Deborah, with her thirty years of being an ltrepreneur and creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that only someone who's
taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know the stories, the whys, and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away. Now Here is your host, Deborah Drummond.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome so much.
I'm sure, Joe, because common for taking incredible You are the best. Even though I have a podcast host with me today and people playing media with me, but you are my best podcast audience.
Of what I say that, you are my best media friends and you rock and we are going to blow this show up today, because what happens when you get a bunch of creatives together. What happens is you get so many ideas that you plan your schedule for the
next three years. I mean, get a room of creatives in a field, you start making TV shows, you start collaborating, I don't know, you start doing art shows all over the world because anything is possible when you talk to somebody that's creative, because creative people find creative ways, right, and then you put in that entrepreneurship that lentrepreneurship. And if you don't know what an entrepreneur is, it's an entrepreneur that can't say no. Mostly they can't say no
to themselves. We get these ideas going seriously, you can imagine what it's like. That's why it's super cool when you go to like art shows or you go to the theater, you're supporting someone that's shooting a movie or whatever, and you and there's like if there's the you know, people hanging out, and then there's this hover of enthusiasm. It's almost like ether, right, and there's this whole creative
bubble that's going around. So we're gonna have a blast on this show today, So let me introduce to you, and so listen, audience, I know some of you are listening and some of you are watching. So I'm just going to kind of introduce to who you're gonna be listening to today, and I'm gonna get them just kind of do their hand up so that if someone is watching, they know they can put the voice to the hand. And for those of you that are listening, just listen,
watch the show later. We got you. We're gonna talk creative today. So miss Carol, Carol, can you just give us a wave today? Just let us know who you are, Carol Matresi all the way from Texas. And then we have Ronnie. Now Ronnie is interesting. I've never pronounced your name, your last name, and let's hope I do it correctly. Is it Ronnie Armas? All right? So just give a little wave thumbs up. That's you. Awesome. And then you have seen both Carol and Ocean before in the show
The Ocean. Just give us a wave. Awesome. That's great. We know who we're talking to. Could you imagine if there was twenty or thirty of us on here, we'd be like we'd be eating lunch at the same time, there'd be so many cool things going on. But look at let's get into it, because this is called mission accepted. And you know that what we talk about is a
little James Bondish. It's like, it's the risk and the danger and the joy and the surprise and the cool things that happen by taking this venture, because this venture. Sometimes the hardest thing is deciding to be an entrepreneur until you're actually an entrepreneur and you realize that maybe some of the hardest things is staying an entrepreneur. Yea, accept the mission, but then you got to stay on that mission and where does that mission go? So Carol,
let me start with you a little bit. I'm just gonna throw a question, like, you know, we all have these lives and at one point you decide that you're going to do something that falls in this creative field. What was that like for you? What was that like for you? And tell us what you do? You know, tell us what you do, who you are, what you do? I know who you are. One knows who you are. We the Coonel and Dev show a lot of times.
We have a ball and I have to say Dev has been such an incredible positive influence and mentor along this media journey. When I was eight years old, I knew I wanted to be an entertainment in media, and then was told, no, that's not.
What you're going to do.
So I went along this other path and good news is you're constantly preparing for what you don't know you're preparing for.
And went along. And I'm older.
Than all the guests here, inclusive of our fabulous host. I'm on the backside no matter how I look at it. And when I had the opportunity to not do all my entrepreneur other things real estate and banking, etc.
I said, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm not going to sit around and wonder.
I'm going to do all. I'm going to get into the media and the entertainment. So I said, let's do it. Started a production one of eleven, and productions. It was going to be about my family because I'm number six of eleven. We have writers and songwriters and bank You know, anything you've done good or bad, you find that within our eleven. And I said, I'm going to do this and I'm going to tell these stories because with all
my heart, I believe we learn through people's stories. And then the journey led me to one thing after another, and now it's exploding. And the entire mission has been to share with others that you're a unique child of God and you matter in your story matters, and I'm sharing that every way I can.
I get to meet people from all over.
The world and work with deb A lot of things coming up as well, and I'll.
Tell you it's thrilling. It's thrilling. I love it. I knew when I was eight this is what I was supposed to be doing. It took me a little bit, so there.
