Today, we’re talking with Janine Kwoh. She’s the author of “Welcome to The Grief Club,” a book she wrote after realizing how hard and complicated grief when she lost her partner, Nap. Janine is also the owner and designer of Kwohtations, a Brooklyn-based stationery company.

You wrote about feeling the need to grieve less, more privately, and move through it more quickly in the book. Can you tell us more about that? And how to deal with these expectations?

These ideas came from my own experience with grief the questions and struggles I faced. Is my grief valid? Am I grieving too much or grieving incorrectly?

I experienced grief at a young age; my partner, Nap, died when we were both 28. And he was the first person I loved, who died, and I just had no idea what to expect. And at the time, not many people in my peer group had experienced a significant loss. So I felt like my friends wanted to be there for me, but no one really knew how. So, I looked to external cues. But, as a society, we’re not good at talking about grief or making space for suffering, and in turn, it made me feel like I was taking it too hard. People don’t necessarily talk to you about your grief because they don’t want to make you feel bad, or they don’t know what to say. For those of us who work in an office, there’s no federally mandated bereavement leave, or it’s three to five days, which can be another signal that the worst of your grief should be over in less than a week, which is perfect for anyone who’s gone through it. I think the impact of that can make it feel like it’s time to move on and stop talking about it. And that can be really hard.

You never get over grief. You just learn to carry it, and it changes over time. Permitting yourself to grieve is necessary because losing someone you love is so hard. Putting judgment on your feelings is too much for one person.

What if someone wants to be present and supportive? To someone who’s grieving? What’s the best way to approach being supportive? So it’s helpful and doesn’t come off as condescending, insensitive, or sounding like you think the grieving person’s person should suck it up? 

I think the most important thing is to say something. It doesn’t have to be the most comforting or the perfect thing to say. In some ways, there is no perfect thing to say; there’s nothing we can say or do to take away that person’s grief. There is something crucial in acknowledging what they’re going through; it goes a long way in helping them by feeling seen and less alone. So even something simple, like I’m sorry for your loss, and I know this is hard, but I’m here is the most important.

That said, there are things to avoid saying.

• At least statements – At least you got to say goodbye, they were old, etc. I understand people just want the person to feel better or look on the bright side, but a lot of times, those statements can inadvertently minimize that person’s loss. 
• Comparisons – Comparing a loss can inadvertently minimize that loss for that person because every loss is different; even if you lost the same person, your loss is different, and your grief is different.
• Everything happens for a reason – This is probably everyone’s least favorite statement.

As long as you stay away from those, there is nothing you can say that is wrong.

What are acceptable times and places to cry?

Anywhere and anytime. Many of us feel like we need to compartmentalize our grief, like, I have to go to work and can’t be a grieving person at work; I have to be a productive and functional person. I remember thinking, I will grieve when I get home. But grief is not something we can easily slot in at a convenient time. We can’t control it, and we shouldn’t; we need to co-exist with it, alongside everything else in our lives.

This podcast and all past episodes are available to listen to now. You can also subscribe to Get Under The Surface podcasts on all major platforms (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc.).

Learn more & get in touch with Janine:

• Website: kwohtations.com
• Instagram: @kwohtations and @welcometothegriefclub

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Today we’re getting under the surface with Scotty Russell. Scotty is the side hustler’s coach helping creatives turn their side hustle into a full-time dream hustle. He offers coaching programs, boot camps, one-on-one coaching sessions, and free resources to help people get started on the road to improvement. Scotty is also a speaker and host of The Side Hustlers Perspective podcast. His passion to coach creatives stems from being an artist and designer himself, giving him the ability to understand first-hand the challenges and struggles creative individuals face. And today, we’re going to hit on some topics that include what it means to be the side hustler’s coach, embrace the suck, and how being selfish can be the best step to creating a ripple effect of selflessness.

I’m also a big believer that we should chase something new every year, something that excites and scares us. At every level, there’s a new devil. So every year, I find one new thing I can suck at that’s gonna push my business forward. In the beginning, it was sharing my artwork, just creating and sharing. I sucked at it. Then it was sharing my voice through microblogging on Instagram. I sucked at that. But then I learned I had more to say, so I decided to suck as a blogger, a public speaker, podcaster, coach, and now live streaming scares me the most, so I’m going to suck at streaming podcasts in front of a live audience. I’m just willing to suck at something new each year. 

