Together Digital Power Lounge, Women in Digital with Power to Share
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Together Digital Power Lounge, Women in Digital with Power to Share
How to Pivot from You 9-5 to Entrepreneurship | Pamela Scott | S3 E17
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Welcome to The Power Lounge, your go-to place for engaging conversations in the digital world. In today’s episode, host Amy Vaughn is joined by Pamela Scott, the founder of Breakthrough Lens, a distinguished production company specializing in visual storytelling. Together they discuss Pamela's transition from a traditional job to entrepreneurship. Explore key strategies, self-awareness, financial assessments, client management, and mindfulness practices.
Join us as we unravel practical guidance, personal stories, and empowering advice tailored for aspiring entrepreneurs on their journey to success.
Featured in the Episode
Pamela Scott
Founder, Breakthrough Lens | Corporate Video Producer | Photographer | Author
Pamela’s LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pameladianescott/
Amy Vaughan,
Owner & Chief Empowerment Officer
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypvaughan/
Takeaways
- Transitioning to entrepreneurship from a 9-5 job
- Self-awareness and coping mechanisms
- Mindfulness, financial prep, and challenges
- Financial preparation for entrepreneurship
- Community importance and personal branding
- Overcoming setbacks and client feedback
Quotes
"Understanding our reactions to challenges and setbacks is vital on the path to success." - Pamela Scott
"Embrace your authenticity as a brand and confidently showcase your uniqueness through effective marketing strategies." - Pamela Scott
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
03:45 - Creating Personal Experiences for Professional Trust
07:37 - Self-Awareness and Collaboration in Entrepreneurship
10:06 - Business Ownership Boosting Self-Awareness
18:48 - Networking and Skill Enhancement
21:18 - Confidence Amid Entrepreneurial Challenges
26:36 - Overcoming Entrepreneurial Delays
31:46 - Seeking Clarity on the Entrepreneurial Drive
41:21 - Power of Personal Branding
43:02 - Authentic Photography Insights
47:42 - Spontaneous Social Engagements
50:16 - Embracing Growth Amidst Business Changes
51:52 - Outro
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Hello everyone and welcome to our weekly power lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughn and I am your host and the owner of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who have power to share, and if you want to learn more about us, you can at TogetherInDigitalcom. We are live today and in person, so thank you to everyone who is joining us live today, because you know, things happen when we do different things, but you know what? We keep calm, we carry on, and when we've got women who know a little bit about technical and microphones and we've got fantastic producers and teams behind us, we get back on track.
Speaker 1Everyone today, we are here to help all of you take the leap out of your nine to five and into entrepreneurship, and while many have done this for themselves, a few have honestly taken the time to share how they have gone about doing that. However, our guest today, Pamela Scott, is different. She is a passionate and talented founder of Breakthrough Lens, a boutique production company with a remarkable talent for visual storytelling. Pamela helps businesses and individuals create amazing video and photography content that brings their stories to life. She has also chronicled her journey from transitioning from the nine-to-five job to a successful entrepreneurship. Mind you, during the pandemic. No small feat video and photo folks like.
Speaker 1If you're in this industry, you know what that might have taken or you're going to learn, which is also you know again, like no small feat. She has chronicled this journey and her successful steps and how she made this pivot. In her inspiring and insightful ebook how to Pivot from your 9 to 5 into Entrepreneurship, pamela shares practical tips and a personal story to guide anyone who is looking to make a similar leap. Pamela, we're thrilled to have you here with us today to share more about your journey, your experience with what I like to call our entrepreneur curious listeners. Thank you again for being here.
Speaker 2Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 1This is so fun. It's such a delight to just break out of the screen in person, despite this chaos that ensued beforehand. But thanks for rolling with us, no problem. So first Pamela, and late in our listeners with what was that moment like? Or was there a particular moment in which you finally decided like, yeah, entrepreneurship, it's for me.
Speaker 2You know, I actually just fell into it. I did not set out to be an entrepreneur, I set out to change careers in a different discipline. Okay, so my background is I was in human resources for 25 plus years. Unfortunately, I had a job elimination and so I decided to go back to school, learn videography and photography, and when I finished school, that's when I started applying for jobs back in corporate America, but in the marketing department.
Speaker 2You know how marketing has that arm where it's the media, and they would have someone who's responsible for either producing video content for their company or taking photos of their executives or team events. That's the role I had in my head. But when I finished school and started applying for some of those jobs, the one thing they were asking for was experience, and, of course, I did not have any experience. So I decided I was going to create my own experience that I could share on a resume that I had. I could prove that I had the talent to do this work, and when I did that, I said well, I want to present myself in a professional manner.
Speaker 2I didn't want to just seem like some hustler trying to get you know doing something on the side I really wanted to present in a professional manner because I think people trust you more. And so that's when I said, let me just create a business around it. So that's what I mean by I kind of fell into it. I said, let me just create some structure around this and become, you know, have a created LLC, create a full business. When I do go out to try to solicit myself and my skills, to gain that experience, people would have more trust in me.