Yeah, sometimes the journey, like you said, sometimes the journey is the preparation. And we all know that frustration, right, we all know the frustration. So Ronnie, what about for yourself? When was it that you came over to this side? I won't say the dark side, because it's really colorful over here, so the colorful When did you come to the colorful side?
That's actually a really great question because I'll tell you the truth. I actually started out as a science nerd, not an art nerd. I wanted to I had a great admiration and love for biology. So it was like marine, bio, neurobiopsychology, anything in those fields for me is what I was really attracted to ever since I was a kid. But it was one day I was just taking a photography class at community college and I fell in.
Love with the dark room.
I started with film, right, and I fell in love with the dark room and it was such a I would spend like ten twelve hours in the dark room just the magic of seeing a print come to life. Right, this is before digital, before the instant gratification. You had to go through a process and you had to you know, have your print go through chemicals, and you had to wait and you had to if you were able to capture that moment or not. And to me, that was very cathartic, it was very zen, and that was kind
of the inception for me. And then I'll tell you, one day somebody came into the college saying, hey, I'd like to hire a photographer. And then when I figured out that people are willing to pay for photos, that was it. That was it, and then it just kind of snowballed from there. So currently I am a photographer, graphic designer, cinematographer, filmmaker, everything to do.
In media, and.
Like Carol said, really just being a storyteller, right, That's really what it's come down for me, is finally realizing at this point in my life that I'm a storyteller. I didn't realize that until recently. I thought I was just I liked creating images and collaborating with people. But you know, within the last couple of years, it kind of finally hit Oh wait, I guess I tell stories.
And so now that's kind of given me at a brand new direction, right as a creative, to focus in on all the skills that I have and how now do I bring them all together and collaborate with other amazing folks to bring stories to life, And especially now nowadays, we need that more than ever, right, we need to be able to grab people's attention and hold it and kind of you know, reprogram ourselves to go beyond the instant gratification and invest invest in the story.
And by doing that, we're investing in ourselves.
Wow, thank you, that's so interesting, isn't it so interesting? And I took photography in school and I remember taking the little plastic tongs and going from one wash to another wash to another wash. I also remember when you used to take pictures on a camera and you didn't take forty five pictures because you had a camera roll. You only had so many pictures and you had to hope. You went and picked up your pictures and you looked through like that one didn't work, you know what I mean?
That one didn't work. And I think there is something to be said about that whole instant. And you know, people will say to me, they're like, oh, I need to make my now. Sometimes if you're doing a short on YouTube or something, and it's got to be within a certain time. But you know, I have some people say to me, I've got to keep all my content really short. I've got to keep it. I said, no,
we've been wiring our brains that way. But I said, when's the last time you went in to see a movie and you got up after ten minutes or five minutes or ninety seconds? You stayed the whole hour, an hour and a half or two. So if you're talking, you're giving value, You're engaging people, You're teaching people.
They're going to.
Hang they're going to hang out. How many people leave in a conference They're like, got to go? Do you know? So I think if we just can re talk that or retalk that, have that conversation. But that's awesome and Ocean Ocean, tell us a little bit about you, what you do and what was it? What was the point? Was there a point did you go from something else into creative or did you just start in this field.
I always wanted to have my my own clothing line and my own business.
Since I was a child.
I always wanted to have that following, especially because I was very interested in sneakers in the street whear world, and I would watch and even myself would even line up for a drop for a ticket to get the shoes that you wanted to get. And but I was like, wow, imagine having my own line and people do that about my clothes and they love it so much that they'll wait in line.
So Ever, since I was a kid, I had like the desire.
To have my own line and my passion for art, and so I just mixed the two together. So I kind of said, like, I'm a fashion designer, miss mixing my passion with art into one. So that's I always wanted to have that passion strip for us. So now that we're doing it, and we just came back from trade shows and talking whole bunch of people and seeing how they react to it. If they like it, maybe they don't, may it's not their thing, but they still
kind of like take a look. It's just surreal. And so now we're truly following my path and I'm very happy about that.
Now, right on, did you ever work for anyone or have another job before you went into your own company?
Yeah, I mean I worked at gym, so that was really what I did.
