I mean, I see, um, the stuff that you go through, uh, in terms of taking care of Mason and the mindset that you have now, it's it's, uh, it's interesting. Yeah, but look, I reckon as soon as he grows up, I reckon in good school I think I'll be straight back into it. And thinking about working 24 over seven. Well, since, uh, talking about Mason's growth, fathers love to best bestow their kids with their skills that they know or they've learned over the years. Like, is is Mason going to be picking up a camera?

You reckon? Probably not. Yeah. Really? No, I want him to.

I don't want him to be a specialist. I want him to be a, um, a full fledged business person. Because I myself think that, um, success, not success, but in terms of, like, exponential growth for business, that's all in in a business mindset rather than a specialist mindset. I think that business people need specialists to be able to get to a certain stage, but I yeah, I don't think it's all the way around, you. Know, kind of brings it back to the image a little bit where you drive the business.

Correct. Kind of the specialist. Correct? Yeah. Um.

Operator. Yeah, yeah. So do you have like been three months in, like, do you have any like advice so far for people who have the like, who are videographers or like content creators or who own their own business and have kids or want to have kids? Um, look, I, I'm, I'm blessed with having a partner who's so hands on with the kid. To be honest, she does everything.

And then she basically goes home when I'm taking her kid, she cooks and cleans and does everything. But look, in terms of tips, you really put me in a spot here. I haven't I haven't really thought about it, man. Maybe that's something that you want to think about. Like moving down, uh, moving down.

I mean, like, I would love to know some things as well. Um, if I'm going to have my my own kid later on down the track. Yeah. Um, look, probably another topic for next time, because I can't think about it on the spot at the moment, but, um. Okay, then here's one that does basically close to home because, um, am visuals is basically our baby, right?

I've seen it grow grow from like nothing to two and a half years in where we have like staff, we have people that rely on the company to to learn. And arguably ambitious is is its own entity. Now it's its own. It's its own growth where it decides on its own thing sort of thing. That's how I see it.

And that kind of scares me, right? Because I was the one driving the business by myself with no one, no one around me, and now it's got its own direction. Where your input, Jerome's input, the the girl's input, like make it grow. And I don't really have active control over it anymore. You know what I mean?

What's your thoughts on this? And is there a parallel to having a kid itself? I think it's too young to understand the parallel or not, in the sense that I'm just three months in, maybe give me about a year or two and I'll figure it out. But the growth of a business, it's. It's a baby still.

It's a, it's forever changing thing. If you're not changing with the times, you're really going to fall behind. And I that's what I truly believe. That's why I'm doing constantly doing some market, um, sorry, constantly doing market research on on what's new and what's working, what's not working. And like I said, if you're not, if you're not doing that, you're not going to be succeeding in the business isn't going to grow if anything's going to go backwards.

Um, so in saying that, yeah, um, it's great that we have all these different specialists now that's working alongside us that gives them gives us their input. Like for example, this, this, this whole production of this podcast is not possible with if we didn't have young Jerome here to help us out because Jerome, young Jerome, you're. Looking. And smiling over there. Yeah.

You by the way. You you guys get to hear we'll stick a microphone on to him as well. I would love to have him, uh, adding some input to the podcast to the Digital Monkey podcast. You know what I mean? Digital monkey podcast show.

Digital monkey show. Yeah. Um, yeah. Look, I come from a HR background. Actually, I started HR back in uni and I worked in HR, and I do believe that, um, any business itself, um, is not able to grow if, if the right people are not put in place, for example, this this month alone from last.

So for example, Jerome literally just joined the business, uh, a month and a half ago. Two months now. Two months, two months, two months. Two months. Two.

And look, I can attest to to his to to him. And I give full credit to him. This whole production thing is not possible. Or the way we're we're going at the moment is not possible if we didn't have him in the right seat. Right.

Because you notice that the in every stage of your growth, there's a, there's a person or there's a team who's a catalyst for that growth. Um, same thing that can be said to our VA Nicole. She's she's amazing what she does. She's an amazing content manager. And and if we didn't have an in place, I wouldn't be able to free up my time to think about doing other things.

So it's really about putting the right people in the right seat in the company to be able to grow or to speed up that growth even further. We had another person in in Jerome's position prior to Jerome joining us, and unfortunately, he just wasn't the right fit. And that's what people mean by having the right fit in a company or having the right person for that job. The company has its own vision and people. It likes people that have the same vision and want to grow in the same way.

Correct. Yeah. And you can't really be stubborn or you can't really be, um, opposed to change when you're trying to grow a business because, you know, things will change along the way. There's plenty of things that could go wrong. It's about how you pivot as an immature individual.

