Speaker 1: 0:00

especially within the creative industry. It's so easy to get bogged down or disheartened by all the things we have to do or look at the things that just feel like roadblocks in our way. I know as a novelist trying to submit my work and getting all these rejection letters. Sometimes you're like, okay, why do I even do this? Why what's the point? And I forget about how it truly makes me happy. And the point isn't to get other people's approval, it's to create something and do something I love.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Welcome to Tried and True with a dash of woo, where we blend rock solid tips with a little bit of magic. I'm Renee Bowen, your host, life and business coach and professional photographer at your service. We are all about getting creative, diving into your business and playing with manifestation over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in.

Speaker 3: 0:58

Hey, hey, welcome back to tried and true with a dash of woo. I'm your host, renee Bowen, thanks for joining me today. We are talking about stuff that you guys don't like to hear about, but please stay with me because it is important and you need to know about it. So I am talking with Danielle Wagner, who is the CEO of VIDE, and VIDE is an accounting service. They're an accounting program Don't let your eyes glaze over but you guys, what they do is really, really awesome. It would save you so much time and energy. You have no idea.

Speaker 3: 1:28

I really am excited about speaking with Danielle because not only is she the CEO, she's also a creative right. So, yeah, she's the CEO of this accounting firm, but she's also got a degree in writing and English. She writes novels. She's got a really cool background working in media in general, and I love talking with people who seem to mix those two worlds of left brain, right brain, strategy, woo, whatever you want to call it being in touch with all of these different facets of ourselves as human beings. And we talk a lot about some of the things that they see over there with creative entrepreneurs, because they work with a lot of creatives and a lot of photographers through their program that they offer, which is awesome, and all the information about what they do is in the show notes and we talk about a little bit about that in the show as well. But we really also talk about what she sees us creatives struggle with in terms of that and how we can mitigate that and how we can get ahead of it. We talk a little bit about AI as well.

Speaker 3: 2:34

So this is a really really cool conversation that I think is really timely. I mean, it is tax season so unfortunately they're not going anywhere. We have to do those things. There are ways to make this whole process so much easier on ourselves, and not just like the physical time of doing it, but like taking away the mental stress of it, because VIDE offers bookkeeping services, like they do it for you and it's so affordable. You guys like their most expensive plan is $249 a month and they have cheaper ones, like really accessible and there's no contract, like you're not tied into anything. It's really cool.

Speaker 3: 3:06

So you guys are going to love this conversation I had with Danielle. She's really cool. Let's just dive in. Hey, Danielle, thanks for joining us here today. I'm really excited about this conversation because I really love talking with people who successfully blend their love of the arts or their creative backgrounds with what is usually thought of as more of like a left brain kind of field, like math or accounting, and your journey to CEO at VIDE is really intriguing to me. You have this background in storytelling, basically right, you've got this degree in writing English. So how do you balance the analytical nature of accounting with what you guys do there, with the creative aspects of marketing and storytelling, as your role of CEO over at Vyde?

Speaker 1: 3:53

Yeah Well, first off, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and, yeah, I did graduate with a degree in English and writing, so I am far from where I thought I would be, but that's okay. I can remember most of what happened during my graduation ceremony. I do not remember because it was so boring, but the one thing I do remember was them giving don't quote me on the statistic, but it was a really high statistic like 75% or something of jobs that existed today didn't exist five, 10 years ago, and that just was kind of shocking to me. And so it told me just to always leave yourself open for the unexpected. And that's what I've kind of done in my career. So you're right, I have ended up in something that's a little more typically considered left brain analytical.

Speaker 1: 4:47

But what I've discovered is it's not as mutually exclusive as you might think. There's so much creativity that still happens in budgeting or accounting and finances. Not that I'm saying we get really creative with people's finances here. That's not at all what I mean. There's obviously rules we have to follow and we want to keep people compliant, but at the same time, if you're looking at your finances, for instance, and you're trying to project what you're going to make over the next year. There's a lot of factors in play there and there's a lot of different ways you could take it, a lot of creativity and choices you have to make of making that prediction and making it as accurate as possible.