Was I worked at you know, golds, and I worked at all those kind of front desk sales jobs. So now that I get to sell my really my own products and my own creations is very very surreal, very.
Cool, very cool. Carol, I'm me to go to you. Thanks, Machoshan, I'm going to go to you. And so, you know, you're doing life and all of a sudden, you know, the eight year old starts screaming like, yeah, what about me? What was the risk?
Like?
I mean, I think there's risk in a lot of things that we do, whether it's in business or out of business, But was there something that felt risky that you know, for some people it's financial, for some people it's people in their life that are like what are you doing? Like support for it? Could could it be like I'm taking something away from a business that's already successful, Like what's going to happen to that business? Like where did your risk come into it? What made you so?
I think that a risk comes up in a lot of those areas. Those are great examples.
I'll just speak to the one that was the largest for me, and that was I was at a.
Point that if I pursued anything much less, anything new, because you dive in to this area, any type of creative, creative area, you know.
You're consumed with it.
And I now at this point I have two incredible little grand girls, grand baby girls, and when I started, I guess they were you know, three and five, and now.
They're a little bit older. But what I.
The risk I was taking was that this beautiful group of family that I cherished so much is thinking what you now, You're making a choice. Instead of being completely on top of this time that we all have, you are making a choice to continue. You know, I think as an entrepreneur and especially as a creative, it's not really a choice.
It's constantly in you.
I mean, it's just something dying to get out and they have been instead.
I took that risk knowing.
That I would be better with and for them and as a walk the talk kind of person if I went forward with it. And you know, to me, that's the greatest risk of all, is that those around you that you cherish and you're so grateful for and it turns out after a while of doing it, now they love it. Now I interview the little girls, Yeah, you know, I don't put them up, but they're you know, and they're very creative.
So thank you father.
It's all working out. So the risk was worth it, but it was scary.
I appreciate that transparency because it's real. You know, it's real, Like you go into something that's enveloping, right, you go into something that's enveloping. You didn't go and grab another job that had hours and structure and that could be
worked around. So when you go into that even as an entrepreneur, you know, I had two children that were ten years apart, and when I first started, you know, there was a particular person in my family that thought they'd sure with my daughter, like I gave up my career when I had my children, And I'm like, well, you're not sleeping over at her house anymore, Like Lily I called her, I'm like, she's not coming back, but it's And then it's hard to work within yourself on
it because the bottom line is it's in us too, right. We're like, I know, I'm not spending time there, I'm spending time here. And what does me spending time here?
What?
I had to like, you go, but what value does that bring? Like, what value does that bring that grandchild, that child that would have you to see and watch and hopefully you inbed a different set of values. Right, So I and my daughter was like, well, you're gonna be the yah. Yeah, that takes her shopping in New York. And I'm like, yeah, I am, you know so, but it takes a while for me it did anyway. So thank you for bringing that up, because that's a that's a real thing.
That's a real thing, and that I can throw in one comment about it just recently, and I so appreciated this. One of my three kiddos. They're all grown and have these beautiful careers, thank God. And she said, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate that you start, that you chose to continue to learn and grow and do something. Because so many of my dear friends, their mothers are not they're not active enough, and they're looking for things to fill time.
I think maybe I'm the other extreme.
However, I did appreciate that they shared that they were cool with it.
Yeah, right on, right on, Thank you so much. And Ronnie, what about for you risk.
Terry?
I started in my early twenties, you know, down this path of I started as a photographer, and then, like I mentioned earlier, when somebody said, oh my gosh, we'll pay you, it blew my mind. I can make money doing this. But the risk really was can I make a living at this? Is this something that is sustainable? Does this actually make sense? And when you're in your twenties, there's a whole lot of bravado, there's a whole lot of you know, feeling like you're immortal, nothing can hurt you.
