Corie Sheppard Podcast
Corie Sheppard Podcast
Episode 224 | Conrad Baird of Affordable Imports
In this episode, we sit with Conrad Baird, founder of Affordable Imports Studios, for an inspiring deep dive into grit, growth, and creative entrepreneurship.
After being ousted from an accounting job he loved, Conrad pivoted hard — starting off by buying and selling equipment, then quickly expanding into audio-visual rentals.
What began with selling out of a van in Uncle Beddoe's carpark soon evolved into Affordable Imports Studios, a full-fledged creative space that has hosted this podcast and many others, along with videographers, photographers, content creators, cabnival bands and artists across Trinidad & Tobago.
🔊 Press play to hear how Conrad turned loss into legacy, and hustle into a hub for creatives as he continues to build and grow.
I've been here for a while and we're talking to a lot of different artists, a lot of different personalities around the carnival and the culture right and one of the things that I keep hearing people saying some of the naysayers they say carnival and the culture right. And one of the things that I keep hearing people saying some of the naysayers they say carnival is not a business and Calypso is not a business and Soka is not a business. So part of my mission is to see some people who are in the business, who might be behind the scenes, who you might never have seen before, and this is one of them fellas, hey, conrad Baird, how are you going?
Speaker 2:sir, I'm all right man, you good Glad to be here, man.
Speaker 1:Good, good, good. You're always here, you know.
Speaker 2:You're always here.
Speaker 1:Don't say glad to be here. Like you're now show up night, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what it is.
Speaker 1:I'm in front of the camera.
Speaker 2:Glad to be in front of the camera.
Speaker 1:That's wrong. Glad to have you in. I'm out my bedroom, out of focus, in the dark things shining off the top of my head and so on, and how things looking professional. This is the guy, One of them.
Speaker 2:One of them. He's a part of our team. I thought.
Speaker 1:Who's your team again?
Speaker 2:We have Kyle, we have Che. Recently we added a guy named Aaron. He's part-time, but it's an excellent small team we have. We hit hard considering the size, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah so there's a team behind affordable import studios, right pretty much, at least in the operations.
Speaker 1:You still have people in the community and everybody still that supports of course, of course, of course, and of course we'll talk about some of the people who use this studio as well. But I want to get into your journey and how you got here and all that. But behind the scenes for Carnival, let me ask you about your season. When I have Calypso, you always ask them how their season went. How was your Carnival season?
Speaker 2:Carnival was a unique experience. I mean every year something slightly different, but this year, I would say, because we do the rentals especially, that was very busy. Carnival from, I'll say Friday night, friday night, and I have to specify night. Yeah, carnival, we've been just going, going, going.
Speaker 2:Technically it hasn't ended because, now have Carnival for up the islands. People are shooting content and if you think about anytime you see a costume online, what you're seeing is somebody in a studio capturing that. So everybody involved the models, the photographer, designer, the people who assist the designers, the bar owners, all that yeah, they are a huge. I mean it's a huge effort and it's still ongoing.
Speaker 1:Carnival is good though, no complaints. Now you say Carnival Friday night and you stopped it. But if I remember, remember right, you would say carnival saturday, carnival sunday, carnival monday, monday tuesday, and we haven't stopped here technically, yeah so you know half days over the studio pretty much open every day pretty much, I would say, for content creators.
Speaker 2:There's no rest and sometimes 10 o'clock any night. We get a message you know how do I do this, or you're available yeah so there's no rest um carnival, especially, like I said, because there are so many different carnivals. They have nothing, nothing, yeah they are nothing hill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, grenada supposed to be sometime soon exactly and content needs to be out well in advance for for them to advertise. And you know, know, get the numbers up Gotcha. So it's almost a year-round thing. The only time you may get a break is closer to say Christmas. But yeah, we've been just going at it, but that's good.
Speaker 1:We were talking about the business model, right? Because that is one of the things it's very intriguing to me personally, because I always, every time I come in, I notice I always ask who only had this morning who coming next. You know what I mean, because it's very, very it's fascinating for me to see. But that we be talking about Carnival a little bit, but your content people who might use this studio for content is really really wide ranging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one of the unique things we've been blessed with. Our clients technically are content creators and because content creation could be used for so many different um industries. You just sometimes we really are amazed at who is walking through the door. At times you just never know. So we now speak about carnival. It could be a soca artist, so we're still in Canterbury, but then we have so many local R&B artists. We have gospel and that's just music. Yeah. Then you have to consider you have persons who are celebrating their birthdays, sometimes a family. They want to have a nice family photo shoot. It just ruins it.
Speaker 1:It's a wide range. There's some maternity shoots going on too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maternity, that just got me frightened.
Speaker 1:That's the ones that I want to get out quick, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Make sure and get your maternity shoot done early. Don't wait until the belly big, big, big to come and do your shoot. Serious what's the issue? Okay, so I know a lot of the mothers. They want to look ripe, of course, but then you're tired, you're tired and you can't keep up. No, it's not easy at 8.5, 8 months to be moving with that belly, you know.
Speaker 2:I say the right time and I could be corrected because there are some experience. Like you wouldn't believe. We have world-class maternity photographers even in Trinidad, right here I would say it's around like five, six months. The belly is showing, but it's not huge.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Yeah Well, I can tell you how hard it is to walk around with a belly for years, you know, I mean I, I'm an expert I don't need a consultant to help them with energy. You just let me know yeah, we'll bring in a little master class or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I need a little master class.
Speaker 1:I remember coming here the first time with um salute to cassius. Yeah, cassius rocheford came in and we did a photo shoot for the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Rush photography and before, yeah, yeah, rush photography. And before then, right, I'm looking from the outside at a photo shoot and seeing really the final product and not understanding what goes into it, right? And I remember coming and we started to take the first few photos and Cassius was like Corey, there's no normal energy when you record it, and I'm not thinking of what it takes just to. You know it's an act, you know you had to be prepped.
Speaker 2:Well, it's weird enough. You say it's an act. So it depends on what you're trying to bring out in a person. Sometimes you actually don't want them to act. You want them to just feel comfortable. Yeah, just be natural. Be natural if you will. And the minute you tell somebody, be natural now, they get all stiff right, they climb up now. So the girls stuff right. Yeah, there's this other clam up, like I said, but when you think about it you are not familiar with the studio space, so I don't know if you realize. Recently we tried to make it a little bit more homey and certain parts of the studio.
Speaker 2:yeah, the idea is that persons are comfortable. They feel as though I just home in my living rooms and then you come in and you know you have a decent time. But that is a huge thing. We have studio sessions as short as one hour and some people be like, yeah, it's more than enough. But when you consider the fact that this person has to get comfortable, they have to feel like you know, yeah, I can let my guard down a little bit. That's why and I'm going to let out some secrets Photographers are like I just take another shot. I just take another shot. There's no real shooters at that time. They're looking for, they're trying to just get you in your comfortable state Gotcha?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because from the time you say, hey, I take any shot, they'll be like, yeah, I felt it today.
Speaker 1:I felt it today, but I will say that you and your team amazing job getting people comfortable from the car park, from the gate. I'm starting to see the little signs behind it a little more, as I hear often. I appreciate it. One of the things I appreciate a lot is that you all will and it was almost awkward the first time. You all did it but the people who live in or the people who come in after me, you all always introduce everybody, I mean, and make it kind of the networking and the homeliness of it. That helps a lot.
Speaker 2:You're in the space the last thing you want to do is just pass somebody by. You never know again. You never know who you're passing on. We have had many instances where we've had people I didn't see you in years you know how long I didn't see you and they forget about the photo shoot or the video. Sometimes it's as simple as a hey, good day. You know that, courtesy again, you're entering a space, you're leaving a space. You want to have a good energy if you will. You know, sometimes we talk about energy. It's just a matter of you leaving behind. If you're leaving, um, this, this perspective, that is, you know, accommodating homely, yeah I would say that energy is felt.
Speaker 1:I can tell you that as a customer is really, really felt. And before I get into your origins and how you got here, let me talk about your revenue model a little bit now. I like to. When I'm doing business class, I like to get to the money fast so that students understand why we in this place. Wow, so your revenue model structured around one rent and all the studio space and you said there's a multi very different things you would do in the studio space you have several podcasts.
Speaker 1:You have different photo shoots, video shoots and so on. Right, yeah, uh, from what I could glean as well, your model, your other revenue stream, would be renting equipment. That's correct. There's just those two models, or?
Speaker 2:well, initially, affordable imports started with sales. Yeah, a little bit of consulting, in a sense, because what we discovered is a lot of customers simply don't know what they want. You're talking about me now, but keep going. They have an idea, you know, but at the end of the day, without the expertise of somebody who's more familiar, they're kind of of left floating around. And then equipment, especially for photo and video, is not cheap. So you're talking about somebody saving for six months, a year plus, and they just come, and you know it's tough to just depart with that money and walk away, at least for me.
Speaker 2:I always try to put myself in the position of the customer. I mean, sometimes they overdo it, they want to get of the customer. I mean, sometimes they overdo it, they want to get all the information. Or, later, youtube, now Go on YouTube the thing before you come and ask me. But seriously, though, that's where we got our start really. That's why we are stuck with this name affordable imports From the sales, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of strange for some people when they say affordable imports have a studio. It's like why? And that's kind of like a result of, just over the years, expanding, trying new things. So now, yes, we have this name. That's on like a car dealership affordable imports but we have a studio. So, as I mentioned, we have the renters, we have the sales side, as I mentioned earlier. We have the renters. Uh, we have the sales side, as I mentioned earlier. Uh, we have the studio. We also, because of the renters, sometimes end up on film sets, right, um, video sets. We do a little bit of gaffering, um, not everybody will understand what that is, but it's mostly to deal with the lights on a film set, okay, and then we would sometimes like consult again. Um, even so, for corporate clients Gotcha, I'm the average guy on the ground. Sometimes they reach out to us. You know what you think about.
Speaker 1:That's a very common question Well, yeah, I would imagine.
