Web Design Business with Josh Hall

374 - How to Get Web Design Clients through Social Media Videos with Blaze Smith

• Josh Hall

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The social media video and reel game is a hard one to play (and win) when it comes to landing clients. Every platform is beyond saturated, the competition is only growing and unless you’re getting quality leads fairly quick, it can be difficult to stick with.

But as Roberto Blake has recently been quoted in saying:

”While there may be saturation in a market, there’s not a saturation of “quality.”

This could not be more timely for you if you’re wanting to market your web design business with videos and reels. And there may be no better example of this than my guest in this chat, Blaze Smith

Blaze, who at a very young age, started getting clients immediately through Instagram and TikTok reels. Many of them with big brand CEO’s, founders and marketing directors.

We get into his process from planning, to recording, to the proven strategies and blueprints he follows for all his videos which have not only brought in quality leads, but have also built up his social media following to tens of thousands in a matter of months.

If you’re wondering how to stand out and get clients with reels, here ya go.

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/374

Big thanks to the sponsors for our upcoming Web Designer Pro CON 2025 event! We couldn't make such a top-notch event for my community without their support 🙏

17hats (for proposals, invoicing, contracts and automation)

SiteGround (for website hosting)

Termageddon (for auto-updating privacy po

Blaze Smith:

If you don't have a good hook, you just don't have a good video, and then the hook is what is going to keep people watching right, so that hook. I'll maybe iterate that 50 times before I actually pick it, like I really make sure that is something I think is interesting and prompt someone to like be more interested to watch the next sequence, which the next sequence might even be one line or two lines a word long. You can't waste any time on short form content. Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast, with your host, josh Hall, helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love.

Josh Hall:

Hey friends, it's great to have you here. I think you're going to be very excited that you showed up for this one If you are someone looking to get more clients through social media videos. Now, my guest in this episode, blaze Smith, has done an incredible job very quickly in his young entrepreneurial career so far in using, more specifically, reels to land some really legit web design clients, a lot of them bigger brands and even folks who are CEOs, founders and marketing directors in these bigger brands that are seeing his videos. So in this combo, we're getting into everything. I mean a huge shout out to blaze here, because this is kind of like an audio masterclass for social media videos, particularly reels, with how to plan them, how to go about the strategy with them, the nitty gritty of the timing, the spacing, the editing, the planning, the scripts for all this. I mean we really get into everything. So a big thanks to blaze for sharing everything he's learned and getting some really good clients through mainly Instagram and Tik TOK, but other channels as well. You can connect with Blaze at his website, shovelstudio. That is also his handle on Instagram and TikTok, where he has growing followings and, most importantly, how he's getting clients.

Josh Hall:

And I want to leave you with a quote before we dive in, because the creator, roberto Blake, has recently been quoted in saying something to the effect of there may be market saturation, but there's not a saturation of quality, and Blaze is a really good example of how to do reels quality. Let's dive in, blaze. What an honor to have you on this side side of the show, man. Thanks for taking some time and we're gonna. I think we're having some fun diving into your uh, early into the journey and your social media epic rise so far, man yeah, I appreciate you having me on again.

Blaze Smith:

I was been a long time viewer so it's like full circle to be on this podcast and I think I've been really excited I my perspective, especially maybe coming from a younger perspective, is something I always enjoy to hear.

Josh Hall:

I have to warn you and apologize up front for the amount of puns that I'll probably kick out today. Your name is just like it's, so it's so punnable. I probably couldn't control myself with a name like Blaze on my copywriting.

Blaze Smith:

It's been my whole life, for 24 years. The Blaze jokes I've heard every single one. I was going to say you're well done.

Josh Hall:

Yeah, you're well past that, so I'll try to keep it to a minimum. Man Well, hey, dude, so much we could potentially dive in here. I think what we talked about. Focusing on with you is your social media. Seeing on with you is your social media and within the first year of your business your Instagram in particular you have gained over 12,000 followers. You have a very, very engaged post schedule, like I. See your posts and see the reels and see the amount of engagement you're getting. But I think, most importantly, you're like you're, you're doing this in a way that's, you know, really getting you clients. Is this the number one client acquisition channel for you? Your Instagram.

Blaze Smith:

It's number one by far. I do attend a lot of personal networking events, or I did last year and yeah, it's not even in comparison and I tried cold outreach. It's just social media. It all comes to me now through socials.

Josh Hall:

So you are in your first year of business. Comes to me now through socials. So give us you are in your first year of business. Just give us like the quick summary or the highlights of the last year for you. Like, you know, when did you start doing design? And I know you're you're full time now already. So what, what were the highlights of this last year?

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, I think for a lot of people their early mid twenties are a lot of transitions and a lot of different things. That just happened fast. But for me it was end of last year graduated college with a bachelor's. Like finally, after six years, I completed an internship. It was a good UX design internship at a big regional bank here in the Midwest. You actually might even know I'm Josh, but all that to say is like the freelancing, the website design stuff was always in my mind and it really picked up because I took off on social media. Or maybe not took off in comparison to some people, but I did well on social media and was able to leverage that to get new leads and work. So officially I've maybe been in business. I got my LLC like seven months ago, seven, eight months ago and I've been into this full time for maybe three, coming up on four months Very new to it.

Josh Hall:

So summer was July 24, that you like officially started, officially kicked off, and then, yeah, I mean it was only a few months after that that I remember you saying yeah about ready to go full time now. And then you did go full time very, very, very quickly, just with the amount of leads and inbound you had, which is also an important thing too, I think, for folks to remember. It's like you had a pipeline of clients and a swarm of projects very quickly, so it's not like you were hurting for clients and then went full time and just hoped it worked out. You had some proof in a very short amount of time that you could do this thing.

Blaze Smith:

I did, and I think my story might be a little similar to you in the fact that I feel like I didn't really have a choice to go full time. I just was forced to do it. Maybe not forced is the word to use, but it was definitely my best interest to go full time. My internship was it seemed like it was going to be locked in to go full-time. But then, you know, my heart was more in freelancing and then some weird organization changes came and it didn't seem as likely to me. So I'm like okay, well, this is just the best option for me. And I've talked to my bosses, I talked to all my coworkers. It just made sense. They all supported me to do it. My family supported me. Gofriend it was pretty easy choice for me. Definitely nerve wracking, though, for sure.

Josh Hall:

Yeah, now, before this, when you started freelancing, what was your? How were you getting clients initially? Was it the good old friends and family? Did you do some local networking? Was it social media right out of the gate? How'd you get those first few clients?

Blaze Smith:

The first clients I ever had. This is when I was working full time, going to school, like maybe 2022. So three years from now, it was just. My best friend from high school ended up being a business owner. He does like window tinting and I made a website for him for like 800 bucks and that to me at the time was like Whoa, this is a lot of money, like, and I'm doing something that's not physical labor. I worked at FedEx at the time and it was so different. I thought it was so cool and fast forward to maybe 2022, it was sorry 2024, beginning of 2024, I was attending a lot of networking events. Beginning of 2024, I was attending a lot of networking events, not BNI referrals, but it was more like tech events in the Milwaukee area. I'm based in Milwaukee too, by the way, which seems to have this growing interest in tech startup stuff. It's not quite there yet, but those are the type of people that you meet and I did like little one-off projects, like 10 hours of UX work for the startup and I'll make 400 bucks and I was like whoa, like this is so cool again.