Speaker 1I love that because I think a lot of times when women look to make a career women, specifically when we look to make a career pivot. Often what holds us back from making that change or that pivot is that fear of oh, I don't have experience, and you, instead of looking at that as a deficit, said, oh, that's an opportunity, I'm going to just start servicing clients and using that as my experience and as an opportunity to start to build a business. Yes, Love it. That's such a good mindset. Could you share a little bit about what the inspiration behind your new ebook was and that idea of like how to pivot from your nine to five into entrepreneurship?
Speaker 2So, absolutely so. I started this book about a year ago and I would say, just like, again, going back to my human resources roots, when someone joins their company, you go through an onboarding, you go through orientation. Someone hands you a handbook that gives you the lowdown of the organization and how to assimilate Well in entrepreneurship. I didn't have that. I didn't have anyone that I could tag, I didn't have anyone who could pour into me being new to being an entrepreneur. So I decided I want to create that handbook, I wanted to create that guideline for women to help them assimilate into entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1Just love that Again. Pamela, you have to come and be on our podcast because you just you exemplify for me what it means to be a woman who lives within her power and her capability and then is willing to share it with others. Like once you have figured it out, you take those skills that you, those transferable skills, and then you think I, how can I apply them to move myself forward? But then how can I take them to and apply them to move others forward, so that HR experience of like, ooh, I have an SOP right here.
Speaker 1How do I take this standard order?
Speaker 1standard operating procedure of making and building a business and put it in writing and give it to others. I love that. That's so fantastic, do you all see? This is why we're hanging out. This is why she's sitting here right now. So let's talk a little bit more about your e-book, which everyone definitely should check out. We will include a link to it and her website in our show notes. Also, by the way, live listeners, we will take questions. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop them into the chat. Kaylee is standing by as well, helping us to listen and catch those questions, if you have them. But your ebook? It offers eight practical steps for aspiring entrepreneurs. Which tips do you feel are the most important for someone who is just starting out?
Speaker 2So of course, I think they're all important, but I would say to start with tip number one, and that is self-awareness.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Oh see, it's just really self-awareness and I talk about because I'm a huge advocate of just evolving as an individual, you know, being able to truly understand who I am, and so I think that was pivotal before going into entrepreneurship is, how do I want to show up as an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2So I talked about self-awareness in chapter one, about understanding your weaknesses, understanding your strengths, understanding if you are an extrovert or an introvert, because if you are an extrovert or an introvert, because if you are an extrovert and you are accustomed to collaborating, accustomed to being around individuals, you want to take that into consideration when you think about going into business.
Speaker 2Maybe that means you go into a partnership with someone instead of a solopreneur. Or maybe you know that you're going to have to work in spaces and co-working spaces where you have others around you. But, most importantly, the one thing that I think we need to be able to identify is what are our triggers? What's going to trigger me from a client perspective? What's going to trigger me if something goes wrong? How am I going to handle failure? What are those triggers? And if you can identify those clearly and then be able to come up with some mitigating practices when those things happen, I think that you that's the first step that you have a solid foundation of who you are and how you're going to show up as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, I love that we do this recording both recorded video and audio, obviously.
Speaker 1And for those who are just listening to the podcast, may have not seen my visceral response to your self-awareness response, but I think it's such an important thing to take the time to do. But, as somebody who was sort of thrust into the entrepreneurial space, if you haven't heard the story, go back to season one, episode one. You can listen to the whole spiel. But yeah, there's nothing. You don't want to go through your first year of business ownership having your backside handed to you in the realm of kind of experiencing trigger after trigger and not having kind of done the work. And I've said it before, it's like there's nothing like owning and running a business that will make you more self-aware and I honestly think it's a beautiful.
Speaker 1It's a beautiful process.
Speaker 2You know, because even if I'm sure like all of the self-awareness practice in the world.
Speaker 1you'll still find right, you'll still find opportunity for growth and learning, but it isn't such a way that I'd never experienced in 15 plus years of corporate agency life and experience. So I love that you start there, because I do think oftentimes many of us start to think it's about clients and budgets or revenue or things like a product or positioning, and positioning and branding kind of depending on what, what kind of brand we're building absolutely right. Depending on what our proclivity is you?
Speaker 1know for me. I'm a creative so I'm like, oh, what's my brand gonna be, what's my website gonna look like? But you are absolutely right, that's such a. I couldn't think of a truer, more right, more relevant. First step is really thinking through that self-awareness, because I think often too, and you can tell me if you agree, but when you are kind of owning and running a business, like it or not, so much of it is you Pull from?
Speaker 2how did you show up in your job? What was some of the feedback that was ever given to you in your old position? Take that to heart. Reflect on that Is that something you want to take into entrepreneurship. Where are those areas that you can continue to grow?
Speaker 1And what do you bring that's uniquely you, right? That helps you kind of niche down, that helps you make yourself more distinct. Absolutely, Guys, go download that e-book, Like step one already. So so helpful. All right, let's talk a little bit about you know coping with that shift right, Because you kind of alluded to this a moment ago of that, If you're extroverted and used to working in teams and open work environments and you know things like that, maybe even big clients, big budgets going to working for yourself.