Speaker 1: 5:32

So I just kind of hold on to that and embrace that side of things, even though, yes, there is more of that analytical side and I enjoy stretching my brain that way. It kind of can be a relief to switch which side of the brain I'm using in day to day. But also I just love to see the creativity. If you're looking at again someone and what they might be owing next year for their tax bill, there's again a lot of creativity in the solutions you can provide of how to lower that tax bill. And so I think there's a lot of artistry in what our accountants do here being able to look at someone, their unique business situation, all of the laws and rules and regulations and tax deductions you could be taking, and then start creating like an individualized plan for them of what would work best. So yes, you know it does stretch me, but I do see creativity even in what we do, and that's part of the reason why I love working here.

Speaker 3: 6:37

Yeah, I can definitely see that A really good. I really feel like well, first of all, I feel like we need the melding of both right Strategy and creativity all the time. I mean obviously, some more than others, depending on what we're doing. But even just with my own business and working with my accountant over the years, I would not ever want to do that first of all, but yeah, there's a lot of creativity that comes into that and I love that.

Speaker 3: 7:07

You guys over there too, you work with a lot of photographers and a lot of creatives, you know, just in the services that you offer. So I can imagine that you know working with us crazy, right, great people. Right, you have to, you have to like understand our thought processes and things that you know we're going through, as well as our businesses. So, you know, having said that, because you guys work with so many of us, you know you also probably know that we struggle to balance the artistry of what we do with the demands of running a business. Like a lot of us just don't come to that naturally.

Speaker 3: 7:49

You, like me, are probably one of those people who, like you said, you like to kind of stretch yourself into that. I'm kind of the same way, like I definitely wouldn't consider myself, you know, super left brain, but I love, I love pieces of that for sure, you know, as a creative. But a lot of us aren't that way, and in my coaching business I work with a lot of photographers who are like they just kind of like go into a coma when they have to start looking at numbers, or even like are so triggered by looking at the numbers. A lot of them fall into it as not really an accident, but kind of right, because they love what they do and they're like oh, people want to pay me for this. Now what Right? So in your experience, in what you guys do, what are some of the biggest financial hurdles or even mistakes? Small creative business owners like photographers?

Speaker 1: 8:39

make. I definitely have some great suggestions that way. Do you want to also kick this off by just saying give yourself a little grace? We've all been at a point where we look at a profit and loss or balance sheet or whatever financial report you're looking at and kind of have the glazed expression. There's a reason our accountants are so good at what they do. They've gone through years of schooling and continually have to take credits to stay on top of what they do. So you know, if you're one of those people who looks at finances and then you just kind of want to tear your eyes out, that's okay, that's fine and it will come kind of with practice.

Speaker 1: 9:24

So some of the things that I'd say is just first know legally and financially kind of what you need to do to stay compliance. There's a lot of things that you can be thinking about. Oh man, I wish I had this great financial strategy and plan and all these things in place. There's a lot you can build off of from that. But first off, you just need to know the basics and what will get you in trouble. There's nothing worse than starting this amazing business and, a few years down the road, getting into some trouble. That really is painful or even forces you to close your business really is painful or even forces you to close your business. So I'd say, just first make sure you know those things in and out that you need to do to stay compliant with.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Whatever entity structure you have, whatever type of tax forms you're filing it's very individualized for each person. As long as you know those things and have those deadlines marked on your calendar, take a deep breath and then you can build the rest from there. And if you aren't sure what some of those things are, reach out for help. There's plenty of great resources. Our team would love to help talk you through some things. But as long as you have that, you can kind of take a deep breath and then start building from there, because there are quite a few things again you can do from that point.

Speaker 1: 10:49

And so once you've kind of covered yourself that way, then that's when I start saying, okay, now build it one step at a time. Look at where you are at some of the holes that you have and things you aren't good at, and start thinking about okay, what can I hand over to other people who I trust, or how can I grow and learn about these things. Try not to do it all at once. I mean, accounting is just one small piece of everything you have to do as a business owner, and I know what that's like. My husband is a business owner and going through that journey has been very insightful for us and very frustrating at times too. So again, kind of just see where you're at, look at your priorities and start one thing at a time, with finances specifically.

