Forging Your Own Creative Path, Overcoming Depression, And Escaping The American Scheme | With Scotty Russell

Brian: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of the six figure creative podcast. I am your host Brian Hood, and I'm here with my beautiful co-host Christopher J. Graham. How are you doing today?

[00:00:11] Chris: [00:00:11] Fantastic brother,

[00:00:13]Brian: [00:00:13] you notice? I always said positive thing there.

[00:00:15] I only said beautiful.

[00:00:16] Chris: [00:00:16] I was like, okay. I can deal with that.

[00:00:18] Brian: [00:00:18] doesn't sound very good though. Like, here's the thing for, if you, this is your first time you ever heard this episode for like 200 episodes or however long we've done, Christopher Graham is always the big bald beautiful.

[00:00:28]Chris: [00:00:28] Purple shirted.

[00:00:29] Brian: [00:00:29] Purple shirted. Co-host yeah. Sorry. So there's a whole like intro I do with him, but yeah, so that that's that's so Christopher J.

[00:00:35] Graham you're here with me today. I'm excited to have you on today. We got an awesome episode today, but how have you been my friend?

[00:00:40] Chris: [00:00:40] I've been good, but Brian, I have a confession to make

[00:00:43] Brian: [00:00:43] No, is it? I know, I already know. Before you even tell me, I already know what it is, because if it's a confession, like, just, just say, I'll tell you if I know it.

[00:00:51] Chris: [00:00:51] So while we had some time off from the podcast I developed, I really fell in love with photography and I fell into a rabbit hole that is vintage lenses, and I bought them. Brian. I bought all of them. I got so many.

[00:01:07] Brian: [00:01:07] Okay. So let's talk about this for a second. So again, if we have any new listeners. Our whole platform of our podcast has been anti-gear. We do not talk about gear. It is not what's going to make or break your career. We do not think that we don't talk about it. Chris has always been the one that's fought this battle.

[00:01:21] It's been a constant battle and struggle for Chris Graham, his entire career in life. And I've been there to help him and get him through this, but he's had a relapse. And as our listener, we have to support Chris through his gear relapses. And I'm just going to here and we're going to be here and say, this, you are as of today, you're one day clean from Gary.

[00:01:38]And we're not going to look back and that's just the way this is going to be. So I'm not going to support what you just told me, but I'm going to support you moving forward in this journey together as getting you clean of this gear obsession. Is that okay?

[00:01:51] Chris: [00:01:51] I'm working on it. It's funny because I, I procrastinate with gear. I'm like, oh, I should make a chorus. So I should make more videos. I should record more episodes. I should actually try to get interviews for our episodes so we can launch the second show. And then I ended up being like, oh, I'm just going to learn everything there is to know about a vintage SLR lenses, mirrorless cameras,

[00:02:12] then

[00:02:12] Brian: [00:02:12] Stop. You're you're literally, you're doing it

[00:02:14] Right.

[00:02:14] now. Okay. Stop it.

[00:02:15] Chris: [00:02:15] Stop it.

[00:02:16]Brian: [00:02:16] Yeah, this is, I mean, everyone has some sort of procrastination technique. Mine is like booking travel right now. it's June, 2021 for anyone listening in the future. And you're like, where, where in time are they?

[00:02:26] And you know, I just got my, my, my Johnson Johnson shot, like last week prepping for travel so I can go out of the country. And so I've been looking for cheap flights everywhere. I'm probably going to go to Spain and October, Or Eastern Europe.

[00:02:37] So, you know, that's my procrastinator until I understand it. But the problem with this is, is Chris. It's not a temporary thing. Like as soon as I booked that trip, I'll stop looking

[00:02:46] Chris: [00:02:46] stop

[00:02:46] Brian: [00:02:46] up. I'll stop procrastinating by looking at trips. This is a constant battle for you. So. Let's just table this discussion for later.

[00:02:52] Cause I know this is not the last time we're going to come up and let's talk about our, our interview that we have

[00:02:55] today. Cause

[00:02:56] I don't want to hold our audience back from what we've got today. Today we have a, what I would call I'd call this interview a kick in the ass for anyone who needs some motivation.

[00:03:04]Our interview is with Scotty Russell. The perspective podcast. And for those who don't listen to this podcast, it is an excellent companion to the six-figure creative podcast. He is you know, we'll give you some very specific tactics and he'll kick your ass into gear. So you'll actually go do those tactics.

[00:03:20] And and in this interview, when we talk about so much, Chris, do we even really need to talk

[00:03:24] Chris: [00:03:24] anymore. I think we just launch in because he's a great interview.

[00:03:27] Brian: [00:03:27] Yeah, he's just like, he's so energetic and you're going to feel if you're feeling down on yourself right now, and you're feeling like, Hey, I just, I don't have what it takes to make it in my, in my creative endeavors or whatever this interview is going to change that for you.

[00:03:38] It's going to get you through to the end to take that. What do we call it? Scary next

[00:03:41] step.

[00:03:42] And I know we're talking about at the end. So without further delay, this is our interview with Scott.

[00:03:47] Scotty. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. My dude.

[00:03:50]Scotty: [00:03:50] What's going on, Brian, what's going on, Chris? Thanks for having me.

[00:03:52] Brian: [00:03:52] So let me, let me say a little bit, I know where I did the whole intro spiel here on your interview here, but I do, I do want to say something while you're on this. When we shifted from six-figure a home studio to six-figure creative, we did a little research. We saw what else is out there. And there's two things that when we saw this, we said, Scotty has to come on this podcast.

[00:04:10] The first is your podcast. Art for the perspective podcast is the most single, incredible piece of art I've ever seen in my life. For those who haven't seen it, look it up on whatever podcast app you have, right. It is, and I'm just doing this by memory. So if I mess any of these details up, please let me know.

[00:04:25] It is Abraham Lincoln writing a Raptor, or T-Rex a dinosaur of some sort with a pizza flag on the moon or some other celestial object. Is that an accurate description of your podcast? Art.

[00:04:36] Scotty: [00:04:36] Pretty freaking accurate, man.

[00:04:37] Brian: [00:04:37] Okay. So furthermore, when we saw that art, and then we read through your TA your episode topics, and we saw an episode title.

[00:04:44]And I quote, espresso yourself by any beans necessary, being the coffee nerds that Chris and I are, we roast our own coffee beans, and we're like super coffee, like extra nerds. We said, are you, Scott is our dude. He's coming to the podcast right now.

[00:04:57] Scotty: [00:04:57] coffee caffeinated kick series. That was the three part series.

[00:04:59] man. All about coffee.

[00:05:01] Brian: [00:05:01] that is awesome. So we knew we had to get you on and we're excited to get you on this podcast. So I wanted to start this, talk, this conversation. Yeah. On something that I found about you, that is a subject that is near and dear to Chris and I's heart.

[00:05:13] It's one of the reasons we started the six figure home studio podcast. And that is you went to college and you got the college degree and he went into the college degree debt, and that was kind of the start of your career. And I wanted to start there because you have, you seem to have a pretty, pretty Strong opinion on that whole career tract for creators.

[00:05:33] I'd love to start there with you and get your thoughts on college in general for creative.

[00:05:37]Scotty: [00:05:37] I am just learning over the years through trial and error and getting burned that there's no one way of doing things. And. Maybe I'm a bit of a tin hat oil kind of guy, or I'm just not a big fan of the traditional way. This is how it's always been done. It's in your best interest need to go balls deep in debt in order to work a safe nine to five job, making someone else's dream happen until you can finally earn the right to retire in your sixties.