Speaker 2:So your third revenue stream looking at is really the expertise I would say that, yeah, yeah, the expertise, and because of the studio now and that's the latest product technically we have been exposed even more so to creative, so along the way we would pick up stuff. You know, we don't just come and say, yeah, we know everything, no, no, no, we observe and we implement as we go along.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's something I appreciate. Here there's a lot of fixing I always talk in business about. You had to fix the tire while you're driving.
Speaker 2:And I feel that way here a lot.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. We're trying to figure it out together, which is appreciated. It feels supported because you're right, like for me personally. I'll tell you how I met Conrad initially. Right, one day must be mash up a memory stick or something. I can't remember where this happened and Cassie herself told me call this person you could get, because before then it was Amazon. But of course I recorded every week them times. So I can't wait. I need something today to put an episode next week and I call and when I call, you spoke to me and you say, yeah, I know the podcast and I saw it Right. And you gently suggested he's like how far are you from the wall behind you? Yeah, it's his way of saying the thing looking terrible. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:No, and there's something I've been trying to implement in my life I try not to tell people stuff because I have my own opinion. So I like to ask questions. Yeah, it goes a long way, right, it helps, because you may have an idea, but you don't have the full, you don't know the circumstances. So you're thinking, yeah, I know what you're talking about, but you didn't ask the question. Next thing, you want that wall in your shirt. Of course you love that wall and I tell you you move away from that wall Immediately.
Speaker 1:I alienate you from what you want to do, of course. Of course, when I did a course one time on effective personal productivity, a management course designed to get people from supervision and middle management up to senior levels, and there was a whole module on asking questions and how powerful that is Because, as you rightly say, if you tell somebody something they're more likely to kind of clam up, they might get defensive. Yeah, because the thing about it is, like you rightly say, a client here like myself, I kind of know what I want in the end and it's a very vague version of what I want. So one of the things I appreciate being here is that I could come and say the outcome I want and not worry about the technical side of it, because I don't know the technical side.
Speaker 1:When you start to tell me about ice, get frightened. One side, I don't understand it right. So if you say I started off initially doing sales, I want to go back to your background, because one of my experiences in booking guests which is difficult to do you had a real follow-up with people. Get the times right, get you know. All the stars are aligned for you to get a guess here right, but one of the things that has always happened is I say they say we're doing it, and I send them the location and they say oh, that's by Conrad Right, you know what I mean, and that makes life easier. I'll tell you that. Okay, but your name is starting to get synonymous with this, so I want to ask your background.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned audiovisual and to me as a young person growing up, I would tinker with technical stuff. You know, just a typical young man coming up. You just you like electronics, you're into it a little bit. That was my extent of training before this. Yeah. Yeah, it's just because you just have that natural inkling for you know messing with stuff a little bit, how it works, why this works this way what works best.
Speaker 1:So in what area you grew up in? Um, I grew up in a place called Lacano in Santa Cruz, oh nice you're a part of it, man.
Speaker 2:You know these are my heartbeats. All right, yeah, the Lara brothers. It's a place where it's lower. Some people say it's Sanwa, it's not the. I would say it's the lower middle class, even lower end of society.
Speaker 2:In terms of, like, what people could do economically, sure, and I was exposed to Sanwa through school. I see, yeah, so Sanwa, it depends. I basically went to school in Sanwa my whole life, from prep school all the way up to secondary. Oh, okay, yeah, I'm not sure how far you want to go back with it. Well, what primary school and secondary school you went to Sanwa, sda, because I was born and grown SDA, right, and then, Sanwa government, I think now it's now San Juan South.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and the reason why I mentioned school and so on is because that's when I was exposed to another type of person, if you will, because you grew up in one area, but then, because of school, you know, you started to become familiar with oh, they have that, that exists. Yeah, so I was exposed to a different type of people from probably Aranguas, sikoro and Barataria and I would say it seriously impacted me because I came from a home where my father's a contractor, my mother's a nurse and daddy was always a businessman of sorts, an entrepreneur, and he would have always advocated for me to become an accountant. Yeah, you know, yeah, so I actually am an accountant in training at a professional life.
Speaker 2:Uh, didn't complete acc also went into acc and it's true that I was exposed to different industries as well. Just like creators, accountants tend to have a wide range of clientele.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So you started to see different businesses.
Speaker 2:the insights Started to see different businesses, but it's so weird how life happens. Sometimes you study for one thing and you just end up somewhere else because of how life happens, and you're just kind of like narrowing down your path in terms of what you want to do. So because of my job as an accountant, I ended up working with a shipping company and through that I understood logistics, and that's where I was able to now marry that knowledge with camera and video equipment, which is a whole other story.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't want to get too deep into it, because then we could talk for hours but essentially what it is is just me narrowing down over time and picking up those skills here, a little knowledge there, and applying it to something that could eventually earn money. I mean, growing up I would sell CDs. I remember we used to make photocopies in Sauer 25 cents, and then you're trying to sell back the Ninja Turtle drawing 75 cents little things like that, you know.
Speaker 2:So that entrepreneurial spirit was always there from you, yeah, a little bit, a little bit and, as I would say, I'll give dad the credit. As much as he wanted to be an accountant, he was also always kind of like, advocating for me to understand how to make money, because he used to say something I'll never forget. He said at the hotel you see, you see walking, busing concrete and taking and thing, but in his role it's not just the labor intensive part, you have to use your brain, of course, and that's what something daddy saw. He said. If anything, I would at least use your brain because you have to use it and you know, once you get older, the other way out, you're out there having to bust concrete and things. Yeah, you know. So you say it's mashup your body. That's what you used to always say. So you say work hard, work hard in school and try and get education and through that.
Speaker 2:Now, um, I live a kind of soft life, you know, and I've already had much like physical um excision and probably like gym and other exercise and so on. But to get back on topic, through my exposure to the again shipping company, I was able to understand logistics, started bringing in equipment and it's so weird how everything comes together. You know, looking back now it's like, was this meant to be? And I honestly sometimes wonder if like entrepreneurship is like 20, 20 percent luck, you think. So yeah, it's weird how things happen. I would have never. If you asked me about this about 15 years ago, I would have never thought, no, no, I, I wait, I own a studio it don't make sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's something I come I always intrigued by and and that's why when we spoke almost one of the first times I come here I say, connor, they're gonna come on the podcast and I had to tell people about his journey because I think you're fortunate, like myself, to have a father who plant that seed and you're very young. But the truth is, if we have a society full of people who might not fathers, who are entrepreneurs, how do they, how are they exposed, how do they know who is there to tell the average that you could do it? I think plenty people don't believe is something that you could do and they also sometimes see, I always talk about this one percent thing on the podcast we don't see the top income earners in the country or the top entrepreneurs. Yeah, we almost just see them as real people.
Speaker 1:We see them as fantasies yeah, uh, figments of imagination, boogie men even sometimes boogie men even worse, because I mean you can't be that or you can't do that, you don't want to be some people, of course, because they figure, you know, money is the root of all evil yeah, so you stay away from it, yeah and I have a big issue with that because, in my opinion, you can't tell me, tell me I'm bound to be poor.
Speaker 2:That is something that has always bothered me. I thought about it recently and that has been something that I almost I hate that. I fear that almost Because you're saying, essentially because I was born in a certain place, or I look a certain way, or I came from these people, I'm not supposed to have any progress in life, I'm supposed to be that, stay there, and to me that's scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who invent that. So thank God for fathers who would tell us these things. And you know it's funny. You say they tell you, don't go and break your back in construction. You ever notice. Like, talk to entrepreneurs, right, most of them will tell you they do what they're trying to do what they're doing Because it's tough, it's hard, you see that, but Okay.
Speaker 2:So being in the studio again it has allowed me to get some unique experiences. And I remember at one time, at one point in time, we had another podcast, fair enough, and the guy came from abroad and he was interviewing a 1%, joe yeah, and the 1% walked through the door and I was like, but this guy normal.
Speaker 1:That's what we need to show more of.
Speaker 2:This guy normal, just like me and you right. Corey more normal than me, so I'm like okay.
Speaker 2:And it's so weird because of what I do um, at least my role in the business I oftentimes have to walk away, set up, get you going, you're comfortable, and walk away and let my guys deal with you. But I found myself sitting in on the spot so I had like a front row seat to understand what it takes, and I will never forget one of the things he he was talking about is how much you mentioned fathers. Again, he was speaking about how much his father basically influenced his progress and what he does right. So just to give a quick synopsis without giving away too much, essentially his father is into construction as well, so so immediately I'm like whoa parallels. And then he's like the needle rose where they would have to have cleanups after they do a job his father. So he would find himself doing that portion of the business. They naturally already do it, but then it was a business now that he realized he could offer to other parties rather than he just have it under his father's business. So he now goes and register the business and he starts implementing systems and hiring the right people, and one of the things he said that stuck with me was the most important things in the hiring process are managers, because they are essentially your representative on the ground rather than you trying to manage everybody. You're just basically talking about the structure of his business.
Speaker 2:I won't go too much into it because that's not our podcast, but what I really took from it is how much you have to look for a need and essentially commoditize it. It's as simple as that. You know a lot of people. They try to work with their passion and you hear people say you know, as long as you love what you do, you won't work a day in your life. But as much as that is true to an extent, it sometimes is difficult to commoditize something.
Speaker 1:It might be hard to pay Exactly. It's hard to figure out sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really tough and he was going on and on about how the business ran and his influence and when you really look at it, or when I listen to him a bit, it wasn't just his father, it started from even before his grandfather Of course, yeah, and that is one thing.
Speaker 2:I give props to certain communities. They understand succession planning and they understand that this is not just for me, it's for generations down the road. I think that's where a lot of the one percent have it um on us, where you and you really think and I'm saying us because I want to be a one- of course I like with you.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you say that so you can leave miles on an island.
Speaker 2:I I don't understand. I mean, I know it's not achievable for everybody, because then it's not one percent right, yeah, it'll be 99.