Speaker 1How do you cope with the challenges of transitioning from a very maybe structured nine to five job to the likely, unpredictable nature of entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship, Challenges, and Community
Speaker 2I think that's such a good question and I think for me, I happen to like structure. Yeah, same, I'm one of those individuals that I actually like structure. So I created structure for myself in doing work. I created how I was going to work. I don't take client calls after a certain hour. I don't take client calls or meetings on the weekends. Some people think when you become an entrepreneur, it's 24 seven, and a part of that is true. But you have to create your own structure, your own. You know work and so I, because of the nature of my work, I do work on the weekends, but I don't do administrative tasks, I don't do client work, I don't do any of those financial accounting work that we all have to do At least that I do.
Speaker 1You can't do it all that way, oh absolutely, but I do that through the week.
Speaker 2I have set hours every day that I'm going to work on the business and then after that I have my personal time. So I kind of created that structure. So it wasn't that much of a shift for me, because I personally happen to like structure.
Speaker 1I get to high five when I'm in person with my podcast guests.
Speaker 1This is a new thing that I love no-transcript. What type of structure do I possibly need? What processes do I would I prefer to have in place? So you're not kind of coming in willy nilly, because I think the most beautiful part of entrepreneurship I will say for those of you who are on the fence is there is nothing more amazing, beautiful, freeing I don't know, I can't throw enough adjectives around it than owning your time. I know Right, I know, and really being able to create boundaries and say these days are for this and these days are for this. It's really hard to kind of imagine ever going back.
Speaker 1It really is. You know, and I think you know, being able to say yes to the work that you want and no to the work that doesn't, keeping the clients that you know you have fantastic relationships with. You know, firing the clients that don't, you know, I just it's, you know. I think it's like it's not always easy because, again, you have to sometimes do all and be all, but I feel like sometimes the payoff, I don't know, payoffs are wonderful.
Speaker 2There's currently more in your time.
Speaker 1Absolutely. There's currently more in your time. Yes, it is, and owning your time it's wonderful. Yeah, are there any other challenges that you would kind of throw in there that we didn't touch on? Before we move to the next question that you kind of felt?
Speaker 2or were surprised by. As an entrepreneur, or the structure, the transition, I would probably say not surprised by a challenge, by having to do everything. Yeah, so I work in a very large organization where we had an accounting department, we had a marketing department, we had someone to do everything. And so, when you're responsible for doing everything and creating time for everything and that learning curve, having to learn certain aspects that you aren't necessarily familiar with- oh yeah, that definitely was a challenge.
Speaker 1It was. It can be really like. I am NOT a fan of the numbers. Honestly, I'm like, okay, learn how to budget and how to run a piano I mean, I do piano before and things like that but really giving it deeper and really starting to understand like ratios and and things like that and forecast and forecasting.
Speaker 2Oh good for forecast nation, understanding your cycles, your work cycles, what are going to be your down times?
Speaker 1what are going to be your high times? Seasonality oh my gosh. Seasonality All of that, yeah, seasonality.
Speaker 1Still after five years, I'll still sit in the summers and I'm like you know this is the deal, amy, this is your time to plan for next year, to take extra time with your family. And yeah, you're just like ah, I would say too, I think like just the I don't want to say like isolation, but it does. It tends to get lonely, it does. You know, and I mean I run, own and operate a business that is a community which, again, I have that amazing benefit of constantly feeling connected to women, but I still get that general sense of sometimes like you're kind of living and working on a bit of an island. And I will say like that's been. One thing I've been really interested to see within the Together Digital community is how much, over the last five years one, how many more entrepreneurs we have within the community.
Speaker 1I'm like, yes, more women, like when more women building businesses, the community. I'm like, yes, more women know, like when more women building businesses.
Speaker 2And two, how much more they have come to lean on one another, creating that community for sure which you need, and I think I have found that sometimes when you're creating community particularly because it can get lonely we often look at those who are in our specific discipline and so if you're in marketing, you tend to create, you know, community with other marketeers of others who are in marketing.
Speaker 2but I have found that creating community with different groups of individuals is what brings the diversity, which even increases your clientele. Oh yeah, Different perspective. So I'm in the creative and the video photography field, but I love hanging out with people in marketing I love. One of my clients is a construction company. I love going on site and hanging out with them and developing those relationships because you tend to learn different things but you have a diversity of community. I 100% agree. I 100% agree.
Speaker 1You tend to learn different things, but you have a diversity of community. I 100% agree. I 100% agree. I'll plug them for a minute because they've been fantastic supporters and if you haven't checked it out, you should. The Goldman Sachs 10,000. Businesses Program I actually was going to do that.
Speaker 1Applications are back open so for those of you who are entrepreneurs that have been in business, for I think it might be two years, so for two, or business, for I think it might be two years, so, uh, for two or more years, I think there's certain metrics that you kind of have to hit. Uh, it is an absolutely wonderful program to support small businesses, to help you kind of achieve a growth plan within 14 weeks. It is pretty intensive. You come up with a growth plan but you really do. It's like getting your mini NBA you know, and.