F.U.D.
I do what I do because there’s so much Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (F.U.D.) in this world. There are so many things outside of our control, but what we do have control over is what we build for ourselves. You have to be selfish to find your gift so you can selflessly give it away. I want to teach people how to build something on their own to hedge against an uncertain day job, geoeconomic, or geopolitical climate that we’re all a part of but are outside of our control. What is in your control is how you show up, pouring yourself into something that you truly love, honing your craft, providing value, going all-in on yourself. It’s the idea that you can create a rippling impact way after you’re six feet deep in the dirt.

I ask myself, how can I make a lasting impact on people within my circle or influence people in different pockets of the planet? And then, set a great example for your kiddos and create generational wealth and change for my family tree. That’s what fires me up. Why live as the sad sappy Scotty who feels sorry because of my circumstances growing up. Life is about choices and perspective. There are so many people that would kill to be in this spot and kill to be in this spot.

This podcast and all past episodes are available to listen to now. You can also subscribe to Get Under The Surface podcasts on all major platforms (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc.).

Learn more & get in touch with Scotty:

• Instagram: @coachscottyrussell 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachscottyrussell 
• Podcast: https://coachscottyrussell.com/side-hustlers-perspective 
• Website: https://coachscottyrussell.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveCollective/

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In this installment of our Small Business Spotlight series we’ll be highlighting Matt Jacoby of Eleven Music Career Center, which offers music career coaches, as well as a team of virtual assistants to help musicians, DJs and producers develop business skills. They also provide more services, but I will leave those for Matt to describe below.

I’ve known Matt for years, and he has a true knack for business and music, so I wasn’t surprised to see Eleven Music manifest into reality.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists and small businesses that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Matt and his business …

1.) WHO ARE YOU?
My name is Matt Jacoby.  I am one of the 3 co-founders behind Eleven Music Career Center.  Eleven provides music career coaches and a team of virtual assistants to help musicians, DJs and producers develop their business skills, build a virtual business team, curate the array of tools and platforms available today, generate more revenue, and be more successful and happy in pursuing music as a real job.

Outside of Eleven, I give private drum lessons in the Sun Prairie / Windsor area to keep my own music skills fresh and help develop the next generation of drummers.

On the family side of things, I am a husband to my wonderful wife Emily and a father to our three beautiful children: Carter (9), Devin (6), & Aleyah (2).

Ever since high school, I have followed my entrepreneurial spirit and always had a side hustle.  In high school I taught myself how to build websites and landed a volunteer role in building our high school’s first website ever (1999 baby!).  Throughout college and beyond I funded a lot of my extracurricular activities and fun expenses with website clients.  In 2013, I started a new job as a website developer for a local pharmaceutical company in their marketing department.  From there I was introduced to HubSpot and digital marketing automation platforms.  Since then, building websites and deploying marketing automation solutions have gone hand in hand for me.

From 2004 on, I also started exploring how my musical interests could work with my entrepreneurial interests.  This lead to a small handful of music startup organizations in the Madison area that I started either alone or with colleagues.  It was from this trial and error period that I built a collection of sticky notes and digital notebooks that eventually started to help us shape Eleven Music Career Center in 2018.

2.) WHAT DO YOU DO?
Currently the only business founder / partner in Eleven that is able to make Eleven most of my focus as a day job (the other two still need their day jobs and make Eleven a side hustle for now), I have been busy educating myself with the Business Made Simple business operating system and the StoryBrand marketing frameworks.  These tools have allowed me to get excited about starting yet another company from the ground up and has given us the time and runway to figure out what Eleven should be, who it can serve, and how we’re going to do it.

What this means is that I’ve spent the past year developing our leadership strategy, our core mission and characteristics, our financial model, our music career coaching program, and have recently started developing our virtual assistant program.  My passion lies in working on a business, not so much in it.  I feel I’m at my best when I am sitting in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit, steering the plane in the direction it needs to go.  However I still have to perform some of the “in business” tasks, such as acquiring new customers, taking care of existing customers as a coach or a service provider, marketing, and manager duties for our existing contractor team.

What we do for Eleven right now includes career coaching and mentoring, Patreon fan club management, tour and event management, content creation, email marketing, livestream moderating, web development, project management, graphic design, and some music publishing assistance. We have other service ideas in the works but we want to make sure the need and demand exists.

