Why Your Business Needs Purpose (Not Just Profit) | Teeg Stouffer

PROFITABLE TALKS...

What if your business isn’t just about making money—but about preserving meaning?

In this episode of The Profitable Creative, host Christian Brim talks with Teeg Stouffer of Fascination Film Studio about the power of storytelling, legacy, and building a business around purpose. From a career in media and sales to walking away and starting a documentary-focused company, Teeg shares how one deeply personal moment reshaped his entire direction—and why creators should think beyond content and toward impact.

PROFITABLE TAKEAWAYS...

•  Why purpose—not profit—should drive your creative business 
•  The difference between heritage and legacy (and why it matters) 
•  How storytelling can create long-term impact for families and businesses 
•  Why most entrepreneurs feel unfulfilled—even when they’re successful 
•  How to build a business that aligns with your values, not just market demand 

I Am That Content Creator Podcast
The podcast for multi-passionate, serial entrepreneurs.

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Transcript

Christian Brim (00:01.327)
Welcome to another episode of the Profitable Creative, the only place on the interwebs where you will learn how to turn your passion into profit. I am your host, Christian Brim. Special shout out to our one listener in Post Falls, Idaho. I visited Idaho for the first time last year accidentally going on a journey with my wife up to Wyoming.

So was up there by Wyoming and it was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. But from talking to others, evidently there's parts of the state that more resemble a desert. anyway, thank you for listening in Post Falls, wherever that is. I don't know if you're in the pretty part or the ugly part. Joining me today, Tej Stofer of Venture Films. Tej, welcome to the program.

Teeg Stouffer (00:39.566)
Hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (00:52.046)
It is a joy to join you Christian. Thank you Fascination Film Studio

Christian Brim (01:00.049)
Okay, I'm going to re-record that. Fascination. Why did I say venture?

Teeg Stouffer (01:01.646)
Thanks. Sorry about that.

I don't know, Fascination Film Studios is my thing. Sorry about that. I hate to correct that though. Yes.

Christian Brim (01:07.409)
I don't know where, okay. No, that's all me. No, that's my fault. Joining me today, Teej Stofer, a fascination film studio. Welcome to the show, Teej.

Teeg Stouffer (01:19.05)
It is a joy to be joining you, Christian. I've enjoyed being a listener, so it's fun to be able to make a contribution to the podcast.

Christian Brim (01:27.505)
Well, thank you for listening. Thank you. It's often difficult as a podcaster because you don't know who's listening or what they think because there's not a good feedback loop. So I will probably postmortem with you afterwards and get some more feedback on your listenership. OK, so tell us your origin story.

Teeg Stouffer (01:53.964)
Sure. Yeah, yeah. So, Christian, I have a unusual start into this whole thing of media marketing, communications events, storytelling, like frame it however you want. Right? When I was in the sixth grade, I lived in, I grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa. And in the most perhaps unlikely of circumstances, I got cast in one of those after school TV specials.

Christian Brim (02:05.126)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (02:22.851)
Okay. Was this a local production or?

Teeg Stouffer (02:23.162)
And, you was a Yeah, yeah, I mean, like, it was a film, right? Like, was he's in the 1980s and 1990s, there was these after school TV specials, you'd come home from school, and they'd have a very moral message, you know, and mine, the message of mine, Christian was, if you're having a hard time doing something on your own, you should try working together. And

Christian Brim (02:36.389)
Yeah, yeah.

Christian Brim (02:50.993)
What?

Teeg Stouffer (02:51.808)
It would come as a surprise. Not certainly to you Christian to the listener, they wouldn't know one way or the other, but it would not come as a surprise to you looking at me that I played the nerd in that film. And so typecast for life. But here we are when I was 14 years old. I got a radio show, which is a very unlikely thing to happen to a 14 year old. And then when I was 16 years old, I got hired at WHO radio in Des Moines, Iowa.

which is where Ronald Reagan got his start. So who knows where I might wind up? Probably not the White House, but not a lot of likelihood. At any rate, I went on by the time I was 18 years old, I got an opportunity to start the country's first all digital student run radio station in America at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, this tiny little college that wanted to do something audacious at the time of the digital revolution. And then,

Christian Brim (03:28.645)
There's still time.

Christian Brim (03:32.435)
well.

Christian Brim (03:50.533)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (03:50.882)
That led on to me having an opportunity to go to Oxford and my American voice was useful in radio there. So I worked for a BBC station there. And then that went on. I thought for me, I would have had a career in radio. And then everything had changed in radio. I ended up marrying a lady who was a TV lady. We were a media couple. So she was a TV lady. I was a radio guy. And it only took a few years for us to be those award winning powerhouse media couple that burned out quickly.