[00:06:07]And now you are able to enjoy the fruits of your labor and now life opens up. Now you can start doing what you really, really wanted to do. And that uh, that doesn't vibe with me too well. And I've always like followed the system. Cause my parents like, like, this is what you gotta do. This is the right way.

[00:06:23] But always like growing up, I was drawing like Pokemon drawings for a 25 cents on the playground. You know, I was drawing tattoos. I was making logos for people in college. It was always like hustling on the side and a t-shirt come on. Um, Like right after graduating college, always, always doing something.

[00:06:38] So like, I always had this untraditional path within me and yeah, I just wasn't getting, except that this was the only route because it ended up not being a so safe job. And I see how my parents didn't get to live the way they want it to. So they invested in me and then just, I invested in myself. I learned more outside of college than I learned in college.

[00:07:00]Dug myself a super deep hole, cause I want to play football in college and really, I didn't get the greatest degree, maybe half of what they were teaching. And then the other half of me just not applying myself. But yeah, that's the skinny

[00:07:12]Brian: [00:07:12] So basically you kind of got whipped into that preset path

[00:07:15]so again, if you went that path, we're not, we're not saying negative things about anyone that has gone that path.

[00:07:20] Scotty: [00:07:20] Yep. Not knocking it.

[00:07:21] Brian: [00:07:21] Right. But I am saying that it, that is not the necessary path. And I'd love to know how you went from that path where you were college debt, I believe. And you were, you know, not really happy with your situation. Like how did you go from that into starting your career in design?

[00:07:35]Scotty: [00:07:35] Honestly, it was just showing up and creating each day when I graduated. Let's see. In 2010, I graduated with a degree in communication, graphic design. Dabbled in web design for like two weeks and Dreamweaver didn't know what the hell I was doing.

[00:07:52] Um, it was horrible and I didn't really know Photoshop that well, they didn't know InDesign that well, but I loved illustrator.

[00:07:58] Like I'm a vector junky behind the scenes, but I graduated, my portfolio sucked, but no one would hire me and I was just a victim and just blaming the world what was me. But on the side, I was still. Doing logo still draw on tattoos, tried doing a t-shirt company. Like I always just stayed in the mix. I couldn't turn it off.

[00:08:17]Um, I've had an incredible festival experience. One time that like reignited my love for just drawing again. So I got over this like only graphic design is the only route to make money. I grew up with no cable. So Bob Ross was the only artist that I knew it was making

[00:08:31] fat stacks of cheddar. And I'm like, I can't paint.

[00:08:33] Well, I don't know any squirrels that can be in my pocket. Why I paint? You know, so like painting, career's not there, but I like woke up, started drawing. And started building a little audience on Instagram in 2013. I remember when I had like less than a hundred followers, got like 10 likes. But I just started finding my group.

[00:08:50] I was creating listen to a lot of personal development that time. Cause I was just getting out of a really rough Rutz, you know, three years, rock, bottom, super depressed, suicidal. It was really, really, really

[00:09:00] dark. Place and drawing and personal development stuff saved my life. And so that's what I created within my work, because that's what I needed in my past self needed to just like stick with it.

[00:09:12] And things started to grow, started grow this audience. I landed my first job doing car ads. And I'm like, okay, here we go. I showed that I can do it. By me just being consistent, throw all my stuff out there and staying in front of people existing. People saw me in like three different people in one night, mentioned my name to this guy who was rapping needing to replace a graphic designer like ASAP.

[00:09:35] And that's what landed me. My first job, like three years later after I almost gave up, I worked at a restaurant selling tenderloins. I smelled like tenderloins. I coached high school football. I was a personal trainer, just like doing all the things, just trying to find my lane. Cause I couldn't get high.

[00:09:48]In the art design world, but then once I got that first job, I just got obsessed. I'm like, okay, Hey, I made this happen by being consistent, embedded on myself. So let's continue to bet big on myself. And within that year, at that first job in like 20 13, 20 14, I busted my ass, built my portfolio applied for the next big boy corporate job.

[00:10:09] I worked corporate for a while. And started perspective collective in 2014 after my t-shirt company thing kind of fizzled out. And that's when things just rapidly started taking off. I was drawing every day. I was doing freelance between all those years of 2014 to 2021. I've done Drawing turned to blogging and freelancing.

[00:10:28] And the net led to public speaking that led to teaching workshops that led to selling merch online. Then that led to. Coaching and affiliates and copywriting, email marketing. Did I say podcasts already? Like all the things, so it's just been. A nonlinear path of a lot of ups and downs. And I felt like freelance was the only way I thought the people that I looked up to, they were all big-time freelancers and sold their old merchant was like, here we go.

[00:10:55] This is what I got to do. This is the carrot I'm chasing. No one's going to take me seriously, unless I'm a full-time freelancer with big clients. So my select client list, and you know, when people are buying my merch, that's how I know I made it. And I was just climbing up the wrong ladder for so long. Yeah, it put me in weird check.

[00:11:10] I was chasing someone else's path like an Andy J Miller was trying to do what he was doing or uh, Aaron Draplin or Elisa, Congdon, you know, big names, big clients, and big merge. And I'm like, actually I don't need to be famous. I don't need to beat the best of these things. I just need to find my own path.

[00:11:24] So this whole experiment over the years has just literally been like, okay, how do I blaze my own? Carve out my own little lane and, find my groove, you know, find my voice and style and how can I make an impact on people? Because that's what I needed to give back to all the people who like raised me from the dirt over the years, you know, when I almost gave up.

[00:11:42] So that's a long-winded answer. I don't even know if I answered your question.

[00:11:47]Chris: [00:11:47] I think he did. I think that was awesome.

[00:11:48]Brian: [00:11:48] Yeah, I I think you answered that and just brought up a bunch more questions as well. So it's, it sounds like in, in correct me if I'm wrong here, it sounds like your path to success started. The first thing that helped that path was building an audience first, is that correct?

[00:12:05]Scotty: [00:12:05] Honestly, the first thing was just like, stop being a little and just start doing what you want. You don't need a permission. And so I just started drawing, you know, just like, totally, I am just going to create what I want to create right now. If I'm vibe into it, then that's great. You know? And then the audience started coming.

[00:12:21] Then I was going down slippery slopes of like, I want to create what I think people want to see what could get a feature, right. What's trendy, you know, then I kind of went down that road a little bit and had to get back on path of what started me in the first place. But I would say it's truly just falling in love with what I was putting out into this world.

[00:12:37] It meant something to me, it was an escape. From being broken in debt and not feeling good about my body and jealous, see an envy of people. I graduated with making way more than I was with great jobs. And yeah. So I think it was first just accepting, like, yeah, let's just get to what got me here. You know, I was an artist my whole life and I didn't share it because I was scared of getting picked on and bullied even more than I was.

[00:13:02] So it was a closet artist, my whole life, but that was always my escape. So I had to get back to my roots and then the audience. It would be like the second stage, you know, I had to do me first.

[00:13:10] Brian: [00:13:10] So when you were creating the star, you're finding, creating, and like, and I love that you were doing that. What were you doing with these pieces of art or whatever that you were creating? Where were you doing with those pieces? Were you sharing them?

[00:13:19] Scotty: [00:13:19] putting them on Instagram and stacking up a sketchbook dude. Like I had zero pressure to monetize in the beginning. I'm like, I got my big boy job now. I'm just like all in on building my drawing skills and having some fun with my work. Zero pressure.

[00:13:34] Brian: [00:13:34] Got it. I think big thing, and you, you touched on this and I'd like for you to kind of elaborate a little bit, you were always scared to put yourself out there as an artist Which means you could improve because you weren't actually doing your craft at all, or you were a closet artist.