3.) WHY DO YOU LOVE DOING IT?
Like I said earlier, it has been the perfect marriage of my “self employment ambition” and my music background.  As a drummer of 26+ years with 3 bands on my resume, I saw a lot of creativity but not a lot of business savviness.  The music industry has changed a lot in the last 20 years and the traditional music industry was built to confuse musicians.  Corporate record labels and other services grew up around the artist community to help them “get signed and get famous”.  In my opinion, this industry grew around the artists’ ignorance of how they should conduct themselves, how to negotiate and how not to lose control over their own work.

Luckily the Internet has challenged the traditional industry’s model and allowed more and more artists to find some level of stability and success on their own with direct-to-fan access.  The only problem with that is that artists now had to learn what record labels and other industry services could do faster due to their expertise.  So while artists can now go straight to fans and influence via multiple online platforms, they still aren’t very skilled at handling their business affairs that strengthen their creativity.

Most music businesses who help musicians still focus on their careers from a “music first” mentality.  Eleven Music Career Center approaches artists as small business owners first, building a more traditional small business that has music, merch, tours, and more as its products and services.

The last point I will say here is that we are focused on building a service that helps an artist get 100% of their revenue and then it’s up the artist if they want to continue working with us or not.  We operate under short term contracts, either 1 year or month-to-month.  This makes Eleven an investment in an artist’s business rather than a expense or debt that is difficult to repay or find value in.

4.) HOW DOES IT HELP PEOPLE?
The stereotype is the “starving artist” for a reason.  The whole world has come to assume that if you go into music, you are passionate about being in poverty.  It’s assume that music is never more than a hobby except for when you are Taylor Swift.

We find that a lot of tools and platforms that launch in the music industry claim to be the magic pill that will fix the music industry.  However, the only thing they are doing is adding another tool or platform to the music industry that will ultimately confuse the very audience they are trying to help.  At this point music creators don’t need another tool or platform.  They need a partner to help them navigate the sea of options, figure out a clear plan for their music and their life, and get re-focused on what is important: their career and their music.

One of my business partners, Nick Venturella, came into this business relationship with the idea that music can be a middle class employment opportunity just as much as being a store manager, doctor, manufacturer, or construction worker might be.  We like to think that Eleven is here to help make more middle class musicians.  You don’t have to achieve Taylor Swift fame to make it in music.  You just have to build a business that finds its audience of people, just like any other business in this world, and if it can make enough to build a sustainable lifestyle on, that should be the American Dream for music.  I know plenty of middle class musicians who have found music to be their primary or only source of income, some right here in Madison.  They buy groceries, pay their mortgage and utilities, and remodel their house using music.  That is what we want.

5.) FAVORITE BAND OF ALL TIME
That is hard to answer!  My tastes in music and choice of different genres over the years has greatly impacted my ability to choose just one.  But if you are going to make me narrow it down, I guess I would have to say The Offspring.  I discovered them in high school and they are the primary reason I was able to develop speed while playing the drums.  They were a major influence in my musical development, and to this day I still listen to them and keep them in my practice routine.  I’ve even used some of their songs to teach my drum students here in the area.

Learn more about Matt and ElevenMusic, or his drum lessons.

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In this installment of our Small Business Spotlight series we’ll be highlighting Stacy & Josh Pauley, owners of Top Tier Automotive.

They run an amazing, family-owned auto shop (they’re married), and the caliber of work Top Tier performs on both domestic and foreign cars is pretty impressive.

One reason for this is Josh’s experience working  in small shops and large dealerships in the Madison area for the last 16 years. He also has ASE Master Certification. 

I have known Stacy for over 10 years now (how did that happen?), and she is a total car, motorcycle, and tech geek. She’s also a savvy marketer, and that’s the part of the business she handles.

Both Josh and Stacy are honest, hard working, and believe in providing stellar service — which is why they fit right in here on our spotlight series …

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists, small businesses and individuals that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So let’s get to know Josh, Stacy, and Top Tier Automotive!

1. Who Are You?
We are Josh & Stacy Pauley – Chronologically though we are: Madison natives, gear heads, putting up with each other’s shenanigans for 17 years, dog parents, motorcycle riders (Stacy is a 4th generation motorcycle rider and 3rd generation female motorcycle rider), and business owners.