Christian Brim (04:20.824)
Hmm

Teeg Stouffer (04:21.19)
And we sold our house and we sold everything we owned and we went on the road executing events all over America. So think a young couple with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. We didn't actually do the Wienermobile, but stuff like that. We're in a different city every week, you know, executing an experiential event. And then I stayed in that business. And over the years, I've done all kinds of things in media marketing and events. And you know how this should be true for so many of us. I bet it's true for you, Christian.

One thing leads to another. And I love fishing in the outdoors. And so I was doing experiential work in the fishing in the outdoors and media work in the fishing in the outdoors. And then that led to me having a role at a really super cool fishing company who was doing great things. then there was change in the company. And I knew I had leadership skills and sales skills and some of that enterprise kind of.

Christian Brim (04:52.923)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (05:19.07)
mind from you know, now now my career is advanced to the point, you know, I've been in business for, you know, 25 or 30 years. So I ended up basically being a fishing lure salesman. So you know, just like one thing led to the other until I was basically, I wasn't I was the guy I was, you know, selling fishing lures to Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods and Academy. And it was so far removed really from like, the things that I'm really good at, which is like,

Christian Brim (05:30.225)
Okay.

Teeg Stouffer (05:47.47)
people, relationships, storytelling, telling the story. I was a fishing lure salesman. I could have well been selling, I don't know, sneakers or, you know, curtains, you know, I could have been selling anything. At that point, it doesn't matter. It's just spreadsheets and enterprise sales. And so my dad died. And when he died, my brother and I were in the attic, and we were going through stuff. And

This is a whole story all of its own. As a matter of fact, I'm going to compartmentalize that story. There's a great story, but it caused me to reconsider. And I quit my job and I started Fascination Film Studio and I've never been more fulfilled.

Christian Brim (06:30.417)
Would you mind sharing the story of, you know?

Teeg Stouffer (06:33.056)
I I would love I would love to I felt like teach. Been doing a lot of talking you better give a break.

Christian Brim (06:40.377)
No, no, that's what you're here for. That is literally your job description.

Teeg Stouffer (06:43.372)
That's my job. Okay.

I think a lot of people would relate to this and if they can't directly relate to this, the day will come where your parents die. You know, it doesn't always go that way. Sometimes there's a tragedy, but you want it to go that way that you lose your parents. They are the ones who pass away first. And we were in that time. My mom died a long time ago, 16 years ago. So my dad was still in the house that my brother and I grew up in and my brother and I were in the attic.

Unearthing all the things, what are we going to do with all these things? And we pulled out this banker's box and we opened the banker's box. And inside the box were these African artifacts, these wooden people, like mahogany people. we're like, what is this? Why does dad have African artifacts? And it kind of came back to us that we have like maybe like a great aunt and uncle who were missionaries in Africa. And this is from those missionary expeditions.

Christian Brim (07:17.328)
Right.

Teeg Stouffer (07:44.014)
But who were they? And then we're like open, and it really bothered me. I was one of those 14 year old kids with a big VHS camcorder on my shoulder. I got a stack of VHS tapes right back here on my shelf, you know, like recording, you know, I was the family documentarian, right? I've been this way all my life. I'm recording my grandma's story, doing all the stuff, right? And I'd never really, I thought I'd remember the story about these African artifacts and I had forgotten, you know? And I couldn't ask my dad, because he's dead.

Christian Brim (07:57.562)
Right.

Teeg Stouffer (08:13.612)
And he was the youngest of three brothers. And they're all gone, too. There's no one left to ask. And I thought I'd remember. And I didn't. And then you're opening more boxes. And there's these photographs. It's like, is this them? Could this be them? What's their name? Were they the good guys or the bad guys? Were they colonialists or were they really bringing the gospel, the good news to these people? Like, what was their deal? And I can't know. And it really bothered me. And then we opened another box and I found this. And this.

is a little vinyl notebook. It's about three inches by five inches. And inside, it's the diary of my great grandmother, Joy Larson. And it's story of her coming to Iowa, where I live, in a covered wagon. And I actually knew this woman. I knew Joy Larson. She lived when I lived. So matter of fact, she lived until I was 20 years old. But she the last eight years of her life, she had dementia.

Christian Brim (08:56.081)
Get out of here.

Teeg Stouffer (09:13.644)
But still, until I was 12, she had her faculties. I really knew this lady. And she came, I'm only 48, she came here on a covered wagon, right? And in the reason she was coming to Iowa from South Dakota is that her mother had died in childbirth. And her grieving father, who had five children at this point, was bringing his kids back from South Dakota to Southwest Iowa so his parents could help raise the kids. This is the very early 1900s. Men didn't raise kids in those days.