Speaker 2:But what I really admire about certain cultures is they understand that it's not just me. So you mentioned that people would say, or parents would say, I don't really want my children to do what I'm doing, which is true, but when you really think about it, if you are doing in writing, why wouldn't you want them to do it? Because it's true, but when you really think about it, if you are doing in writing, why wouldn't you want them to do it?
Speaker 1:because it's the next generation you have to consider of course yeah, and sometimes you see communities who build their lives around getting the children they matriculate right into the business exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it would. Yeah, and you, you would look at somebody on the floor, a child on the floor of the business place, and I'm like why is this child not back playing? Or they're doing what they're supposed to do? Yeah, they're playing, in a sense, exactly. They're learning the business, they're understanding the business. Sometimes you go into a restaurant and you see the child on the floor doing the homework yeah, something I'd always admired about Chinese restaurants in St James.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where I used to see there was one little girl. I knew she would be a little younger than me, right, and she used to be a little child. On the counter when you go to buy food, Until she went convent and then she would be cashed.
Speaker 1:Right, and then as I started to go to business school, she was running her place. Imagine that. So I always looked at lot and I appreciated it. I can't imagine what her five years was like since she's five years old Because she learned in logistics, delivery, customer service, accounting, finance, a thousand hours.
Speaker 1:Of course, by now, while I'm paying a thousand, she's paying ten, yeah, so running her business is going to be, and you know where. You see it. A lot, too. You see the younger generations with her. For instance, that restaurant's still where it was on the main road, but she went on to launch other businesses that shadow the business that her parents had at the time. So it's something that I'm always intrigued by. So I want to go back to when you said you went to school and you were exposed to different people who impacted you. Who are some of those other people?
Speaker 2:So, again, because of growing up in Lackanope, it's predominantly Afro-Tunnel audience, gotcha, and there's a certain culture that goes along with that. It's village life, right Village life, pretty much. We still have roosters.
Speaker 1:Literally roosters, literally I have roosters in my neighborhood up to this morning I would hear the roosters, so it's proper country, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, that's actually one of the the things I've been blessed with. When you think about it, of course, um, I still live in lakano and it kind of forces you to understand that, as much as you're meeting with a multi-millionaire today, you're still grounded as in. You know what's on the, what's going on around you, and it doesn't sound bad. But one of my neighbours still has a latrine. Yeah, one of my next door neighbours country life, country proper thing.
Speaker 1:You experienced it different when you went through that. Yeah, I have a different life experience and it's weird.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know and I don't want to say I grew up poor, because that would be like a disservice to my parents and they tried to achieve but I didn't realize how much more wealth existed out there growing up. Because I always find it so strange that you know some people in the neighborhood will look at us and say I'm doing good and you know they treat us a certain way, but when they reach outside they realize, bro, and I think that's one of the things that I really want to like, I want to focus on in traveling and realize and experience what it's like to live in this, where I realize I mean not necessarily living like to go and live, but just to be exposed to a different type of living, to try and expand what is possible. Because you're growing up in this box. As far as you're concerned, this was in this box. Are the world, is the whole world, is your in this box? As far as you're concerned, the walls in this box are the world, it's the whole world, it's your whole world.
Speaker 2:And it's only when you really travel outside and get to be familiar with other things then you realize there's way more to life than this box. So I would have grown up, as I said, in a more Afrocentric, afro for Trinbago community and because of school, our Anguas and our Sikora are predominantly East Indians. So then I was exposed to a lot more kumus. You know garden, just simple things like sada Sure, you know, we would say you know some sada bake or whatever.
Speaker 2:Like no, it's sada roti and there's this whole discourse right there, takari, and then you know aloo. I didn't know anything about aloo until I went to school?
Speaker 1:No, of course.
Speaker 2:Because I know, like potato, you know little things like that. And then because of that, now the exposure I'll never forget I had a friend named Kenneth. He was he is a serial entrepreneur in a sense, thanks, and where he would have gone to school with us in Salon Sec, um, but his brothers and they did these random, like real weird things, and Kenneth, I wouldn't say he wasn't the brightest, he still did well, still scored well, excellent actually, in certain things, um, but before I know it, um, we left school and we always had this thing we still always go by him for diwali and again, of course, you don't know about that at all and then he would have been, um, enrolled with prisons and even though this man in prisons, he have a garden up in, I think, the hawk at our side with the uncle, and so, out of school he's already starting to do business and he started talking about buying land and things. So, whereas a lot of people that I'm close to or near my community are speaking about, you know, getting their first car, he's already talking about land in las lomas and how we had to go and plant garden early in the morning, before the sun come up. We had to go and deal with the garden before we could go in prisons, and so he's making a decent bank and he has his own things as well. He's still into cars and whatever.
Speaker 2:But I will never forget there was one day while we went by Kenneth and we were looking all over Aranguas and I was like, look at land out there, wow, there's just so much of garden land that is the back of our anglers back then. And I remember one of my friends. He was saying like you know, you can't really buy that land because you don't have no approvals and whatnot. And I was like that's weird approvals. I don't understand nothing about that. I was like, okay, that's where it takes its own land. And if you look at the back of our Angles, no, it's a commercial industry, it's just industrial land. You see warehouses and stuff spanning apartments and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And what you got to understand, especially in Trinidad once you have that entrepreneurial spirit, you find a way. You know you find a way. And it's not so much that you can't do nothing. You can't do this, you can't do that is. You now have to figure out how do I get this to happen so I could do that. So it's kind of like you're just constantly fitting puzzle pieces together and trying to figure out how am I going to get to where? I really want to do this, I'm going to do that. And's what stood out to me as one of the things like as much as the official way of doing things. You can't do that. It oftentimes just needs an entrepreneur to come through and say you know, the back of our hand doesn't make a hell of an industrial zone and you know you have NP and a whole lot of business.
Speaker 1:Everybody is a whole commercial space now.
Speaker 2:A commercial space, as I say, and over the highway and stuff. That was Swamp man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It always stood out to me that essentially you would think that this is impossible, but somebody out there sees an opportunity.
Speaker 1:Well, where we are now. If you go back far enough, this was a real, real residential area as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so now this is a whole commercial precisely.
Speaker 1:And you know, I read somewhere whether you tell yourself you can or you tell yourself you can't, you're right, so it's the mentality and the thing about it like something we talk about a lot in entrepreneurial class, right is there's this portion of the class where you talk about the entrepreneurial spirit. I find it to be one of the more difficult things to teach, right, because you find that you have people like yourself who take the chance and do it. It's like riding a bike, you know they say tacit learning. Yeah, you can't explain to somebody how to ride a bike. You had to go there, you had to fall, you had to get back up, you had to experience. So even when you talk about because you're talking about the exposure you get from just going to school, yeah, but I put somebody else in that same environment and they meet the same people and they hear the same things and they still never take some of the things. You know, everybody's perspective is so different.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. It's amazing how your experience the exact same thing, the same factors. How much your prior experience like would you say circumstances. Yeah, the same factors. How much your prior experience like, would you say circumstances make you retire. So it's amazing how somebody would see you know a open door as an invitation and the next person would see that as an invitation to come in.
Speaker 1:And teeth when you're looking, yeah, or somebody see it as a threat, yeah. So it's the difference between seeing a problem or opportunity or obstacle, and opportunity circle and an opportunity. So when you say you, you naturally, because even talking about it you already trained to say now you could figure it out, this idea that you can't do it. Because your first question when somebody's telling you can't is probably like why?
Speaker 2:why not? Or why what we need to do? Yeah, yeah, yeah to make that a yes of course, of course so you went through that school heading for accounting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get into accounting, yeah, right. So I want to go to the edge. Right, the edge is a scary place for most people. I think people might underestimate how scary it is for people who have their own business as well the logistics company you were in. Where did you start seeing the opportunity in this space? So what?
Speaker 2:I noticed was sorry. What I noticed was I tried to get a camera in trinidad and it was difficult, it wasn't impossible, but it was difficult, but for what's why you was looking for a camera, just personal use, yeah just personal use.
Speaker 2:So I was. I am into cars and I just sold off my, my precious. I had a sports car and I was looking for another hobby and it always struck me that you know there are so many and so weird. My father was into photography as well, growing up, than a sports car and I was looking for another hobby and it always struck me that you know there are so many and it's so weird. My father was into photography as well, growing up, when I was trying to get a camera. I just couldn't find one. So me now trying to be resourceful, I remember after a week or two and the people on them computer, I'm trying to buy a camera. I'm buying it straight from Nikon and Canon. I'm doing a little bit of research, google, whatever and I can't buy the thing Because Trinidad, credit cards. In Trinidad, they are blocked from purchasing stuff through those websites. They are basically USA only. That's back then.
Speaker 1:Oh the sites have Trinidad and Couches.
Speaker 2:They actually can't purchase certain things using a train of credit card, okay, from those sites. And then I realized there were other sites, third-party sites, and then I realized there were used examples of it and I was like this is so weird and it well enough. Back then facebook marketplace wasn't really a thing. There were facebook groups and whatever. So, again trying to be resourceful, and people spend so much time watching crap on TikTok, on Instagram, whatnot, and they don't realize they literally have all the tools they need right there, Especially now right, it's so weird.
Speaker 2:I mean, oh, you know what I also? I'll say it my mother was instrumental and me reading. I read a lot growing up, a lot of reading. So um, I I know I don't read books as much, but I read a lot of online stuff, a lot of forums, a lot of information I try and capture. But anyway, long story short short. I found a facebook group one day. I had like 400 members or whatever, and it was something about selling, sell and use equipment to an extent as local local.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. And eventually what happened because a long story short is I brought in equipment for myself because I wasn't finding what I wanted locally and then I needed to upgrade. So I said I remember your Facebook group, I'll sell it on there. And it went quick. Yeah, okay, I was like that's weird. I'm paying much attention because I have my job, I'm doing everything as I supposed to do, as I am. You're walking, you have something to roll around in, are you going home? After you might hit a gym, you go and watch a show, you sleep, whatever. I say all this to say that eventually, what happened is I realized there was an opportunity for reselling equipment in france. So I, so I had my own equipment, but I was bringing stuff just to sell. It wasn't for me.