[00:13:46] What does, how does one break out of being a closet? A closet artist? Cause I feel like so many people can relate to this. They have this mental block where they, think they might be good at something or they want to be good at something, but then they never put the art out into the world because of self-doubt imposter syndrome, some other mental thing, holding them back.

[00:14:02] How do you break out?

[00:14:03]Scotty: [00:14:03] most people are just in their own way, but I feel like you just need advocates. You got to get around like-minded people. I got a buddy Tyson Salsburger stumbled across my huge stack of. Sketchbooks in college. He's like, dude, what are you doing? Like put these out there. And I'm like, nobody's going to take them seriously.

[00:14:18]Bugged me for months, bugging me for months. And then I just put out, this was like early days of Facebook when you needed a college email

[00:14:25] address to get on. And I'm like, no, he's going to take this seriously. So I'm going to make a Facebook album called doodles and it's still there. And I made like a doodles to a doodles three and I just called them doodles.

[00:14:34] I didn't call them. And that was before it was like Instagram and everything else. So I think most of us are just in our own way, trapped in our own head, three biggest fears. They, I got this from Lewis Howes at a conference once, but a fear of failure, fear of judgment, and then fear of success. A lot of people don't deal with the fear of success, but now I feel

[00:14:51] like I've entered that realms with the next season and leg that I'm in.

[00:14:54] But in the beginning it was a fear of judging. Like, wow. I'm going to get even further bullied. If I claim I'm an artist, you know, I'm not going to be cool if I'm an artist, like, again, I'm not Bob Ross here. So but I think it's just even someone like an advocate, a voice of reasoning. Cause the inner critic is all, he's like dialed up on the decibel of like shouting at you.

[00:15:15] So empowering that inner voice of reason and getting around people who. A safe place or encouragers, you know, cheerleaders around you. So to me, I had that one dude who was always on my ass about it. And my biggest fears didn't come true. Nobody was hating me. You know, I've gotten a lot hates I've, I've dealt with a lot of mean people over the years, but I feel like the good far outweighs the negative, even though we like to hold onto the negative.

[00:15:38] Okay. Do you remember like the negative things? Way more than all the positives, but yeah, I

[00:15:43] just needed someone else to like be my chamber. And get on me about doing it. And so I want to be, oh my God, it sounds so dumb. I don't want to be other people's champion. That sounds so cheesy.

[00:15:54] Brian: [00:15:54] of what you're doing with the perspective podcast though. Isn't it? It's like, you're basically being that voice of reason for people who don't have the good network of friends and encouragers around them. We have an episode on our, on our podcast backlog and I can't find it right now.

[00:16:06] I've had my whole backlog here in front of me and I'll look for it later. But where we talked about we've talked about this many times, actually, Chris, how you're kind of the average of the people you surround yourself with the

[00:16:14] Scotty: [00:16:14] Jim Rohn's quote, you know, some of my people

[00:16:17] Brian: [00:16:17] Yeah. And then like every person ever has just kind of ripped that coat off and claim it as their own.

[00:16:21]I'm not claiming that as my own, by the way or our own from the podcast. I just know we've talked about in the podcast anyways. So with that were there any kind of relationships you had to cut off that were toxic, that were holding you back around that time?

[00:16:32]Scotty: [00:16:32] Oh yeah. I call it trimming the fat. When I put a post it's like, sorry, I'm gonna pull this up real

[00:16:38] Brian: [00:16:38] Do it, we got, we got editors to edit dead space out. If we need to, or we can leave this in and say, this is what podcasting is. Y'all sometimes we go off the beaten path and things get

[00:16:46] weird.

[00:16:47] Scotty: [00:16:47] so yeah, three types of people do avoid. These are the three types of people I've had to avoid over the years. So I can just stay in my own lane and keep doing me and investing big on myself. And I call this trimming the fat. So a time thieves, I had to get rid of those people who didn't value my finite time.

[00:17:02] They held it hostage being late to things or flaking on me, or just wasting my time in general. I had to get away from dream black holes. Um, The people that were just like suffocating and shitting on my ambitious goals and my dreams. And then the third type of person I was having to avoid and clip out of my life are energy vampires.

[00:17:20] The type of people who suck the joy out of the room with their negative sob stories, the victim mentality and fun fact, I've been all three of these people.

[00:17:27]Brian: [00:17:27] Yeah.

[00:17:27] Scotty: [00:17:27] You know, so these were the three type of people I've had to slowly distance myself from cutouts really good friends, but I'm in an area Waterloo, Iowa, where I grew up in it's like a, it's a very big black hole, one of the highest crime rate cities in the nation.

[00:17:43] You know, it's not just all farms in Iowa over here. And a lot of my friends are like now in prison or locked up or drug addicts or just whatever it is. And I've had to like escape that. Lifestyle and cause that could have been me. That's like all my old people, I used to kick it with their well, how, unless they'd got out themselves.

[00:18:00] So yeah, those are like the three types of people. Those are at the monitor now, sometimes it's family, which is crazy. But at the end of the day you have all these external naysayers, these external non-believers trying to crush your spirits because one, they probably think they're protecting you when too.

[00:18:16]It's really that they lack the courage to put themselves out there bet on themselves, or they failed big at a grand scale and they were scared to shoot their shot again. So they're trying to keep you safe or they're jealous, like crab bucket mentality. Like one crab tries to get out.

[00:18:29] They pull the crab down on the crab, tries to get out again.

[00:18:31] They break his legs. If it tries to get in, then they Cameron kill the crab, you know? So

[00:18:36] Brian: [00:18:36] never heard that

[00:18:37] Chris: [00:18:37] we've talked about that on this show. I've talked about that.

[00:18:40] Brian: [00:18:40] No, you haven't.

[00:18:42]Chris: [00:18:42]

[00:18:42] So yeah, if you have a bucket full of crabs and one of them tries to crawl out, the other crabs will grab the crab and pull him back down.

[00:18:49]Scotty: [00:18:49] Savages

[00:18:51] Brian: [00:18:51] That's real. That's a real thing.

[00:18:52] That's not just like,

[00:18:53] here's an analogy. Okay. Okay. Well, let's, let's talk about betting on yourself. You've mentioned that a few times on here, and that seems to be I would say if you're talking. Things that have helped you a lot in your career is, taking those bets on yourself.

[00:19:06] How do you know when it's time to take a bet and that you're making the right bet.

[00:19:11]Scotty: [00:19:11] I don't know if you've ever know if you're making a right

[00:19:12] bet, but,

[00:19:14] big believer woo-hoo fears like in your best friend or your biggest. At the end of the day. So if there's something you're really, really stoked about it excites you, it keeps you up at night, but man, it makes you want to like poop your pants and makes you so scared that people are going to judge you this or that.

[00:19:31] To me, like that fear really is excitement, but the lizard brain we're caveman mentality, we're wired our brains wired to keep us safe. So it can't measure what we could gain. It can only measure what we will lose. So like taking a risk that scary. You know, your brain is like, yeah, you sure you want to do that?

[00:19:47] Scotty, you know, this, this, and this could happen. You could lose this, but really it's like your gut, your intuition, your instincts, your soul is all trying to like push you forward and nudge you to the next version of yourself. And we just like to play it safe. We like to passively exist. And so now I'm like, okay, if I can do like one thing that terrifies me each year, I know I'm going to look back on a year full of extreme growth.

[00:20:10]And that's what I work on with my students, like with coaching and stuff, I'm like, okay, you're scared to get on camera. Watch this, watch this over this 12 weeks together. You scared to show yourself storytelling side. We'll watch this. You're scared to start a podcast scared. Okay. this just going to reveal the next level of growth for you.