It's about how you pivot as a business that will determine if you're going to be successful or not. Or if you're able to get through that roadblock or not. And and you notice that every time you hit a roadblock. Um, what, um, what happens next is either you you you crumble and you fail, and the business just falls down, or you, you jump over that hurdle and, you know, you speed forward until the next one. Pivoting is, uh, is the word here.

You need to be lean enough to be able to pivot to the next project and be able to grow that way. Correct. Um, I think we could to talk about the next, um, uh, I think we got about 5 or 6 minutes left. So let's talk about this last topic here. Growth is exponential right?

You will grow faster than you think. Whether as a freelancer, a business owner or like as an employee. Right. So why I thought about this topic in the first place is because I've been podcasting for quite a while now. Like, even though my first podcast never really, like, took off.

Never really, um, never really made it in the sense that, uh, we had so many downloads kind of thing. Right? But what I've learned from the podcast I'm still using today. Right. And the, the, the thing with the, the podcast medium, it's like I find it's like therapy when you're talking to someone, it's being recorded.

You're in a different mindset. We wouldn't be talking to each other like this. Correct. In the normal settings. Right.

And the things that I've said back two years ago, like I've picked up my first camera, I wanted to to do this. It only took me two years to get to this, to to this position, having a company growth and understanding cameras the way I do now. So I want to say even, even now, even today, like you saw it yourself, we we will. We started producing our own content for an visuals like what, two weeks ago? And it looked like absolute.

Crap. Garbage. It was disgusting. The lighting was off, like the resolution was off. It was grainy, text was terrible.

It looked like a video from the 90s kind of thing. Right? But two weeks later, after much adjusting, it only took two weeks for us to have this quality. Like, you guys see it in this podcast right now, this quality that we have here and the the audio quality, this is like from only two weeks, two weeks of like constantly doing something right. This, um, this, uh, exponential growth thing again comes back to what I said earlier about the roadblock situation.

Um, yes. We were in a roadblock, uh, in the last couple of months in terms of our social media presence and online presence. But look, it only takes one step to get to the next one. And before you, before you know it, you'll start sprinting to the next goal. Right?

And it's crazy how things move. And it's this is another mindset that I've adopted recently is that sometimes you realise that you yourself are in, in, in a position right in the whole right. And you know, it's about what you do in that situation that that will take you to the next one. And that's what that's what will help you evolve, right? I would argue it's a mindset.

What do you mean? It's a mindset that you have the intention to get out of this hole even though you, you know. But it's it's about being able to pick up on that situation when you're in it and not just dwelling on it. Because some people, when they get into that situation, they just sit there, right? And they're kind of like, it's a spiral for them.

It all spirals downhill for them. Right? Because, oh, this is not working on and this is not working on not having any money and boom, boom, boom, boom. Before you know it, you know you're out of a business. Um, but it's really about sitting there and kind of analysing what's been going on, what's happening and what can I do next to kind of push it to the next, next goal.

Right. That's correct. Or next hurdle. Um, but in terms of what we're doing now and I can, I can I can. I guess this could be a tip for people who want to create constant, um, content for their businesses.

This podcast meant like once we're done with it, we're going to send it off to Jerome Jerome's and have a look at it and like, chop off, chop up like 14 different snippets from it. And that's, that's content for our social media pages too. And that's what we've been doing. The reason why we wanted to start this podcast is the constant flow of content, organic content that comes out like you don't know, but as individuals, where we've all got through our own thing, we have our own our own experience. Yeah, yeah.

And you think that that's not valuable, that's not available to anyone, right? But sit down and start recording yourself. Talk to someone else and you realise how much value you actually have. Right? And not only that, it's just like recording yourself or just writing things down, like, I don't I don't care what what sort of medium you like to write yourself and like whether you take YouTube videos or start writing blogs, you would notice over time you notice that all the things that you said will manifest in a way that you never planned for, like a year down the track and you will see that the the growth from where you are then to where you are now was faster than you actually thought at the time.

Yeah, you know what I mean. It's crazy when you look back, to be honest. And then you're like, why didn't I start this earlier? What the hell? I remember, I remember like in your kitchen, I was living with you at the time was like, hey, why don't you pick up the camera?

Why don't you pick up the camera? You took me, like, what, three a month before? I'm like, yeah, let's do something with this. Because I was I was kind of moping around. And it was during that time where the, the, the market business that we had, like we had before I went out anyway.

So I didn't really didn't know what to do. And I was just like, hey. A month later, after much deliberation, I picked up the camera. So yeah, I think, um, the mentality of just screw it, just do it. Screw it.

Just do it. Would you? We should change our podcast. Screw it. Just do a podcast.

Um, look, that's one I live by, man. Just screw it and do it. Just say yes and then figure it out. That's. I just love that mindset.

