Morning Cup of Joe

Hey there! Are you feeling frustrated... stuck... overwhelmed with your photography? Well you've come to the right place. Thats what we're talking about today. I have a mini breakdown of this episode down below if you're interested as well:

Today we sit down with Manoa Rain: a content creator, an educator, and overall amazing guy. Today we are talking about the differences between filmmaking and photography, things most people don't consider when it comes to gear, and the pros and cons of being an artist. Today we also answer the age old question... are you being ambitious enough?

As road trip nation says "Are you really a good traveler if you're not lost?" and while as an artist it can be important to be known for that one thing (building a niche) it's also important for your fulfillment, creativity, and self exploration in general to try different aspects of creating. Learning the pros and cons of Photo and Video... trying your hand at music or painting/ drawing or etc.. What is the difference between being a filmmaker or a videographer? In a rising creative world where everything is possible you don't know how good or bad you are at something until you get started. 

In todays episode I talk to Seth AKA Sinematic Seth about the importance of building a niche and the benefits that come with niching down. We also talk about his start as a creator and the support system he had coming up as a creator. Starting out can be and often is one of the most intimidating aspects of creation. We also cover how to connect with fellow creators on collaborations or how to surround yourself with like minded individuals. Finally we talked about how important finding a niche is, what paid work we do the most to fund our YouTube channels, and the biggest mistake we've made while on a shoot. Overall this ended up being a super impactful and insightful conversation for me and I hope you get the same value out of it as we have.  

We all go through the same struggle starting out.... You're brand new as a creator, you have a couple thousand dollars of gear that you have no idea how to use and an empty bank account (Or even a maxed out credit card), and you have no idea what to do next to get ahead and start working on paying that off and actually making use of your skills and gear. In this episode we are going to talk about Zach Anaya's journey starting out and what he's been doing to make connections in this industry and continue to improve as a creator step by step. 

Today we talk about a subject that is a little under talked about in the creative world (or anyone's path for success for that matter) and that is... the importance of building an inner circle. When I say inner circle I mean a group of people doing what you either already do (better than you) or someone who is doing something that you want to do. As the saying goes "you are the sum total of who you spend the most time around" so if you want to be great, you surround yourself with greatness. Do you think Navy seals spend a good amount of their time hanging out with mediocre people? HELL NO. Why do you think athletes spend time with other athletes or influential people? There's a reason athletes don't hang around their fans. They spent their whole life dedicated to being the OPPOSITE of the people who watch and support them. Not to say that anybody in particular is either a bad or a good person per se, some people are good people... just not good for you... or better yet not embarking on the same journey or at the same level of that journey yet. 

You don't need 100k followers to make money off of YouTube, instagram, or facebook

Today I talk with Cody buffington AKA exploring with Cody about building your personal brand and using your influence to start making money for yourself. It's overwhelming. It is scary. It is frustrating. BUT if you keep at it, but is 1,000,000% worth it. I, just like you are early in the process so I personally benefited just as you will from this conversation I had with Cody. I also ask him about viable ways to make money for personal projects that I have going for myself too. If you really want to read about what it takes to do this while you listen I gave an example of making money and a full-time living EVEN IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 1,000 followers.

If you have 10-100 true fans you can start making money off of your work. If you have 1,000 true fans you can potentially make a full-time living off of your work. My goal is and will continue to be to build 1,000 true fans so that I can use that support to help me build my business when free lance work is slow or sometimes (During covid) nonexistent some weeks. I'll give you some simple math (For those of you starting off) if you build 100 true fans (People willing to buy from you or support you in a monetizable manor you can start really making a difference for yourself using your work. Say you start selling t-shirts for 20$ each and you buy each shirt for 10$. If 1,00 people buy your shirt (or presets, or online class, or... etc) that is 1,000$ right off of the bat. That means that for 100 shirts you spend 1,000$ but you make 2,000$ and profit just as much as you spend. Now if you take a quarter of that money you just made (250$) and start running IG or Facebook ads you can start growing that 100 true fans into 1,000 at which point you'll make 10,000$. Crazy right? That's for one project. Now throw in some presets 100$ x say 20$= 2,000. Again, that's just for 100 true fans and you make almost entirely profit off of that (minus website fees and whatever taxes you pay). Now say you sell a 100$ online course to 100 people. Thats 10,000! Again almost ENTIRELY profit (minus website and/ or taxes). Yes starting out can be tough. Websites are tough and complicated. Ads on social media are overwhelming. Growing your following is tough BUT if you stick with it and really put the work in... it is worth it. For example: If you put the money for those t-shirts, presets, AND online course together (Something you can work on your first year in business). That is a grand total of 13,000$! Doing something that you love to do and would do for free anyways. Now if you reach 1,000 people (Not even increasing prices) that turns into a WHOPPING 130,000$ A YEAR. 1,000 x 10 for t-shirts (Profit only)=10,000, 1,000 x 20 for presets= 20,000, and 1,000 x 100= 100,000. I know that I kind of ranted and raved here but if you're just starting out and trying to make money this is 100% a viable way to do so. There is no better time to get started than now. Work your job and hustle on the side to launch this... and like I said as things start to launch for yourself you quit your job or side hustle or whatever you're doing to pursue things for yourself FULL-TIME. 

When should you upgrade your gear?

It can be a struggle these days to know when to upgrade your gear. With all these new cameras and camera accessories it can be so tempting to buy everything that pops up with an ad on your instagram. With that being said in my personal experience there has always been 2 main reasons for me to upgrade gear.

You don't have to get the most expensive gear out there. If the price of gear correlated to your success as a creator everyone out there would have RED cameras and anamorphic lenses. Most of the time the more expensive gear either doesn't make sense or isn't necessary. As a beginner/ amateur creator you don't need pro series lenses and every prime lens a company makes. As you make more money and as it makes more sense for your business that's when people start to do so, my simple rule of thumb is this: If a piece of gear doesn't make or help make you money why do you need the most expensive or high end items? The difference between a 24-70mm kit lens and pro series 24-70mm lens isn't significant enough to justify the extra money (unless your skill set or business could directly benefit from it). Those pro series lenses aren't going to do anything for you if you aren't doing everything else right. If you shoot auto instead of manual mode, if your lighting is off, if you don't know the basics of composing an image, or you don't know how to edit images correctly those lenses aren't going to make you a better creator. The gear you use doesn't define you as a creator.