[00:20:27] So I'm a big believer that fear is like an engine Decatur, for sure. You know, so if something scares you, it's probably something you're supposed to be doing. And that's been the case for everything I've ever done in my biggest regret. And someone's biggest regret is not starting too soon. Like me being scared to start a blog.

[00:20:44] My blog never blew up, but it led me to the podcast and it

[00:20:47] got me. My first speaking opportunity may almost say no to my first speaking opportunity. Cause I was so scared. What a rod, me of like my second talk, getting picked up and for like a thousand people, the second time I ever spoke, because the first one went so well and that exploded everything, which led me to the podcast.

[00:21:02] So every time I wanted to say no, and I said, yes, like amazing, incredible things have happened.

[00:21:07]And That's

[00:21:08] what I want to like drill into my students noggins or whoever's listening. Cause it's so true.

[00:21:13]Chris: [00:21:13] That's been a big thing that I've learned as well, too. So when our podcast took off, I started doing a lot of business coaching as well. And it, it was wild. At this point, I've worked with Amy Grammy and Tony winners. And what blows my mind is like, usually they come in because they want more customers or because their systems aren't good enough.

[00:21:31] They need to be able to work faster and they need to be able to automate some parts of their job. But usually what it, what ends up happening is it's. It's they're afraid to do this one thing. And it's funny cause like I'm not marketing myself as a guru on that. I struggle with that as much or more than anybody.

[00:21:49]And you know, I've been on this whole journey of this last year of, of doing what you're saying of learning that like, if there is a path in front of me and that path is do the next scary thing. And if you do that next scary thing, it doesn't have to be like, you know, something insane, but just the next scary thing.

[00:22:06]Take the smallest bite you possibly can bite to get so that you've made a step forward. And I think that's where you start to see growth. And that's, that's what I've seen with the people that I coach as well. This is when they lean into that scary thing and it doesn't go as bad as they thought it would.

[00:22:20]And then they get more courage to lean to that next scary thing. And that next scary thing it's interesting because it gets bigger and bigger and bigger, but you don't notice that these things are getting scarier, your next scary thing two years ago would have made you wet your pants. But now it's only a little bit bigger than the last scary thing that you did

[00:22:37] Scotty: [00:22:37] Normalize it

[00:22:38] it's it's it's consistent, uncomfortable. You know, but then having faith that no, at the end, result's going to be, but I'm going to trust the ball's get a balance my way, if I just continue to like show up, well, I say action reveals answers and I'm like, okay, progress is progress in me, blogging.

[00:22:55] It never blew up, but it led me to the next thing. The next path revealed itself, like in like a video game, completing a quest kind of thing.

[00:23:02] Chris: [00:23:02] Dude. Yeah. Well, and I'm sure you're a big fan of a hero with a thousand faces.

[00:23:08]Scotty: [00:23:08] Yeah.

[00:23:09]Chris: [00:23:09] Dude, what's this what's that author's name again? I'm totally

[00:23:11] Brian: [00:23:11] Is that Erin heard of that?

[00:23:12] Scotty: [00:23:12] I can't remember off the top of my

[00:23:14] head.

[00:23:14] Chris: [00:23:14] so here with a thousand faces is this book about the hero's journey and I'm totally blanking on the author's name. It's super famous.

[00:23:21] And he wrote this book I'm in the middle of it right now. And it talks about how every hero's journey has a lot of the same pattern. And this book is crazy. It's like every screenwriter in Hollywood ever has read this book and like sort of the most famous version of it is George Lucas, red here with a thousand faces and then wrote star wars.

[00:23:39]And it's funny because I think in a creative career, there's a lot of this hero's journey thing going on too, where there's you, you get a call and then you reject the call and then you find that guide like all of these things completely parallel. Every creative journey I've ever been on.

[00:23:56] And also every sort of mental health journey I've ever been on as well, too, that there's just, there's something happening where there's just stages of this journey that are important and the fear and learning to do the next scary thing are just so simple.

[00:24:08]Scotty: [00:24:08] Yeah. And just accepting that you're not going to have it all figured out and it's okay. If it doesn't work out, like most people just are in the. Way, they don't bet on themselves. I keep saying that because they're like, what if I don't know what the end results going to be? You know, I'm tempted to put in the effort.

[00:24:25] I'm like, well, it's never going to happen if you don't do it. So like give yourself a shot. that's a big thing. I realized a lot of people are in their own way because they're scared and they're afraid the fruits of their labor won't amount into what they were seeking. And I'm like, dude, I guarantee it's probably going to evolve into something way more dope than you could have ever imagined.

[00:24:45]Instead of forcing freelance to work. Like I do freelance. If I wanted to, I could be really good at it if I want it to, but like the path of coaching just lit me up in a different way because of conversations like this. Like I, I, I'm hoping to bypass and remove some hurdles or lessen uh, the failures For another creative versus the show I had to deal with to get to this point, you know, how can I like bypass this or reducing the burden of it all to let you see, like, yo let's play the big picture here. How can we like set some big picture targets? Our line are like, have a vision or whatever, working towards in the macro, keeping it flexible, but then like aligning our short term day to day.

[00:25:24] So we're showing up with. Versus like, I'm just showing up and winging it, chasing vanity metrics and wondering why I can't get that breakthrough when you don't have something you're strategically chasing that is like purposeful play. It's fun. You're good at it. You're passionate about it and then not having the pressure to monetize it right away so we can organically grow.

[00:25:44]On its own to where you can find where the demand, the solution, the unique value proposition you provide, you know, so like it's, it's gotta be play at first because then when it starts to become a business and then you gotta do the backend stuff and everything else, it's like, man, but this is play at the end of the day, I show up clocking in to my dope ass studio, having the coffee that I love and get my cats on my lap.

[00:26:05] And I get to like, come in and just like work with dope ass people every day on coaching calls, creating cool products, doing a podcast. That's so cool. And I didn't learn any of that in school. You know, I learned any of that in school. I'm like, I'm not, I don't want to be known as a designer artist anymore.

[00:26:23]I'd rather be known as a coach.

[00:26:25] Chris: [00:26:25] I love that. And what you're saying about school really, really, resonates with me because obviously, you know, anyone listen to this podcast, none of us are anti-education, we're clearly about as pro-education as it gets because we read books. But I had a weird experience with school too, where it was, it was frustrating to be taught by people how to go exist in the free market when they themselves didn't have to exist in the free market.

[00:26:51]Because the school system is shut off from the free market tenure, this idea that like, Hey, after you've taught for a while, we'll make it. So you can't be fired, could not be more antithetical than to what the free market is. And it's tricky. You get in and like there's valuable stuff, but after you get out of college, you did learn some good stuff.

[00:27:11] But what they didn't tell you is that half of what you learn in college or anywhere else for that matter is a bunch of bullets. And you have to pick it out and figure it out. Well, that was like toxic and I need to not have taken that to heart. And that's why it's been so tricky for me to hire people fresh out of college.

[00:27:29]It's so hard. Cause it's like, well, they need to go get their back broken in the real world and learn this whole, like half of what you learn. You need to throw away

[00:27:37] thing before they're going to be of any use to me because they're going to walk in with a degree and be like, whoa. My professor told me, well, your professor hasn't had a client in 30 years. Sorry.

[00:27:47] Scotty: [00:27:47] Right, right. I'm like, dude, I'm learning that you can go and teach yourself graphic design online. And is this if your work speaks for itself and you're not like a racist jerk when you were in an in an interview. You can hold a conversation, speak towards your values, speak towards with conviction and have dope work to provide it.