Speaker 1:So you were going to bring it in to sell in that same Facebook group, that same.
Speaker 2:Facebook group and, before you know it, that group started to expand rapidly because you're getting a lot of content creators coming up. So it's kind of like, again, I figured I was lucky, coming at just the right time, because there are photographers before me, there are people selling equipment before me. Again, there have been so many of what I am before me, but it was almost like the perfect storm where a knowledge of accounting, a knowledge of logistics, a knowledge about the equipment on Facebook, meeting a lot of people and still offering a kind of friendly service and eventually, word of mouth and it still is to this day to be our best marketing tool where the group has now reached 12,000 plus members and everybody in the group at a point in time was, and still to this day, was like ask Conrad, ask Conrad, ask Conrad. So this is not new. No, it's not, and you're talking about like 10 years ago. I see I was looking back recently to see where I had some earlier posts and I think I had back to 2014. And it was kind of like a reminder of like you know, we came from real far. I didn't realize like the time flies so quickly when you're having fun, when you're doing too. Yeah, and it was.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't lie. One of the most fun thing about me for business is meeting different people and just absorbing a little bit of them every like along the way. I meet some really excellent. I don't like to use the word friend lightly, but I meet some friends along the way, some people I'm like to this day. I'm amazed that yo, I know this man 10 years and I don't even know Like I reach home and people live in room.
Speaker 2:I remember, especially in Saudi, I have some people that hospitality in saudi is different. Of course, I would never forget um, kieran yip, now kyn photography. Um, I reached by him and it was a job I can't remember if it was paper memory card or something and he had a bottle of water. I would never forget pulling up in a yard and he has a bottle of water there waiting and we end up in old talk and to this day, kieran on the message and say, hey, how you going, nice, you know, and the relationships have been blessed to like accumulate over the years.
Speaker 2:It's really amazing when I think about it, I really think I'm blessed, I'm lucky. Um, some people would cite the customer service that friendly that hospitality has as being one of the reasons why they still work at affordable imports. Um, but it has been amazing. It's an amazing journey. Um, it didn't feel like 10 years. No, it don't feel like 10 years. And even going back, like I was like I did that right, you sure, like wow, I used to go south like three times a week after work, any night.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I'm coming back up the road like 10 o'clock in the night after I went to work in the morning yeah, of course, because when you first start doing that, even though the group expanding, you have your day job, you have to do it, you have to do it outside. It's weekend and nights, kind of thing weekend night sometime.
Speaker 2:I can't talk right now. That's fine, got it, and it's so weird.
Speaker 1:So so, when did you get to the point where you start to accept that you had to leave the job?
Speaker 2:so that is something I I never accepted. Yeah, I always felt probably the entrepreneur in me like I could make this work while I I still have good I see I see um, and it wasn't.
Speaker 2:And I'll be honest, I mean, if somebody from my last job is watching it wasn't a comfortable process at all. I still sometimes think back on it. I see, I see, but I did consider some people as real friends, right, probably more so than just professional. You know um persons that you work with. But what happened was I was almost forced out to extent it's kind of like um, because affordable imports grew to where it was. I had no choice but to leave.
Speaker 2:So at that point you have registered affordable imports and everything yeah affordable imports was registered, so I was riding dirty for a while depositing money, commingling the funds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, commingling. Put this in the front of the episode and make it a clip.
Speaker 2:You're commingling funds, you're just riding dirty. You're doing what you had to do. I reached so fast. I had a um. I had an excel sheet with the coordinates of the different bank atms for me to deposit money throughout the country, because you can't deposit low. Yeah, you can't go same place every time and you're making up all these weird systems. All right, this account, this, this atm, will be one thousand.
Speaker 1:That one will be 2 000, figuring it out when it hit.
Speaker 2:So, at a weird point in time, I could tell you which atm how long it takes for them to clear it, and so I started on the sandbank yeah, of course, as you go and you're riding duty, but then there's no studio and so it's just you selling and selling equipment at that point back just made me back of a cab bro so you get sold, you drop it off yeah, you're just riding dirty. I remember um I had a my mother's Nissan Laurel, she let me use and it had a.
Speaker 2:It had a mopstick holding up the trunk because it folded so much boxes it busts busted spring holding up the trunk Nice nice and sometimes it would just slam down bam. I meet real people like that. I can imagine, you know. Yeah, it's amazing, I ain't getting robbed. You know it's amazing because Knock on wood.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're not speaking out of existence, but when you think about it as an entrepreneur, you're just studying, I just need to get this done. You just had to get it done. You just had to get it done and because I enjoyed it so much, it really didn't feel like a task. When, I would use an example, I remember we had a delivery. I was supposed and this is when things are running fairly proper Sure, proper the courier is supposed to deliver to is this fireplace in South. I, the courier, was supposed to deliver to this far place in the south I can't remember the name right now. We're talking two hours drive, yeah, two hours drive from where we are based in Samoa.
Speaker 2:And since the start of the week, the man said show this thing, go on reach on Friday and need us for weekend. He's like yeah, yeah, go reach, courier, go reach. And the courier and I go reach. So the Thursday I was like hey, you delivering this thing today. He's like what are you talking about? There was some mix up. I think it was on all part and I'll never forget. I was like I talked to my guys. I was like do you have this? He said yeah. He said alright, good, and I left the office here and so on. I went and delivered personally, just the expression. I remember the man come out from the side of, like his farmland, where they had some galvanized fencing. I see the fence open, other galvanized open. He come out, pull in the chair. He say boy, if you know how thankful and poor reason a little bit, you know how grateful I am for this.
Speaker 1:It's so amazing.
Speaker 2:I always try to make that affordable import where we're not just selling you something, it's like we be making it happen. It's part of the experience where you understand we understand that it's not just you departing money for a product.
Speaker 1:You need this, yeah there's some purpose behind it, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, there's purpose. I like that, um, I think that is what defines affordable imports understanding the customers purpose, um, what they need from us, our, our purpose in their life, and just meeting those targets, like there's nothing else to me in business that matters. Of course you have to pay bills, you want to upgrade, you want to progress, you want to do new things, but I think to me that is the pinnacle of entrepreneurship solving somebody's problems so much so that you are the only person that could have done it, of course, of course.
Speaker 2:And I think that's where, like when I get older, probably when I'm ready to retire, I send you something or eat something. That is all I look for, where somebody will come back and say you know, because of you, my father was able, and if it wasn't for your business, this would have never happened To me. That's the ultimate.
Speaker 1:Well, you're living that. I told you that Almost the first or second time I record here, I say, conor, they're making dreams come true. You don't understand how long this has been a dream for me, seriously, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So sometimes I'm in this space and I don't remember to focus on the forced out from your, from your business, for a job. Was it because of the business you were running on his side?
Speaker 2:yes, because I couldn't concentrate as much, and I would admit that I could not concentrate or give my, my job, as much attention as it deserved, right? Yeah, it's just the whole way it happened. Again, I wish it didn't, but it is what it is, life. And yeah, you can't really harp on that. As much as I say it still bothers me to an extent. You can't really harp on that as much as I say it still bothers me to an extent. You can't really harp on that because in my mind I'm like what could I have done different? Could I have probably just hired out more people so I was not as involved? But everything happens for a reason, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to harp on it for a minute, you know, because there's a book I read called Fired Up. Right, when my father first started the business business, we started site up in 2005. That's the marketing business. Yeah, right, trade marketing. So what, what? What? When we first started off, we were both working at tstt, all right, and he had. We were kind of back and forth as to who should leave because we had got no contract with sony ericsson, very similar to what you're describing now.
Speaker 1:He's still working there, right, but we had to do the people work as a client, of course, and I don't want to leave because I know starting off and I don't have nothing, and he don't want to leave because he's like he had mortgage and he had children and benefits, so it's difficult, yeah, and when we, when he eventually left, we had one employee and he brought me on board, uh, first for 2000, first of january 2006 is when I had started second of january, and uh, I remember him giving me the book, fired Up to Read, and I was like, wait, we're coming to start a business. I'm excited, I want to see that. Will you give me a book for a?
Speaker 2:little book.
Speaker 1:And I read it and it was. It was a good book. It was about the emotional rollercoaster that entrepreneurs would go on, and I read it and it impacted me a lot then. But it's something that continues to impact me today Because, no matter how much years pass, the emotion that goes with business the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the excited things when things are going well and the low lows when things aren't going so well.
Speaker 1:They're difficult. So and one of the first things I fired up spoke about is just what you talk about, like making that jump. So some of us sit in a job, like my father Golden shackles is a good way to put it right the job, the benefits, the guaranteed money. I never thought about what you said. Where you spoke about maybe the entrepreneurial spirit is the reason why you hold on to the job, because you just think you could get it done. You want to hold on to both so emotionally. Now you're sort of forced out of your company. There's relationships there and so on which you had to deal with and process. Now you're on your own. You had to make your own bank. When months end, what is the emotion like there? Curious thing.
Speaker 2:So I remember there was a situation that arose and because of that situation, that's when I realized, yo, we have to leave. You know as much as other people wanted me to leave, I just thought I didn't have to. And then I was like, when that situation happened, I'm like, yeah, this is it, you can't go back there. And what was scary is the fact that, as much as the business was doing well and a lot of people speak about this you know, the first thing you need to do as an entrepreneur when you have a problem, you go on Google so you say, yeah, save six months, your salary must. It must be making twice as much as a salary and yeah, you have no depend on. So if you do, you have everything set out for them, the usual stuff and, like you said, you, you could tell somebody how to ride a bike, how much time, but as long as you never touch that pedal, you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
Speaker 2:So at that point in time, when the situation arose, I, I was like yo and I, I just spoke to my, my boss, at the time and I I mean as much as I haven't really spoken to her after. I would say publicly I love that woman to death, because she was a bit of a symbol of what I would have liked to be and she, to this day, has affected how I deal with my my guys. Yeah, because she had a as much as she's very much a professional. She had a personal touch. Um, I'll give her all the credit again, as much as I wish things happened differently. I really admired her, um, she was a huge influence on my life. But going back to that moment, I spoke to her and said I need to leave Because I was full of emotions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how scary was that meeting? Yeah, yeah, that meeting had me in tears, texting, and I admitted openly Because, again, it was something I just really didn't want to do. And I will never forget when I did handle that resignation letter, she was like like one day you'll thank me and I would never give her that credit. I hope you'll watch the video, but I would never get that credit. I would never thank you, um, but this is the thanks. Yeah, this is the time. This is as much time as you get, because it honestly is because of that. This is where we are now. I do as much as I try and think back like how this could have been different and that it it's weird how life plays out. There is no other way this could happen.