Speaker 1I it's worthwhile. I just so I ran into a woman, um, an interior designer, at like a friend's birthday party or something like that, and I said you really got to try this. I found it was. It was a great way for me to do what you just said, which is kind of go beyond my existing community right Connections and connect with other business owners outside of my own industry. And, um, it's it was was outside of just making those connections. It really helped me do what I was just saying learn how to like run the numbers, do more forecasting, run the ratios, come up with more kind of growth business plans and things like that.
Speaker 1But what was really cool with Jackie, this woman that I met, was like fast forward. A year later and I'm sitting at her class, she just signed up for the next cohort, I'm on a panel welcoming her to the cohort and then another 14 weeks later I'm at a coffee shop and she runs into me and I said, hey, how's it going, jackie? You're graduating soon, right? She's like I graduate tomorrow, I'm finishing my growth plan pitch and she's like I'm so like pleased. And it's so serendipitous that I'm running into you because I am literally opening up my design studio right next door to this coffee shop and I'm hiring my marketing director that I'm hiring and she's coming to sign a contract at this coffee shop. I was like that's amazing.
Speaker 2Oh my goodness, what are the chances?
Entrepreneurship
Speaker 1and I said. So let me ask. I said would any of this have been happening if you wouldn't have gone and done this whole Goldman Sachs thing, If we wouldn't have chatted and you wouldn't have done it? She's like no, absolutely not.
Speaker 2Every encounter, every conversation. You never know how it's going to change the trajectory of your life Absolutely.
Speaker 1And now I've got friends that own waxing companies.
Speaker 2Which, by the way, if you're in the Cincinnati area.
Speaker 1I got a great reference. She does everything and she is like the most chill, like easygoing gal ever. Yeah, like food businesses you name it and it's just such a wonderful, wonderful thing. That's great advice. I 100 percent agree with that advice. I love this question. I'm curious to hear it I kind of started to kind of, I guess, bleed into it a little bit with the extension of my last question. But what is one thing about entrepreneurship that no one ever tells you?
Speaker 2You know and this may sound a little soft but what a hit it will be to your confidence.
Speaker 1Oh, I like that answer yeah.
Speaker 2It will really be a hit to your confidence because I think that with entrepreneurship, there will be some times where you will fail. With entrepreneurship there will be some times where you will fail. There will be times where you know you may get some client feedback that you don't like. There's going to be times where you're just going to get your confidence is going to be hit.
Speaker 2I definitely stepped away from a job that I could do in my sleep, where I was, you know, had the authority and how I communicated and the decisions that I made. I was the go-to person. I could handle an employee relations issue, you know, like the back of my hand I could do it. But then stepping into something that is a clear 180, where I'm continuing to grow every day and it has been invaluable at the same time, it still had at times has been a hit to my confidence. And so I would say for me, yeah, that is the one thing is that you have to deal with how do you? And for me, I had to reframe it and say, ok, this happens Now, how am I going to recover?
Speaker 2Okay, this happens Now, how am I going to recover? So I am learning how to master the arts of recovery, how to change situations, how, if you got some client feedback that you didn't really, you know, wasn't expecting, but then you have to? I had to self-diagnose is there validity here? How am I going to respond and retain this client?
Speaker 1You know what I mean.
Speaker 2Yeah, but the initial hit is to your confidence.
Speaker 1Oh, 100 percent. I came into the role of CEO like three months before the pandemic. I was partner in the business by the first year, bought the business by the second year. Year, bought the business by the end of the second year. So still in the midst of COVID and a lot of change. You know, kind of becoming a refounder and replacing a founder of a mission-based business in the midst of all of that was pure chaos.
Speaker 1And yeah, you're right, I think you know. I always thought, having been brought up in the agency world as a creative, which is a very competitive, you know space, that I had thick skin. I thought I had really thick skin, but when your heart is in the work and when yourself is in the work, right that much more, I mean most folks will tell you right that you know, creatives.
Speaker 1They're a sensitive soul and they put so much into their who they are, into their work and blah blah, blah blah. You know, after a while you get pretty resilient and I would like to think that you know. I went into marketing and advertising because I wanted to solve people's business problems with creativity so I kind of went in, knowing I'm not making art for art's sake, right.
Speaker 1So it was never really. I mean, I never. I was always passionate, but not precious, as one of my mentors once told me to be make sure that I was always that. However, when it's you and it's your business, it's different. So you are so right, and I think it is a hit to the confidence, but at the same time, you are going to become so much more resilient than you've ever been. You are going to grow so much more resilient than you've ever been. You are going to grow so much more in such little time.
Speaker 2It's like boot camp, it really is.
Speaker 1I agree, and you're either going to make it through and you're going to come out stronger than you were before, or you're going to say, yeah, maybe this is it my thing, but the reward, it's just so rewarding. All right, are there any common myths or misconceptions about entrepreneurship that you would like to just kind of put the kibosh on right now?