[00:28:06] Like there's no reason you can't get a job versus someone who got a fancy degree and their portfolio is not as good as you

[00:28:11]Brian: [00:28:11] And that goes for not. If you're going for freelance clients or whatever you're trying to build, you can, you can do it without that degree. And that's, that's kind of the whole like platform that we've been on this whole time is that the old path is dead. You don't need a crazy degree. You don't need to.

[00:28:27] And in our world, in the audio world, it's the other trap we fall into is buying a of gear. And we've always been anti gear and our podcasts where we don't even talk about it. We had alert and

[00:28:36] Scotty: [00:28:36] this fancy webcam over here.

[00:28:38] Brian: [00:28:38] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:39] We're not, we're not. Chris, Chris actually has always been the biggest receiver of our, we had a alert.

[00:28:46] We'll call it the gear. The gear lust alert is what we'll call it right now. That would go off. Anytime someone mentioned a specific piece of gear, Chris has that alert more than any other person on our podcast because he has the biggest gear acquisition problems. So we're going to move

[00:28:57] on from that. Yes, he does like the toy. Some , you said something you, you want to be known as a coach, so you've actually, you, you brand yourself as a side hustle coach, on your website

[00:29:06] around.

[00:29:07] Chris: [00:29:07] genius. I

[00:29:08] didn't know that.

[00:29:08] Scotty: [00:29:08] That's like, yeah, something new as of like 20, 20, man just dove all in and I'm just like rebranding even further right now. And it's scary.

[00:29:18] Chris: [00:29:18] That's amazing. Let me, just from my perspective, that is such good branding, like coming from where I'm at as a business coach myself as well. The market for people that need help with their side hustle insane.

[00:29:33] Scotty: [00:29:33] stumbled into it, man. And it feels gross even saying it in the beginning, like, Hey, I am a creative side hustle growth coach. I'm like, I make six figures off a job. I made. Know, I didn't go to school for it. So it's just, it's all weird. It's

[00:29:47] super weird.

[00:29:48] Brian: [00:29:48] I want to talk about the side hustle coach thing, but I actually want to talk about the path to get there first, because you mentioned something that, sparked something in my head. And that is like The thing that holds people back from pursuing, what they want to do is not knowing every damn step from a to Z.

[00:30:03]They have to know every damn step and have a plan from a to Z before they're willing to take step a and there's something I heard. I don't know what it is, but it's just like, it's, you're driving from New York to LA. You don't have to have the entire journey in front of you. And every step of the way in turn in front of you, you just need to know your next step.

[00:30:21]And if it's at nighttime, you just need to see a mile or so in front of you. And that's all you need to see to get from New York to LA, as long as obviously you're not missing turns. And if any of you miss turns, it's just going to take a little longer to get there. Eventually, as long as you're going west, you're going to get to LA.

[00:30:34] That's kind of the gist of that whole spiel. And I think that you're a good example. And that's what I'm going to deem this your super power. I talk about superpowers along this podcast. That's your super power. Scotty is your willing to take step a without knowing. What step Z is in that process. So you took step a and a and co after college or during college where you're writing.

[00:30:53] You're finally putting yourself out into the world, overcoming a fear. You never knew that that was going to eventually become side hustle coach and making six figures doing that and making up a job position that didn't even exist back then. You were just taking step a not knowing where it was going to eventually.

[00:31:07]Who the hell knows where this will lead 10 years from now. I could have never told anyone ever what I would be doing now 10 years ago.

[00:31:15] Scotty: [00:31:15] That's so dope.

[00:31:16] Brian: [00:31:16] yes.

[00:31:17] It makes no sense. Like, I, I was always just going to have a recording studio, but now I have like five different businesses. I, and I have two software companies.

[00:31:26] I have a podcast agency that I'm starting up now. I still have my studio stuff. I have the six-figure creative, this, I have all these things that I do. And it was all because I have taken just the name. In whatever that I do. And if an opportunity comes up, I pounce on it. And so you seem like you're cut from that same cloth.

[00:31:42] Scotty's that's all I wanted to say. So let's talk about the side hustle, coach thing. I like your tagline here. I'm big on messaging. I love good messaging and I read this and I said, this is good stuff. I help creatives blaze their own path, math to side hustle, success outside their day. Job, love that line. And there's three things that you help people do you say? I empower them to get out of their own way, which is some of the things we've talked about so far to take massive action, which is the thing that people don't do.

[00:32:07] I noticed enough when I sold a course, I've been selling courses for a while. Like I know people that buy a course, never touch it. And then they buy some other course because they think that's going to solve the root and then take no action and they get no, no result from that. And then you help them experience rapid growth.

[00:32:20] Can you talk about some of these things? Like, did you, like, what are some of these things that you help every damn student through? Because they, this is like the roadblock that every single creative has and you always have to break down that barrier for them.

[00:32:32]Scotty: [00:32:32] So the first one get out of there. Honestly, I would say at the end of the day, my mission is to put someone in a position to do their thing. Full-time one day. And I do that with mindset. Motivation and marketing, you know, marketing is like first, you need to get out of your own way, empower yourself, bet on yourself.

[00:32:48]Really come at it like, Hey, I don't need a permission slip from any external source. I can just do my thing and figure it out along the way, realizing like it's not going to happen overnight. You know, the mindset of playing the long game and giving yourself permission, a permission slip like yo, I have a seat at the table.

[00:33:05]I need to come and take my shots. So that's big, like just rewiring people's minds. That that's probably the number one thing I work on with my students is just mindset. I'm a mindset coach. I would say honestly, at the re at the end of the day. And then the motivation part is like I played sports, you know, I was always like, the captain on a team, the RA lift people's spirits, you know, when I was served at a restaurant, I wasn't the manager, but I was the go-to guy to keep the spirits up, you know, cheering people on, making people like, feel good about themselves at the end of the day.

[00:33:33]audits and that's probably my superpower is just knowing how to like, say things to get people emotionally charged, to take action, And then the last thing once we've got the mindset going, and once we've like really feeling good about ourselves and acting on the warm and fuzzies versus letting that just like subside, and then you're back to not doing a damn thing, but sitting on your thumbs, which would be really uncovering.

[00:33:54]Um, Then I layer on like, let's start flipping on the marketing switch is who's your perfect person. What are the psychographics and the demographics of them? How do you, how do you promote it yourself in a non sleazy gross way? How do you build a brand around? Just so I know personal brands are buzzword.

[00:34:10] People don't like them. I'm like, actually everybody's a personal brand where anytime you're even at the supermarket, it's okay. I was like, Hey, what's your favorite cereal? Or what's your favorite brought, set the meat counter. You're selling your idea to someone. So we're all personal. But how do we be more intentional and strategic about what we're doing?

[00:34:23] How do we control the value that we're providing this world? Are we educating people? Are we entertaining them? Are we inspiring them? Are we doing the holy grail and mixing and matching all three of them? So I try to like really level on the next tier of things. Hopefully that, that makes sense.

[00:34:40] But I would say it's getting out of your own way.

[00:34:43]Gosh, can you re read those off to me again, getting out of your own way?

[00:34:46] Brian: [00:34:46] You gotta, you gotta internalize that. Scotty give, I want it to

[00:34:49] Scotty: [00:34:49] it's been a while, man. It's been awhile. It's always like the intro of a podcast or so it's, I

[00:34:53] don't have to say it anymore unless I'm going out for like a talk. So I'll get out of your own way. Take massive uncomfortable action.