Speaker 1: 11:41

I'd say there's a lot of small business owners, especially in the creative industry, who leave a lot of money on the table, and we've created some guides to kind of help them know deductions, they can take ways they can maximize their savings, things that you're probably already doing that you just need to learn how to take advantage of. So once you kind of get to that point where you're a little more stable, you can look into those or again reach out for help, find someone who you trust, who knows this world, and they can help you really maximize those savings.

Speaker 3: 12:13

Yeah, that's kind of the big thing that I see is, like you know, so many photographers especially, but just I think any creative business owner has you don't know what, you don't know right.

Speaker 3: 12:24

And so that asking for help, first of all, like that's great advice too of like taking it step-by-step, because that is definitely something that I see all of us are guilty of at some point is those of us with I call them spicy brains, right, like you know the the having to do 500 things at the same time, whatever you can call it, a lot of different things. But a lot of creatives have that kind of brain where it's very, very active, and people with that kind of brain where it's very, very active, and people with that kind of brain tend to get overwhelmed by everything. Right, like that feeling of I have to do all of this right now, like I have to do everything from top to bottom, I have to figure it out in the next hour and a half or everything's going to fall apart, and that's not the case. Like it's really important to just slow down and be like, okay, what is the actual next right step here? Because it's just one little piece at a time, and then also that you know asking for help and realizing that you know none of us are really meant to be the end all be all of our business, like, yeah, most of us are solopreneurs and we kind of have to be, at least for a while, but it's I always tell this to my coaching students as soon as you can afford to outsource the things that you either aren't good at or don't want to do, or both, because usually that's both, you know what I mean Like the same category that is going to grow your business in ways that you can't really see right now because you're just in it too much and you can't think past that. Well, if I spend this much money a month on someone else helping me, then that's money I spent. Actually, it's money that you are growing your business. It's investing in your business in a big way. Obviously, you want to be smart about it, but I do think that that's a piece that a lot of people have a lot of resistance to, because they're so used to having to just wear all the hats and do all the things.

Speaker 3: 14:10

And you mentioned briefly. I want to kind of also mention for the listeners Vite has this awesome downloadable PDF that I'm going to link for you guys in the show notes. It's got a lot of stuff in it, but one of the things inside this PDF that I think is really helpful is the 16 deductions that every small business can claim. So while it's not specific to like a certain business, this is like stuff that if you guys are just starting out and you really don't know, this guide has so much useful information in it. So I definitely want to make sure that you guys grab that in the show notes and just go over that, and even if you've been in business for a minute, you still might be surprised by some of the things that are on that list.

Speaker 3: 14:50

So again, you don't know what you don't know. So just kind of take it that one step at a time, and we're not going to go into taxes per se in this episode, even though this is tax prep season for most of us. What I see happening a lot and I've been guilty of this too, don't get me wrong you get really busy, as we all do, and we also don't like the task of bookkeeping and keeping up. I see a lot of photographers and creative entrepreneurs just putting all of this off until the last minute, which is pretty common. So what advice would you give to us, to somebody who might be doing that until the last minute, right, which is probably most of us I'm sure you see a fair amount of that as well what is a piece of advice that you could kind of give to us to either maybe prevent that from happening or, okay, we're in that situation. Now what?

Speaker 1: 15:51

that from happening or okay, we're in that situation. Now, what Exactly? First off, I just say there are tax extensions for a reason. You're not alone. A lot of business owners are in the same boat and it is a lot. You have to get together in a short amount of time at the beginning of the year. There's a reason for tax extensions, you know, and there's a little safety net there too. If you're completely unprepared, go ahead and extend and take the time to do it right and make sure you're getting the deductions that you need.

Speaker 1: 16:16

But yeah, if you're currently in that position and really stressing about tax deadlines around the corner and bookkeeping and all of those things, I'd say kind of to your point, it is really great to offload some of that if you can.