Blaze Smith:

And then I started posting more on social media. The first video I ever posted was in January 2024 on TikTok and it like blew up right away. It was faceless. It was just some interesting design thing I found from Reddit. It got like 2 million views and it was like the first or second video I posted. And I talked to an agency owner and he was like dude, you should keep posting and get your face on this, do design reviews. And that stuck with me for a while and eventually I went to london, came back, I felt refreshed and in july I was like, hey, let's just start posting. And from there I started getting like more web design, full ground up build projects and I do that on webflow or framer. Shopify is really the the main platform I like to.

Josh Hall:

So you had been kind of dipping into just casual freelancing, just dipping your toe into the water, through 22, 23,. 24 is when you really got a little more serious, it sounds like, and then that's when it became official was 24. It's good context to know too, because it's not like you didn't have any experience and then just started in July of 24. It's like you had kind of played around and dabbled in it leading up to all this yeah, totally, and I shouldn't downplay this either.

Blaze Smith:

I have an associate's degree in web design too. So like I already had the technical concepts in my head, I just had no idea how to apply them to real life and, to be honest, a lot of the concepts I learned were like these more hardcore javascript programming classes I took Not really any design at all actually. So like development I felt comfortable with is just applying that to someone paying you money. It was just like super intimidating and very nerve wracking the first few times for sure.

Josh Hall:

I didn't realize. Your TikTok has actually doubled your Instagram. As far as your follower count, it's almost a 24,000. So did you start those two in tandem? Did you do Instagram and TikTok, or did you just start with TikTok?

Blaze Smith:

I just started with TikTok. Tiktok is interesting nowadays, but back then it felt pretty easy. I was just posting experimental content, my face over images and videos of websites and really just doing the least amount of effort to post twice a day. Sometimes I post four times a day, but these videos took me maybe 15 minutes to make. Sometimes it was really low effort and I was just talking to someone about this looking at my old videos. But I would showcase like funny websites, like interesting. This one website was just a list of sandwiches rotating, and that's all I said is this is just a list of rotating sandwiches. It was funny and I got a client through it because they're like hey, I saw that video and then I went on your profile and saw your other stuff. So it's just, you know, something stupid like that got their attention and wanted them to work with me.

Josh Hall:

What made you get into Instagram and how? How long were you doing TikTok before you decided to make Instagram happen as well?

Blaze Smith:

I probably did TikTok for three or four months before I started posting on Instagram and a friend came to me and said hey, why aren't you posting on Instagram, like it's just post the same content? You know on reels it's the same thing. You're probably going to have different viewership and I did, and the engagement was very low on Instagram at first. But you might as well post across YouTube, instagram, tiktok and because they all have these short form platforms to just post this stuff on and the audiences differ significantly. I had no success on YouTube shorts, at least with the content I'm posting.

Blaze Smith:

Tiktok was doing well and at the start Instagram was not doing well, but I really do love Instagram. Naturally. It's a platform I'm always on. The audience I want to work with seems to be on it a little bit more DM. You can DM on Instagram and that it's the most used thing on Instagram is DMs versus TikTok? Dms really it's not existent because you can't. You have to follow the other person. It's a whole thing. On Instagram you can pretty much just cold outreach to people, interact with your audience, actually talk to them there in private conversation, and I think that's what I really enjoy about it.

Josh Hall:

You answered a few of my follow-up questions to the difference between TikTok and Instagram, particularly with the DM stuff, and then, as you mentioned, sounds like some of your more ideal clients were Instagram facing, and I know you're working with some brands, both in the sports world, athletics and a few other tech brands and stuff as well. What type of clients were you getting through TikTok?

Blaze Smith:

Through TikTok. It was honestly. I'm still getting clients through TikTok a little bit, even though it's not my main focus. Tiktok is where a lot of people first see me. It's really. It varies Like. They come in all shapes and sizes. You would be so surprised, and maybe you're not, but initially when I was posting I didn't think CEOs of my favorite brands would be seeing my content. But now they are. So now maybe maybe I should say names my content. But now they are. So now maybe maybe I should say names. Like I don't know. I feel like it's good to say names and have it be recognizable to people. But like Herschel, supply, john, these huge brands that I didn't even think I would talk to with international audiences, that I've been supporting for years and just naturally love their products and reached out to me and the CEOs directly DMs me through their actual brand account or their personal account and that's just like a really cool thing to me did ling from ling cars reach out to you.

Josh Hall:

I saw you did a video for him which he has one of the best you know, most notable classic websites ever online I don't know.

Blaze Smith:

I see I I sometimes post videos targeting these specific brands like on purpose, and I hope they DM me, but I don't think that one did.

Josh Hall:

Yeah, everyone wants to work with Ling's cars, everyone's got. If you haven't, if you haven't been through my design course, you need to go through Ling's carscom. I think I mentioned that in my design course, but classic, cool, cool. So, and it does sound like too. I imagine some people who may see you on Tik TOK would probably just go to your website if there's not a good of a native DMing experience. I'm actually not on TikTok. I grabbed my handle but I'm not active on it, so I didn't know too much about the DM stuff. So is that a lot of that traffic just going to your website and then you hope you can pin down where they came from?

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, it gets a lot of Link, would get a lot of traffic. I think I was getting like 3,500 visitors a month on my website from mostly just tech talk at the time. It's interesting now like tech talk was really compatible to transfer people over to other platforms. But with that band looming and the band kind of actually did happen for a while, they made that user experience just awful. To convert people and you have to you actually it's just not possible Honestly, and you have to you actually it's just not possible honestly you have to go on instagram and manually type in my name. You can't just press a link from my profile. They made it really difficult and they're. You can tell they're probably kind of salty, but, um, from the actual standpoint of converting people to my link, it seems I never told anyone to go visit my link, they just naturally did it. And I think it's really important to have like one clean link in your profile and I just had shovelstudio there and people like oh matches. That it's pretty cool.

Josh Hall:

When the ban happened for, like you know, three and a half hours or whatever it was, were you like. Thank God, I also put content on Instagram, Like what was your thought when that went down?

Blaze Smith:

So that ban was looming for years, but it didn't hit me until I saw some of my favorite creators that aren't even related to web design posting hey, like goodbye to my audience like this, is it? No, that was maybe like two months before the ban in november, december, and I was like whoa, I really have to like make instagram work and go all in on it and try different content for Instagram. So glad I did it, though. Yeah, definitely I'm happier on the platform. I actually really don't like TikTok that much, but, yeah, it took an investment from my end to do that.