[00:34:58] I like to change that nod to consistent uncomfortable action. cause massive is great. Like just start a new pasta. It's massive. But if you're consistently doing uncomfortable things, that's going to lead to the opportunity to take massive action. And then the last one is

[00:35:11] Brian: [00:35:11] Experienced rapid growth.

[00:35:12] Scotty: [00:35:12] experienced rapid growth. All of that is the result of betting on yourself, going all in, not seeking the permission slips.

[00:35:21] And hopefully at the end of the day, I know you're talking about, you can get to LA dude in New York, but in the form of a hero's journey, I just want to be that GPS

[00:35:30] for someone, you know, I want to be the guide. I'm here just like giving them guidance and directions like, yo, you could take this path that might save you time, but also this path might work too.

[00:35:39] There's a gas station up here. If you want to fuel up and consume the right way and along the way, I'm like, Hey, let's also put self care. I used to always be about the hustle, hustle, hustle, grind, grind, grind, Gary V old stuff. And man, I got rapid progress, but did I burnt myself out Burt relationship? Hurt my wife at times because I was so obsessed with my work.

[00:35:58] And I'm S I'm a recovering workaholic. I love this having a conversation like this. I can do this every day. I love this, but at the same time, I realized, okay, if I'm that guy that can also be like, Hey, we need a break away. We need to go take some walks during the day we need to eat. Right. We need to fuel your body.

[00:36:13] Your body's a car. You can't run on it. You know, you got to rest recharge. If you're a Tesla, you gotta feel yourself up with good fuel, good foods, you know, consume the right things in your mind. So it's like an all around. Let's get your money straight. You know, let's get your ass out a day. Let's start building and worry about your financial future.

[00:36:31] You got ROSC

[00:36:32] started, you got a 401k you're contributing and getting a match. So I don't want it to just be like, Hey, I'm creating dope work and getting likes and features and comments. It's, it's so much bigger than that. Like what I want to create and work on with people. I feel like if you're thriving all around and your creativity is going to be better taking care of yourself, you're working out, you're eating good.

[00:36:52] Your creativity is going to be better. The ability to make better relationships, to attract more, better opportunities in your way. So it's more than just creating dope work. If you're working with me or if you consume something with me, or if you have a conversation with me, I want you to walk away, feeling fired up and I'm ready to go, like tackle the new facet of my life to improve myself. I think

[00:37:11] that's dope.

[00:37:12] Chris: [00:37:12] so dope. I think what's so cool about what you're talking about is it's sort of our bread and butter is creative freelancers who provide a service what's more creative than plotting a path forward through your career. I love like there's a certain type of art called Bauhaus, and there's this one of my favorite designers.

[00:37:30] His name is Dieter. And what they're really obsessed with is it's sort of like mid-century modern turn, but it's functional and beautiful. And Dieter Rams is sort of the king in this. Like, I make incredibly beautiful art, but it also can like shave your face or tell time or be a radio. And I'm fascinated by the combination of aesthetic and that's business coaching.

[00:37:55] That's helping people figure out that's the helping people navigate a side hustle because I think what most people don't understand and the lie that is perpetuated by big education is that there is only one path to success,

[00:38:06] Scotty: [00:38:06] The American scheme,

[00:38:08] not the American

[00:38:10] Chris: [00:38:10] fire.

[00:38:11]Scotty: [00:38:11] So we scheme and dream

[00:38:13]Chris: [00:38:13] yeah,

[00:38:14] Scotty: [00:38:14] to carve out our own lanes. That's that's what

[00:38:15] Chris: [00:38:15] totally. And I think what's so funny. Is the people that are preaching, the American scheme are uneducated because they haven't read any history books. If they did, they would see that every single person that changed the world or was outlandishly successful, did something nobody else was doing. They were crazy at first, you know, Einstein was like freaking a patent clerk who in his spare time would write papers and send them in to like organization strength.

[00:38:46]Scotty: [00:38:46] What a weirdo?

[00:38:48] what is he doing?

[00:38:49] Chris: [00:38:49] yeah,

[00:38:50] Brian: [00:38:50] Who do you think you are?

[00:38:53]Scotty: [00:38:53] Howard. Dare you not to do what we all do.

[00:38:56] Brian: [00:38:56] Yeah.

[00:38:56] Chris: [00:38:56] yeah. Well, it's a funny thing. I like one of my favorite posters, the hanging upstairs my friend Ryan has, and it's a picture of three cavemen and there's a caveman with a hammer inches making a wheel. And in the background, there's two cavemen snickering saying it'll never work. And I, I love that. That just sums up.

[00:39:16] I think the biggest misconception about making a go on your own, but starting your own business about taking your own side hustle or your own like hobby and turning it into a career is when someone tells you that will never work. I mean, that's, that's exciting.

[00:39:31] Scotty: [00:39:31] Says a lot about yourself. If you're the type of person to fold, like a lawn chair to what the external naysayers have to say versus like, okay, Okay. It's it's time to like, give this a shot and it's a slow and steady grind.

[00:39:46] Brian: [00:39:46] Well, let me, let me push back a little bit, because I know some people that would say, well, it's easy to push back on those naysayers when you've had some success, but what if, who am I like I am a nobody, how do I get those voices out of my head? How do I keep from caring? What they think or say when I have no proven track record, like how do I, how do I get that first win as a creative.

[00:40:07]Scotty: [00:40:07] Ooh, consumption will consume wisely. What are you consuming? Are you consuming things that serve you? Are you consuming things that like slowly. You up, you know, to like put you to a point, like, okay, if I'm listening to like personal development and marketing books versus. I don't know, something that just watching like YouTube videos on cats, you know, that's dope and all, but like consuming wisely to prime, the pump is what I'd like to say.

[00:40:31] And then second start small. You know, I work with creatives who have, or are freshly new minted creatives who just started creating like no idea where to start no idea where to begin work with people. Who've been doing it for a while looking to take the next step. And I look for people who are like, Hey, I'm making some profit, but like, I'm ready to turn it up.

[00:40:47] Like, let's really. Dial things in and be more profitable, what you're doing. But I think to the person just starting off is don't have the pressure to monetize this right away. You know, you're going to suffocate the joy, potentially. I'm not going to say this for everyone, not blanket statements. I trying to really work on that.

[00:41:04]But I really want to advise not to have the pressure on yourself to monetize what you're doing right away, because he can so easily suffocate the joy out of what you're doing and get you into it for the wrong route. You're climbing up the wrong ladder against the wrong one. Right now. So if it's not something you truly enjoy and that you maybe you're good at it, but you don't truly enjoy it at the end of the day when like the business part starts coming and you're like, I don't want to show up this sucks.

[00:41:25] This isn't convenient. But if you really, really enjoy what you're doing, it's way easier to show up when it's not convenient, but start small gamified the system, like instead of feeling like I got to do hand lettering every day for 365 days, I'm like, yo, do a small series of three. Of one word, you know, like how can you make the game easy to read?

[00:41:45]Instead of eating the full, extra large Papa John's family style pizza in one bite, like take one slice and take one bite at a time. And as you chew and digest and you normalize that goes through your system, take the next bite me. It was a little bigger, you know, so slow

[00:42:00] wins.

[00:42:00] Chris: [00:42:00] sauce this time.

[00:42:01] Scotty: [00:42:01] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dip that stuff in ranch dog, but it's, to me it's like small wins, small wins over time compound it's like compounding interest, compounding impact compounding gains, whether it's in the gym or within your creative career pursuits.

[00:42:15] But I really believe in like, if we can just track all it hoarding victories, if you can just track the small little wins, check off the box that you showed up today. Even if it's 15 minutes a day. If you work 15 minutes a day for 30 days, that equals to an eight hour day, somewhere rough around that. So people tell me they don't have time.