Speaker 2That's a little hard because, of course, I didn't always dream about being an entrepreneur, you know, I just kind of fell into it, so I didn't do a lot of work around what it is and what it's not.
Speaker 2You know to be an entrepreneur, but I would probably say that you don't have to fully have your idea, you know vetted, of what you want to do at the beginning. So some people think that you have to know exactly what kind of business you want to go into, have everything done in your mind at least of what you want to do, before you start. And I would say that entrepreneurship is about. It's about morphing, it's about changing, it's about, you know, recreating, it's about expanding until you get to a place where you can say, yes, this is the business, this is where I want to be, this is what I saw in my head. It may seem like you started out saying, okay, I, you know, want to do baked cookies, but you don't know how that's going to be as a business. So you start out doing one thing, but then you shift, you morph. You know what I mean. So I always say that you don't have to have everything fully planned out in your head before you start your journey as an entrepreneur, you will continue to grow.
Speaker 1Yeah, let it be an evolution. Yes, because I feel like if you wait until it's completely fully baked, you'll never get started.
Speaker 1Absolutely, absolutely. That makes a lot of sense Again, seeing as how I just kind of sort of stepped into it and didn't like start something. I can see how, but when I've talked to other women within our organization that have considered starting or have started a business, a lot of them do feel that pressure, that tension to say, well, when I reach X, y, z point, then I will kind of do the thing, versus just taking the leap. You know, um, you talk a little bit about, like this idea of of stillness and slowing down, which gives me the sense that you are a fellow mindfulness nerd, which also makes me very happy. So, as a fellow mindfulness nerd, I love makes you very happy. So, as a fellow mindfulness nerd, I love that you talk about stillness and slowing down. Could you share a little bit about the importance of embracing these things and how it played a part in your own journey?
Speaker 2Absolutely. I love this. I love talking about stillness, because I operate in that every single day.
Speaker 2And so some of the things that I do is first thing in the morning. Depending upon my schedule, it could be five minutes or it can be 30 minutes, or sometimes it can be an hour. I will sit still, I will light candles. I am a person of faith, so I will read scripture and I don't have. I don't like to play music, I like to be very quiet, and I'm just still first thing in the morning. If I am in the afternoon, if I've been working because this week has been an editing week, I can sit down and edit, and five hours has gone past you know, and I haven't had anything to drink.
Speaker 2I haven't done anything, but I set a timer and I stop midway to walk away. Now that the weather is warm, I may go for a 30 minute walk without, again, no headphones or anything, just taking in nature. But something that I will also do is either in the morning or in the afternoon is I'm a huge reader and so I will read a chapter of a book that I enjoy, and what that does is it helps my mind to shift, because sometimes people want to just stop what they're doing and just kind of, you know, be still and think that you're going to automatically calm down Right, zero, exactly, and that won't happen for me. So I will stop and maybe read a chapter of one of my favorite books, and that kind of quiets my spirit, and then I will go quiet for that five or 10 minutes and I will, you know, embrace that. And what it has done for my journey is it allows me to gain clarity. It allows me to gain clarity on next steps. It allows me to gain clarity if I have a big project and I need to be creative.
Speaker 2I always talk about. People think that creatives can be creative on a dime, and we cannot. You know, you need to have that space and time to think through certain things and I recall just this week I had to do an engagement photo shoot and I was trying to think of the best location and I went for my afternoon walk and just looking of that went in was, that's a local park here large body of water and I just thought, oh, it just came to me in that stillness, in that quietness, that I want them to be by a body of water that's the kind of vibe that I'm going for for this particular shoot.
Speaker 1Wasn't thinking about them, but then, when I saw it in, that stillness, that exactly.
Speaker 2It gave me clarity about a project that I had coming up and it helps me work through, you know, any kind of difficult decisions that I have to make.
Speaker 1And it helps me work through.
Speaker 2You know any kind of difficult decisions that I have to make. You know that I'm not making them. You know in a hurry that I am taking my time, that I am being reflective so I can have the best course of direction. So I embrace the illness Absolutely.
Speaker 1I love this because I think the industry we're in, the society that we live in, it's very noisy, it champions moving at the speed of light and go, go, go, and one thing I learned, have learned over the last several years is that it was a struggle for me, and some of you who are listening right now might feel this as well, which is why I'm sharing it. I remember a time when I couldn't be in stillness, I couldn't have silence.
Speaker 1I would be traveling for like agency shoots, right, and it was as soon as the shoot the long 16 hour shoot was over, and we would go then for dinner and drinks right With the crew and I would go back to my hotel room and you would think I would collapse, exhausted from a 20 plus hour day and you would think I would collapse, exhausted from a 20 plus hour day.
Speaker 1Coming down from that was hard I have had to. At the time my kids were smaller, but two young children which you know at the time were waking up at night and things like that, so my sleep was usually disrupted.
Speaker 2And you know so.
Speaker 1I was kind of used to constant people around, constant simulation TV noise, and so oftentimes my practice was like, even when I would leave the hotel room I would simulation TV noise and so like oftentimes my practice, was like, even when I would leave the hotel room. I would leave the TV on, so like when I came into the room there was noise because it felt wrong to walk into a room without some type of noise.