Speaker 1: 16:31

There's a lot of solutions out there or sometimes there's also someone you know in your family, right, who can jump in and help out if you're really drowning. But other than that, it's kind of just comes to try and get an organized approach to it right. There's the different steps. You do have to do your bookkeeping first and I know that's kind of the most not exciting and not fun part of it too. Right, it can be kind of getting into the weeds and you feel like how is this making a difference? But it really can make a big difference in the end for how much you save. So make sure you're doing that first, to try and maximize all the deductions that you can, and then from there just you kind of have to get it done which is never fun, but there's a lot of great resources out there also for preventing things in the future.

Speaker 1: 17:26

I usually like to, for kind of our side, business and things, try and schedule some time every couple of months to check in about it, because it's so much better if it's not kind of January where I'm facing it all at once. It's just this huge task that feels like I can't be beat, and it also always is a busy time of year for some reason right.

Speaker 1: 17:50

And so break it up over the year as best you can. Here I'm giving this advice and then I'm kind of in the same boat where I fall in a little behind and have a lot that I have to get to. But that's when you kind of just have to know yourself. Some people work better with deadlines looming over you, some work better if you break it up over time. But again, reaching out for that help is just so crucial and I'd say too, don't let it take away from your love and your passion of your business.

Speaker 1: 18:25

I think I love that you said you tell people to outsource what they don't want to do as soon as they can, and I think that is crucial, especially within the creative industry. It's so easy to get bogged down or disheartened by all the things we have to do or look at the things that just feel like roadblocks in our way. I know, as a novelist trying to submit my work and getting all these rejection letters, you know sometimes you're like, okay, why do I even do this? Why what's the point? And I forget about how it truly makes me happy. And the point isn't to get other people's approval, it's to create something and do something I love.

Speaker 1: 19:06

And so I think if you're also in that mode where you're just feeling, you know, is this even worth it anymore? That's when you can take a step back and again offload what you can. If you're not in a place where so you stay out of trouble, It'll be okay. Maybe you lose out on a few savings and you can do better next year, but hey, it's your business and your passion that matters most, so make sure you're focusing on that.

Speaker 3: 19:41

Yeah, that's good advice. Yeah, there's big big things like the compliance issues, and there's smaller things, yeah, and so it's. It's, I think, important to prioritize, like, okay, I may not be killing it on all of those fronts right now and I'm not, like you know, looking at my profit and loss monthly or whatever it is, but you can always make a goal to get better. Right, it's always a choice to get better, as long as you are compliant with those big things. That's the stuff that I think a lot of people just get so scared about, and I think that when people are afraid of anything or overwhelmed by it, they tend to just want to run from it, because you literally go into fight or flight. Right, it's like our brain's response, and so what I'm always trying to do is just help people get to that neutral space. Right, you might not get to like the I mean, I know I'll probably never get to like the oh, I'm so excited to look at, you know, my bookkeeping right now. No, I probably will never be excited about it, but I can get neutral about it. I can be like all right, it is, it is what it is. Like, this is great, like that I, you know I'm able to kind of keep up with it and pat yourself on the back when you do stuff. You know that is moving you in the right direction and not beat up on yourself. Those are. Those are some things that I always try and impart as well to my audience here and my coaching students.

Speaker 3: 21:01

But I wanted to ask a little bit too, because you guys are different.

Speaker 3: 21:05

Like, I've spoken with a lot of different people in the financial industry, the accounting industry, that kind of thing, who work with creatives, but when you guys do an offer over there, it's a little bit different, because you kind of take a lot of the things that we hate to do off of our plate.

Speaker 3: 21:24

The actual bookkeeping is done for you and you guys do it in a way that is very accessible for people. It's a low monthly membership with no contracts, and so I'm fascinated by this. I really didn't even know that that was an option until I found you guys, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to tell people about what you guys do, because I know a lot of photographers and creatives look for this kind of service where they're like yeah, you know, like I have this service or I have that and it, you know, sucks in my bank account, but I still have to go through it and I still have to do all these things, and that's the part that they hate and that trips them up. So tell me a little bit about under the hood of what you guys do over there for creatives.