It's just it's like, hey, maybe this is not going to be the digital monkey anymore. We'll probably like change names every episode. Find the right one. No, but it's true that just. Just saying.

Screw it. And just doing. Doing that idea of what you want to do and just pivoting along the way. That's that's how things evolve, right? Like, for example, um, uh, what's called, um, Elon Musk.

Right? He wasn't in blade. Oh, man. Right. If you if you get the chance to read his biography.

Like the guy. The guy is a machine. The amount of rejection that he got is just like, hey, we we. We got rejected by, like. For, you know, $1,000 jobs.

He got rejected in a million. Billion dollar jobs, bro. And now he's the richest person in the world. That's crazy. Hell, yeah.

It's, uh. Jerome, read that book. Biography by Elon Musk. Next week, I'm going to ask you questions about it. Um, um, the last thing I'd want to say is, um.

Yeah. Look. Another thing that I've noticed recently is just, I guess, my own reflection, my own reflection is that I've come to realise that it's okay to not know what you're gonna do next, because I've been trapped in this mindset where I'm like, oh shit, if I if this doesn't succeed, then my whole life is a failure and that if this doesn't succeed, it basically determines who I am for the rest of my life. But that's not the case, right? That's interesting that you have that, because I have that thought of mentality, that mentality as well.

And it's something that I don't really talk to anyone. I think I think everyone has insight inside just that, like, I don't know if this is called imposter syndrome. I would call it in a sense of negative talk. Yeah, yeah. But then what I've realised is that in what mine made me realise is, is that seeing like high directors or high managers of companies switch to a different field or career path in their life?

I'm like, huh? This could be the same thing with business too. Like it doesn't just because we're doing digital, um, digital production now or videography does not mean we're going to be tied in video production for the rest of our life. And I always think about this. It's like, this is the stage of my life now.

What's OnlyFans, guys? OnlyFans. That's what. That's our next project. Let's do it, you bastard.

And the reason I'm saying this is like I've recently owned a successful, I guess, chicken shop, and I've solved that recently, and I was kind of lost at one stage. And like, I wasn't sure what to do until food was like, hey, why don't you come join me? And then, you know, you know, long and behold, I'm now in video production, you know, and I'm quite excited to see where I am in five years time and what business I'm going to come up with or what I'll be doing. And, um. Yeah, it's just it's a it's it's an interesting mindset.

It's all I, it's all I can say for the moment. I mean, the more the more you do, the more resilient you become. Correct. I've, I've, I was a farmer at one stage and it's it's strange where things took me. You were a you were you started off as um.

Was it. I was in it. It. It then then I got sick of that. Then I went into farming.

I was a farmer for, like, a good three years. Then when the market game happened. You went to the market after that? Yeah. Then you owned a restaurant?

No. So you owned a restaurant? No. We both. We.

Sorry. We we we did that. We did that. Together. Sorry.

I'll give us credit. We both owned a failed restaurant. A failed restaurant that lasted a year. Yeah. Yeah.

Put some money in that. That didn't work out. Um, then you you went to the markets. Um, and now you're in the bloody YouTube clip playing with cameras all day. This is what we do.

It's funny now that you say that. Same thing with me, right? I started off working in HR. Then I went to work in a market and I owned a ghost kitchen. And now I'm working a video production.

It's. It's funny how how things happen. And, like, we've basically done more in our in, uh, what, less than 30 years of life than most people do. I say that to people we have like, like 15 to 20 years of experience combined together. And hell, Jerome was an electrician.

Jerome? Yeah. Electrician. Know. And a pro guitarist.

What the hell? So, look, this this. I guess this little spill is a, um, a piece that people can, uh, listen to and kind of realise that. Hey, look, you're not just because you studied accounting just because you studied it or or, um, what's called marketing does not mean you're stuck in it for your clients. A part of growth, guys.

It's a part of growth. It's. You grow faster than you think. Because like I said, just grow it. Just do it.

Screw it and do it. Um. Yeah, man. So look, the key takeaways, um, of today is, um, don't accept exposure as payment unless, you know, you're just beginning. Yeah.

Um, parenthood can be difficult, and. Yeah, man, your growth can be exponential. Man. Just just do. It.

All right, guys. Um, whether it's the digital monkey or screw into it, it's so monkey show. I'm not changing it again. Let's sign off, guys, thank you very much for listening. You guys can catch us on our website or Instagram.

Um, we're also going to tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Yeah. We're going hard on Tik Tok, guys. Catch us on Tik Tok. Ruby.

Tik Tok famous in about eight years time. Yeah. So feel free to contact us guys or leave a comment in this show. Uh, and. Yeah.

Have a good one. Peace.