Speaker 1When I would drive in the car, the radio had to be on. It took a while for me to learn to be in stillness and in quiet. So for any of you who sort of get this advice and almost bristle against it, I encourage you to kind of just begin with like small increments Right. The next time you're in your car and you're alone, just shut off the radio for five minutes and it's OK if it feels uncomfortable. It would feel uncomfortable for me, because I think what you start to learn is how to be alone with your own thoughts and how to start to be able to get rid of the noise, so that you can begin to filter through all of that and, like you were saying, have that clarity and
Speaker 1be able to hear your own voice. Able to hear your own voice because I think so often when we are making consideration, something as big as leaving a nine-to-five job which feels like it makes sense and security, and everyone wants this for us, because all of the shoulds right, you should keep a nine-to-five. You have health care, it's it's job security, it's blah blah, it's title, it's salary, it's prestige, blah. Um. It's hard for us to kind of get rid of all that noise and think about is this right for me because of all that excess noise? So like, if you're taking that time, extend that five minutes to ten minutes right absolutely slowly.
Speaker 1But surely? And see if it works for you you'll start craving it. I promise a hundred percent craving stillness and now I'm like at least a couple times a year I I take my kids off to the mountains with me, where there's no Wi-Fi, there's no internet there's no TV and we just have stillness and quiet.
Passion for Visual Storytelling and Entrepreneurship
Speaker 1And then I come back and I'm like it's too loud, I need to go back. It's the exact opposite. It is absolutely a practice. All right. How, what advice would you? Oh, let's actually talk about Breakthrough Lens for a moment. Your business it has a big focus on visual storytelling. How did your passion for this area influence your decision to start your own business? You kind of alluded to it in the beginning, but I want to share.
Speaker 2So actually it starts with my mother. But I want to share a little secret. So actually it starts with my mother. So my mother was an actress. I say was because she's not, you know, practicing now.
Speaker 2But I grew up in a household that at six years old my mother was doing plays the playhouse, in the park, she was doing commercials. And so through that experience, the love of the theater, the love of seeing great plays then I've really enjoyed movies. I movies quiet. Watching a movie will quiet me, just like reading a book. So I love watching movies and I've often wanted to just become a filmmaker for a large part of my life and I would, even when I was working in corporate America.
Speaker 2I would take weekend trips to different film festivals and I would try to learn as much as I could about filmmaking. But I just couldn't do it because of the demands of the job. But I have been in love with filmmaking from day one, out of the womb, through my mother and then through my own love for films. And so this is my way of telling stories. The stories that are are important to me, because I do cater to not only corporate but I also cater to not profits that have a great story and a great mission and that is what is most important.
Speaker 2And so so I love, love telling those stories and even if it's just a photo shoot, I try to find ways. What story do I want to tell? And I make those decisions, even with the kind of lens I'm going to use. Do I want more of the background and to tell more of a story? Do I want this to be more of an intimate moment with this person and let their emotions come through and tell that story? So every aspect, I'm trying to tell a story.
Speaker 1And it's so interesting too that that was there from such a young age. What made you pursue corporate and HR then?
Speaker 2Because you paid the bills. I will be perfectly honest with you I was nervous, I was scared Back then, thinking of becoming an entrepreneur or even being a filmmaker. I wanted to be independent, I wanted to make money, and the job that I had afforded me a great lifestyle. I will not lie yeah, it afforded me a great lifestyle and so I got addicted to that. Yeah, yeah, I got addicted to that.
Speaker 1I know Well, I just don't even think about it as like an opportunity or a path, right, because like nobody in my family was particularly entrepreneurial, right, and like our family wasn't necessarily well off, so I had more of a scarcity mindset. It was more like go to college, get the degree, get a salary, make the money. So it wasn't even really that option of like go off and make as much money as you possibly want to as an entrepreneur, because what you make with somebody else is finite, right, right, what you can possibly make for yourself, it's like infinite, potentially right. What advice would you give to someone who's struggling to find their passion or feeling kind of stuck at their current job?
Speaker 2you know, I would probably say during your quiet time, in your stillness yeah, then we're all going to start practicing, if you're not in your quiet time, to really start thinking about what brings you joy first.
Speaker 2If you think about what really brings me joy throughout the day when I am at church, maybe and this is not me, I'm using this as an example and you enjoy encouraging the youth there, or you're a youth leader and you love that relationship with young individuals, well, take that joy. Now, how can I create a viable business around this?
Speaker 1Can.
Speaker 2I create a nonprofit around this. You know, so I would start with what do you truly find joy with that you don't want, you don't mind doing every day, all day, and how can you make that profitable? How can you turn that in to a viable business If it's making cookies? If it's whatever you really truly find joy in. Then start thinking about okay, how can I start making money?