Speaker 1: 22:11

Yeah, definitely One of the biggest things. Like you said, we are not a do-it-yourself solution. We do it all for you, so that's automatically a huge load off your plate, but it is a partnership too right. There's certain things we can't know automatically. We wish we could just read your minds and do it all and file taxes and we're all good, but there's a lot of.

Speaker 1: 22:36

There is some input we'll need from you but that's also kind of some of the beauty of our service is we are flat subscription, no matter how much you use this. So if you are confused about how to read your books and you want to meet with us monthly to figure it out and learn more, or even several times a month and have lots of questions, great, that's all covered. If you're kind of at a point where you want to be more hands-off and check in a couple times a year to do some tax planning, we work with that too. So that's also some of the things that I love about how we've structured our business. We see ourselves as small business advocates, not just accountants, and that's something that I just love about the culture of our company. You truly feel it. A lot of the people who work here either have a small business or at one point started a small business that is either still running or might've failed for some reason, but they have some kind of passion for these small business owners and understand how difficult it can be, and so being a resource for others is just something we pride ourselves in and yeah, so kind of just giving you more of a look of how things are is everything.

Speaker 1: 23:46

Everyone has a dedicated bookkeeper and tax accountant. So you're talking to the same person, the person who understands your finances as well as possible. Also, we connect with most banks, so you don't have to upload bank statements and things like that. You connect your books and then we kind of take it from there. We reach out if we have questions or need help.

Speaker 1: 24:09

But the nice thing about that is, whenever I'm doing it all myself, I tend to let things go a little too long and then I'm like, oh yeah, I was supposed to do that and Q4, I was supposed to do this. So it's nice to also just kind of have someone who's prodding you to do the things. Maybe you don't absolutely want to do them, but right, they're just. They do most of it for you, but they're also there to prod you and keep you on track and be proactive and say, hey, we haven't talked a while about your tax strategy. Did you want to meet about that? How are you feeling going into the new year? So it's nice also just to have someone who's kind of looking out for you and knows you and your personality.

Speaker 1: 24:49

So that's another thing that we really strive to do and just make it work for you, cause again, yeah, every business is different and every person's different, and how much they want to be involved with this side of things is going to be different.

Speaker 3: 25:05

Yeah, I just I'm so fascinated by that because to have your own dedicated accountant and bookkeeper, you would assume that it would be just way more of an investment than what you guys have it as. And you guys can find all this information in the show notes, by the way. Like, definitely go check them out. Everything is on their website about, like, how they offer it and what they offer. But like I was really, really surprised how accessible it is for most creative entrepreneurs Like this is something that you can easily work into your costs of doing business.

Speaker 3: 25:36

Because the time that the time not just the actual time of doing those things of you know, doing the ledgers and all of that that's physical time in and of itself, but also the mental time, cause I don't know about you guys, but like I've got that anxiety brain so I can spend days like worrying and stressing about something that I am putting off or I don't want to do Right, and so like that mental load like that is a huge, huge thing to be able to take off your plate. So I mean it's not just like the physical time of getting it done. I think you're saving people a heck of a lot of stress as well. So I love that and you guys can definitely look below to kind of dig into that. But I just wanted to make sure we mentioned it because it is very different than a lot of the things that I've seen out there and I love that you guys have such a personal approach to it as well. Like you said, like you're there to help, you know kind of poke and prod a little bit when that's needed and when people you know need that accountability, it's very easy to just get off track just in general.

Speaker 3: 26:42

So I wanted to ask you a question too that is a little bit off topic, but kind of not really. I just love to get your input on this because I'm not in your world. I'm in a creative space but with all of the rapid advancements of AI, I'm interested to know what you see possibly coming in that world of accounting services and how it's evolving and maybe what you guys are looking at doing or anything that you've seen, just advancements in general. I'm very interested that world. I have a little bit of a techie interest, so I'm just wondering, like, what are you seeing there with AI and what you do?