Christian Brim (09:22.341)
Right.

Teeg Stouffer (09:42.166)
He was gonna go have his mom help raise these kids. And along the journey across the prairie, their wagon was struck by lightning. And my great grandmother was in the middle of the wagon and her siblings on either side were killed. But she lived and one result of her living is that I live and I have kids.

Christian Brim (10:03.118)
Hmm

Teeg Stouffer (10:04.78)
And my kids were born into such extraordinary comfort, they will never know the kind of grit and circumstance that she lived in. And the story goes on and on, it's an amazing story. And I was like, I'm gonna make a little documentary about this for the sake of my kids, because she lived on a fistful of cornmeal and beans a day. They'll freak out if I buy the wrong brand of chicken nuggets, right? Like, it's just such a huge gulf between the lives they lived and I'm the bridge between them and it's my responsibility.

Christian Brim (10:18.383)
Yes.

Christian Brim (10:23.994)
Right, right.

Teeg Stouffer (10:32.098)
to bridge that gap. So I'm like, I'm gonna make a film about this and once for their sake, not to be, it's never gonna be on Netflix, nobody, it's just for them, that they'll know the story, that we would create continuity among our generations. And so once I started doing that, I'm like, this is all I'm gonna do. I'm not very fulfilled selling fishing lures, I'm making good money, but like, this is not what I was made to do. This other thing, this is what I was made to do. So I quit my job.

took the risk. dad had just died. could take the risk. He wasn't rich or anything, but you know, we sold his house, had just enough money to create the buffer of, I'm going to own the camera gear. I'm not going to use my agency's gear that we're not going to rent gear. I'm going to buy the gear and I've got enough of a buffer that we'll probably be okay. And sure enough, bless God, we've been okay.

Christian Brim (11:21.121)
I literally got chills as you were telling that story about your grandmother because, know, I don't, I don't think many of us have those experiences where you're like, I shouldn't have lived. And the fact that I did live means there's something I'm supposed to do. Yeah.

Teeg Stouffer (11:46.382)
absolutely a crate's purpose.

Christian Brim (11:49.137)
But the reality is we all have purpose. It's just not always that stark. And maybe God does that for those individuals because they need it. Like they wouldn't have figured out their purpose or understood that they had a purpose without that type of calamity. But I think what you're touching on is I think so

Teeg Stouffer (11:51.469)
Yes.

Right, right.

Christian Brim (12:19.895)
important for not just creatives, but every entrepreneur and really every person but you know, this shows about entrepreneurship. And, know, entrepreneurs are called to do something, and it's not make money. It's totally fine to make money, you should make money doing it. But if without that underlying understanding of your purpose, it eventually feels hollow.

Teeg Stouffer (12:49.804)
and

Christian Brim (12:50.221)
Like selling fishing lures, right? Like you were good at it. You had success at it But it's like this is not what i'm supposed to be doing and it's easy It's easy to get there i've gotten there myself and i've talked to a lot of people that that have walked that path Of like what what am I doing here?

Teeg Stouffer (12:59.054)
Mm.

Teeg Stouffer (13:04.236)
Yeah, yeah.

Teeg Stouffer (13:10.794)
Mm hmm. I relate. And now I get to tell a lot of stories exactly like what you said, where the odds were long, and the people prevail, probably always and exclusively in some way because of the hand of God. And there's a big revelation and a lot of purpose and breakthrough and power and fruit that's born out of it. And so it's unbelievably fulfilling, you know, it's

Christian Brim (13:27.419)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (13:37.992)
unbelievably fulfilling. How we could fill the whole show with these incredible stories that I get to tell, you know?

Christian Brim (13:43.835)
So that's what you guys do now is loosely say documentaries.

Teeg Stouffer (13:51.63)
Yeah, that's exactly right. And as a matter of fact, if I'm speaking to other people, we're really going down like the profitable creative, the business track of conversation. Here's what I would say. I have a tendency in life, this is I'm kind of an entrepreneurial guy, I've had a handful of different businesses and nonprofits over the years, I've started a few nonprofits. And I have a tendency to end up a mile wide and an inch deep and

Christian Brim (14:00.464)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (14:16.753)
Hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (14:17.292)
I'm kind of a multi-potentialite. I'm kind of a generalist. I have a lot of interests. One thing leads to another. And I end up a mile wide and an inch deep. And I was like, I'm not doing that with Fascination Films. We're doing one thing. We're doing heritage and legacy style documentaries. So within documentary, there's subsets and subsets. so within filmmaking, you have this huge universe. You'd narrow it down to documentary. Within documentary, subsets and subsets. I'm doing heritage and legacy. That's it. That's all. But remember,

Christian Brim (14:35.803)
Sure.