Speaker 1It's so lame. You said movies, so you got me on that train I started thinking about I guess we are my whole family. We're a bunch of movie nerds as well. Um, and it just took me to that moment where, um, opie Goldberg's talking to Lauren Hill in Sister Act 2. And she's like if you wake up every day and you think about singing, you're meant to be a singer. No, that's, that's true. It is true.
Speaker 1If you wake up and there's something that you feel, called compelled, excited about doing, and it has a plausible option to make you money that's beyond a hobby, I would say that's beyond a hobby. Then yeah Like, why not explore it? Why not explore?
Speaker 1it I would say that's one option. And then, you know, for me it was really kind of leaning into a passion which was really realizing the disparity, like the gender disparities and issues for women in the digital marketing, advertising space. Because I was a creative director at an agency when my boss, who was a man director at an agency, when my boss, who was a man at the time, was like, hey, I'm sending you to this conference in San Francisco, I was like cool, I had never been, it's my first time to California. This was back in 2012. And he says it's a 3% conference and I'm like, OK, what's that? He says, well, 3% of creative directors are women.
Speaker 1And I just was astounded because I, you know, I was in this little nice, like happy little fishbowl of me and one other female creative director at my agency of 100 and just didn't really know the waters that I was swimming in. I had no idea that there were so few female creative directors. You know, I was working on beauty brands and you know, getting to travel and shoot video and just all happy and like, yeah, this is great. I mean, granted, they were all male crews on all these beauty shoots that I was doing and I was one of the few directors that was a female that they'd worked with, but it just never dawned on me how, yeah, how small that number was.
Speaker 2And it makes me think about not only just that, but you have a passion for it. But where do you see a need?
Speaker 1Yes, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2Where do you see a need? You know any of the need that pulls at your heartstrings and you want to do something about it. Do that work. But then also, could this possibly be something that could make you money.
Speaker 1So if there's something.
Speaker 2I know a lot of people who started business because of like a food business growing vegetables and fruit, because of the lack of food in their community, and so they've turned that into a nonprofit. They're now starting to make money from it. It's their business, but it started out from a need that they saw.
Speaker 1Yeah, Look for a problem Look for it. I mean, we've got enough problems out there in the world, ladies, let's start fixing them with some businesses. Make some money while we're at it. I love that. That's fantastic advice. Okay, I've got a couple more questions for you and we're coming close to time, although we've got about 10 more minutes, so we've got plenty of time If our live listening audience wants to ask some questions. Uh, let's see. Pamela, what is one thing that you wish you would have known?
Speaker 2before you started your business. Looking back Okay, you know, I think so I will say that I am inherently an introvert and so I like, always like working behind the scenes. I was like that even in corporate America.
Speaker 2I like to do the work, working behind the scenes, allowing someone else to take the credit.
Speaker 2But I didn't understand how important it is to market not just your product, not just your service, but you and I.
Speaker 2For the first couple of years I kind of hid behind the scenes and just wanted the work to speak for itself. But I have learned that the importance of you as a brand, the importance of people wanting to see your own authenticity, and how you have to really get out there and market who you are People want to connect with you, not just your service, not just your product. They want to feel that they can trust you. They want with you, know, I want to feel that there's a connection there, and so I wish I would have known that early on to get out in front of it, to really not be afraid to put myself out there to market, market myself, to be a little bit more vulnerable on social media. So I would say that's one thing I definitely wish I would have known and started earlier. Yeah, it's just knowing how to put myself being vulnerable, being off, you know, yeah, my authentic self, and I've noticed that, even with my own engagement, I can put up a silly behind the scenes video of me and that gets more engagement.
Speaker 1We love to see the behind the scenes. We love to see the real people and the real deal. So I think I'm going to follow that up with you know, because I think, honestly, more people have the percentage somewhere um, based on some research I'm doing right now, but I don't have it off the top of my head I feel more people actually do identify as introvert than extrovert. Honestly, and I know a lot of our community do so with that, how have you begun to sort of reconcile that for our members who are listening, or community that are listening, if they're hesitant to kind of become an entrepreneur because they're like, oh snap, what do you mean? I gotta like put myself out there. How, how have you worked through that?
Speaker 2it's a struggle, I'm not going to lie, it is a struggle. So back to my structure. I just create time and I say when it comes to networking, I am going to go to at least just two networking events per month, I'm not going to try to every day or every week attend a networking event because I can go to a two hour networking event and have to come home and take a nap.
Speaker 1I feel that I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm trained.
Speaker 2Done, done. So I just have to put structure around it. I only will do, I'll do one BTS perhaps per month, or I'll do something really short just to put myself out there. But I just have to plan it and, just, you know, lean into it, knowing what my limitations are, but I do try to lean into it but create structure around it so I don't feel overwhelmed.
Speaker 1Yes, I think that's fantastic and I, you know, I really want to encourage our more introverted folks, or even ambivert folks, that kind of identify as a little bit of both. That that is a strength. There's a really great book out there I don't know if you've read it or since you're also another book nerd Quiet by Susan Cain.