[00:42:32] I'm like, dude, I work with students who literally only have 15 minutes a day to grind and they get incredible results within a year. So it's small little victories consuming, wisely game-ify objectives. Having a target like here is the criteria of what I want to do versus like, I'm just going to show up and we get each day and hope something happens, you know, like have some constraints, constraints, breed, creativity.

[00:42:55]Brian: [00:42:55] So I love that advice. I think that is incredible advice for people that are trying to get that first win, trying to build their confidence. I'm curious though, how do you said something that caught my ear that I would love to get your thoughts on Scotty? Cause this is a constant battle I have with people.

[00:43:10] How do you balance that? Selfish creative desire to just do what I'm passionate about with the free market of that thing that you're passionate about has to be valuable for someone to want to pay you for it. How do you go for it? Cause there's, there is a balance between just blindly chasing money because there's money there and like, Hey, this, this specific niche has a ton of money in it.

[00:43:32] So I'm going to go there versus. The two selfish of saying, I love to do this and I care about doing this. So I'm going to try to monetize this even though no one else cares about it. How do you, how do you navigate your coaching clients through that sort of battle of selfish versus.

[00:43:48]Scotty: [00:43:48] Man, I think a bread in who I just had recently and he comes from a startup world. There's always the ROIs. I'm from corporate world too. It's like, okay, how do we measure what we're doing and measure our results? How can we speak to the ROI and give it to the clients and quarterly goals, but I've been in that world, but at the same time, I'm like, It's gotta be, in my opinion, something you truly enjoy.

[00:44:10] I talk at the sweet spot, the overlapping of something you're really good at, or drive to be good at for something you like really enjoy, like timestamps. And to me, the third part of that, once you found your groove or found the potential of the sweet spot, you know, you found that lane that you can operate within and you just, you can't wait to work on it the next day, even if it's not making you money, but the more you continue to show up and get in front of people, build your audience, remind people you exist.

[00:44:34] Next, the opportunities will start coming. People will start asking you focused questions like, Hey, how did you do this? Like, I didn't even realize I was a side hustle coach until I was drawing all the time. And people thought I was doing perspective collective full-time in the media. And I'm like, no, actually I do this as a day.

[00:44:49] I have a day job. I work a little corporate cubicle, you know, and I just do this all outside and they're like, well, how do you do it? Like, all these questions kept coming in and I'm like, how do you build this outside of a day job? I'm like, okay, what if I just like listened to people? And start answering their questions and that's where it all opened up.

[00:45:08] I'm like, oh my gosh, the demand started showing up because I was doing all these other things. And I just paid attention to like, here's the demand, here's a unique solution or problem I can solve. You know, to me, it came on later. That was the third ingredient of the sweet sauce. Here's the passion here is the.

[00:45:24]And now here's the opportunity, the demand, the market. So to me, I'm a big believer. Like if I just go all in and if I could focus on creating value and impact the opportunities, the money, all of that is just going to come. I it's it's woo. It's having faith in the unknown. If I put faith that if I just trust that I'm working towards something big, that it's working back to her.

[00:45:44]It's never let me down. And from the past, I'd be like, there's no opportunities out there for me. But I've, I've climbed the wrong ladders against the wrong walls. And man beat me up, put me in depressed. Creative funks made me feel like I wasn't good enough. I was trying to chase the coattails of someone else's success.

[00:46:00] So I don't know if I have a definitive answer is this is how you do

[00:46:03] it,

[00:46:04] but I feel like your gut is going to tell you at the end of the day, like, Hey, is this lighting you up? Like a Christmas tree standing erect and tall in the middle of. Or is this, you know, something, are you just chasing this because it's a quick buck.

[00:46:18] Is this a hell? Yes. Or is it a hell? No. Are you in it for the right reason? Is this $200 little logo you're gonna do on the side, really holding you back, if you say yes, this is that really holding you back from like, who is this conversation? I can like get back to someone and rock their world and create a potential like future customer or a coach in student, out of it.

[00:46:37] You know, by just getting back to these people, one-on-one with audio messages and blow their minds versus like spending my time, do this 200 crappy logo that I don't want to do at all. And it makes me feel zero joy. And when I'm working on it, like there's a joy. Meet her somewhere in you. So

[00:46:54]Brian: [00:46:54] I think part of it goes back to the conversation where you were, we were talking about not knowing step Z, when you start step a, guarantee if you talk to those people right now who have those, like, there's like a couple huge Dungeons and dragons podcasts, and I guarantee you, those were a hundred percent passion projects that were just started for fun in their parents' basement or in their own basement probably.

[00:47:14] And they booked to be massive and they're making tons of advertising dollars because. Because people love that stuff. Like they're passionate about it and they built it and they had no idea that that opportunity was going to come. They built the opportunity for themselves. I do like kind of what you're saying here of like, Hey, you step into it, you lean into it.

[00:47:30] You take massive action or consistent smaller actions. You get a few wins, you build your confidence. And then the opportunities will start to present itself. The opportunities may not like what you thought they would look like, but they will be there and they will be plentiful. If you have put in the work and the grind and you have the skillset be.

[00:47:46]Chris: [00:47:46] Totally. Well, this reminds me of two stories. One of them is about my great-grandfather and the other is about a 14 year old kid, a long time ago, named phylo Farnsworth. So we're talking about how do you get started on this creative journey? And we're also talking about education and we're talking about doing something new that no one's ever done before.

[00:48:06] So this guy phylo was a farmer and he was in the fields one day, real smart kid. And he was plowing his, his father's field. And then it came to him. This is before TV. He said, you know, the way I'm plowing this field, I bet would work. If I could control an electron and have it scan over a screen. And then I could have a moving picture on a screen.

[00:48:27] This kid invented the TV as a 14 year old. He went and talked to

[00:48:31] his professor and his professor helped him get that idea off the ground. And then years and years and years later, phylo got to watch Neil Armstrong land on the moon, on his TV, in his living. Crazy. My great grandpa, a super smart guy, but he was in school and he had this idea.

[00:48:50] This is a very, very, very long time ago. Might even be great, great grandpa and my mom's side, but he had this idea for something called a vacuum tube and he sat down with his college professor vacuum tube. For those you don't know is the predecessor of the microchip. It's like when we first, when we first started to have computers, they ran on vacuum.

[00:49:08]And he had this idea for a vacuum tube. There was no such thing as a vacuum tube when talked to his professor, professor said, oh, that'll never work. So he gave up on it. you see mentors, you see people that are encouraging creatives to take that next step, to take that risk. And I, I think in a lot of ways, whether you're successful or not is almost a reality.

[00:49:29]It's did you do the next scary thing so that you could do the next scary thing so that you could do the next scary thing and what you learned along the way that was the real prize and back to the hero's journey here. Sorry, I'm like monologuing here, but you look at these great stories about like Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins, or, you know, fill in the blankets, all these great heroes and all these amazing stories.

[00:49:52] They learn something about themselves along the journey. And that is the truly most valuable thing that they take home. It's not getting the girl or finding the treasure or getting a ring that can make you invisible when you put it on. It's what they learned about themselves. And that's where I think for us as creatives that we should really be focusing on.

[00:50:11] It's not, it was your project successful or not. Did it enrich you, did you grow and get tools to do the next thing? And man, I just I'm obsessed with that. You know, w we talked about Andy J pizza earlier today, and I got to give him a salute on this episode because he, he really got me thinking about that.

[00:50:30] Not just what scenario, what's the next scary thing, but how do you leverage your current success to calve a future success rather than just doing the same thing again and again and again for the rest of your life.