Speaker 1: 27:24

Yeah, and I'd also say, you know, I'd kind of love to hear that side of things from your side. You know, as an artist in photography, how you see AI transforming the industry. I'd love to hear your response, kind of after I can go over accounting, I also have a lot of family who's been in photography. My sister's currently a photographer. My father was a videographer and photographer all throughout his life. So you know, it's it's a place I have special in my heart for photographers and artists out there and it's yeah, it's just changing everything. So, yeah, for the accounting worlds, it's hard for me to even think where we might be, because I even think about last year or even last week or last month and some of the goals that we were setting for ourselves that seemed like, oh, we'll reach this in five years. It seemed like suddenly, overnight, we could achieve it through AI, which is just mind blowing.

Speaker 1: 28:23

So definitely seeing that right now in the accounting and financial industry, there's some things that AI is doing really well. With other things not so much. Not surprisingly, taxes are still a little difficult for AI to fully do accurately, right, but a lot of the bookkeeping and other things like that. So that is something we very much invest in and part of the reason and we are able to keep our costs so low I mean, our highest tier plan is 250 bucks per month, and then we have more affordable options depending on where you are at in your business and part of that is because we can leverage technology and we have kind of our own special team that focuses on AI and how we can adapt it to our company. It seems like there's so many products out there and people willing to sell you their version of AI, but it's never quite right for your use case or what you're trying to do. So we've really customized things ourselves and kind of built it out to really work with our software and everything, but it's incredible speed and everything.

Speaker 1: 29:36

So, yeah, we're doing that a lot. I mean accounting. A lot of it is kind of data entry, categorizing things these manual processes that AI has just expedited. Incredibly, we found it doesn't eliminate the human touch, though you still need someone to go back over those books, who's familiar with the business, you know, and that's why we have still a dedicated bookkeeper for everyone, because, I mean, ai is great with so many things, but there's just some nuances too. So then special use cases, depending on each business, so we do use it to move things along a lot faster, but then definitely have that human touch of someone reviewing all those books and making sure it fits and then also just maximizes the time that they can spend one-on-one with our customers.

Speaker 1: 30:32

So that's what I love about it it doesn't take away the human element, it's just magnifying it.

Speaker 3: 30:37

So that's what I love about it. It doesn't take away the human element, it's just magnifying it. Oh, I love that. Yeah, and that's basically, I think, how it should be used, especially right now. It's definitely advanced at a crazy rapid rate. I mean, I signed up for Chai Chibi Tea the minute it was released because I was like, okay, I just want to know, I'm just one of those people I want to figure it out. Released because I was like, okay, I got to. I just want to know, like I'm just one of those people I want to, I want to figure it out, and just you know what you can do with it now. Just with that program in the last couple of years, has it's insane, it's crazy.

Speaker 3: 31:05

So, as far as, like photographers, you know there's definitely been a lot of, and you know my husband's an actor and a writer and so there's a lot in that world too.

Speaker 3: 31:17

Right, Like of you know, script writing, and how how much are we relying on AI and all of that stuff? It's, it's scary and fascinating at the same time. So it's been really interesting to see. You know, we have to, we have to continue to advance our awareness of it at least because it is not stopping. And so, like anytime anyone comes to me and they're like, well, I just don't, I don't use it, you know, and I don't understand it, or they have a pushback about it, that's kind of where I feel like you're, you're going to kind of miss the boat here, and I'm not saying you have to leverage it and get on board and be all excited about it, but you, but you should at least know about it and know what's going on, because you have to know how to mitigate it and how to stop it if you need to in your own business and whatever it might be right.

Speaker 3: 32:08

So at least just have the awareness. And there's a lot of photographers, yeah, like you said, who were initially very against it. I have embraced it a lot. I think that it has saved me so much time.

Speaker 3: 32:22

There's editing programs now that include AI but, like you said, there's still a personal touch. It's not like I'm handing everything over to the computer. It's assisting me. I'm using it like my assistant in many, many different facets, whether it's copywriting, blog writing, social media planning, editing. It can do a lot of those things that an assistant would do for me. But it's me. It's like I've trained it to be the best assistant ever, because it's basically me. And that is like there's so many.