Speaker 1:No, yeah there's no other way. It's hard to you'll second guess it, because that and that's what fired up was so good. It spoke about that. Should I go? Should I go in? Should I you know? It was a weird thing.
Speaker 2:As much as I was saying, the business was doing well when I, literally as I walked out of work that day, I got caught. Hey, conrad, I have an emergency, I need you now and now. You could go yeah if I was in that position.
Speaker 1:I was so if you're still in work. You couldn't, you couldn't go and it was like it's like what was that?
Speaker 2:like telling you like, hey, I'll, hey, I'll be back, bro, I'll be back. You know I'm not the most religious person, but spiritual and I'll still give it. God, I grew up as I said. God was immediately like yo, you didn't do anything, don't worry, you're good. And I fought to it. And I was like I remember well that situation occurred, went back the very next day, hand him resignation letter, people, just like what going on thing. People, some people understood what transpired, some people, some people upset whatever, because I to an extent was a people's person and work, so some people were a little off by it and I'll. But immediately the business was like on another level again.
Speaker 2:So it was our next gear, kicking to our next gear, and I basically sold out of my van. I had bought a Hilux not too long after I was married and that's what I was selling out of oh, so you're married at this time.
Speaker 1:You're leaving the work married. What is it like going and tell your wife now you're going and do this on your own. I have to give her full props. She just took me.
Speaker 2:It was like yeah you make it happen yeah, because it's kind of like it was already happening, but I was trying to force it not to. She said, yeah, you're good, you'll be all right, be good. And she has a job. So it's like, yeah, be good, and for the next again. So now to the back of a vehicle. You're talking about meeting people from England. They come in and meet me behind out of a vehicle.
Speaker 1:At this time, it's only sales still.
Speaker 2:We're doing rentals too.
Speaker 1:Oh, you started doing rentals by that time. Rentals yeah.
Speaker 2:Even now I'm amazed to check back and see some posts where I was doing rentals before I even know I was doing rentals.
Speaker 2:It's kind of weird it's like, I know I had equipment, so why not rent it? Um, I didn't know what I was doing. I mean take some hits here and there, but it kind of worked out. It's again. It's a weird thing when I look back. Um, uh, for about, let me see, this was like around June and for about 10 months I'm running back and forth between home and a grocery Uncle Beddo's supermarket if anybody knows supermarkets, of course, in Tibet. Yeah, so I'm selling out to Uncle Beddo's car park.
Speaker 1:Oh nice yeah. So that was your meeting point, that was my meeting spot to this day To some people.
Speaker 2:Hey, I remember you from my Beddo's Nice.
Speaker 1:It's weird when I look back and say, bro, you really did that. It feels surreal. Right, it's surreal.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's a 6 in the morning. I'm in Uncle Beto's car park selling and renting equipment. Again, it's amazing, I was never.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nobody's going to roll up on you.
Speaker 2:Different Trinidad, it's different, it's weird. And then to the point where I remember one of the sons of the business owner. He was like what do you guys do? Because I was like afterwards, I was like yo, you're taking a car spotting these people all day.
Speaker 1:no, you're running back and forth let me buy a punch or something I don't need to you know, let me pitch and support the business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he's like yo, what do you really do? And it's seven days a week. I'm back on foot.
Speaker 1:Just like now, because most people. If you check the affordable imports website now you could book pretty much seven days a week to do anything.
Speaker 2:It's weird. It's a weird grind and it didn't feel like a grind because it just felt like I needed to do this, like I needed to. It was calling you kind of way yeah, I need to give people what they want. I can't stay back and not do it. If I don't do it, I'm not fulfilling my purpose?
Speaker 1:Of course yeah, and your purpose is in helping other people fulfill their purpose. It's almost always the case, eh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where you get married, both goes To me. It's like again it's a perfect storm, sure.
Speaker 1:So I had to ask you you're formally trained in accounting. Were you ever formally trained in all this other equipment, or did you learn that as you go along? Like I said, no, Never went to school for that.
Speaker 2:University of YouTube and hands-on experience I would never forget. Shout out to Michael Mulder. He kind of exposed me to my first studio session. Sure, I've been to studios, because how it worked out was the name started to spread conrad, ask conrad, ask conrad. A little bit of affordable imports, and then what was happening is, again people were reaching out to me, people I never heard about. You know, here, let's do this. I hear I have that, I hear this and I was finding myself.
Speaker 2:I remember the I'm in work, we know, talking about what happened on ian allen. I gave him with Laura, talking about what happened on Ian Allen the evening before. Who calls me Ian Allen? Yeah, so I have, you could do this deal. I was like, wait, what Nice. And things like that really struck me as amazing, because what you got to realize is, as an entrepreneur, everybody needs something. You thinking that you need to probably jump through these hoops to reach to that person to get, and it put me in a unique position where I'm now able to call on my network to help other people. My phone has over 6,000 numbers in it and that's from years of just accumulating. It's like a roller that's just weighed like 6,000 plus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's on the same phone every time, Every time you message.
Speaker 2:Again back a message Every time you call again, it's still Conrad behind your phone, you know, and that's something I need to work on in terms of actually delegating tasks and hiring people to do stuff. But there's this personal touch that I fell in love with. As much as I try to let my guys do stuff, sometimes I just want to come around people around the door and say you're good. You're good, yeah, because it's relationships we've formed over years and sometimes I knew when certain people their girlfriend leave them. I knew when some people lost their child them. I knew when some people lost their child. Yeah, I knew when some people child graduate and it's like highs and lows, um, affordable and boss was able to, to be with people on this journey yeah and and again.
Speaker 2:It's a very unique opportunity like somebody be like. You know I need a switcher.
Speaker 1:I have a funeral to stream what I mean my father passed, yeah yeah, these people walk the road with all the time.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, it's crazy it's amazing, I think about it, um, but I'm really grateful, first to god and then especially to the community, of course. All Without the community as I always say that without the community, affordable Imports wouldn't exist, our community, I realize now again, a lot of things will just happen, happenstance. But if you can build a community around your business and you simply marry what you are trying to do with what they need to do, it's amazing how far reaching your efforts are. I think a lot of people take that for granted. They figure this sale is this one sale, it's final. But, um, for example, podcasting, it's true, you doing a podcast here and I'm sharing back your content, and so on.
Speaker 2:Somebody has reached out to me like, hey, I see, let's do podcasts. Yes, I know somebody that needs to do a podcast. And well, somebody come in the studio to a podcast and it's like I see all your speakers rent in there and this is, this is literally something that happens, like it just happened yesterday. Um, we have somebody who comes to shoot carnival content in the studio a couple times a year and he went to book on the website. He called me yesterday. He's like yeah, come, anita, and book a session and thing we have a, uh, me to shoot. I was like, okay, cool. He said, but I don't even want to call you about. I see all your speakers again married. On Saturday you need speakers. I said, but I thought all they're married already. He's like no, we know, we know time we know official yeah.
Speaker 2:With you and it's like little things like that and people understanding that you know you now have a relationship with this person and you become synonymous with a certain product. So as soon as somebody says, buy anything, I speak.
Speaker 1:I know how man, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the product and the expertise, you know it's a good marriage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ask Conrad, that is valuable, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That has been a huge blessing. I mean, some people are I. I would probably um rough up somebody a little bit because I find there are a lot of timing, but I can't imagine it.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, I'll be. I'll be honest.
Speaker 2:It's happening in business, yeah, in business sometimes you have to to pull up on a customer or even fire a customer, because what they are bringing isn't necessarily congruent with what you are trying to achieve or, worse, they are obstructing your other clients from doing what they're doing Well.
Speaker 1:It's especially important when you see it as building community. Yeah, Because when you build community, you have to protect it too. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly protected too, exactly, exactly. We had a. I remember this one situation and I hope the lady sees it, sees this and understands why I would have pulled up on her all the time she would have been asking me for. So I want to come and test the thing before I rent it and I'm like, honestly, I could tell you all about the piece of equipment and send you YouTube videos and all that, but when you come it's to collect and go.
Speaker 2:Even if you want, you could book the studio and have some time with the equipment, that's no problem, you'll set aside so you have the space, because as much as we have a couple hundred square feet 24, I think, or 2,500 square feet we still, because of what we do, we can't accommodate everybody at the same time. And she comes to collect when we have a studio session going on. We said not just a studio session, a studio session that's involved in recording audio very critically after all, the right environment, and she's in front there. Yeah, so because I'm inside the studio, she's outside doing my guy. Yeah, I just want to go through the thing and then I'm like picking up inside yeah it's like, hey, what's going on out here?
Speaker 2:She's like man, I'm just going through the equipment. And then I said but we talk about this, we talk about this, I already and she didn't like how I speak to her and she, she fired herself pretty much as a customer. But what happens? Yeah, looking back, you know, and in fact, I can recount it.
Speaker 1:It bothered me to extend, of course, of course, your personality. You see, you want to be um. You might the what I get from you over the past few months. You, you're genuine in the way you approach it. It's not about the business or the money. A lot of times, like I'll tell you one of my first experiences here, it was um, unique for me. The first time I came to record how you and the team I felt like I was the only person who existed in here. You were, yeah, exactly, and then you get it done. And then, when I was going to leave and you introduced me to the next person, I saw your focus switch and I said, no, I like this, I like it, it makes you comfortable, right. But you mentioned Miami and it's something I want to talk about, especially when you talk about customers and the issues around customers. Right, when you move to sales, you sell the equipment, you give some kind of guarantee or warranty. I would imagine that have some service along with it.