[00:50:40]Brian: [00:50:40] So as we wrap this interview up Scottie, I, it would be, I would love for you to give our listeners you know, a place to connect with you. Like if you have some, I know you have your coaching program, tell him where to go for that. If you have a specific social media platform, whatever call to action you want for our listeners that have jived with your message here, I'd love for you to tell him where to go to find more about you and what you do.

[00:51:00]Scotty: [00:51:00] Yeah, you can connect with me over at, on Instagram coach, Scotty, Russell, new handle as of late, which was. But necessary move from a marketing standpoint. Also if you just need a weekly little boost, a little fire lit under your ass for that mindset, motivation and marketing, and put yourself in a position to your thankful time.

[00:51:18] One day outside of a day, job, family, life responsibilities, and check out the perspective podcast, new episode every Wednesday. So those would be the two main things, lots of free information out there. And you want to connect with me a little more about coaching, just DME or emailing? That's it.

[00:51:31]Brian: [00:51:31] We'll call it the the one to creative punch. It's a six-figure creative every Tuesday morning. And then the perspective podcast every Wednesday. That should be everyone listener of our podcast. One, two punch right there.

[00:51:41]Scotty: [00:51:41] consume wisely. That's what we're talking about.

[00:51:43] Brian: [00:51:43] Yup. Yup. Yup. All right. Thanks Scotty.

[00:51:46] Scotty: [00:51:46] Yeah, man, this was great. Thank you so much for having me. I

[00:51:48] Chris: [00:51:48] Thanks for coming on.

[00:51:49]Brian: [00:51:49] So that is it for our interview with Mr. Scotty Russell of the perspective podcast. Self-proclaimed side hustle, coach Chris. What'd you think of

[00:51:57] Chris: [00:51:57] that

[00:51:57] interview,

[00:51:57] dude? he was so awesome. He was so refreshing and it was kind of cool that he could just kind of, when you meet another podcast or who encourages people for a living, it's amazing to just watch them like tackle a subject and talk about why you can kick its ass.

[00:52:14]Brian: [00:52:14] No, that's that's, that's it, he starts talking about how he's like, he was like the guy at his head of his job at his work, you know, and all the things he does and his

[00:52:21] team captain

[00:52:22] for football

[00:52:22] or whatever. And if you see a guy he's like a, he's a, he's like a big dude. He's a Jack dude. So it was like, he's, you're not at all surprised that like he's that kind of guy just by hearing his personality, like he is the motive.

[00:52:35]More than anything. I think that's his super power as a business coach is being like the motivator behind things. And I think that that's probably an area that I'm not great at because I'm good with the advice I can help problem solve. Like my big superpower is problem solving. I don't let any roadblock or problem get in my way, but I'm not a great motivator or this, I don't feel like I am Chris.

[00:52:54] You're probably better

[00:52:54] at that than

[00:52:54] I am. I'm more like I can't motivate you, but I'll kick your ass. Like that's, that's like, I'll get your kick your ass into place. But Scott is just so good at making

[00:53:02] you

[00:53:02] feel

[00:53:02] like

[00:53:02] you can.

[00:53:03]Chris: [00:53:03] Yep. Well, he had so many just like one liners and, and, you know, the Americans uh, scheme,

[00:53:11] Brian: [00:53:11] Dude. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's why I love interviewing podcasters. Cause like, they're like, you know, this like just from, in the, in the world of interviews, like sometimes it can be like pulling teeth, getting. Getting people to really talk deeply into a subject because they're either afraid to overshare or they're not, you know, they don't do a lot of interviews, but with, with podcasters, especially Scotty, it's like, you can just, here's the thing, here's the thing I would like you to talk about and you get 30 minutes of great, amazing content that is so valuable to hear and like brings up six more topics to talk about.

[00:53:38] So, man, I love doing interviews with podcasters, especially Scotty wasn't was

[00:53:41] no.

[00:53:42] Chris: [00:53:42] Well, and today was a big day for us. this is the first day that we did two episodes in one day.

[00:53:47]Brian: [00:53:47] Yeah. So it's still it's June 8th right now. We just did the interview with Rodrigo Tasca earlier today. And so this is, yeah, this is our first time doing multiple podcasts in one day. And I think we have the same thing tomorrow,

[00:53:58] or

[00:53:58] do we

[00:53:58] have

[00:53:58] another

[00:53:59] day

[00:53:59] this

[00:53:59] week? We're doing multiple buckets.

[00:54:00] Chris: [00:54:00] another day with two, but I could be

[00:54:02] wrong,

[00:54:02] Brian: [00:54:02] I'm not, mad about it. I've enjoyed it. Like it's, usually we'll go a full week without seeing or talking to each other. And then it's like, actually sometimes we do twice a week where we're just chatting with each other, but yeah, it's, it's fun to do it that way. And not that our listeners really care.

[00:54:13] We've lost

[00:54:14] most

[00:54:14] listeners

[00:54:14] at this point. That's fine. We don't have anything valuable to add at this point, but, you know, we, we like talking about and sharing some of the stuff that Chris and I are going through. Cause like when we, talked about the transition from six figure home studio to six figure creative.

[00:54:26]That was very much a kind of a scary step to do. And the big gap we've had between podcasts of like six or seven or eight, I don't know how long it's been. That was even scaled was awful. Like horrible. Like I hated that like every, that much time off sucked, but we did take that next scary step as Scotty said.

[00:54:43] And I'm really enjoying the fruits of that chain so far, because we've got to talk about to some really cool people. So far interviews you've heard so far and interviews you have yet to hear that we've already recorded. We're recording this week. Like we have some really cool stuff lined up and I, and just talking to Scotty today about other guests, we can interview the heat and those that are great guests.

[00:55:00] We're going to have some more amazing guests on the podcast. If any of those people agree, like we have some awesome stuff on it for the podcast. And it's fun to share this with our listeners, even if we only have 10% of our people listening at this point. Thanks for listening.

[00:55:12]Chris: [00:55:12] I'm so pumped, you know, it's uh, it is so weird to think about how many cool people we're going to get to meet through recording these interviews. How many new friends we're going to have? And I am I'm ecstatic. This is so cool.

[00:55:23]Brian: [00:55:23] Yeah. And it's, it's good for you listener because remember, you're the hero in this journey. We're just the guides. And we're going to guide you along with some cool guests to get you to your destination, which is. LA or New York, where are we at with that? I don't know. Let's talk about good things. Uh, That's a reference to a previous part in this episode listener.

[00:55:39] That was a joke.

[00:55:41] Laugh with me. All right. So let's wrap this up there. There's again, we're this point? I'm just, this is what happens by the way, when we're like two, two episodes to outros, it's like, you know, I've been on the mic for many, many hours today counting like pre and post interview stuff. And so like, you know, my brain's, my brain's fried.

[00:55:57] So with that, we're going to wrap this up. Anything you want to add as we sign off in this episode.

[00:56:01]Chris: [00:56:01] Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. That's all that was so dumb. think I'm feeling the two episodes a day burn here at the

[00:56:08] Brian: [00:56:08] Gosh. All right, I'm

[00:56:09] gonna

[00:56:09] leave

[00:56:10] that

[00:56:10] Chris: [00:56:10] in

[00:56:10] justice.

[00:56:10] Brian: [00:56:10] you, I'm not editing that out. All right. We'll see you next week. Bright early 6:00 AM for the next episode of the six figure home studio

[00:56:18] Chris: [00:56:18] the

[00:56:19] Brian: [00:56:19] figure creative podcast,

[00:56:20] stumbling with that into

[00:56:23] it by