You'll figure it out, like you know, And thank god I had that because that did actually help me. I had my first business at twenty five, and we worked, you know, with local chambers of commerce, we worked with the city of la We did some pretty good stuff, which was kind of my point. Except again, but it was my naivete that got us through that because I didn't know we weren't supposed to be able to do that, right, not having an inexperience, not knowing what a contract was,
not knowing about any of this stuff. But the risk was that, right because almost majority of my life I always worked for myself. But it's always that. But can I continue doing this? Can I continue to sustain myself? Can I ever buy a home doing this? Can I ever have a family doing this? And it's gotten scary
many times. I'm first generation here. My family's from Alstad, and I want to actually give props to my little country that does have good stuff going on to and you know, but first generation here, with all the stuff you go through, like there was a lot of imposter syndrome too, a lot of imposter syndrome. So, Okay, maybe I can do this, but everything says I can maybe, like so much doubt that just overwhelms your mind on
the day to day basis. But then, like Carol said, there's also this thing in you that just has to come out, this vision, this idea, this ambition. It's it's like it's its own little being inside of you that just needs to breathe right, and so it's a it's a constant battle that I'll be honest, continues to this day. I've gotten to do and work on some pretty amazing things over my creative career, and I still wake up
thinking sometimes, gosh, but can I continue doing this? There's so many good people out there, and technology, technology being what it is, it's kind of like a little scary now is anyone going to need me anymore?
Because of what technology can do now?
So there's a lot of questions there, and I think the risk never goes away per se. We're always anytime, and this is part of just being an artist. An artist has to be vulnerable for it the work to be good. So you risk every single day. You risk every single time you create something. You are giving part of yourself, a part of your soul, a part of your story, and so the risk is always there. I think it's inherent to a creative I think what we need to do is just be brave, right, find that courage,
suck it up and do it. And then there's always that beautiful satisfaction when you see the piece of art, whatever it may be, and then the reaction from the people right that it actually connected.
Absolutely. That's such a big piece of it, isn't it The process and what goes on in the mind of an entrepreneur, never mind a creative entrepreneur. Where because it is creativity, because it's so go up to you to access that and then stay in that. You hear people having writers blocks or artist blocks, and you know then that starts to get a little more panicky for people in that moment. Is it going to happen? Is it going to be received? I just poured six months into this.
Is this film going to make it? Is it going to have that? There's so many elements that are the unknown. I mean, there's an unknown element in the world of entrepreneurship anyways. But if you have a coach and you have a master class, you know you've worked on your masterclass. You know, now you've got to market that master class and you'll capture what you capture. But with art, sometimes when you produce it, you can't be guaranteed people's responses
because they vary. Some people like I need to hang that in my hallways. Some people like, please no one buy me that for Christmas? Like you just don't know, right, And it's part of the exploratory experience. So that's actually well said Ocean. What about for you? I mean share with us, share with us, like, what does it feel like to be an art this? What was risky for you about going into your business? Maybe it was going into something that was fairly unknown. This is your first company.
What for you felt risky?
I feel like, well, Ronnie so is pretty like That's what I was kind of thinking as well, where it was like, how we're going to continue with this because you know, I've I've always wanted to do this and this is my true passion and how can we continue and grow? And I feel like Ronie's to what I
was really thinking in my head. But to be an artist is pretty surreal, Like you do get that where you do learn like old people love it or people don't love it, and then you get to kind of experience that and still make your own thing out of that and sometimes people get it, sometimes they don't, but you know, you.
Still talk to them.
They still kind of appreciate what you're trying to do and how you're showing up. But yeah, I think that's pretty true, like to continue with it? And how are you going to get enough money to produce more and yeah, that's and doing like custom work, all those things kind of going to one and like, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty like that.
Pretty like that. I mean, I think you talked about something really real and transparent, like Carol did the money. The money. You know, when you are creating and you spend time creating in this field, particularly, there's a lot of cart before the horse, you know what I mean, if you're creating something new, like a fashion line, like a movie, like a show, right, Like, I think it's a great idea. Is it a great idea? Am I
on the mark? Or am I off three percent? Because we know three percent could be you know, everything, And I need to sell this, produce this to get money so I can keep producing and creating. And its cyclical, right, I mean, Ocean I Show. I saw you at a trade show this weekend, pretty sure. We were hanging out
and I saw you. You had just produced eleven new stickers for this TV show that you're doing, right for the Tattoo Show, and you had it all out and it was interesting what you were saying to people because you know, people were engaged, and then before they left, you actually had them voting on their top three pieces of you know, the stickers that they liked, and it was interesting for you. I've seen you do that before at a different show. If you did it at the
Japan show, different crowd. I saw you do it at this show, which was more of an artisan kind of crowd, and it was really interesting for you to for meet observe you taking notes and then you know, really what pictures were riding high, which then I know you're taking that decision and those are the first pieces that you'll take to market. So it's very interesting. Sometimes you can't do that right, and it's expensive to do that. You know, you go to a show for market research, it's thousands
of dollars for market research. But those are the things that people don't know, right, they don't know. So, like you said, Ronnie, when someone sees something that you've produced and you're like, oh my gosh, that was the best podcast I've been on. Oh my gosh, I love the shirt I'm wearing. Oh my gosh, the pictures are gorgeous. There's more than just hey things. It's like really a soul confirmation that you're on the right that you're on the right path. So let's flip this, let's flip this.