Speaker 2:So we do because of the limitations of being in Trinidad, and then you have dealership and so on, because there are limitations in terms of what we could guarantee. In terms of what we could guarantee, we try to tell people we offer seven weeks. How do you phrase it? Sorry, I'm in podcast mode right now, but essentially it's a manufacturing effect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you have an immediate issue, if there's an issue.
Speaker 2:We try and check it through. We're going to check it after see if there's really an issue or if it's a user error.
Speaker 1:It happens.
Speaker 2:It happens issue. Or if it's a user error, it happens. It happens even with us. Um, if there's an issue, we're gonna deal with it, don't worry about you. Deal with it. And some people would take that. I remember somebody brought back. They come back with a battery years later. Hey, I buy this from earlier, I hardly use the thing and it don't use nickel tesla and it's a battery. If you don't use a battery, eventually, whatever you do, use a battery, eventually it loses.
Speaker 1:Whatever you do with a battery, you lose capacity. But your rental thing I want to talk about, because your rental now is tell me what might be your most expensive lens you ever buy to stock your rental.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I've already put it out there. Some people will be like oh, there's a opportunity.
Speaker 1:Well, you and I'll linger to him, maybe a crime or not you could call it um what it it.
Speaker 2:How do you?
Speaker 1:figure 20 grand, you could pay that for you could pay that for pct equipment or us all, right, so that answers that question. Yeah, when you rent somebody, that what happens? Then you could sleep, because when you run that for two days it's unmoving.
Speaker 2:I know it's unmoving. I mean, as much as you have insurance and stuff, people will say, yeah, insurance thing. Trust me, if you have a bentley and you want to drive it around as much as it have insurance, it's still gonna be a little cautious, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:So I mean, we've grown to trust the process and our clients. Um, we've had people who, um, they would have had breakage and we dealt with that based on the contracts and so on that we have. Um, I would even go to go so far to say that there have been circumstances. Um, because we believe in community and we believe in what we're doing supporting creative short tnt and one of the personal things that I wanted to do or at least I remember talking about alkalis when I get older, I saw the way there was a need in trenton and tobago for, for our service and one of the things I was like yo, I'm gonna make a difference in the film community in trenton and tobago. I'm gonna be that difference and and it came to pass and it's still ongoing where, because of us, people who do film at commercials and whatnot, video projects are now able to put on a production without having to involve specific persons in the community. And it's not so much that they want to exclude the person, but what that means is that they want to exclude the person, but what that means is that they no longer have to rely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, there was almost like little monopolies here and there where individual would not have been able. Let's say I wanted to shoot an ad for a congressman. Let's say I want to shoot an ad for kfc, true, um, they put out the tender. Uh, you immediately know that, as a creative coming up, a young person coming up who don't necessarily have as much I care to, that I at best I'll be lucky to get on the crew who is able to do that at best. And what affordable imports allowed or was able to enable creatives to do is attach a price to doing that because at the end of the day, somebody has to foot the course and that's what they pay ad agencies and so on to do essentially to put on a production. And if you're doing business, well, even the people who already were able to do those kind of production, that that level of production, they would put in a billion for the equipment. But what affordable imports do, and especially because of the website you are now able to see live, you could itemize your cost.
Speaker 2:A cost there's no, oh, oh, I'm just saying this is what some dollar people oh, you're doing something for KFC, my price went up. Oh, I see, of course. Oh, you need to shoot an ad in my studio for KFC. That's now 15,000.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you standardize.
Speaker 2:You can go on your website and check everything it doesn't matter, and that was one of the things that helped us a lot. A lot of people appreciated that. I even advised some of our clients. You know, explain to your customer when they come. This costs so much. Go and check affordable and portable website. You want to see what it takes to do what you are asking me to do. Yeah, Even when you have your own equipment, you have to understand that there's a cost to owning our equipment.
Speaker 1:I see what you say. It could help cost out their own equipment and how to price it.
Speaker 2:And that has been a recurring issue in the creative industry, especially worldwide, but especially in Trinidad, where people underprice themselves just to get a job. They're not fully considering what it takes to do that job. So you have a lot of overheads to do that job.
Speaker 2:So, um, you have a lot of overheads, you have your, your car that might break down you have your taxes, insurance, your child had to go to school All these things are built into the, the final production course, and a lot of people take that for granted. When they they want to hire a photographer, they figure it, you're just pressing that shutter button. But what you're not realizing is and he asked me about um expensive equipment um, I'll just use the example of one of our, I'll say primarily photography cameras and icons. Eat, yeah, that camera, when it came out, was a wrong us to the 900s. That's before it touches down. If you do a quick matter, seven, that's twenty thousand dollars. You still need to add a lens to that and let me tell you something?
Speaker 2:lens is something cost more than the body. I find that out the hard way, right, right, you would have experienced that. Yeah, so you had twenty eight thousand dollars before we ship it into the country. Titty twenty eight thousand dollars. The lens might be another twenty thousand dollars, so that is forty eight thousand dollars. We still literally have a lens on our camera body and we still can't do anything with it. We need to get a memory card, we need to get a tripod, we need to get lights.
Speaker 1:So when you rent, a man down, it fall and it break. Oh god, this happen before. Of course, serious, of course.
Speaker 2:I'll never forget one of our most expensive accidents and most expensive accidents.
Speaker 1:And it's one of the most expensive accidents I like.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not even something to laugh at, because it was a serious, like a horrible moment. Unfortunately, somebody died, yeah. Yeah, car accident or what To an extent. So they were shooting out of the back of a car, covering a marathon, and I don't know the circumstances, definitely I wasn't there. But essentially what happened was he's shooting out of the back of a car and the car was hit yeah, oh man, and he pelt from the back of the vehicle with our equipment. We're talking about the whole setup where it's trapped to his back.
Speaker 1:And I will tell you that camera was $6,000 US with our equipment.
Speaker 2:We're talking about a whole setup where it's strapped to his back and coming over, and I will tell you that camera was 6,000 US, the lens was about 2,800 US, 2,400 US the piece that goes over his back and quite an easy rig. That is about 1,100 US. So if you do a quick math, they're talking about 7,000.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you do a quick math, they're talking about 7,000, almost 8,000 in gay, yeah, and as you see, with building relationships too, I mean, gay are replaceable when somebody lost their life Exactly Something else, right? So?
Speaker 2:that that that was that guy and out of respect I don't want to go too deep into it, but I would say as much as the community was hurt because of how small Trinidad is and how creatives work I tell the creatives there are so many most passionate people. It's a small group, eh, to an extent.
Speaker 1:Sometimes when.
Speaker 2:I see the same faces. What happens is that group. For months they can't function. To this day, the lead on that group, he is good, you could see it. Yeah, you could see it. You could see it. So when he came to me, I'll never forget. He came home in camera in peace and he's crying and I watch this. Oh, I go and tell that man he had to pay for that now. He's like but what other thing I will write now?
Speaker 2:I'm like you sold out, and that is where sometimes you have to take off the business hat and just be another human. Yeah, you can't. At that point in time there's like the businessman, you're mashing my thing you owe me $80,000 you have $80,000 at that point that don't matter, no, that's.
Speaker 1:It matters less we that's like months later.
Speaker 2:Months later, it doesn't matter. No, that's the last thing. Yeah, it matters less. You know, we, as I put forward, yeah, yeah, yeah, months later, months later, we cleared up what we had to clear up, but it wasn't important and, in the grand scheme of things, it just had to be a human first.
Speaker 1:Of course. Yeah, that's important, that's important. So your rental business mostly is it with, or people could just come in and rent stuff.
Speaker 2:So we have systems in place that prevent somebody from just walking off the street Right. That is for obvious reasons. We have to consider that not everybody has their own your best interests at heart. They have people who would.
Speaker 1:They have their best interests at heart, exactly.
Speaker 2:They would rent the equipment.
Speaker 1:You can get 20,000 lends rent and you bust. Out of that, you bust out of that, right.
Speaker 2:So we've gone so far as to turn away people at the door many times. Who is in the industry knows or is familiar with our process, so they would understand how we go about it. And the community is very small relatively, I should say and personable, and of course you have the arm of the law to help you with this, of course, right, yeah, if it reaches to that. So we house the Stams End Place and I don't want to go too much into it because of course you know, the more people are aware of things yeah, the secret sauce.
Speaker 1:They could, yeah, they could bypass it.
Speaker 2:Come along it yeah, but we've been blessed. We've had incidents and we've been blessed to still be able to walk away from it.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, good. So when did you shift? When did you move to the studio?
Speaker 2:So, as I mentioned, it was after I left my job, I would say about 10 months later. I was looking for a location. Back then we were only doing rentals and sales for the most part, and I was like I say we, but it's really me in the back of my eyes. I'm like I need to get a space because meeting people here yeah, uncle Bedouin's games, it's too much, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm floating boxes in the people in the car park. And I did and I said and I urged them, because I must buy something from them now because I'm feeling bad, I'm taking up two, and sometimes, because I'm feeling bad, I'm taking up two inches.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, my man just pull in Rah In the car park and he's blocking the tree and somebody's going to pass out and it's not my place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, disrupting the business, oh my God, I was like Sometimes I'm hustling fast and I think, I think and people.
Speaker 1:And you have a lot of cash Bop.
Speaker 2:And I, okay, so probably like about, I would say, seven months, six months after I left my job. What year is this? At this point, this is 22,. I think 22, okay, well, 22 is when I got the place, 21 is when I left the job and the heights are COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, as risky as it gets, yeah, so I'm like okay, let me get a place, and I was looking, I was looking, get a place and I was looking, I was looking. But what I I learned in business is, if you could have something that has more than one purpose, it immediately mitigates some of the risk yeah.
Speaker 1:So instead of looking for a place that's just sales and rental, okay with you.
Speaker 2:I was like okay, what, what is needed for a studio? And I I wasn't even thinking about this size, I was just what is needed for a studio. I was like, probably that I know people can't see the camera probably like that. Yeah, just say 15 by 10 something, that's all. Because I'm thinking my customers are studios as well. I don't want to compete with them and and that has been a thing I, I, I love the relationship and I appreciate the relationship so much. I don't really want to compete and have bad blood yeah.