Josh Hall:

Let's talk about the content itself, blaze, because, as you know and you can probably imagine, you were a member of pro for a while. One of the main questions I get is about marketing and content. Typically it's like what type of content should I create? And I know this could differ on the platforms, but one of my big points is that you got to be really careful that you don't make content for DIYers or other. Diyers can be okay, but potentially other web designers. I just see a lot of people make content wanting to get clients and they just get a bunch of other web designers who are not going to buy a $10,000 website. But I think you've struck an interesting chord with not really it doesn't seem like you say who the stuff is for. You just post content about what's interesting in the world of design or flow or some of your projects. What is? Yeah, I mean like I don't know how deep you thought about your strategy, but if you could summarize, you know, blaze's content strategy, what is that?

Blaze Smith:

So I have this background of clothing brands. That's what brought me into like the entrepreneurial journey. When I was a teenager I started clothing brands, got obsessed with screen printing, graphic design. That's when I started hiring like the first contractors to like do stuff for me and it was so exciting. But in turn I ended up being a web designer because making that Shopify website was so fun to me and that's what converted me over.

Blaze Smith:

So clothing brands are like people I really enjoy. I find that clothing brand owners they all come in different shapes and sizes and they're so interesting and just a lot more informal, which I like coming from like a very formal corporate background. So in these videos a lot of them you'll notice I'm breaking down clothing brand websites. I'm not saying the word clothing brand, but I'm showcasing these recognizable brands to this maybe more gen z, millennial audience like these. This audience will recognize these brands and they just naturally find the video more interesting because of that and through that is how you hit these ceos, the clothing brand owners, or maybe it's like it not, it's not always clothing brands, but that's kind of the majority of it. So a lot of my videos, in short, are about clothing brands because I want to work with clothing brands but I'm not explicitly saying hey, clothing brand owners, come watch this. I'm kind of making it accessible to everyone to watch.

Josh Hall:

Are you tagging these owners or brands or profiles Cause you mentioned earlier, a lot of CEOs are seeing this and I would imagine that just by posting content about FedEx or certain brands, that they're probably getting flagged in some way. I know when my profile was mentioned online typically, so are you tagging people intentionally, or hashtagging or anything like that?

Blaze Smith:

I found that tagging doesn't work most of the time. Let me let me rephrase tagging the brands you're breaking down in the video I haven't found much success with personally. There was one big brand on instagram that reposted my video, but that was it. Tagging the people that created the website. They always repost it and engage with your content and I'm sure you're like this too. Talking to other agency owners web designers is awesome and like just meeting them and especially for me, I have this. It's very niche, but like these people I look up to in the industry and having them like support my videos is amazing and I tag them in it and they always, you know, repost it, reach out to DM or something like that.

Josh Hall:

That's great. It's a cool idea, great challenge too. I haven't really personally thought about that too much, but as I'm thinking about doing a little better engagement on social media, just like everyone else is, I imagine the thought of tagging people and just encouraging them to have content they could share. Yeah, that's really really cool, but you're doing it in a different way versus like I have the podcast and might do a real like there'll be a real of you that you'll probably share, I would imagine, on your social media. Um, but that's different than like posting a video of somebody's work and then giving it praise or critiques and having them share it, making it share worthy. Um, where did that did? Did being? Did doing some design for clothing and having some of that marketing background? Did that help as you thought about how to make content that is shareable in a little more viral like? I mean, you had one that had a ton of views, so where did that come from? Where did your genius come from, please?

Blaze Smith:

So I grew up being a YouTube kid. I was a little nine-year-old in 2009 when YouTube first started and I had these babysitters there was like four boys and they're all in their middle school, high school age and they exposed me to, like you know, the platforms. What was cool and happening that my nine-year-old self wouldn't have been able to find on his own. So I've always kind of been a social media kid and you know love and found YouTube so fascinating social platforms. I was posting videos when I was a little kid skateboard videos, lego videos, gaming videos so I was like very much a social media kid. I lost it for a while, but it's obviously back now and I think that really helps me like understand what's actually appealing. It's like what's I really post content I think I would find interesting and I think my interest is kind of a good gauge of something, at least for my own content.

Josh Hall:

I find do you have like categories or buckets of types of content in the way of like? Do you have like a how to type series of videos, or like critique videos or review videos Do you have? Do you think about it like that or you just wing it and go for it?

Blaze Smith:

I do so right now, a lot of my videos you'll see are these like more time consuming animation videos that I all hand animate through Figma and they're really great. They kill on Instagram, right. They're so time consuming and right now, like I don't you know, I kind of want to go back to my roots a little bit and maybe split it, split the formats and the packaging up more and just do simple green screen my face over some images and, you know, videos. That's a lot less time consuming. Um, so, especially lately, like literally yesterday, I came up with a new plan hey, I'm going to do stills of slides these days and then do like a more fleshed out animation this day and then just do a simple, more uncut green screen video of me this day. And I do think about that, because doing the same thing every time, this animation, it gets old, it gets boring. My mind, you know, is always on. So the next thing that's actually exciting to me it's really hard for me to work on something when I don't feel strong about it.

Josh Hall:

So let's get nerdy and a little specific on this stuff. The videos themselves. Of course, I'm going to recommend everyone check out either your Instagram or TikTok or website, or all three, to actually see some of this live. But I noticed there's some commonalities. You're typically always, like you said, green screen transition or a transparent background type thing, so you're thinking vertical first, of course, with instagram and tiktok, what, um, how do you like? What's the process for these videos? Do you do you have? Do you do you have like? Do you plan it out? Is it pretty like spot on? Or or do you just wing it and try to keep it under a minute or a couple minutes and then record yourself and that and then just edit me and replicate me? But they can't do that because I have the reps and I have my personality.

Blaze Smith:

They have their personalities and I know I really think it is a lot of value to show off this process. But I always start with the scripts and I was very informal, just posting whatever was at the top of my head when I started. But I'm at the point now where I do. I am strict and I have like a filter of what I like actually post and don't post. It always starts with the scripts, depends on the video let's say my more higher performing videos with more views. They're broadly appealing.

Blaze Smith:

So the script needs to be understandable at a fifth grade reading level or below and don't use advanced words, like a lot of web designers will say. Hey, seo, hey, navigation, uh, use all these words. No one knows what that means. If you're not a web designer, you don't know what that means. I'm sorry, but you need this to appeal to everyone, especially, you know, the business owners that aren't always and most of the time, aren't technically literate with website terms. Right, but that just makes the net wider. To get more views and make your video more accessible, because the people that do understand those terms are just going to understand the video even easier then. So why not make it accessible to everyone?

Josh Hall:

Real quick. I was just thinking. Like your transcripts or your outline, is it like bullet points? Are you writing essentially a blog post that you follow that could be repurposed, like your, your, your transcripts or your, your outline? Is it like bullet points? Is this basically, are you writing essentially a blog post that you follow that could be repurposed, Like what are your scripts look like?

Blaze Smith:

It is basically just like following bullet points for the most part. Uh, there's more to that in the script. So let's say, if you don't, if you have a bad hook and the hook plays into the visual aspect as well but really the script, that first thing, that maybe the second thing you say to um, definitely the second thing you say that matters so much, if you don't have a good hook, you just don't have a good video, and then the hook is what is going to keep people watching Right. So that hook, I'll maybe iterate that 50 times before I actually pick it, like I really make sure that is something I think is interesting and prompt someone to like be more interested to watch the next sequence, which the next sequence might even be one line or two lines a word long. You can't waste any time on short form content.