2. What Do You Do?
Other than wrangling dogs?! We own Top Tier Automotive in Madison, repairing and modifying vehicles. We work on everything from old hot rods to new electric cars (and everything in-between)!

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?
A couple different reasons: The automotive world offers an endless supply of options & variety in what you can do. It can be as simple as basic maintenance to get you from A to B, to extreme customization and specialty vehicles. We also enjoy helping people get the most out of their automotive experience. For most people an automobile will be their second most expensive investment, and we want to make sure they have a trusted source for all their automotive needs.

4. How Does it Help People?
Having a mechanic than you can trust is getting harder and harder. Especially now with how complicated cars have become. Knowing that you have someone that you can: bring your car to that will take the time to explain the situation, discuss the best course of action, and fix it right the first time is invaluable.

5. If you could own any car, from any year, what would it be?
That’s a hard question for Josh & I. Some people are die hard fans of one particular car or company. Josh & I are more eclectic with our taste. A lot of times we don’t even like the same car! But…

• Josh: 1934 Ford 5-Window Coupe or 1965 Shelby Cobra
• Stacy: I would say a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Hemi in Plum Crazy purple

Want to learn more or get in touch with Top Tier?
You can visit their website, Instagram or Facebook page. Or simply give them a call them at 608-572-7722. Top Tier is located at: 5506 County Highway Cv, Madison, Wisconsin 53704.

For your viewing pleasure: cool cars, cute pups and a little family history …

(Stacy’s 1948 Oldsmobile Series 98 project)

(Josh’s 1962 Ford Fairlane)

(Stacy’s Great-great uncle on his brother’s early-1900’s Indian)

(Our pack of pups)

 

 

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Topics discussed in the interview include:

1. Why design and illustration — what prompted you to choose this field?
2. As a creative, what did your journey look like from HS, to college, to the professional world?
3. How did you get into over 90 retail stores across North America?
4. So obviously, you’re an artist AND a business owner. How do these two different facets of you co-exist — and how does one affect the other?
5. What is the biggest challenge you have faced (either professionally, personally) and how did you handle it?

One of the happy surprises that came out of the interview was a discussion about trauma, healing and self care — which is an incredibly important topic for business owners that doesn’t get enough attention.

I hope you enjoy this week’s edition of Five Questions With.

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What is the Marketing Treadmill?

Exactly what it sounds like … never ending tasks, social posts, blog posts, outreach, videos, webinars, podcasts, Adwords, etc. — that never seems to end and is impossible to keep up with. And whether you have a marketing team, or you are doing it all solo, it’s simply impossible to keep going at full speed day-after-day, on the marketing treadmill.

No matter how good someone’s advice is, if it’s not sustainable you only have a handful of choices:

• Get help so it is sustainable
• Choose another tactic that IS sustainable
• Or keep running on the treadmill until you collapse — this last one is not a joke. If you keep pushing yourself eventually you will break down and be good to nobody …

Let’s assume you don’t have the budget to hire help right now. What’s a small or medium sized business to do?

Choose sustainable initiatives that work for you long term. They include …

1. Improving the SEO on your website so you are getting found more easily. Yes, you’d expect to hear this advice from a web design firm that specializes in SEO — but it’s true. One of our clients, Lighthouse Healing Massage Therapy, doesn’t even blog, and yet they still acquire 4-8 NEW clients per month because of the SEO we’ve implemented into the site we built for them.
2. Get some citations using a tool like Bright Local. It’s inexpensive, and doesn’t take a lot of time to set up — and takes even less time to maintain (maybe 15 minutes a month after the initial setup). In case you’re not familiar, citations are directory listings — which are backlinks to your website … and backlinks are good for SEO!
3. Blog: this is often a tough one, as businesses and team members often feel strapped for time. Just one blog post a week can do wonders for your SEO and your organic ranking in Google search. In my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, I detail how to make blogging part of your work week so it’s more manageable and less stressful.
4. Be Visible: This one is going to look different for everyone depending on manny factors — so I will pose a question to you: what has been the most successful way of your being visible professionally? “Successful” being defined as — gaining something of value like customers, good relationships or referrals. Do you have some time each week to do some of that? HINT: this doesn’t necessarily mean more social media, and it doesn’t necessarily mean getting in front of hundreds of people. For me, successful ways of being visible include:
   • Keeping in touch/active with my professional relationships (Zooms, coffee, emails, etc.)
   • Speaking in public, online, and on podcasts
   • Commenting (when it’s relevant) on social media, and posting on social media