Teeg Stouffer (14:44.16)
I quit my executive job where I had an ownership stake in the company and a VP title. And now I'm just going out on my own with not that much money, you know. And so thank God, literally the first Monday after I'd given my you know, notice. I had a job of heritage and legacy job, I was going to be able to help somebody let document the transitioning of a farm and that makes sense to me. My family is a farming family that works. That's great.

totally get it was awesome. But then there needed to be more work. And I kinda hourglassed it out. So I went from exclusively heritage and legacy to documentary style films that serve companies, families and communities. So I still say only documentaries, I want to make documentaries that have legacy level impact. But now I'm broadened out documentary a little bit, but there's still a real focus on heritage and legacy. But legacy is made every day. It doesn't start when we die.

Christian Brim (15:33.009)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (15:41.024)
And so I think there's a lot of ways to create legacy, both for businesses and companies, and also individuals and families. So a lot of these things help create legacy more than document heritage for the sake of legacy. So it's kind of a mix, but it's documentary with an emphasis on heritage and legacy.

Christian Brim (15:57.797)
How do you define legacy? I know, that's job, is to ask great questions.

Teeg Stouffer (15:59.318)
Okay, this is a great question.

And we're good at your job. So I'm going to answer that question. I'm going to give a slight diversion. When I started telling people I'm doing heritage and legacy films, they're like, what is that exactly? Because it's not a household name. But there are heritage and legacy filmmakers all over the place. But they tend to be and if any of them are listening, I don't mean this is a slight to you. Everybody was probably gonna nod their head when I say this. They tend to be like introverted creatives, you know. I'm an extrovert. And I'm a business builder. And I was like, nobody knows what this is. This should be a household name. I've made

Christian Brim (16:25.561)
Mmm.

Teeg Stouffer (16:31.88)
portion of my living in the past as a speaker, I'm gonna start writing and speaking on this topic. So now I've had a couple years of writing and speaking on the topic and I'm talking about this all the time because people don't have a good handle on it. When we think about legacy, immediately people think about death, like after you die. The other thing people think about when they think about legacy is you might think about like something's been around for a long time. Like think about like legacy software, like legacy software, it's been around for a long or a legacy brand.

Christian Brim (17:00.049)
Yeah.

Teeg Stouffer (17:01.792)
that brand, it's been around for a long time. That is actually a misrepresentation of what legacy actually is. Legacy is also not your money. A lot of people position legacy in the marketplace as you want to leave a legacy and what they're getting at is you want to leave money, you know, and money and your assets is kind of part of your legacy or it's like your name on a building or something. That's really not legacy. Heritage, when we talk about like brands that have been around a long time or things that have been here for a long time.

or things that have led on to something. That's really heritage. Heritage is everything that happened in the past that leads up to you and now, right? Heritage, all the stuff in the past, that's your heritage. My great grandmother, Joy Larson, I'm her legacy, she's my heritage, right? So heritage is all the things that happened that lead, and part of my heritage is that I had a mentor named Doug Hudson who sewed into me. Part of my heritage is that I have a farming family, right? That's part of my heritage.

Christian Brim (17:39.899)
Okay.

Christian Brim (17:49.425)
Mmm.

Teeg Stouffer (18:00.622)
I'm a white guy, you know, like that's part of my heritage. There's a whole bunch of things that lead up to me. I come from a family of talkers, communicators, right? That's part of my heritage. My legacy is being written at this exact moment. Right now, I'm creating my legacy. People do not think in these terms. Matter of fact, I did some research about it. Only 6 % of people think in the terms of their legacy frequently. 12 % literally never think about it. Most people fall somewhere in between.

6 % of people think from a place of legacy. But for those who do, radical reframing of their lives. Because they understand that as I am doing whatever I'm doing, the effect of my life, the effect of my life on other people is creating my legacy. It's how I'll be remembered. It's what the output of my life will be. It's, you know, what does this all lead on to? Because I'll be gone. But what will remain? The effect, the effect of me. That's my legacy.

Christian Brim (18:42.641)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (19:00.837)
I love that. I, and it deeply resonates. We, we had a dinner group, in our, entrepreneurs organization chapter here recently. And, it was a Jefferson dinner, I guess. And I guess it's, it's a dinner where you discuss a topic. and the topic was legacy.

Teeg Stouffer (19:26.478)
Interesting.