Josh Hall:

So I derailed you there. But that's great to know and you know you, you're a follow of James Bernard as well. He told me the same thing with his videos. I know he's an influence for you that he's like everything starts with a script. He's like I don't go right into recording anything. I it's it's very intentionally a script or an outline, before I even would think about recording something or making something. So sorry, blazeze, I took you away there, but yeah. So step one was kind of your, your script, but what's what's? Yeah, what's what's, what's the next step for you?

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, no worries at all, that's. I mean, that brought up a good point that I probably would have skimmed over. Um, there's so much that goes into the script. You might see's like that, so start with the script.

Josh Hall:

He's also been doing YouTube since he was like four months old, so you get quicker at. You know, get quicker at putting thoughts together and you know how to do it after a while.

Blaze Smith:

I'm sure with any skill, if you get the reps and time in, you're going to be naturally doing stuff as well. So really look at scripting, animating, all of this stuff as skills that you just need to flex your muscle and just get the reps in and learn. Another big point with the script is that after the hook you almost need another hook to get more interest, and you just have to be good at storytelling, saying, hey, this is that you present the question, let's say, and then you answer the question instantly. But then you have to propose another question after that or some other interest to keep them watching after that. And I think if you can get those first two like good hooks down, you're going to have a really good watchable video. Short form videos the viewership always dies off halfway through, but if you can get viewership over halfway through, I think you're killing it. Um, at least from my point of view, my videos that's what's I've seen on like the really good performers. Um, so, yeah, once you have a good script, a good hook, uh, read it. Probably read it a hundred times, actually not that many but keep rereading it and say it as clear as possible.

Blaze Smith:

Use good tone of voice. You'll see in my early videos I am very monotone, or I was very monotone, and that is actually something that prevented me from starting. Social media is something I would get made fun of for, but I think you know making so many videos now I'm able to talk a little more, you know have a little more liveliness in my voice. So something you know the way, the tone of voice, your attitude, really matters a lot. Um, and the way you say the scripts. I record it and just read it off my my computer. I record on my Mac, just using my Mac mic or my Mac camera. I have a more professional mic now.

Blaze Smith:

Um, put that into CapCut, use CapCut. If you don't know how to edit, it's very simple, simple. I recommend the desktop app. It crops your background out automatically. You can cut by the transcript. You don't have to manually sit there and it saves you so much time. It's just fast. I take the green screen background on and edit from there.

Blaze Smith:

And if you're looking at my more visual animated videos not just me talking over images and text, but it's more of a voiceover talking through this nice flow of UI I do that all in Figma.

Blaze Smith:

I'm a very big, I'm pretty advanced with Figma, so this is something that that requires for sure. Um prototyping and Figma, you can make animations, and I screen record those animations, put it into Cap, into cap, cut, add satisfying sounds over it, and essentially that's the video. Um, the closer of the video, though, should lead into the hook, so a lot of my videos you'll find the end of them lead seamlessly back into the beginning, because for a new viewer on social media it just keeps looping over and over. Versus a follower it's going to pause at the end of the video, but for a new person seeing your video it just keeps looping over and over. Versus a follower it's going to pause at the end of the video, but for a new person seeing your video it's just looping, and you can catch like extra views by doing that, and it just makes the video better and more high quality, in my opinion.

Josh Hall:

That's genius. I just I think it. Just last night I was watching a video and I was like wait a minute, I've already heard this part. It just looped. I didn't think it's like a bad trick.

Blaze Smith:

I think it actually makes the video seem like oh, this was like a good video.

Josh Hall:

I watched it all the way through and I'm still watching it so yeah, I was gonna say, especially if it's good and you want to re-watch it or if you miss something or you're multitasking, or when we're just scrolling. It's like you know there's 82 things that you see in a few minutes and then it's like, oh yeah, I to hit. What was that? Again, that's genius. What's the timeline on these videos? Is it under a minute on all of them? Do you shoot for 30 seconds?

Blaze Smith:

For me it varies per person. Some videos for some people kill with a minute long. For me it's like 20 to 27 seconds-ish are my best videos and just for my schedule and stuff. Like that's really all I have time for. You can imagine. I'm busy with other projects, which is a whole nother conversation.

Josh Hall:

Everyone wants to know how much time goes into a 27 second video.

Blaze Smith:

So describing a video with this animation, this Figma animation, it's roughly max two and a half hours, which is actually is not that bad, but do that every single day and when you actually have huge projects. You know you have four or five projects you're trying to balance at once, so you know it's not always your main priority.

Josh Hall:

Yeah, I just had James on recently on the podcast, james Bernard, and we were talking about long form versus short form and he reminded me that because, as you know, blaze, I'm a long form guy, I like podcasts, I like media, longer YouTube tutorials. I'm just I didn't grow up in the short form world, so this is like news to me. A lot of this is like education for me. And he reminded me what takes me about to it Like I could make a 45 minute YouTube video that would maybe take two and a half hours and you may make a 27 second video that may take two and a half hours. And he reminded me it's actually way more post-production in editing to do a super short video that is hooky and grabby and catchy, versus something that's a little more free form and a little more um, lengthy, like like I'm a little more comfortable putting it out.

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, I think you saw my first ever YouTube video. That took me 16 hours straight. I worked 16 hours from 9am on a Saturday all the way to, like you know, that night, like two or 3am that day. That's how long it took me to make that video and I had Figma animations Like I went all out for it.

Josh Hall:

I remember when you showed me that in pro and I was like, well, congrats, first of all for getting on YouTube. But then I was like Whoa, I was like I couldn't imagine. I was like this how didn't I ask you like, how the heck long did this take is? Um, it was like, oh, it was almost like 30 short form videos stacked in one, which I hope you're able to repurpose that somehow. But yeah, that was, maybe you could even repurpose that into like two or three minute uh shorts, or two or three minutes smaller videos on youtube that are part of a larger picture. But yeah, I was like, wow, you're a short form guy and messed up with long form for sure on that one.

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, you can definitely see it's. It's almost like too much value in the video, which I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. It got a lot of good feedback. Maybe he didn't get the views or anything. I actually really didn't have any expectations. I mean 4,000, almost 5,000 views, 300 subscribers for my first video. I was like, oh, it's okay, I guess, like I don't know what's good.

Josh Hall:

I think with that too, one thing to consider is it's short form. That is going long form and I think, just like me trying to create a 27 second video with one of my typical long intros, I wouldn't even get through an intro by the time your videos are done Like they just don't work. The same, like I feel like if you're going to go long form, what I've learned with YouTube is least is that you can do some more quick cuts and animations in the beginning and this is pretty common with tutorials. It'll be a little more flashy in the first minute or so, but then through the next 10 minutes or 15 minutes it's a little more watchable like long form, wise Cause a lot of people are watching YouTube videos, multitasking or doing something else, or they're just in a different headspace, I've found than shorts and short form like actual YouTube videos. So most YouTube video watchers they're looking at like okay, is there something like five or 10 minutes, maybe 15? That's generally the sweet spot.