These are just a few suggestions — and that’s on purpose — as I want you to be able to succeed with them, not get stuck on the marketing treadmill sweating away the day …

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I’ve been using PodMatch for a couple of months now, and it has been a powerful tool in helping me get booked as a guest on podcasts, which is why I wanted to get the word out about the application and its founder.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists, small businesses and individuals that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Alex and PodMatch …

1. Who is PodMatch & What Does it Do?
PodMatch is a service that automatically matches ideal podcast guests and podcast hosts together for interviews. Imagine your favorite online dating app but instead of using it for finding dates, you’re
booking podcast interviews. We use the same(ish) technology for automated matching!

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?
As a passionate podcaster myself who has been helped so much by others along the way, I wanted a way to give back to the industry. I found the entire guest/host connecting process to be very difficult and there was a need to be met here. That’s why I created PodMatch. Today, I love helping people find that ideal guest for their podcast so they can create episodes that impact the world. This is something that I’m so passionate about! Serving the world through podcasting.

4. How Does it Help People?
It helps people who want to be podcast guests find shows who are looking for people with their skills, talents, and expertise. That way, they can share their message with the world! On the flip side, it helps hosts find guests for their podcast so they can focus on producing great content.

5. Why did you decide to create this solution for podcasters and podcast guests?
This is my way of giving back to the podcasting community that has given so much to me. So many people in podcasting have helped me along the way. And I remember when I got started, finding guests used to be a pain, but thankfully, PodMatch is now around for me, and all other podcasters to make this process painless.

6. What hurdles have you faced during start up, and the growth process?
PodMatch almost immediately took off. Figuring out how to manage my time properly with answering people’s questions about it, getting on calls with members who had ideas, and of course, further developing the product, (not to mention keeping my own podcast going) was a lot of work. That balance was tough to figure out and initially caused me to work more than I should have been. But today, I have a much better balance!

7. Favorite coffee?
I actually don’t drink coffee, or tea, just water. I’m a huge fan of water, always have been since I was a kid. (Fun fact, the last time I drank a soda was 2003.

8. Favorite analog hobby (for those times you’re not in front of your computer)?
I enjoy going to the beach with my wife and friends. Playing soccer, swimming laps, and outdoor circuit workouts. All of which, based around community, I love being with the people in my life.

If you’d like to learn more about Alex or PodMatch, feel free to check out any of the following links:

• Podmatch.com
• Creating a Brand (podcast website)
• Creating a Brand Podcast (listen to the podcast)

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Paul is the Employee Benefits Specialist at First Choice, and one of the (many) things I like about him is the fact that his business philosophy is the same as mine: relationships first — no matter what the size of the business or organization he’s working with.

This relationship-based, non-transactional point of view is not always easy to find in the business world, and it’s what makes Paul so good at understanding the needs of his clients, and being able to provide them with a solution that truly works for his employee benefit groups — even in the face of an increasingly complex healthcare system.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists individuals and small businesses that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know a little more about Paul …

1. Who Are You?

First and foremost, I’m a father of a 10 yr old daughter and a husband of 13 years. Professionally speaking, I’ve been in the world of Employee Benefits (health insurance, dental, life, disability, vision) for over 20 years. I cut my teeth in customer service at an insurance company right out of college which was foundational, giving me not only insight into how insurance works, but the complexities that often accompany it, especially in the eyes of those insured. It helped me be customer centric as well as find ways to help insurance make sense.

That experience served me very well throughout my career and at the same time gave me street cred with prospective clients because I knew and still remember what it’s like to walk a mile in their shoes.  From there my career transitioned into a sales role and eventually management.  For the better part of my career I’ve worked for health insurance carriers where I could only represent one product, whereas now at First Choice Insurance Solutions (FCIS), I serve as an independent insurance agent able to offer a multitude of insurance carriers which is far more beneficial to my clients.  I’m no longer a one trick pony.

2. What Do You Do?

In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, I help businesses manage risk from a healthcare perspective.  Navigating the world of Employee Benefits was complex 20 years ago, and despite attempts to reinvent it or make it easier to navigate, the harsh reality is that it has become far more confusing.