Christian Brim (19:27.179)
And and yeah, it was very interesting and what was interesting Was like how these entrepreneurs tenured entrepreneurs? What what they thought about legacy and specifically their legacy and And my response to that question at the time was well You know Three four generations from now

Even your family is not going to remember who you are. Unless there's some tremendous legacy like your great grandmother. But you know, everything that we have built relationships, businesses, family, you're dust after a period of time. And so

Teeg Stouffer (19:57.591)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (20:02.701)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (20:20.556)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (20:24.249)
Reflecting in that moment. I'm like the only thing that from a legacy standpoint that really makes any difference is how you treat others like that. That's that's it. That's your impact and It sounds very similar to what you're saying

Teeg Stouffer (20:42.156)
Yeah, we won't. Yes. And he and to the point you're making, I'm going to reinforce that point. People mistakenly think that their legacy is about them. And it's not our legacy. Because you think I want to leave a legacy or what will my legacy be? And so that's kind of the it's I mean, we can use that those terms of phrase that vernacular. But really,

Our legacy is not about us. We won't be here to see it. Right. Our legacy is about them, whoever they are, your kids or your grandkids or your community or your church or your business, your company. Like all these things are part of what your legacy is. And there are things we can do to reinforce that legacy, not for our sake.

Christian Brim (21:18.971)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (21:25.254)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (21:40.088)
for theirs. So for example, when somebody chooses to record their story, I just had a meeting with one of my clients about this yesterday. was, midway through a project and he said, I can't believe how much more definition I have in my life and how much clarity I have in decisions I make every day because we're doing this. When you choose to record your story, it causes you to take stock. Like,

Christian Brim (22:00.145)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (22:04.901)
Yes.

Teeg Stouffer (22:05.338)
You're being very intentional. You're moving all the background stuff and you're stepping away from the tyranny, the urgent and the never ending scroll and the pressure of the to do list and the politics and the AI and the everything. And you're saying like, how did I get here? You're doing it very intentionally because you're to have to articulate that. And somebody like me is often going to be there with you helping you frame. How did I get here? What's good about that? What do I not want to continue? And then

you're making very intentional statements like in a book or on film about like what's gonna happen as a result what you hope happens as a result and you're able to speak to those people in a recorded way a book or a movie or whatever you do and that changes your life it literally changes your life and it cements your legacy because there's a recording literally one of the films I just did it's where a guy who his kids hired me to go spend a week on an island with him because he's dying

Christian Brim (22:49.253)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (23:02.56)
And they know they need a tool for his grief. in their their sake, their circumstance, they have some, you know, almost out of the house kids, and they have a late in life baby. And they know he's never going to know this grandfather who moved here from his parents moved here from the Netherlands. So they, they will all be lost if they don't record it. And so they're tensionality about recording, let's record it, right. So so so now what will his legacy be versus somebody who isn't around and even after he's gone?

at any moment on demand, they'll be able to hear him say, I love you.

Christian Brim (23:36.433)
I love that how Which is the million dollar question? I guess how do you how do you transfer that passion into a business? Like what's the what's the secret there because what you're describing is very powerful very impactful How do you find people that want it and and want to pay for it

Teeg Stouffer (24:01.964)
Yeah, probably not coming on your podcast because I none of your listeners are gonna do this because they all do this. But hopefully they'll be like, I can do that. I can do that. And I'm do it. And I hope they do. Right. So it's exactly I think it's exactly as you've said, even in today's show. And as you as you say, in in profit first for creatives, you do want to be profitable. Like you do want to do that. Right. You should make money. I think you said that already in this episode, you should make money. I want to make money. If making money was my

Christian Brim (24:06.981)
Hahaha

Christian Brim (24:22.799)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Teeg Stouffer (24:30.766)
primary purpose, I know how to do it. I would create a business that has a recurring revenue model that sells at a price point that's lower than my cost of customer acquisition. I would start a customer acquisition loop, I would have a handful of funnels, and I would keep optimizing them all the time. I'd probably use AI, I would find market fit, I would do that thing, and I would just turn on some money making machine, I would find out what the market wants, and I would give it to them a little bit better than anybody else's. That's not what I'm doing. I'm creating a

I'm saying we're not thinking about this and we should be and fortunately bless God I think it aligns with my purpose and I'm being sustained. It's not the most Financially profitable but I think it'll have I think there are lot of ways to measure profitability the fruitfulness of our life, right? And so if I help elevate legacy and thinking in long terms in an era when we're being sucked

Christian Brim (25:01.893)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (25:11.121)
Hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (25:27.138)
down into a very narrow iPhone shaped hole, I think that that has immense profit. so and and fortunately, a sustaining revenue stream for my household and the people who are working with me. And so that's how so if I'm being a little bit more precise about the conversation, what I would say is I market the business in a handful of different ways. And I

Christian Brim (25:28.067)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (25:55.822)
And I'm happy to talk about that. And it's generating enough business, but there's a lot of people who have great stories, and they're never going to be able to hire me or somebody like me. Like my floor is like $3,500. So that just there's a lot of people who would spend $3,500 on a vacation, they'd be like, this year, let's do a film. And that's great. You know, so like, even middle class families and above could do it. Upper middle class families and above for sure is my is my audience. And there's plenty of people that support a business like mine, like that, you know.