So there's risk, there's reward, there's whole things. So let's talk about the reward. Let's talk about what is one of the coolest things that you've ever experienced as a personal development piece or I don't know, someone walked up to you that was cool, like Carol shared me a cool moment from being in this world of creative and media that you were like, man, you know that was awesome. You know, you just shared one kind of when your
daughter came out to you. But something cool that happened that you didn't expect.
I did not expect to have people that have been in this industry that have been very successful, you know, and any of the filmmakers, actors, music makers. You know Ronnie here, I mean it's you know, Ocean, you're developing your own stuff. When people like that you hear one validating word, I'm covered in chills because you know, it's amazing, you know, to everybody's point to Ronnie and Ocean.
Were so vulnerable to.
Choose this is to say, Okay, I'm gonna put myself out there, and it was a beauty. This doesn't have anything about anybody famous saying anything, or my family, who
I care about more than anything, saying something validating. I realized it was eye opening, very cool for me to realize that through the vulnerability, peace, my hesitation to put some work out there, I preach about accountable for what we're doing, right, I realized I was judging the people that were going to see it, how they were going to look at me.
I was the one being.
Judgy, and I think it was very cool and eye opening and freeing for me to say, I'm just go ahead and trust these people. You know, I'm not going to prejudge what they're going to feel like, which also helped me.
Oh my god, with the imposter syndrome.
You know, just I'm out here and I'm sharing a piece of me and hopefully it connects and hopefully it connects other and most importantly, the coolest thing of all is when somebody else decides to share their creativity. Because I was, like Ronnie said, I was brave enough. I was just braving. I just did it.
And like you have you preach, stand up, show up and speak up. I mean, it's like, you know, just do this.
So that's the coolest part for me that it might inspire someone else to throw that piece of themselves out there right on.
Thank you so much. I mean to Shay too. Sha, what about you, what's a cool experience for you.
I'm gonna try to say this real quick because three things come up and they and they're very unique in how they hit me. So I've worked behind the camera in films as well, right, and so I've been doing this for over twenty years, and a few years ago I worked on a documentary on human trafficking and very heavy, very intense, but got great reception, you know, great audiences throughout the world, and the film was shortlisted for an
Oscar nomination. That to me was huge, Like, you know, you do things, you work on stuff, and you show up and you have no idea.
You just show up and try to do your best.
And there were a bunch of other camera folks on this, right, it was a huge team, and I was just one of the camera people on there. But to be part of a team that did something that goes back to well, we're kind of talking about it, got that kind of acknowledgement.
Didn't win, that's fine.
Just to be shortlisted as an Oscar nominee, though, was mind blowing.
It was mind blowing.
Recently, I did some graphic design work for Sheila E and she just won a Grammy for a single, and I did the art for that single, and so I was watching the Grammys and it was mind blowing to see my art on the stage as she's getting her a Grammy award.
And again another.
Little tidbit of like oh wow, what really did that just happen, and taking a million screenshots on my computer like oh my god, you know, to kind of verify it later like no way, no way. And then I also do fine art, and a couple of years.
Ago I had an art show, an arts series.
It's called Our Stories Are Ancient, and these are portraits that I take of people with symbols drawn on glass.
But then they hold no photoshop. There is all traditional photography.
They hold the glass in front of them and the symbol represents their particular ancestry or indigeneity. And the point of the story is to get us to kind of remember where we come from.