Speaker 1It really talks about the power of introversion in a world that can't quit talking, I believe, is the subtitle, and it really does just talk about how introverts are truly positioned to be leaders, thought leaders. I think we often see extroversion as a superpower, as a strength, but oftentimes, just because you're the loudest in the room, because you're the one doing the most, speaking doesn't make you the smartest, doesn't make you the one with the best ideas right?
Speaker 2Absolutely, because, as an introvert, I always try to have more questions than answers. I'm always listening, yes, and so, while all of the talking has happened during the meeting, by the end I now have the answer yes. Because, I've taken the time to really process, listen to all of the perspectives, and then now I can come and say, okay, this is what I think we should do, you know. So it's very much a strength in my mind to be an introvert. It's very powerful.
Speaker 1I don't think you should shy away at all from ever considering entrepreneurship, because you're an introvert and I would say too, I a hundred percent agree and I love your idea of sort of being mindful of, like the energy that you put out there when you're networking or putting yourself out there and really pacing yourself and not overexerting yourself, exactly being mindful right of the amount of time that you're putting into that and giving yourself, maybe like a day. We have a mutual connection. I think you know Rachel DeRosiers, who has power to pursue great example. It takes every Friday, takes every Friday off and she talks about it. You know she posts her what she's grateful for, about what happened that week, and also talks about how she goes to bed at seven 30 every night. I mean I thought I was good going to bed at nine, but that's pretty early. She's like I'm in bed by seven 30.
Financial Assessment and Entrepreneurial Leap
Speaker 1I don't know if she's sleeping but she's in bed, and so I think you know, prioritizing rest, prioritizing your downtime, your alone time, which you know introverts need, I think all that stuff's really great and it doesn't have to detract from your business because it allows you to show up with the energy necessary to provide your clients with what they need, and it's one thing.
Speaker 2because I do like structure and because I am an introvert, I know we're out of time I know that I'm not one of those individuals who can. Someone can call you that day and say can you come down and help with this food? No, yeah, right, yeah, I have to prepare. I have to have my energy stored up for this.
Speaker 1You know so and I know my friends that are that way and I know my friends that are like if there's something last minute I need somebody to like have with me because I like to have my, my wing woman for certain things.
Speaker 1So like I, I'm an amover, so I'm like it. I like I don't love last minute things. If I have to, I'll do it, but I would prefer to have somebody with me, okay, so I know my one Enneagram sevens and my extroverts that I can be like hey, yo listen, last minute thing, I need a way just to bring that extra energy.
Speaker 2So yes, this is again where self-awareness and having other friends who are self-aware.
Speaker 1Kind of explain these things to you and I also know which friends, not to call for last minute favors like that. I would never, ever, do that to them. All right, I've got one last question, but I'm going to check the chat because I see something in there.
Speaker 1Oh, it's just. Oh, thank you, kaylee. Dropping links for us, kaylee. All right, thank you for dropping those links, but live listeners. If there's any other questions, don't be shy. You can also connect with Pamela on LinkedIn and, as Kaylee did so lovely, thank you so much Dropped her information in there as well, so you can always ask through that. All right, for those that are listening and considering making that leap. We hope we've convinced you even just a little bit. What is one actionable step that they could take today to begin their journey.
Speaker 2Conduct a financial assessment Interesting. Conduct a financial assessment. If you have debt, work towards eliminating debt. I would say save up at least a year's worth of your expenses so that when you do make that leap into entrepreneurship, you can do so without the stress of having to worry about that you have to pay a mortgage or pay rent or pay a car. Note that you aren't operating from a scarcity mindset, where you think that you're going to need to take a job that you really don't want, but you need the money, that you have that luxury of that foundation cushion there. So I would say the first thing I would do right now is I would take a financial assessment of your current income, what you have coming into your home and your expenses, seeing what debt may need to be eliminated, and start saving if you don't already have it, and also have an emergency fund that you can lean into in case something happens, so you can be free at least for that one year to put everything that you can into your business. Yeah, I, I think that's great advice.
Speaker 1Scarcity mindset I feel like it. I feel that, having come into a business in the midst of a lot of shifting and changing and then a pandemic, there was a lot of shifting and changing in operations and I was like, wow, how do we survive?
Speaker 2this, so now coming out of that.
Speaker 1It's been a practice. It's been a. It's been a practice for me as well, being like, okay, what does growth mindset look like? So, yeah, this has been so great. Pamela, thank you so much. It's fun to be in person. It's been wonderful to get to know you better. I knew we're going to keep chatting, keep hanging out Everyone who's been listening live. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope that you have all found this not just inspirational, but informational, tactical again. Go check out Pamela's wonderful ebook and I hope you find it helpful. Please let us know what you think yes hopefully see you all next week.
Speaker 1Oh, can I say one thing?
Speaker 2absolutely. If you do download the book directly to your laptop or phone, I will send you a free workbook companion to go along with your ebook.
Speaker 1Hey, we love workbooks. We love working through stuff. Thank you again, Pamela. So much Appreciate all of this. This is so generous of you. All right, everyone. That's all we have for you this week. We hope to see you next week. Until then, everyone keep asking, keep giving and keep growing. See you all, Bye.