Christian Brim (26:09.446)
Hmm?

Teeg Stouffer (26:25.216)
And so that's fine. But there's tons of families. mean, look at the economic maps. There are tons of families who have a great story, should record the story, and they can't afford me. So I wrote a book, and I've been speaking on this book for like a year, refining this book. And I'm going to release this book, and everybody can afford 20 bucks. And it's like one third storytelling because we all love stories.

Christian Brim (26:50.777)
Right?

Teeg Stouffer (26:51.008)
It's like one third motivation, you should do this and here's why. And then it's one third literally like here is exactly how you do this, you know? I'll tell you what I've resisted doing and that's creating an app that does it. And it's so tempting in an era of AI to just make the app because it would probably be profitable. Somebody is gonna listen to this and they're gonna be like, look, you're not gonna do it, I'm going to. And I just don't wanna park grandma in front of a laptop.

That's not what I want to do. don't want... That app already exists. I don't want to park grandma in front of a laptop. I want to foster human connection. Real human connection in an era where that's waning.

Christian Brim (27:30.585)
Yeah, it's almost antithetical. the app sounds like a good business idea, but it's antithetical to what you're trying to do. And I think what I'm hearing under the surface here, and you tell me if I'm right, is you're designing the business to serve you and what you want. It's not

Teeg Stouffer (27:38.796)
Right, this is about deep human connection.

Christian Brim (27:59.481)
designing a business without intent or with the intent of financial freedom or time freedom or some other measurement of success, you have a very clear idea of what success is and you're building the business to optimize for that.

Teeg Stouffer (28:18.412)
Yeah, I think that's true. But I would say along the way, want financial, if not, I do want a certain level of financial freedom. I want financial stability. I don't want to have to worry about where my mortgage payments going to come from. And I, I have gotten a certain amount of time flexibility. I don't have to ask my boss if I can go to my kids wrestling meet this afternoon. I'm just going to go, but there's consequences. I'll go to my kids wrestling meet.

Christian Brim (28:27.675)
Sure.

Christian Brim (28:38.66)
Right.

Teeg Stouffer (28:45.102)
But I've got a deadline to meet. I've got clients who expect their thing. So I'll just have to do I to upload those files after the rest of me. Fine. You know, like that's the entrepreneurial joy. Right. And the operant entrepreneurial challenge as well. And so I have a certain amount of freedom. But literally yesterday I got a call and it's like, can you film this thing in Des Moines? You know, these two days, I'm like, shoot, I can. A kid is singing at the Cedar Rapids kernel. Which one of those am I going to decide? But I get to decide.

Christian Brim (29:13.713)
Mmm.

Teeg Stouffer (29:15.052)
My boss doesn't decide. So there's a certain amount of freedom, right? And so I'm gaining, I've gained a certain amount of freedom. I've also gained the freedom of, I get to choose what my values, what values I'm going to operate from. Not, not my venture backed capital company's values, which I've had to conform to in the past. Not my boss's values, not the cultural values that are held within a company. Nothing wrong with those kinds of environments, but I get to decide.

Christian Brim (29:28.208)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (29:44.736)
If I want to say, you know, Jesus Christ is Lord right now, I get to say that. And there's nobody who can have and you can edit it out because you know, it's your show. But like, I can say it, you know, and so I love that. I know, I know you want to know how you open your book. But my point is, there's tons of environments, I have tons of friends who cannot say that, right? They can't, or they feel that they can't, or there will be negative consequences if they did. So I love the freedom of this. And I've gained that freedom. And if I decide, you know what, we're not going to do that.

Christian Brim (29:55.705)
I won't.

Christian Brim (30:03.291)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (30:11.91)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (30:14.752)
I don't have to run it past anybody else. I just get to decide that I saw I gained a lot of that freedom, but I also lost some certain things like a 401k or health insurance. I got to pay for it myself, right? It's worth it.

Christian Brim (30:28.357)
So if you talked about the ways you market, let me frame the question this way. you were to define your biggest business challenge right now, what would it be?

Teeg Stouffer (30:44.526)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (30:48.366)
I'm once again being a mile wide and an inch deep. I just stood up a publishing company because there's demand there and specifically requests. So I'm making a film that like, you just helped me with the book. And I'm like, just go get a hybrid publisher. like, but I don't trust them. I trust you. And this is one of the things I take this as a giant honor. And it's the only way to do what I do. The people who I serve really trust me. I try to really be trustworthy. And so...