Blaze Smith:

So if I could give any advice if you decide to go YouTube.

Josh Hall:

That's how I would approach that. The longer form stuff.

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, I'm making another YouTube video. I hope to launch it at the end of this month. It's essentially the breakdown I'm doing now, but on a bigger variety of websites in a widescreen format, and just the script is taking me days. I don't even want to think about animation, which you know brings me up to another topic is that I really feel like a figma animator is a niche thing and I don't know if I can have someone. I would love to contract someone out to do that for me, but that is something, you know, not top of my priority, but something I think about going forward, because it is like two and a half hours every day, so time consuming.

Josh Hall:

Yeah, I mean it reminds me that you are probably blowing up your diapers. When Flash was was out and the huge thing in the early thousands, like that was all the rage when web design got kicked off, but it was that same idea of I. I mean really what you're doing with animations and framer is a lot like flash in the terms of, like you got a little sequence and you can adjust it. You can add different movements and overlays and everything. It's kind of the same process and I just remember I mean it was just painstakingly brutal, as every animator or 3d artist will tell you. It's um, oh, it's brutal. Somebody told me recently they wanted to be. Was it somebody in pro? Was it alexia? Or somebody who said they wanted to be originally a 3d animator and then they did like an internship and saw the animators like going in and like one frame at a time, just moving every little piece of thread, and they were like, oh my god, I would, I'd lose my mind doing this all day.

Blaze Smith:

So it's the attention you need, a very strong attention to detail, um which for me. I was doing a lot of animations at that internship before and I'm lucky I went through that and learned, because that really that internship taught me the value of animation for sure so good to know on your process, the type of videos you're doing they're?

Josh Hall:

they're vertical typically. You're cut out using cap cut with a transparent background. You kind of pop in and out sometimes, um, doing a lot of screen record or you know screen overlays recording and then your, your, your framer animations and stuff like that. What like, do you have a call to action sometimes on some of these? That has ever like a work with me, or is it just simply more entertainment and education versus any sort of persuasion or sales or call to actions?

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, so it's a good question. I I'm really trying to get better at call to actions and converting an audience. I think I can convert them to my services pretty well because you don't have to say, hey, work with me. You just show what you know essentially. But I have a lot of interest in selling products. I think it's something really fun about building a product, testing it and then launching it and having it be successful, and I did that with a Notion template pretty low effort, I would say. I think right now it's very trendy and you were on this before everyone else and I admire you for that but it's very trendy for creators to make communities and sell Notion templates. Right now it seems like everyone wants to do it. It just seems like more of a cash grab type of thing and I had to back away from it for that reason. I didn't feel good promoting it, even though it is something that I actually do find to be very valuable. Um, it just I'm not sure how well it fit with me, um, but I did make money on it. But anyways, to answer your question, uh, you kind of again the rule of thirds here posts like a broadly appealing piece of content. Then maybe something a little more niche that your audience would understand and be closer with, and then, very hard, call to action. So just do this every three times, like every three posts. That's kind of the rule of thumb.

Blaze Smith:

I've been following Posting. Maybe I've had times where I posted every single day. I think that's good, on a six-day schedule at least, but not everyone has that, obviously. So you got to space up the content, because if you're just posting call to actions all day, people are going to lose trust and it's just annoying no one's going to buy your stuff versus posting them very infrequently.

Blaze Smith:

I'm learning this too, so I'm also into this new side of the creator business getting partnerships and brand deals, which I didn't expect at all. But the money is amazing there. I mean, I think it's good to be transparent about numbers. It's interesting when I can get $1,500 per reel. What's the incentive of doing a website project that will take me months sometimes? But the one thing I'm learning and the thing that I maybe feel a little insecure about is man. I really hope I can get conversions and make this investment worthwhile for the person I'm working with, because I really support their business and what they're doing. But yeah, all that to say. Don't post call to action as much and space them out. Post less call to actions rather than more.

Josh Hall:

I would say yeah, it's kind of interesting how that same approach is has taken different forms through basically every medium like. It's the same thing with podcasting, it's the same thing with newsletters, it's the same thing with long form youtube content, any type of medium. You want to have a balance of, like entertainment, a little bit education, primarily probably as a creator, at least an educational type creator like you are, or service-based creator, and then a little bit of call to action, because if you never tell people what to do, then the goal would just be views, unless you're like no, I actually want you to work with me, so occasionally throw that in there. I think you're on the right track with that. And yeah, it's really cool to hear that the brand partnership and sponsorship stuff is working. I mean, the reality is you're a micro-influencer now and you're getting exposure and views and eyeballs on a lot of your content, so it doesn't take too long to be in that position, even on a really small level.

Josh Hall:

Or Like, as you know, blaze, I mean my social media, even my YouTube, isn't massive, but it is an audience that are buyers and it's an audience that are like owners and serious and committed.

Josh Hall:

There's a really, really big difference, going back to entertainment versus education, where education space creators make way more than entertainment space creators per view, like 10 times, maybe a hundred times more. You can see this on YouTube analytics too. Like my videos that are longer form, that are like how twos will have a CPM which is cost per Mila, so cost per a thousand views Sometimes I was just looking some of them are up to like 60 to $70 per thousand views that advertisers would pay, whereas the more shorter form, slightly entertaining videos, those will might get like 20 per per million per thousand. So same thing with social media. All that to say like it doesn't take too much before you're like, wow, I've got a lot of leverage with this and I would imagine over the next well, 2025 for sure, but even just the next few months you'll probably have a lot more brand sponsorships, roll in opportunities. But, as you said, it's a whole different ballgame. It's like a different part of the business and you don't want to break your authenticity and trust as well, I'm sure.

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, I'm not like really pushing them as hard maybe as I should, because it is just easy money at the end of the day. But really interesting point on the education video. You're totally right Audience of buyers versus more people casually watching. I really feel like I have more people casually watching me. Granted, maybe I have a bigger audience, something I really want to maybe change up one day. For now, I'm really focused on just getting to the number 100 hundred thousand, for some reason in my head is like really exciting. Like that's when I'm like okay, I did this.

Blaze Smith:

I um, yeah, yeah, there's, there's so much to it that as far as the follower count yeah, and you know, with getting these brand deals too, there's people saying, hey, I've been watching you forever and they really look up to me and like they'll believe anything I say and I just just maybe it's imposter syndrome, but I see other creators, I'll bring them up. Ui Adrian, for example. He's a huge designer on social media. This guy built like a $50,000 per month agency building framer websites like last year, and now he's going up to a hundred thousand dollars. To me, having that credibility is so valuable and for you even you were in web design for 10 years. You built an agency, you sold the agency. For me, that's the dream and that's undeniable proof of success. I'm early into my career, obviously, and I'm working to that undeniable proof of success where I'll probably feel more confident pushing products my own products towards people. But for now, to get to that point, I just need to keep servicing recognizable brands, and doing good work with them is my main goal.