Speaker 3: 32:59

How many times most of us have said like, oh, my God, I just wish I could clone myself. Well, you kind of can in a lot of ways now with ChatGPT or any of these other programs that a lot of us are using. So in that respect, I embrace it. I'm not fully, like, I'm cautiously excited about it. Let's put it that way, right, because I really feel like we need to be, we need to be cautious of it, we need to know what's kind of going on.

Speaker 3: 33:25

But, like you said, I think most of us are sort of using it in that way where it's like how can it make me better, how can it make me more efficient, how can I make my business feel more personal to my clients? Because most of what I teach what I do as a photographer and teach as a photographer is a high touch experience. You know more luxury based clients. We're charging more, basically, and shooting less clients, and the only way that you can really do that is if you are outsourcing, if you are giving away stuff that you don't like, like you're bookkeeping and or you know you are, you are using technology to help you progress. So that just means that we have more time with our clients. Like you said, with with you guys. It means that the actual bookkeepers have more personal time with their with their clients too, which I think is a good thing. So I love that that you guys are using it in that way.

Speaker 1: 34:21

Exactly and kind of to your point. It is a choice, right, what you give it and offload and some of the things I'm sure that people want to offload. Sometimes that personal communication does get to be a drag and I see a lot of companies offloading that to AI. But we've made a conscious decision that, hey, no, even though, yeah, sometimes it can be a lot to wade through it's important because you're giving people peace of mind. That's where you get to know their businesses in communicating with them. So you have to make the choice of what you hand over and you're still the one in control. I mean, yeah, there is a lot with them, so you have to make the choice of what you hand over and you're still the one in control. I mean, yeah, there is a lot with AI. It can be scary and thinking about how jobs might change and things, but again, if we kind of utilize it, then it also can maximize and who knows what kind of jobs will be there in the future.

Speaker 3: 35:24

Exactly, yeah, Fascinating, Okay. So before we wrap up, I want to ask you one question that I usually like to ask a lot of my get most of my guests, you know my show here is is we talk about the, the mixing of strategy and magic, or manifestation, or or anything having to do with that duality of the left brain, the right brain? However you want to package it? I like to think of myself as integrating both of those on the daily and as a creative yourself. I'm interested in finding out what sort of practices keep you in that place of groundedness or connectedness, or whatever you want to call it, because we all have different words for it. But what are some of the things that you do for your self-development as well?

Speaker 1: 36:07

Yeah, I think that's a great point and I think I've brought this up a little bit in telling other people about this. But I have to give myself grace a lot of the time and cut myself some slack because I want to be at that point of complete groundedness and balance and some days I achieve it, but those are probably the minority. Just because, like you said, my brain works the same way where I have so many things firing off at once, or there's a lot of things that I'm balancing my life between work and family and hobbies, and so I just kind of understand that, hey, every day doesn't need to look perfect and be completely balanced. It kind of balances itself out over time.

Speaker 1: 36:57

There's times when my job is a little more consuming and we have a lot going on, and then there's other times when I have a lot of difficulties or just time I need to be spending with my family and those kind of ebb and flow, and it tends to create a balance in the long run, and so I can't get too caught up in the day-to-day. Oh, here's all these things that I didn't get to, that I wanted to get to. I try and flip that and just look at okay, what did I accomplish today? What do I feel proud of? And still, what can I work on for the future?

Speaker 1: 37:32

But I look at finding the creativity where I am now. But I look at finding the creativity where I am now. Sometimes you have a little more freedom to really dive into yourself and create the things you want to. Other times there's more responsibilities on your plate. So I look at either time and I just think of okay, how is that still creative? Or what kind of magic did I see today, even though it wasn't what I expected, because most days are not what.

Speaker 1: 38:02

I am going to expect when I am right now in my career. It was not something I ever expected, and the unexpected is great too. It brings its own kind of magic that you have to look for and see. So I think if you're just at least deliberate in that, in being honest with yourself and real and saying here's where I'm at now, this is the magic I'm seeing, here's what I want to realize in the future. But it's okay, I'm not there yet I'll get there.