Christian Brim (31:02.126)
Right.

Teeg Stouffer (31:13.218)
then that leads to opportunity. And so then you pursue the opportunity. But I haven't exactly like resource that it's all bootstrapped. And so then, okay, well, now we have a publishing company. And along the way, people like, love the way you tell a story. Will you do this? I know it's not. Would you do this for my x, y, company? Like we want to film? Yeah, I'd love to. Yeah. And now we've, you know, widened it, widened it. And so

I'm once again getting a mile wide and an inch deep, but I'm only resourced so far. I had originally started this keep this simple, keep this solopreneurship, and then I sort of realized that's not how I operate. I'm not a solopreneur. I like collaborative work. Best creative work happens when you get to help people be at their best in the thing they do the best, and I'm not designed to sit for hours and hours and hours editing. That's not my...

Now I kind of have a little consortium of six to eight people who I work with, you know, and we're able to do a better volume of work. But it's still not resourced to the level that I've probably taken on more than I'm ideally resourced for.

Christian Brim (32:27.985)
I had this this Thought I'm gonna share with you as you were saying in inch deep mile wide I think the entrepreneurial brain struggles with Hmm Predictability I the I call it shiny object syndrome like

Teeg Stouffer (32:49.165)
Hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (32:54.312)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (32:55.161)
We're, we're easily distracted. I don't know if it's because there's some neurodivergency. you know, we, we have some form of ADHD. I don't know, but we're, we're definitely attracted to novel things, new, new things and, new problems. And we can't shut that part of our brain off. Right? Like, you know, you walk into a business, you walk into a restaurant and you're automatically seeing, you know,

Teeg Stouffer (33:08.616)
Mm. Yeah.

Teeg Stouffer (33:17.55)
Mm.

Christian Brim (33:24.273)
Why do they do this this way? I wonder if you did it this way, if it'd be better like that, that just happens and you can't turn it off. So I think it does lead a lot of times and the a hundred percent happened with me where it was say losing focus, but, like you're, you're describing it as it appears.

that it's you're trying to do too many things. But what if we reframe that as we're measuring it the wrong way? If it's mile wide and an inch deep horizontally, what if we flipped it vertically and now you're actually

Teeg Stouffer (33:57.816)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (34:23.493)
very focused and very deep. looking at it, yeah, because maybe we're just describing it on the wrong plane, right? Maybe the narrow part is different than we've defined it. Does that make sense? I mean, just had this thought as you were talking and I'm like, hmm, maybe that's a different way to reframe that.

Teeg Stouffer (34:26.528)
Mm hmm. Maybe that's what's happening.

Teeg Stouffer (34:35.246)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (34:41.504)
and

Teeg Stouffer (34:48.128)
It's still all story. It's still all creating legacy. It's still all that. And that might be the inch, right? It's because I'm not going outside of that. It's just giving more mechanism to story, legacy, you know, that sort of thing, creating story for the sake of certain outcomes, you know, I and I've talked a lot about the heritage and legacy stuff. And the truth is, I'm doing some stuff that's it does create legacy, but like

Christian Brim (34:53.136)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (35:16.47)
I made a little micro doc, a documentary style testimonial. So we've all seen testimonials, know, I like working with so and so because they're great. And it's usually like, you know, some person shot in a conference room, manna, like that, you know, and it's kind of boring, but it, you know, kind of serves a purpose, right? You know, you're supposed to have some of those on your website, right? And somebody was like, we can make me one that's like a documentary style.

And will you make me one? I said, yes, it needs to be in documentary style. I won't do anything that's not a documentary. And they're like, great. So I made this little tiny thing that they can send before a meeting and say like, hey, looking forward to meeting with you. This is what somebody else had to say. And that has been a business engine for them. I mean, that has worked. Like the amount of the ROI on that little project is massive. I feel great about that.

Christian Brim (36:05.873)
Mmm.

Teeg Stouffer (36:11.118)
I feel just as good about that as I do about some of these other projects that are longer and deeper and have a lot more story, but it's still this little tiny story that is for a purpose and it worked. It's effective and it's still documentary style. I didn't have to sacrifice any of my values in making that. I didn't have to compromise anywhere.

Christian Brim (36:11.504)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (36:21.795)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (36:32.345)
Well, no, sounds like it's, I mean, it's, it's small and focused, but it sounds like it absolutely is heritage and legacy. You're talking about a specific heritage of that, that customer or client and, the legacy that the company is, is imparting upon them. I mean, I haven't seen it, but that sounds like what it probably is. Yeah.