Josh Hall:

Yeah, look, I think Blaze honestly a lot. This is something I've noticed with a lot of younger entrepreneurs like you and Landon and some others who are in pro, who, um, you know are are the Gen Z entrepreneurs, is it's so corny and cliche, but, like, delayed gratification is what you just have to keep on remembering. It's just the and there's, honestly, I'll tell you something that a mentor told me, cause I shared sentiments that were almost exactly what you just said, and he was an established business owner who eventually sold his it business and I just kind of felt like I was behind the eight ball and taken forever, and other people were getting farther, faster than I was. And he was like he's like, josh, you're doing great. He's like you're on an incredible track. Like he's like don't wear yourself out, don't? There's no rush to success. And I was like, ooh, I needed to hear that.

Josh Hall:

So I mean, honestly, your proof of work and success is I mean, you have 12 times the amount of Instagram followers that I have. You have 24 times the amount of TikTok. You know like you're way ahead of me in some areas. In other areas, you're still in your first official year of business. So, man, you keep right on this track and then you'll look back in a year and be like, wow, there's phase one of success and now there's phase two, which is like a little more serious. You've been an entrepreneur through and through, but now you're becoming like a true business owner, minded on this, and 100K is cool. I get it.

Josh Hall:

I mean, I have that same goal for my YouTube channel. At the end of the day, it's 100% vanity metric and on YouTube at least, it's nice to have the plaque, I'm sure. Hopefully one day I'll get there. But I've also realized the true success is what is happening outside of the screen. What do you want your day-to-day to look like? What do you want your calendar to look like? What do you I mean, I've got three kids work from home, spend a lot of time with them, want to be present and as long as the bank account is filling up, I don't give a shit how many subscribers I have now. Those are the most important metrics. So I don't know if any of that helps with where you're at.

Blaze Smith:

It definitely does. And it brings up this interesting point I've been thinking about a lot. Recently I talked to a mentor. He has his own agency. I just actually talked to him today, right before this call, ironically. But he's amazing. He has like five or six developers below him and he's doing all of these cool projects, working with these cool brands in my city here in Milwaukee. And I remember one of the first times I met him I said what was it like when you first started this agency, this freelance life, whatever it was? And you started right after high school. But he was like blaze, my life was just a different time. Back then the internet was just starting or not even created. Now, the time I'm living in, it's so different, right, social media wasn't a thing back then versus now. So even for you, josh, if you were my age, I guarantee you you'd be, you know, finding success on social media too, because you just have to have success to have a successful business. I think nowadays social media ties so closely with that, in my opinion.

Josh Hall:

Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I I do feel like if I were coming up in the age of social media. I think, wherever you hang out, whatever medium you're consuming, you're interested in, which is probably like what you mentioned earlier with Instagram. The good news is, I mean, and the reality is, I think, a lot of people are taking complete hiatuses off of social media, so it's definitely possible to not go this route. Obviously, we're exploring your social media because it's working so well, but you enjoy it and you are an entrepreneur through and through.

Josh Hall:

You're cool with working long hours. You're cool with spending a Saturday working 16 hours. A lot of people wouldn't do that. So you have it in you to make this work and I'm sure eventually, in five years from now, maybe when you're at a different place in the next phase of your life, it'll be like, yeah, I worked a lot back then, but I've scaled things back and trim things down a little bit. But the cool news is, I mean, I do, I do see and and and have seen a lot of creators go the route where there's more emphasis on things like books, podcast appearances, in-person events, guest trainings, community, online community versus social media. So there's definitely so many different avenues, but I think to my goals.

Blaze Smith:

Everyone has different goals. Obviously, my goals are to work with, like, big, recognizable brands. At least you know, I've been able to do that so far. I can't talk about the one I'm doing, but I want to talk about it. So bad so I think you might know I posted it in web designer pro previously. It's awesome, but, um, if I was just stagnant in Milwaukee, I wouldn't be meeting clients. I don't. I wouldn't have clients from Australia, LA, New York, Paris, Sweden. I have this, these diverse clients from all over the world which is possible through social media, and I have these diverse clients from all over the world which is possible through social media, and that's my goal. I don't necessarily want to work with local businesses. I want to work with some of these bigger brands, and social media is a must for me, unless if I'm traveling to these places every week, which I'm obviously not doing.

Josh Hall:

I love that you said that, blaze, because that's it, it's the goal. Like, yeah, what type of clients do you want to work with? For you, you are doing exactly what you need to do and exactly what you like to do and it's working awesome. So I'm gonna change a dang thing, um, whereas, yeah, people who want to do social media to get local clients completely different strategy, completely different ball game um, so yeah, there's just so many, because even social media doesn't necessarily need to bring you national or global. You can do social media and SEO and website stuff in a local way.

Josh Hall:

I have some colleagues who are really active on social media and it's all about local stuff, it's all Columbus, it's all a couple suburbs outside of Columbus. So, yeah, you're spot on with that man. You're totally right. And yeah, the client we can't mention why, because I think there's an NDR that you have. The cool thing about that is knowing who you're talking about. You probably wouldn't have got them with my preferred routes of marketing, with podcast interviews or a book. You know it's like no, the, what you did landed your dream client. So all power to you.

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, it's actually funny. Maybe if you're just targeting local businesses, I wouldn't say organic content is the best approach there. It's probably targeted ads or, even better, in-person networking events is definitely going to be the move there yep, heck, yeah, man, um, trying to give us anything.

Josh Hall:

you really answered so many questions about your process and how you're going about these videos. I am curious ideation Do you have like a master spreadsheet that has 2000 ideas? At this point, are you just winging it and just every day creating something and you're just flying by the seat of your pants? What's? What's the pipeline look like for content creation for you?

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, I'm a very strong believer of that. When you sit there and try to make ideas, it's probably not the most effective use of your time. I think it's very effective, though, to write an idea as soon as it hits your head. For me, it's like when I'm about to fall asleep or if I'm driving. Like, doing these mundane activities it's just how you know makes my mind wander and find ideas, think of ideas, but you have to write them down. Any creative will say this you have to write those ideas down right away. For me, I have them all stored in my Notion template. My Notion page is kind of like how I run my business, honestly, but I don't know if that's the best way to do it. It's just how it works for me. And, yeah, I can just kind of go through all these ideas, see what's interesting and I'm usually not at a loss for what to post about.

Blaze Smith:

I will say there are sometimes in social media to chase trends. So there was a huge brand. I don't want to mention this brand because there's controversy behind them, but I posted about this huge brand recently and their website got taken down by Shopify, and I posted it at the right time. It was a very controversial brand and that video did amazing like 200,000 views on Instagram and actually brought me a really big, high profile client too. So the timing of that was perfect for me and I knew it was because they just launched this website. It's a big brand everyone knows about, so there's things like that too. You know to see, to be in the, you know, the know of what's happening in news and brand trends and stuff like that.

Josh Hall:

How has? One thing we haven't really talked about is the services behind all this. How have your services evolved? I mean, I know some of this because you were in pro for quite a while. But like, how have your services evolved? While you're doing the social media, have you cut out certain services you were doing last year? Have you really nailed down, like your tool stack, what's the business side of things? How has that evolved since your social media has blown up?