Speaker 2:Because, again, these are people that I cared about over time. So I'm looking for that and, when enough, I'm driving up a secure night, late night, and I'm sitting everywhere, by the way, before I'm not seeing anything that I really like. I check a couple of places, even seen anything that I really like. I check a couple places. Even customers reached out and see what they could find in the network. I'm driving up a screw all night, um with my family, and I see a foreign sign, simple as that, on this building, on this building, and look on the door so this big door, if you know, affordable imports and there's a little sign. So I was like these people really want to rent this out I.
Speaker 2:I called people the next day in the middle of the Onkebedo's car park. I called people. I was like I see a place for rent. He's like, yeah, you know, when somebody is not really sure, yeah. And as soon as I get to understand why they were not really pushing, it is because they had bad experiences.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the people who live upstairs are in the space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, okay, so they would be particular about sharing the space and everybody, and explain their circumstances and what happened and what they would like, of course and I remember the lady she was like- you sure that's why the sign's small.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's why.
Speaker 2:I feel the husband just wanted to put her into a PC. Why? I mean like I'm doing something you know.
Speaker 1:finally, yeah, trying to rent it. You can't say I ain't trying.
Speaker 2:You can't say I ain't trying and. And then he, he, um, the lady, she was like, yeah, sure, cause I imagine she just watching this guy, this young guy, I wear the same thing day in, day out, like me. Yeah, it's easier I always talk about. I remember Joe Van is our title next.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's our next New Balance blue jeans. It makes it easier.
Speaker 2:I have so many other things to deal with and focus on and eventually, well, yeah, we arrived at our price, we were both comfortable with and we got into the space it was.
Speaker 1:It is literally a shell so it's a blank warehouse type space at the point blank warehouse and um through my father.
Speaker 2:We kind of subdivided it all right. Your father's a contractor yeah, so he helped me subdivide it based on my vision right and what we needed the space to do. And as I started bringing oh, I was storing equipment home.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, in a spare room At next risk, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then as I brought in the equipment because the lady I know she was, she's like sure I want to bring in the equipment I was like, oh yeah, I think this space is too small, because I didn't realize how much I had packed into that space. I didn't, yeah, of course, of course I didn't appreciate the size of the operation.
Speaker 1:When it came into a bigger space and everything spread out, I was like so when you say subdivide, because for people who come to rent this studio you might see several different spaces, spaces you could do podcasts. I remember coming here one day and you say Corey, just look around everywhere here and see where we're back from here, like you could do anything anywhere, and we've been trying with a few different iterations too. Yeah, but when you say subdivide, you also not just have to subdivide the studio for rental or revenue spaces.
Speaker 2:You had to create your space to work from yeah, we have an office to storage, got it? Yeah, it's a whole area that we had to split up right and immediately. I was like shoot and. And fortunately you have been blessed to still be able to work out all this space. Sometimes you're like yo, where are we going with this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I have a random question about that, you know, because the first time I came to work with Cassius, cassius told me to bring about five sets of things to change. Now, as a man, that don't mean nothing to me, because I just work with five jerseys and I would take it off right where Cassius shoot it, it would not matter to me, but I understand that that would be different for different clients. So when you have a first startup, you had dressing room space that people could have changed.
Speaker 2:I could have seen from the toilet to the front door and I'm like yo, and that is how Affordable Imports evolved, kind of like from again from inception. Looking back, is it's the community, is feedback, is everything that's coming together and my personality being a problem solver, yeah, we had to figure some out. So, because of again, I had a particular idea and how I wanted the space to look, and then that had to evolve because the needs of the client are we, my own biases, of course. I mean, you always take feedback. You don't just say, well, that's what they want, that's what they get.
Speaker 2:You have to, you know, you have to filter it out in an entrepreneur mind and and say, okay, this would, this would work, this would get the job done, and that's kind of like how everything has flown. So now we have the change rooms. So I, we had a pillar, or we have a pillar in the middle of the room, yeah, and when I saw that pillar I was like fuck, but the place good, if I didn't have a pillar, I would have been able to do this, that and that. And because of that pillar, we are now, or we were at the time, the only people who had two shooting areas. That wasn't by design, that was working around our problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were working around our problem. So we had a shooting area on this side of the pillar and another shooting area on that side of the pillar, and it's so weird that turned into a thing where now people want to have two shoots going on simultaneously. And who does that? Hannibal? Barnes, I got it, so they have the white for their catalog on their website. And then they have the creative.
Speaker 2:And then I not knowing. I was like, okay, I would have the change rooms and then we would have storage. It doesn't have to be change rooms, because we would need storage. Which studio had four change rooms? Who needs four change rooms? You know who needs four change?
Speaker 1:rooms, yeah, kind of like that, and you've got pants In and out first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they have multiple models running through the place and it's like a production line and, without even realizing it, I was kind of creating a formula and then other studios came about after and they know what to do. They follow the formula.
Speaker 1:That's business. That's business. If KFC put a recipe, are you looking to go and fry that?
Speaker 2:I don't want to do it too.
Speaker 1:I can do it for cheaper or do it better, but the thing is like you seem to be always paying attention to where that need lies, because a lot of the things that you describe, another person might see it as an obstacle. Or, let me say it differently, another person might see it as a reason to not leave the job or give up on the idea, or say care, work, but you seem to always be trying to figure it out that, to me, is exactly what.
Speaker 2:That's what you're supposed to be. You can't just see a problem and sit on your laurels. That always encouraged me, it's like. And looking back now, I didn't at the time appreciate some of his methods, like in normal thing, to what I say to rascal, but you're watching what your parents doing or seeing and you figure them against me. But there's you, trade, that's you. That's, that's naivety. You're just not. You don't know what really is going on around you. And when he did certain things where I essentially realized now is that he was trying to make me a problem solver.
Speaker 2:So, so much to say, I remember we had a shoot here, a carnival shoot, and somebody had not too long open another studio, bigger studio, um of the formula and so on. So everybody was like, yeah, affordable, and buzzed them, they in the ground, you know. And the girl, one of the young ladies, asked me I'll never forget she's like so it's kind of like an unspoken thing, cause you didn't want to be out of time. And she's like so you hear about this space, I hear about it. She of like an unspoken thing because you didn't want to be out of time. And she's like so you hear about this space. It's like, yeah, I hear about it. She's like so what do you go and do? I was like you hear what you want me to do. She's like so, so you know that this exists. What, what does affordable impostor? I imagine she's trying to evoke out of me uh, problem solver, like that is a problem. This other studio exists. I'm going to have a problem that I need to fix.
Speaker 2:I'm like and she's right, and she's like what, what does all this do that will make me want to come here and I was like, but we we're the problem solvers and she's like, oh, okay, and, and to be fair, some of our customers have gone to the other space and they stayed there, but some of them have come back and we've had many, many instances where customers have left us for whatever reason, and that's fine. You have to learn to you can't fit everybody, of course, but they are calling us to be problem solvers, mm-hmm At the end of the day, I like that, so it's like okay, as much as you want to go elsewhere, you still need affordable imports and to me that's just obvious.
Speaker 2:That just shows how obviously we have impacted a lot of the industry and again we've had people looking out for our best interests, the community. They still patronize and tango it for that.
Speaker 1:Well, what was the podcast? You said that the guy was talking about the 1%. What's the name of that podcast?
Speaker 2:I can't recall the name, but it was a one-off. I think it was a guy it wasn't consistent yeah. He came in just to check us out, to see what we could do, and he realized his space could do what he needed to do, I see. Okay, gotcha, he invited the guy to it.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing is, like the people who to the highest levels in business, one of the difficulties is that growth is painful and there are times where I remember from my business, for instance, you know all the customers, you know them by name. Same thing you're saying that step of stepping back so that you get to the point where, because you have a strong team here, your team is executed at a high level. How easy or difficult is it for you to step back, step away? Very difficult. That delegates it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to ask them, and I'm going to ask Kyle directly. It's one of the most difficult things, what I oftentimes are reminded of.
Speaker 1:So we have an accountant and he gives me a lot of homework to do, and you're an accountant too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I understand too, and sometimes we play a little bit of a cat and mouse game where he's like he's like, you know, you have to do this right, and I'm like, yeah, but the business side of me is like I don't want to do it.
Speaker 1:You want to be the customer, right I?
Speaker 2:focus on the customer and he's like no, you have to do it. And that has been a great reminder as to yeah, as much as you want to be in it with the customer, you want to be on the ground. Um, yeah, you have another purpose. Yeah, and you wouldn't achieve the overall growth that you would like to achieve if you are doing what you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something to learn as you go along, because sometimes we ask conrad is a blessing and a curse, for sure they have people who probably will only want to talk to con.
Speaker 2:They only want to talk to Conrad. I mean, we even had a joke where Kyle and I I was like, yeah, tell them he's Conrad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they don't know what.
Speaker 2:Conrad looks like right, they just figure it's Conrad they're coming to. It's like yeah, he's Conrad.
Speaker 1:So sometimes we play those jokes on person. In is like oh, so you're conrad.
Speaker 2:I was like no, no, I'm kyle, yeah, I'm kyle. I was like oh, oh. So, conrad, you're gonna trust it now, right, yeah? And I'll be like are we going? We going with it? And then I'll be like kyle and he's like yes, I knew it, I knew it, she was conrad all along, I knew it.
Speaker 1:I'm like yes, how do you get people to trust the brand and not the individual names? You know? If you get to see kyle. That is, some people lucky to see kyle every week, but some not so lucky.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know kyle is a vibe, 100% a vibe. I mean I've had instances in the studio where people is like I prefer kyle you know I work kyle. Yeah, yeah, go and come back. Go and call kyle, I'm like you need to see boss here. Yeah, you need to see boss Kyle come and see how many people so it's kind of like sometimes you really have to just admire the fact that you have enabled certain people to do something.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's critical.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and your purpose has been fulfilled. Step back. Yeah, you don't need to be there anymore, because if you are to fulfill a purpose, you really have to let somebody, you have to delegate, you have to allow somebody else to grow. Recently we had, like I said, we had a part-time. We have a part-time Aaron, and as much as you want to babysit and show him everything and have them do it how you want it, you show them once and then you say, yeah, I got it. And he's like, yeah, with how you want it.