Teeg Stouffer (36:49.294)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (36:54.548)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (37:01.154)
Yeah, I think that's what it is. And so I feel great about it. You know, I feel great about that. And I'm doing a film for a town, you know, and a lot of these small towns, it's like we just we want to try to attract some kind of business or industry and we can't have anyone else move away. And so like, how do you do that? Like, how do you go about that? Well, one way is like you catalyze and rally the town, you got to do cool things, have people have to like live in there and the school has to be good and all the stuff, right? You have to, you know,

Christian Brim (37:08.944)
Hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (37:29.738)
a film is a really good tool to do it. It gets everybody sees themselves and their neighbor in it and then recognition is just an amazing moment and they get to look back and look forward. So I love that stuff and towns are just rich with story, right? And so I love that stuff. And, of course the families. So, you know, we were talking before about legacy and kind of how that works, the intentionality and how when we record our story,

Christian Brim (37:44.581)
Yes.

Teeg Stouffer (37:58.688)
It changes the way we are. There's one I just did one called Knowing Otis and Otis is a Otis Lee lives in Charlottesville, Virginia and he

He's an African American. His great grandparents were slaves, you know, and then his grandparents became homeowners and they got an education. And then his parents not only got an education, they became educators. So they were educators in the, you know, era of segregation in Virginia, right?

Christian Brim (38:24.571)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (38:32.145)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (38:39.141)
Mm-hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (38:40.652)
But they not only became homeowners, they started buying additional home, additional property and became landlords. And then Otis, the guy I'm interviewing, who's in his seventies, or the guy who I produced Noting Otis for, he not only maintained that family business of being landlords and not only got an education, he became a college professor and a lawyer.

Christian Brim (38:48.827)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (39:06.47)
Hmm.

Teeg Stouffer (39:09.166)
and went to work for the department for the US Chamber of Commerce. So like he took business high, every generation took business higher. Well, guess what? His sons, he has two sons, one went to Harvard and is an international lawyer. And his other son is a doctoral level education administrator. So every single generation has built on the last. It's a generational staircase, because the amount of intentionality they had, and they are the 6 % who thinks

generational, he thinks in terms of legacy. So what about the grandkids? Like what will happen in their generation? It remains to be seen. So we made a film that will help ensure that this generational staircase continues to rise. And I just admire that level of thoughtfulness and intentionality. And so in my business, if my business helps people accomplish that, it's all gonna be worth it.

Christian Brim (39:39.865)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (40:08.121)
Yes, I think what I've taken away from this interview most is this understanding your heritage, your history, how you got to where you are, whether it's just your lifetime or generationally speaking, because like my mother was adopted. So like, I don't know all the heritage, right?

Teeg Stouffer (40:30.478)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (40:32.753)
But that process of reflecting and understanding what makes you you, how you got here, and then thinking about the legacy that you are going to give others through who you are and your intentionality, I think is missing 100%. I think you're right.

Teeg Stouffer (40:38.591)
and

Christian Brim (41:01.497)
I met a guy from Great Britain recently and he was in his twenties and he said, well, you know, my primary school was older than the United States. right. And the United States, I think this is, you know, unique to the United States is that we don't have a lot of heritage. mean, the history is brief, historically speaking.

Teeg Stouffer (41:15.254)
Isn't that crazy?

Christian Brim (41:30.491)
But we don't have any interest in it in general. I don't see. mean, you know, it's just like, well, we need to put something up new there. So let's tear that down and we'll put something new up. Right. but that process of doing that, I think is, is, is revolutionary, revolutionarily impactful. And I love that that's what you're about and what you're doing.

Teeg Stouffer (41:32.398)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (42:00.417)
I really. So how do people find out more about working with you if they're interested in their legacy?

Teeg Stouffer (42:00.472)
Thanks. Thanks.

Teeg Stouffer (42:09.1)
Well, I'm pretty easy to find because Teeg Stofer is a really uncommon name. There's not a lot of Teeg Stofer's floating around out there. But fascinationfilms.com is my where you find my company on the web. So fascinationfilms.com, Fascination Film Studio. I added studio because it turns out there's another fascination films in Europe and they make a very different kind of film than the kinds of films I make.

Christian Brim (42:33.974)
I, yes, you want the brand to be protected.

Teeg Stouffer (42:38.048)
Right, so Fascination Film Studio, but FascinationFilms.com. And I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, and of course we're on Facebook and Instagram, so you can find me, Teej Stofer, Fascination Film Studio, Fascination Films.

Christian Brim (42:50.693)
Perfect listeners will have those links in the show notes. If you like what you've heard, please rate the podcast share the podcast Subscribe to the podcast if you don't like what you've heard and I don't know why you would wouldn't shoot us click that little message button shoot us a message tell us what you think and We'll get rid of teach until next time ta ta for now