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?

I love working with new people and hearing their story.  We all have a story, it’s what ultimately connects us.  I really enjoy getting to hear what people’s needs are and then helping them fill the gaps.  Let’s be real, insurance is not exciting stuff. In fact, I always joke with people that if you can’t sleep at night, pull out your health insurance certificate and start reading.  You’ll be out in less than a minute.

However, failure to have the proper insurance in place puts a person in a very vulnerable position. Potentially paying too much in premium or paying too much out-of-pocket.  Worst case scenario is finding yourself filing for bankruptcy due to forgoing enrollment in some sort of insurance coverage.  In today’s world, we’ve become very spoiled expecting insurance to cover everything under the sun. In reality, insurance was created to protect us from catastrophic loss, but it has morphed drastically over the past 50 years.  People continue to attempt to reinvent it, but in its basest form, insurance exists to protect us from the ultimate loss, bankruptcy.  I still remember my first insurance job where I couldn’t define deductible from copay from maximum out-of-pocket and that continues to serve me well today because I have a knack for making the complex easy to understand.

4. How Does it Help People?

I think I’ve already beaten that dead horse, but will add that I help people make sure they are choosing the benefits best suited for them for this particular point in time.  Too often I encounter people that are over or under insured as well as those who have no insurance whatsoever.  I have horror stories of people I’ve known that did not have health insurance and then were gravely sick.  It’s a terrible position to be in.  Then I have personal stories that impact my own family where having health insurance saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars.

5. I know you enjoy music, and that you are a musician. How many guitars do you have, and how often do you play?

I had 25 guitars at one point, but sold some because I didn’t play them as often as I should have.  I don’t play nearly as often as I’d like, but I have an absolute love affair for electric guitar and 80’s hair metal.  While I like other music too, I’m proudly stuck in the 80’s.  I currently own 19 guitars and have several very rare pieces in my collection including a Michael Sweet Washburn Flying V, serial #2, and they only made 4 (I think).  I don’t know that I’m done buying guitars. I’d say I’m done buying until I find the next one I fall in love with.

6. Favorite guitar player?

Hands down Michael Sweet from Stryper. The guy is wicked talented and is releasing better music today than he did back in the 80’s.  He plays, sings and writes continually.  This year, due to COVID, he’s not been able to tour, so he’s working on 5 new albums, some with various artists. It’s nuts, but he doesn’t start writing songs for a new album or project until 2 weeks before it’s due.  He does his best work under pressure and will knock out one new song a day.

When I was a kid I had posters of him on my wall and fast forward 30 years, I’m blessed to call him a close personal friend of mine and my family.  It’s a long convoluted story, but one that is fun to tell.  In short, our paths began to cross 4 years ago at shows and ultimately, my daughter (then age 6) and I went to see him perform an acoustic show in Fall River Massachusetts.  He was filming a live DVD and called us up on stage and the rest is history.  We are in the DVD and it’s an incredible memory.  He’s played a private show at my house and 80 of my friends and I’ve been to his house, in his studio, staring at his Gold and Platinum albums that adorn his wall, pinching myself because 16 year old me would never have believed this would or could happen.

7. Favorite band?

Stryper

8. Favorite coffee?

I have a wicked sweet tooth and there’s a coffee shop in Randolph, WI called T’s Cup & Cream that my wife discovered.  They have an Almond Joy coffee that I could literally drink myself to death on.  It’s so good.

—-

If you’d like to learn more about Paul, or simply get in touch, feel free to visit his LinkedIn page, or the First Choice Insurance Solutions website.

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Kyle is a local Madison visual guru who focuses on photography, motion and time-lapse. In addition to his amazing skills, he’s also a really awesome, positive guy — which makes him a joy to work with and be around.

I’ve worked with Kyle multiple times, and he’s always gone above and beyond to deliver amazing results, which is why he’s being highlighted here on the Cuppa SEO blog.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists and small businesses that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

Let’s get to know more about Kyle and what he does …

1. Who Are You?

My name is Kyle Wege. I’m owner and content creator at Crimson Sun Studios where I provide commercial photography and video. Outside of my commercial work, I’m a father to an amazing little girl and husband to a loving and supporting wife. I consider myself to be a highly creative person, inside my business as well as outside. I’m a musician and play in multiple bands within the Madison area, two of which have toured the US fairly extensively in the past 10 years.