And so I had an.
Art show at the college where I currently work at and the student came up to me at the end of the show just completely in tears, gave me a big old hug, and she was like, you know what, thank you, Like I didn't even realize that I should be asking that question where do I come from? And that, to me, it was hit me so so powerful. It was so poignant right to realize that an image right can give birth to that kind of question, such a powerful question to say.
Who am I? And where do I come from?
And so like those three stick out of my mind, and those are three things that I do try to pull to whenever I'm having doubt, like I'm not gonna lie. I woke up this morning with a little creative doubt. I mete it happens right, and I was like, I have so much to do and I have no idea how man to do it. But then you recall and then you get to be in beautiful spaces like this. Thank you for facilitating this, because listening to you all and whatnot right now, I'm like, yeah, the pain is
part of the struggle. We're supposed to suffer a little bit, otherwise the art doesn't have that sat right, And so there you go, thank you.
There it is, No, that's beautiful. Look, I think I think doubt's part of the deal when you step out of when you step into a venture that you may not have done before, and or like I said, in the world of entrepreneurship and people go, oh, it's a journey. I mean, if you describe the journey, it's full of everything. You get up, you put your two feet on the ground. We know we're going to get up. We know we're going to do our day. We know O bring our best.
I mean, I'm listening to youtubes in the morning. I've got you know, music playing while I'm in the shower. Like we you know, we source our we source our substance for that day. Look, you know, I was in the shower this morning, going, I'm launching a TV channel in less than twelve hours. What was I thinking? Right, I'm like where And it started going and I said, I just said to someone before the show, I'm being completely transparent. I'm like, I shouldn't have been alone today.
I should have known it to have someone here to go. It's okay, it's okay. Like the website's not done, It's okay, it's okay. You mean, but it's it's part of it. And you know there's some dialogue in there, you know that's going, like so who do you think you are. I don't know where that comes from, because you know, we've surpassed that many times. And when you know I'm not twenty, you know, I've proven myself to be like you know, and there's days where I earned this and
I can show it. But I think that I think it is part of the creative process. And I think it's like when Barbara streisand you know, she talked about how she sung and why she's so stage you know she has so much stay is that she literally was in Central Park and she was singing and she forgot all the words and to this day it's very hard for her to get over. You'll very rarely see her
in concert. I think she sung a song at a campaign whence a presidential campaign, and they paid her a three million because she literally like that's how much pain it is for her, because she just couldn't un trauma that right, And you're thinking, one of the most gorgeous,
beautiful singers in the world, you know, Yeah, very interesting. Okay, ocean for you for you, which is some of the coolest things that's happened for you, Like what puts a small on your face when you're doing your thing or yeah, what it feels cool.
Yeah, I think this year definitely had a lot of ful this beginning, and then last year I think it was a big change for us, especially because meeting like people like big Percy who's like snoops and she Hustle's manager, like that was cool on him, like wearing the hats, and but even like when we're back home, especially at the trade show, where you see people who are like, oh, this is awesome, and they generally get like excited about like putting it on or like even looking at a sticker,
or they just generally like, oh my gosh, it's so cool, Like I need to like have it.
I think that's so like such a big impact.
And just seeing the people's like smiling and like thinking like just having enjoyed their face when I was just like looking through and oh my god, this is so cool.
This this is like I definitely need this, like in my life. This is so cool.
And then like even seeing people close to you get inspired by what you're doing.
And even like I know somebody.
Who now has like a clothing line and I don't want to take credit, but but I feel like a little bit I don't know, a little bit of motivation, like kind of like you can do it like kind of thing. But stuff like that is just like put a smile on your face and even helping like your friends do what they want to.
Have a friend who wanted to do this kind of like wellness club.
Not like Jim, but like like recovery, And every time I see him, I'm like, okay, so did you get the marketing plan down?
Did you get the did you write the business plan?
Yet?
Soon seeing I'm like, okay, I'm gonna give you like two days. Like it's just like a little bit like motivation.
I really love that.
Like and then now knowing that he's already done it and now he's like he's been the works of it for like a year and trying to get a place, like I think that's such a I don't know, inspiration for me to keep going.
And then seeing where you go with your life.