Speaker 3: 38:30

I love that. That's really, really important because I feel, like a lot of us well, I know a lot of us tend to crack the whip on ourselves the most, like we're our own worst enemy and our, you know, biggest motivator sometimes. But also we can be really hard on ourselves, like I didn't do it the right way, or like you said, I didn't do enough and there's no, there's no good in that, you know, at the end of the day, like giving yourself that grace is really important. Yeah, we want to hold ourselves accountable, but there's that line of okay, I'm not going to be good to anybody if I'm just beating myself up on the daily and telling myself that I didn't do enough.

Speaker 3: 39:12

Sometimes, like you said, the unexpected. One of the things I like to ask myself every morning is like I wonder what's going to show up today. I just wonder because you said the unexpected. One of the things I like to ask myself every morning is like I wonder what's going to show up today. Like I just wonder because you never know. And staying open to that is, I think, a really important skill for all of us, but especially with small business owners, because you really do never know, like even with what you're, you know, even as a CEO, I'm sure, like you said, things just pop up and you've got to deal with them in the moment. So it is what it is. You just got to kind of move through it.

Speaker 3: 39:42

So, yeah, thank you. That was very, very, very cool and I love everything that you guys are doing over there. I'm very excited to share all of this with my audience here and on social. I'll be talking about this on my social too, because anything that's going to take, like I said, the mental load off of us like this, I think, is going to have really big impact for a lot of small, creative businesses. So thank you for sharing all of that with us, and you guys can find all of that information in the show notes below, but would you like to go ahead and let us know as well? I know that you're over on LinkedIn, so I don't know. If there's a place where people want to connect with you, they can. How do you like to stay connected to people?

Speaker 1: 40:25

Yeah, linkedin is a great way. Feel free to reach out there. Also, reach out to me individually, danielle Wagner. My email is dwagneratvideio, so I always love hearing from people. So feel free and reach out to me and I just I really do appreciate this opportunity to talk with you today and, to you know, just have a have another moment to step out and kind of think through these things. So thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 3: 40:53

Sure, I'm super excited to meet you guys as well, like awesome company, so I will put all of that in the show notes as well, you guys and yeah, thank you so much, danielle. Thank you All right, so I hope that you guys got some good takeaways there. Please download that PDF. I'm telling you, the PDF that they have put together has so many useful tips and tricks and just things that you might not be thinking of, and it's not behind an email capture wall, it's a straight download. I'm going to link it to Dropbox down there so you can just grab it and download it to whatever device your computer, your phone, whatever. I suggest downloading it to your computer so you can reference it as you work through your books, and if you guys are interested in trying Vyde out, there's a link for you guys to do that as well. I'm happy to help promote their program because I really do think it is so awesome and it's going to save you so much time.

Speaker 3: 41:47

Honestly, if you hate doing your books or if you just like so many photographers that I talk to, you have the programs right, whether it's QuickBooks or something else that you're using. You might have your bank hooked up to it, but you still need to go through it and make sure that all those categories are correct. You got to do a P&L, you got to get prepped for taxes and you just don't do it because you don't like to do it. Trust me, I get it. I'm super there. I'm with you on this, but this makes it so much easier and it's really, really affordable. Like, honestly, the money that you spend on things like this comes back to you 20 times more because you're able to give your clients so much more of you and your family as well, right? So, like, I'm all about you having a life and things like this help you have a life, cause, let's be honest, nobody really loves doing this kind of stuff. So, and if you do, hey, more power to you.

Speaker 3: 42:42

I know a lot of photographers who are actually accountants. Like, I have so many people in my, my coaching programs who were accountants in their previous life and that's awesome, but that's rare. Most of us, it's not our thing. So check them out the link's below. If you guys have any questions about any of that. You also can email Danielle. That was super awesome of her to give us her email. I'm going to put that for you too, and, just as always, reach out to me with any questions and if you share about the show, please tag me so I can also repost it and connect with you on Instagram. I hope you guys are having an awesome week and I hope you continue to, and I'll see you next time. Love you, bye.