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, Before social media. Like, the project I had literally before I started posting consistently on social was like a ux ui project like 10 hours total for a startup, and I didn't really enjoy that like just focusing on the flow, something they already built. I think it's more exciting to build stuff from the ground up or redesign stuff. Um, this was not as visual of a project. I guess it was more UX focused. I didn't really find that that fun. So I mostly just focus on redesigns and ground up builds. I've always wanted to dabble into Shopify for clients and social media brought that to me. I finally got clients wanting to do Shopify websites In Milwaukee. There wasn't really. There's not much of like clothing brands going on. There's one big one, um, which I'm hoping to close a project with actually this week or next week. But again, social media put my face, the algorithm. I trained the algorithm to put my face in front of the people I want to be, so it did work locally.

Blaze Smith:

It did. Yeah, it did. Actually thinking about about it like it's kind of crazy because I was wearing this hat. So another thing in my videos is like these hats are so key. When I'm talking about a more niche clothing brand, I might put on like it's a holiday hat. The brand is called Holiday, it has a little H on it, If you know. You know, like, if you recognize the logo, you know, like I have this interest in brands. But in this case I wore the Milwaukee hat. The owner is like and I've met the owner briefly, he didn't really remember me, but he said, hey, are you based in Milwaukee? I saw the hat and I was like, yeah, I'm based in Milwaukee.

Josh Hall:

That's a great point. Everybody wear your local swag if you're looking for local clients.

Blaze Smith:

Yes, it's valuable real estate. Your head in videos is valuable real estate. Truly though it sounds funny, but it's true.

Josh Hall:

So what's your sweet spot now with Pro? What's your ideal project now? Is it a clothing brand that's an online store? Is it UX and UI design both? What's your ideal project?

Blaze Smith:

Ideal project is a ground up shopify build for like a new store or just a complete redesign which essentially is just a ground up build of a new store for an existing brand. Um, there's a you can put a bigger budget to those and it's more exciting. A lot of collaboration between you and, like the designers or other brand owner um, just a lot more exciting to me. And that's possible because social media again.

Josh Hall:

And you're still. What's your cadence right now with posting on socials? Is it at least a few times a week?

Blaze Smith:

It varies. When I first started I was doing 2 to 4 times a week and I was just not sustainable. But I could do it because I didn't have a lot of work, other projects going on, so I just had the time and I work. You know, other projects going on, so I just had the time. Um, and I saw a huge influx in January I think I went up almost 10,000 followers on Instagram, like almost all of my followers on Instagram, in January, because I didn't have any projects going on.

Blaze Smith:

I kind of got into this full-time business thing at a weird time because you know the holidays there's just no leads or work, new work coming in. Um, so I had time and I was posting five times a week. That's mostly that's ideal to me. Realistically, when I'm running projects maybe three times a week, I would say Um, and again I'm, I'm still working on this. I'm trying different formats and packaging, like some. I'm trying to not only post videos that take me two and a half hours to make, ideally, like a video would take me not even 30 minutes to make, and I can post something good.

Josh Hall:

Nice and we talked about that in pro. I forget if you were in on that, but we talked about, like, what do you do during the holidays, when things are a little dry, typically cause it's not uncommon and it makes sense Business owners or we're, you know everyone's busy with family and everything else. Not too many people want to like drop a huge project and get things going on December 23rd, so that is the time to post content and to be front top of mind, because as soon as the new year hits, who's top of mind? Whoever, they're seeing a lot, whether it's a newsletter, podcast, social media or whatever. So, yeah, you did that right, man, I love hearing that this past month has been great for you.

Josh Hall:

I was curious about your cadence because your business is growing. You've got a lot of different opportunities. I know you've started to scale. You're starting to hire out more and more, so I was wondering how, basically, how are you going to? What's your plan to balance the marketing, the social media content, along with actually getting work done and being a team lead in some ways?

Blaze Smith:

When you first had James Barnard on the pod. He's really drilled into my head 50% marketing, 50%, uh, actual hands-on work. And this was a version of blaze. That was like a year and a half ago sitting at in in a cubicle in a corporate environment just taking notes. So you should sit there and take notes that, all your podcasts, um, but that one really stuck to me and he's so right.

Blaze Smith:

Posting YouTube or posting for right now on Instagram for me is a part of my job. It's how I get leads. So ideally I'm spending half my time doing that and half time doing hands-on work In the perfect, absolute world. What I'm trying to build is I can post on social media because right now I find that I enjoy posting content, growing audience, like very much I enjoy it, but not necessarily doing the technical. Being in Figma every day, being in developing code and like it's not really something that's I want to do all the time. So ideally it's like I can get leads, clients, through social media by posting and then just you know, put them through the system, have my, have a good set of people I can trust to deliver work on time.

Blaze Smith:

I don't mind managing the project or client relations. I think that stuff's fun, but that's what an ideal perfect setup works looks like for me and something I'm actually actively building. I might I've been able to successfully incorporate design contract or develop contractors into my projects. It's finding a good designer I can trust. Next, which, for me, this designer needs to have a specific taste. I'm mostly a designer. You know how it goes Like. This is a really important thing for me, but I might've I might've found someone, so that's good.

Josh Hall:

Awesome, yeah, man, scale your way. Time. Get that job description in place, recommended tools requirements, and here we go, although it sounds like you're probably already past that point, so awesome.

Blaze Smith:

I need a careers page. I thought about a careers page the other day and I'm like how do I filter this out even more? And I think I don't know if it's legal, but I think a question I want to put in there is like what is your favorite brand and why? And if they give some sort of stale answer, that might kind of filter it in my head. I don't know if this is the best approach, but there's like an attention to detail and this kind of knowledge of culture that I think I bring to web design that people find interesting and why they want to work with me. So you know, having a designer that understands that is important.

Josh Hall:

Yeah, there's nothing illegal about that. Look, when you, when you create your own business, you create the rules so you can ask whatever questions you want. As far as a filter because it is it's more of an interesting prompt which is obviously really important to how you run the business. So, um, no, I think you're right on with that. I would avoid a careers page just because you're going to get swarmed. I would just I mean you could have a hidden one that, if somebody is, if you need a role, then there's there's of interest with that. But I mean that could also be a notion template or an email template. That could be something cause you're not going to have to hire often. Hopefully, you only have to hire a couple of roles and you're good for a while. So, yeah, I wouldn't worry about doing a careers page unless you want to be 30% HR for the next couple of years.

Blaze Smith:

That's good to know, and I took your scaling course. I've taken all of your courses and I find them very valuable. All of them related to business side of things. Something I think about is like who do I hire first? And it seems like I probably have that nailed down already, but very valuable learning I got from your course I should mention.

Josh Hall:

Awesome. Well, I hope it was valuable enough to answer that question for you. I mean, as a quick aside, I would just say whatever is either most time consuming and or draining, and that's pretty much the two metrics to judge. If it is the video editing, then, as you mentioned, that's tricky Just because of the way you edit. You would have to see if somebody could do something similar and come up with a process with the screen overlays and stuff. Maybe you do a screen recording and then they are the ones who chop it up into the animations.