Oh, that's awesome. Well, you know, you know when you start barking about it, and these guys can tell you, when you start telling people what to do, then you know that you've got to stay in the game, right because you're now there's people watching me, and now I'm telling them what because now you've got to stay that that's awesome.
It's not like barking. It's like, uh, like a little like a little push. He's a good friend of mine, so it's just like I'm.
On, yeah, yeah, absolutely, Look, I could go all day. I have to almost say I think this is some way I allowed to say. This is one of my favorite shows, probably because I'm with my pipes. I'm always with my peeps. But this is super fun. Let's wrap this up. So I'm gonna go to you and I'm gonna I'll ask you one last question after this. But there's a lot of people out there that are entrepreneurs that are relating to what you're saying. Absolutely, this is
such a relatable conversation. But we always like to be able to take advice right. People call it sex ass tams. It's kind of boring. It's like I would say things like that are like, you know, burgundy bridesmaid dresses in the eighties. It should never come back. But the ten pop dams. So that's sorry if that's what you use for your book title. Anyway, the there you go, just put myself out there. Someone hates me, the uh, but look, we all try to do this easier. We try to
share things that make it better. We motivate people and inspire people. What was something that you did in your business as a creative that I don't know made money, quicker, saved you some time? It could be not caring what people think. I mean, that could be a success hack. Right there. I'll kind of go around the room as I do if you can please, because we have a lot of listeners and watchers and there's gonna be some
cool show notes about you. But if you can just mention, like your website or something where people can find out where you are, that'd be great. So Carol, let's start with you. Something that you do. I call it top performance. You know, something that just get you.
There, Use the real strength, ask for the help, reach out, ask save yourself a bunch of trouble and ask people that have done it, people that have just gotten started.
They want to share, They do want to share.
Don't judge another person judging you for you reading out because of what they're really say is you know what this person was brave enough to ask.
I'm going to give them advice. That's what I'm going to say. Oh, where to get me.
Hear optreesy dot com and move into the world of the life.
You were welcome, you matter, your story matters, Come on.
Over, right on, right on, and Ronnie.
So I'll tell you kind of go back to when I first started. I said, I first visited the twenty five. I was twenty five, but I looked twelve. And so the first I remember the first time I went into a Chamber of commerce networking business networking event and I didn't know how to speak.
I was like, how do I do this?
And I was able to go in there and go toe to toe and give that firm handshake and look people in the eye and kind of making it up though, walk out with business.
And so.
My advice is show up, like be everywhere, be everywhere. No business is going to find you at home, No business is going to find you sitting in your office.
People.
And this is a lesson I've just recently learned, and I've been like, I've been doing those over twenty years. I've got a business name, and I'll throw that out there right now. It's our a studio anddesign dot com. And it's the same for Instagram are a studio and design. But people don't care about my business name. People want to do business with me. And that was a huge lesson. I was so busy, caught up, you know, very much
for what I've done for other businesses. Create their logos, create their marketing assets, you know, make sure that their taglinees like, you know, create all this stuff that makes them look good. And I was trying to do that for myself, and then one day it just hit me. It was like, no one cares what my business name is. They want to do business with me. They want to work with me because of what I can produce for them, because of the relationship that we create together, because of
the collaboration that we're able to fire up together. So my advice is get out there, get out there, get out there. And that's a risk, right because a lot of us I don't know by y'all, but I'm an introvert. I am one hundred percent an introvert, and it takes a lot for me to get out there. It is effort, but you have to get out there, shake the hands. I prefer business cards. Everyone's trying to do digital thing,
but I love business cards because it's tangible. You use all your senses, so have that tool with you when you go out into the world and mix it up with people. Have a good firm handshake with people in the eye and tell the truth.
Be vulnerable. So take the risk in two ways.
Get out there and be vulnerable and people will want to work with you.
Right on, Thank you so much, and ocean. What would would your advice be to someone to just make this easier?
To make it easier.
It's never really easy journey, so it's always ups and downs, there's always obstacles. But to make it easier, just to kind of do something that you love. Like if it's getting too hard sometimes just think, well, for me, I just kind of usually make a different like art piece or a different design. That's what my suggestion is. To do something kind of fun, something that could help your business.