Speaker 2:You, you show them once and then you say, yeah, I've gone and and, yeah, you, you have this, you have this. And and show them that you have confidence in their ability and you have to from a distance. You're not just going to leave them in the in the water, to swim away from a distance. On here, you know you're doing, you see someone, hey, so why, why you did it that way? Oh, okay, okay, you, sometimes you actually learn something from from the people that you're trying to mentor or teach or or, um, delegate to our students.
Speaker 1:Like that makes sense yeah, that delegation is one of the other than talking about the first jump, like, however you get there, like that delegation is one of the harder points in business. Yeah, because you have to. I always tell her there's my team in work. I always tell them listen. For you to get promoted, you really had to get somebody else who could do your job. Yeah, if, if, if. I can see what's going to happen if you move from this position, you probably will never move.
Speaker 2:And you see that there's a dangerous thing about doing a job too well. If you do it too well and this is just for people who are employed it makes it difficult for you now to be promoted, because where am I going to find somebody else to do what you do? Yeah, yeah, I probably had to hire two people just to do what I can, just pay you yeah, no matter where we are.
Speaker 1:We had to get comfortable with the idea of coaching, developing people. I always say you study answers. You know if I put and it's uncomfortable feeling if I teach you how to do something. Yeah, and I experienced it, my son, you have kids. Yeah, I do. You tend to experience it with your children a lot. Yeah, you tell them do something. Your expectation is that they do it the way you told them. Yeah, and when they're doing it different you, you my instinct is to step in and correct correct, I'm trying to learn now. Okay, let me see him do it, let me see him make the mistake, because sometimes the way he do it, I say, boy, you know better, I do it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and it's almost like something that I have tried to work on Ego, ego.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if it's a bad thing, but it's very, very difficult when it comes to delegating.
Speaker 2:E when it comes to delegating ego and, weird enough, somebody who no longer works with us. But ego is important because it gives you, it gives you almost like purpose is like I know what I am able, able to do. I, this is me, um, this is my purpose, this is what I stand for. But sometimes you really have to just set it aside because, as much as you have belief in yourself, there may be a better way, or there is a better way, because same thing we used to do now, or we used to do, sorry, 10 years ago, more than that, we're not doing the same way right now, and it's because somebody questioned somebody.
Speaker 1:Of course you had to break up the old way to get the new way.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you had to bust it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I never thought of it as ego. I always saw it as okay. I've done this a hundred times and it work. So I'm afraid for somebody to do it another way because I feel it didn't go work, which is not true. There's no evidence of that my method.
Speaker 2:Of course you say my method, not the best yeah, all, I guess all the time I suppose I experienced that when I got one of my jobs working at um a union any jfw and I remember I said but why are these people who do this? And then I asked because you're trying to be polite? I asked him he's like so why are we doing this? He's like what are you talking about? We're doing this for years now.
Speaker 2:I'm like why? And that's when I realized I needed to leave doing something the same way for years and it's not working.
Speaker 1:and we need to keep doing it this way or we accept that it can't get better.
Speaker 2:It can't get better to me that's the scariest thing and I realized ego was the killer of group. You can't. You can't achieve anything if you have an ego I mean we ain't seeing anybody come around you immediately disappear. Of course you need to have some confidence in yourself and your abilities, but you should have the ability to at least question yourself Hannah, am I really doing it the best way? Because if you are able to teach me a better way, it's only better for me again.
Speaker 1:Of course, Better for everybody. As you say, Better for the community.
Speaker 2:And I have had to take that position Again. I thought I was going to be the one to take film to an international standard and I think, and and I would say this much somebody else was given priority. As much as I would like to be like, oh you would, I don't think something that bothers me. I'm like, honestly, at the end of the day, if they somehow bring more business to turn around to be a go yeah, I find sometimes people feel like if the best way to have businesses have no competition have nobody else in the industry.
Speaker 1:All this, yeah, quantity, yeah, it's query, it's scary and I always remember.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's a analogy or whatever, but there's this thing where on one street there was a diamond dealer, jewelry dealer, and he was on the end of the street there and everybody used to come and buy. That was the only place on the street to buy their jewelry. And then, weird enough, somebody opened up on the same street, down the road, and he was like competition boy, you're going to mash up, you're taking half my customers. And and then somebody, they come and open up in the middle of the street.
Speaker 2:The same you know you're someone like oh come on, I turn on the customers if I'm lucky, I don't compete with this and what essentially was formed was a diamond district. Of course, now the pool got bigger. The pool got bigger, so it was no longer the people that walked along the street. That area now became renowned for diamonds, of course, and now everybody comes here, not just your little box. And it's a part of the scarcity mindset that I think we, being on an island, we think there's limited land, we're surrounded by water, there's only so many it's 1.3 million people here. We do have all the, and that forces a lot of people to kill their dream because they figure, you know, it's only so much. People go buy this. You know, of course, I can't, really I can't do nothing with this. What do you mean? You want to rent a?
Speaker 2:company for equipment photo and video equipment. Every other photographer has their own equipment and they are correct to a point. But what I've grown to realize is that's the mindset that puts you in a disadvantageous position where immediately you are thinking of all the problems rather than the solution for sure.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it causes us to talk our way out of the idea, exactly you have a brilliant idea.
Speaker 2:You have a brilliant purpose. Even I can't do that, boy from lack of boy I, but I people still in that thing. You know, boy, you know people like me don't really. It's not 1%. I don't have that kind of money, boy, and before you know it you may have been the purpose that would have made everybody around you elevate yeah. You may have been the reason why your neighborhood is now the neighborhood for that. Somebody beating on our parlor yeah madness, madness, madness.
Speaker 1:And now it's our whole industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the national instrument of Toronto, bego, of course. So sometimes we really talk ourselves out of solutions, out of our purpose. It's really unfortunate when we do that, we put ourselves in boxes and because of the scarcity mindset we don't realize our purpose. That may have changed it will.
Speaker 1:Well, like you say, you know, sometimes you could find a million reasons why not, but if you find that you talk to enough entrepreneurs, they will find the one reason why, why, truly, why not. But you find out, you talk to enough entrepreneurs, they will find the one reason why why. And as we start off, I was saying in the beginning that somebody, always, somebody special, always. Next, so when?
Speaker 1:I come in here always watching to see who coming in next. And again a wrap-up sign from kyle, so I know that mean that somebody coming next. But I have one more question to ask you before we wrap up. Uh, a little offbeat from the entrepreneurial thing. When you have to order this, order this equipment, and US dollars is such an issue in the country, how are you dealing with that now?
Speaker 2:So I don't want to give out too much of the secret. But as an entrepreneur, you find a way.
Speaker 1:So it's just another obstacle to you Just another obstacle.
Speaker 2:And I would even go so far to say that because of Forex is why we focus on rentals a lot more than before. So again, you find a way, Because I can't allow Forex to be the reason why my business didn't work.
Speaker 1:What about the political situation? Mini Heart of an election season Party in power? Yeah, that's affecting you.
Speaker 2:There's an opportunity right there. We had people from various parties come through and shoot stuff.
Speaker 1:So you didn't give me no yellow. Is it code 40,000? And you had the work going on here.
Speaker 2:I didn't get the JZ wrap up with the money yet, I'll share. I'll share, all right, good.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter who's in power. There's an opportunity. You know I am apprehensive to be aligned with any one party, because to me, what you're then doing is discarding all the opportunities. I mean, I may have my own personal beliefs and I will have my own personal preferences, which I wouldn't make known to the general public as much as possible, but I don't see the point in limiting my potential clientele because of my of course, sometimes Conrad is Conrad and affordable, exactly exactly um it.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter red or yellow or green or purple. You could have stopped at red and yellow. Yeah, it doesn't matter who, who is in power or who has authority, affordable imports still has its purpose to fulfill, you know. So again, I wouldn't want to harm, but of course it's a money-making thing. If you could get money from both sides, if I could pull a koos out of a bag or whatever. Why not? You have to learn from the 1%. Again you figure, do this. Again you figure it was 1% do you understand?
Speaker 1:they went through the same thing. We built a gun through, like how you start off, how you everybody challenges difficult for everybody.
Speaker 2:Helen Bargoun sings father owned the hardware. I think they started off in Sealers if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was I could be wrong. I mean, I repeat to the Helen boss lady, but she took it to the Helen Bush lady, but she took it to the next level they took it to the next level.
Speaker 2:You know her brother and they were Dan Steele and so on, of course, and what I've grown to appreciate, especially from you, corey, is those people before us. I mean, I always had a love for history to an extent, but we don't really give locals especially the credit. You asked me about a bunch of international stuff, things low, because, especially the credit. You asked me about a bunch of international stuff, things in the usa and whatnot, and I'm yeah, I know about that, I know about the natchan coal and so on. But what you have shown me is there's a rich resource of of knowledge locally that people could rely on, even their experiences, but we take it for granted because it's right in our backyard well, yeah.
Speaker 1:so that's why I wanted to do this, because this, right in my backyard, I see you behind these cameras for many, many weeks helping my dreams come true, but I feel like it's very, very important for people like you to tell your story.
Speaker 2:And I find it so boring you find so. Yeah, I find my story boring.
Speaker 1:Wait for the feedback you go here you go, see, you'll see.
Speaker 1:You'll see. Thanks, brother. I appreciate you coming on because I feel like it's critical to talk about some of these things. I don't see you as 1%. Already when I walk in here I see 1%. I say what the hell does this man do, how he do this? So I appreciate you sharing some of this story and coming in. I want to tell people that we typically start recording at about 10 am on a daily basis and this one we end up doing at 8 am and Conrad is always up to the challenge. I appreciate it, thank you.