Josh Hall:

But you're not alone. James Barnard mentioned in our last interview, he's in that same boat. It's, it's hard. I I don't even hire out much actual editing because it is kind of a personal thing and it sometimes depends on when screen recording like you can't. Somebody else is not going to be able to screen record like you would necessarily. So, true, so if there's other things you can get off of your plate, start with that. But uh, yeah, either one of those metrics time or draining, uh, blaze, this has been awesome man, super, super pumped for you again early in the journey. Uh, your, your, what, how'd you say it earlier? Your proof of success is there already, so it's just going to be amplified over this next year. Man, I have one final question for you. It it's kind of a selfless question, but before we get to that, we talked about your Instagram TikTok. Where should everyone go? What's the handle? Where should everyone go to connect with you and actually see this live?

Blaze Smith:

Everyone check out at shovelstudio. That's my website too. Shovelstudio, shovelstudio, everywhere. I keep it simple, keep it simple. Um, actually, youtube is blaze dash, smt, but first go on instagram, shovelstudio. Um, I have to thank you, josh. You've been a huge mentor of mine. Web designer pro, taught me a lot of these concepts to make me sustainable for myself. Um, I'm at, I'm not just keeping my head above water anymore, and it's a really good feeling, at least for this month. Uh, and it's because of all these concepts you've taught me, getting these reps in. Like, I think I very quickly progressed here, or, let me say, hope I did. Maybe not as fast as I'd want to, but what an honor it is to be here. This has been great.

Josh Hall:

Well, dude, thank you for saying that. I know you're taking a little break right now, but sometimes that happens. So that's what I've learned with a membership I never take it personally when somebody you know make some progress and then has other things to move on. Especially, you know, you got a lot of irons in the fire and I feel like you got to a point where, yeah, you might be good for a little while, but you know the door is always open for you to see what you've done and be a part of your journey. Just at this point. So I hope some of the foundation we laid I mean, I know the foundation we laid is going to be there for a long time for you. So the honor is on this side of the table, man.

Josh Hall:

That actually brings me to my last question, which is purely selfish, because we talked about you being a short form guy, but I'm a long form guy. So what made you attracted to my stuff? Was it the podcast? Was it YouTube? I'm sure it wasn't social media, I don't think. You probably saw my Instagram and said that's who I want to follow. My Instagram is like purely connecting with a smaller audience. So, yeah, what brought you into my world?

Blaze Smith:

I didn't actually find you through YouTube. I just typed in web design on Spotify and you were the first one to pop up. So you got that Spotify SEO, which is great. You're naturally very talented at SEO and you know what you're doing, but, honestly, there was no one really competing with you in terms of Spotify web design, podcasts. Spotify was just more accessible for me to listen to podcasts at the time. So, yeah, I listened to you for like two years almost before I invested into pro. So it's it's kind of funny, like how much your voice has been in my head versus mine and yours. Like it's this weird human interaction, right? I'm experiencing that myself with social media too.

Josh Hall:

That's awesome, man. Well and it sounds like you'd mentioned earlier you were at a desk job listening, and even though you're a short form guy, there are there is times where we all are digesting different content differently, like you couldn't be scrolling through social media, probably, hopefully, when you're supposed to be working, but podcasts can often work out and even even though I'm a long form guy, I'm looking at more reels and short form stuff now. So, uh, it is kind of cool to be able to to be there for somebody when you know, depending on when, how they need you. So that's awesome.

Blaze Smith:

I think something that really stands out to me, too, is like you're just naturally like the nice dad figure, at least from my perspective, because you talk about it all the time and I like I love these creators. Don't get me wrong, but there's a lot of like bro, business hustler, like you should be working a hundred hours every week, and like you didn't really give off that vibe to me, you know, to you put the idea that like I can do this and like have you know the lifestyle I want to live, that's like the whole, that's your whole thing, and I enjoyed that a lot and that stood out to me a lot as well. I shouldn't mention that.

Josh Hall:

Oh, that's awesome, man. Well, I appreciate hearing that, especially from you, because you're not in that season of life yet where there's there's kids, and you're at a different place in life. But I do, I feel like you're probably catching the, the industry, at a certain point where I think a lot of people, even younger, are kind of hesitant to the, to the hustle bro culture. And I mean, you know, I'm all about hard work and there is seasons of hustle, but it's the culture of the hustle. And then, um, you know you, you will see, as just I saw, you'll see a lot of agency owners burn out and get divorced and not know their kids. And, uh, I learned very quickly I don't want to be that agency owner. So I'm glad that that seed has been planted early on for you, man, and again, another honor to be a mentor for you.

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, it's full circle. It's all about goals. Again, I don't really care to make $100 million a month. I just want to make enough a month to eventually have kids, have a nice car, maybe have a nice apartment, have some nice clothes. I don't need a billion dollars and that's what the Bro Hustlers really push, I think.

Josh Hall:

Well, by the end of this year I think you'll have most of that and I imagine you'll probably land some brand partnership deals with clothing companies and you'll probably get the clothes for free.

Blaze Smith:

So your goals may be hit by 2025 end of 2025 man the free, the free clothes have already came in. It's kind of crazy. Actually it's a weird thing oh, that's awesome, dude.

Josh Hall:

I remember in my band days side note, complete, complete tangent. But we got sponsored by, we got 25 free burritos to put uh chipotle sign on our merch and it was I'd like. It was the coolest feeling ever. It was like oh my God, we're sponsored by Chipotle.

Blaze Smith:

Absolute dream and it's something you should talk about more. He went from 25 to burritos to 300,000 a year.

Josh Hall:

Yes, the burritos are still a highlight for me. It would still be a great. I would take that deal. So, chipotle, hit me up, I'll throw you on some of my stuff and we'll make it happen. Awesome, blaze. Well, thanks, man, it's been great. Keep it up. We'll keep in touch and listen. I'm sure the Blaze of five years ago is listening to this right now thinking thank you, blaze. So you're already in a mentor role, man. So appreciate you, dude, keep it up.

Blaze Smith:

Yeah, I appreciate it. Dream come true.

Josh Hall:

See you guys. Awesome, awesome stuff. Again, huge thanks to Blaze for really sharing the ins and outs of his process. I'm sure I can speak for him in saying we hope this helps you in your video and reels efforts in getting clients. I know for me personally this was a huge help. So thanks to blaze. In a way I was kind of a a student in this one as a an old geezer at 38 now, so I really hope you enjoy this one. We would love to hear your comments and your takeaways. You can go to the show notes for this episode, which will have all the links we mentioned at joshhallco slash three, seven, four. Reminder you can go to his website, shovelstudio, and there will be links to all of his social media. And I want to say, if blaze is listening, at the very end of this I took blaze's advice. My man and I made your intro 27 seconds, so I'm learning. Thanks for tuning in everybody. I hope you enjoyed this one. Make sure you subscribe because more doozies like this one coming at you.