Maybe just have a call with somebody, maybe just go out, like when you're walking around, just hey, this is my big like Ronnie sad like business card. I always have a business card on me, but uh yeah, to make it easier, just to just kind of have fun with it kind of If it's getting too much, just take a break, think what you've come so far and where are you started and kind of reflect by that.
No, that's really good advice. I think that many times, particularly as entrepreneurs, we look forward a lot. We're looking forward a lot, we don't really stop and people will say this, you know, stop and recognize, like, oh my gosh, Ronnie, you just like you were taking pictures of your artwork at the you know, at the Grammys, and it's like, how much should we take that in? How much do we enjoy that or how much do we remember that?
Like you said, reflect back when you're having those times that are unsure or unstable, or that piece didn't sell us fast, or the guest wasn't able to make it that you were banking on or whatever, right, and to be able to reflect back to where you started, like to where you started, where you were last week, right, manytime we take the I thought that's it as like, oh, you know, I start off as a Denny's waitress and here I am launching a TV channel. That's kind of interesting.
But it made me feel better today. I was like, oh, yeah, I have come so far. I mean I had to go back to when I was sixteen. But sometimes if you just go back to next week or last week or the week before, or like look how much you've done, and then recognize that a lot of that's process, and you know those things that we do when it's hard for me. I stop, I put on a song, I go on the belcony, I take two minutes, I come back and I shift. What is it that makes us shift? Right? So,
what a great conversation that we had today. There was more than what people would call gold nuggets. I think these were absolutely life lessons. And I think that this show was all about giving permission. I mean, I really feel like I think if there's a title that this should be called giving Permission. Oh, let's all go do a book together and write a book called giving Permission. All right, let's do it. I'll get it to never
One Ocean does the pictures. Yeah, we can combine your show and then Ronnie's going to do the whole thing and all the photography. There you go. That's what happens when you're a room full of people that are inspired, right, inspired. I think it's interesting because I think the inn is on the inside, right, It's like we're so inspired. Anyways, just wrapping up, I absolutely love this. This is going to be such a quick question, Such a quick question. You don't have a lot of time to decide. We
all know how much I love music. I want to ask that question. You're on your way to a desert island, desert on you, You and you, you and you one suitcase. You got room for one album to stick in that suitcase that you couldn't imagine not listening to for the rest of your days. What's that album going to be? You can? You can give me a singer's name. You don't remember the album if you don't want, because if I do, everyone gives me greatest hits. But what's one album, Ocean,
I'm gonna start with you. What's one album that you just absolutely would wouldn't want to live without?
Mine always keeps changing every time I feel like on this show, but most of the time I gotta stick with it's either this one or Michael Jackson. But All Eyes on Me by tufauc I just I listen to every single day, all right.
All right, and Carol, you know what, I've just been singing this lightly and to your boint Ocean, I change every time I'm on this fabulous and my answer is going to be I've been seeing a lot of our house, which is Grosby Sales Nash.
All right, Crosby Seals Nash, you gotta love it. And Ronnie wrap it up.
You know this name just keeps popping up in my head over and over again. Anything Pink Floyd?
Oh yeah right, yeah wow.
Well, look, I want to thank you so much. I'm going to talk to the audience a little bit here. Thank you for again hanging out with us during an amazing show. Look, we've just been able to announce this. You know, Devdruman dot com. If you want to be sitting where these incredible people are, go there, but now you are going to see by the time you watch this at the TV show the Women's Channel which is for women and those that support women. So I'm expecting
that to be everybody, right. We have a groageous Women's channel. If you want to be seen here, if you want to be seen on the summits, if you want to come onto the show, if you want to do a three part mini series, if you want to do whatever you want to do for us. It's just about creating platforms so you and your passion can get seen. If there's anything that I know at all is that could take some years off your business. That's what we're about.
We're just like we're all the backstage. I've done lots of front stage. Let's just be your backstage and help you get out on your front stage. There's lots of ways that you do that. You know that your audience you listen to support.
So let's go find your your favorite music, go find your favorite album and the gmai's most phone, let me know what that is like that makes I think you guess the audience absolutes.
Next week and as always I want to see well and maybe