I absolutely love to travel, and my wife will tell you that I never go anywhere in the world without my camera. I’ve photographed many National Parks and areas in the US; I’ve traveled to Greece and was fortunate to photograph the ruins, culture, and overall beauty of that country; I’ve traveled to Jamaica to photograph a good friends wedding; and, probably the most impactful traveling was to Jacmel, Haiti, where I was chosen to join Angel Wings International as their photographer to document the final construction of a medical clinic 10 years in the making.

I say this was the most impactful because the images and videos I created have gone on to tell the story of an amazing island of people suffering through incredible hardship who now have access to high-quality medical care. Those images have helped raise funds for continued care and support, and my trip ultimately changed my life forever. I’m extremely grateful for all these opportunities and can’t wait to see what the future holds.

2. What Do You Do?

I provide content creation services to build stronger advertising and marketing campaigns. This includes commercial photography (like architecture, portraits/headshots, drone, and product photography), commercial video (such as testimonial videos, interviews, PR, aerial, and promotional video), time-lapse photography, and cinemagraphs.

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?

As a creative human being, it’s incredibly fulfilling to build custom and unique content for businesses, professionals, and non-profits in our community. Every project is different and offers new challenges and new people to collaborate with. I’m trusted by these folks to translate their story into a visual medium, which ultimately is the interacting piece their customers see. If I’ve done my job well, the right customers will feel connected to my clients story and will be compelled to reach out to work with them

4. How Does it Help People?

Storytelling is an integral part of human culture and is one of the strongest ways to pass information from one set of people to another. Visual storytelling through photos and videos brings a new level communication that we are continuing to explore and expand upon. Whether we’re telling the story of a new home or workspace and how it provides functionality and quality of life to those using it, or telling the life-changing story of an individual and their experience working with a business or non- profit, the emotional element of the human condition translates to the viewers. That deep connection is the ROI of content creation and is the lifeblood of successful marketing.

5. Whether it’s architecture, food, or people, I notice you always capture the essence (personality) of your subject in a way that makes it much more compelling than a regular photo. How to you accomplish this?

There are a lot of factors that go into capturing the essence and personality of a subject, and there are many different subjects that could be captured!

It starts with an in-depth look at the story that will be told, what the subject is, and what the goal for the content is. This pre-produciton process often takes longer than any other part of content creation because we’re going deep into the subject, the story, and the audience.

Once that work is done, we’re ready for production and to start capturing all the content we’ll need to build the final media. Our pre-production process informs what will be captured and how it will be captured to best reach the goal of effective story telling. A strong production requires an intimate knowledge of gear and process to make a seamless experience for the client and those involved in the production.

Finally, we move into the post-production process where all the created assets are put together to create the final media. This is where a lot of the magic happens, where we can refine our subject and put emphasis on particular elements or emotions. These building blocks of the creation process translate through all modes of creation, even writing and music. When given the proper forethought, skills, and tools, we create something brand new to the world, and there are rarely limits on the positive impact that can have.

6. With COVID-19, how have clients’ video, photography and drone projects changed? Other than many people working from home, has the methodology, or the message, that organizations are using to connect with clients changed?

At the beginning of the pandemic we saw a fair number of businesses hold off on some marketing efforts. This, in large part, was due to the stay-at-home mandate preventing most production from happening.

That is no longer the case and marketing efforts, overall, have returned to normal. The state of society is another factor which has yet to return to normal. This is where we’re seeing the most change occur.

Productions have been reduced to the minimum effective crew, meetings have become virtual, and directing of subjects has gone from physical to purely verbal. Obviously the community-focused-efforts around sanitization, physical distancing, and mask-wearing have all been implemented on every production in an effort to shorten the nature of this pandemic and to help bring back our societal norms.

Our clients, through the pandemic, have been excited at the prospect of bringing their stories and their content to life through all this adversity to help maintain and expand their growth and to continue their efforts of helping the community.

If you’d like to learn more about Kyle, see more of his work — or simply get in touch, feel free to visit his website.

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She’s also very engaging, and fun to be around (even virtually), which is why we’re highlighting here here in our spotlight series.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists, small businesses, and individuals who make a difference in our world who stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Terri Lynn …

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