Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, success with Storyblocks, turning your creativity into a thriving business. My name is Casey Pettiford, and I'm a product marketing manager here at Storyblocks, and I will be your host for today's conversation. For those of you who aren't familiar with Storyblocks, Storyblocks is a stock media subscription service that helps creators and businesses make better video content faster than ever, offering unlimited access to a library of footage, audio, templates, and more. Today, I am thrilled to be joined with the incredibly talented Grace Wells. Grace started just like many of you, creating content from her home, experimenting, and learning as she went. Today, she has over three and a half million followers across social media, and she is creating high end commercial content from massive brands like Always, SoftSoap, Nivea, and Sony, all while still keeping the do it yourself spirit alive. She is also a true Storyblocks power user, and her journey from an individual creator to a full scale production powerhouse is the perfect case study for how tools like Storyblocks can empower creators as they scale. Grace, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited, and I've been a Storyblocks fan for many years now. So thrilled to be here. Love to hear it. Love to hear it. So we know that content creation has never been more accessible, but scaling that creativity, especially when working with major brands, comes with its own set of challenges. So today, we're gonna be talking about how both creators and businesses can level up their production quality, land major brand deals, and navigate the complexities of creating a thriving business, all without massive production budgets or teams. So, we're gonna go ahead and dive in. And as we do, please make sure to submit your questions to the Q and A tab at any time. Also, we will answer your questions after the presentation. And if you didn't know or you have to leave early, a recording of today's webinar will be shared afterwards if you'd like to go back and rewatch this content later on. So, Grace, before we dive into the tactical side of scaling a creative business, I wanted to take a step back and talk about how you got here. Your journey is one that many creators can relate to. You know, you start small and then you learn on the go. So I wanted to start from the very beginning. You picked up videography during the pandemic. I'm curious, what motivated you to start creating content? Yeah. So I I feel like the pandemic was an interesting moment for a lot of people who were sort of leaning into and discovering their creativity. At that time, I was in university and I was studying linguistics, and so I was on a very academic trajectory. But I sort of found myself in the months, like, prior to the pandemic, experimenting with, like, photography and experimenting with these sorts of, just like more creative outlets to to have another thing that wasn't school. But then when COVID hit, that sort of shifted to becoming one of my more primary focuses just because, I mean, for many reasons. One, the world operated very differently all of a sudden, and I wasn't going to class every day all of a sudden, and I had more spare time. And then also, just sort of because I didn't have the opportunity to go meet up with friends and go do things and go out, I had to come up with types of content and genres of content that I could make, that were more self sufficient in nature just by fact that I couldn't go interact with other people at that time. Right. Absolutely. Well and I appreciate that you talk about that shift and how important that was for you to find other outlets during an unprecedented time for, of course, the entire world in addition to your own community and in your own life. Now you've gone from making commercials for random objects in your bedroom to working with major brands. And I'm curious, at what point did you realize that, hey. This could actually be a real career. Yeah. So it was maybe, like, six or seven months after I started actually making content and posting it online. I had been posting these, as you say, these commercials for random objects, which is a series I was doing, very self explanatory. It's in the name. I was making these fifteen second spots for objects that I was finding around my house. And after doing that for a couple of months, I started to get inquiries from brands that sort of trickled in very slowly at the start. And I was sort of under the impression at that time that branded content inherently was never going to be as successful or perform as well as organic. But I did this one, collaboration, this partnership with Celsius, and it ended up performing extremely well. I think it got nine million views organically, in the first, like, week that it was posted. And that was a moment where I was like, oh, wow. People actually care about branded content too if you do it the right way. And I think we're actually gonna play that video just now so you can see, what that looked like. Yeah. I made an actual national commercial by myself. So TikTok is wild, and I still cannot believe this actually happened, but company called Celsius reached out to me because they had seen my TikTok videos, and they asked me to make a real commercial for them. Obviously, I said yes because that is incredibly exciting. But it was also super intimidating because this is, like, a really big brand, and I wanted this to look as professional as possible. So it was literally just, like, me, wooden skewers, screwdrivers, things I found around my house, doing as many special effects as possible to make this look very high production value. I'm really happy with the final result. I hope you guys like it too. Let me know what you think. Wow. That is awesome. And such a great example and a testament to what you were talking about in terms of the do it yourself approach, but still being able to create something that looks so real and so awesome and so professional and high quality as well. Now you've described your content as a high end production with a do it yourself approach. So I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about that, and specifically, how did you level up your production quality while you still kept costs down? Totally. Yeah. I think that there's there's different ways to sort of be efficient about your production, both from the sort of practical filming perspective and then also in the post production. So something that I do very often that you'll see even after many years of doing this is I'm constantly looking for creative solutions to, to create these special effects and to create these shots that I want to create. So I'm using, like, a fidget spinner to spin a product or a wooden skewer to suspend something in midair. Because I think that often we we, underestimate the value of just these these objects that we see in our daily lives to help, to help with these sort of practical effects that can be done in camera. And then on the post production side, which is really where Storyblocks comes into play for me, is sort of coming to that realization early on that I don't have to reinvent the wheel sometimes. There are some assets, some visual assets, both in terms of footage that can be used in my videos, but also video overlays and, graphics and things like that, where it makes the process a lot more fin efficient for me and a lot more streamlined for me if I don't have to create that stuff from scratch. And so being able to combine both the stuff that I film practically with the assets that I source on Storyblocks has been super helpful for me to, to keep costs down and to continue to produce this very high quality content. Absolutely. And I'm sure the audience would agree. Drop it in the chat if you are loving these examples that Grace is sharing about the quality, about the scrappiness. And also share some examples in the chat. How are you being scrappy with your own video production? What are some ways that you are keeping costs down? Are they similar to Grace's in what she shared, or are there other ways that you're finding that have also been helpful? So let us know in the chat. But I love that it's amazing to hear how you went from really making commercials for random objects in your bedroom to continuing to land major brand deals. But as many creators and businesses, I'm sure in the audience already know, turning content creation into a full time, especially scalable business can come with its own set of new challenges. So I wanna talk a little bit about the scaling and creative business and what that might entail. And my first question for you is, many of our attendees are creators and businesses that are looking to scale. What are the biggest challenges you would say you face when you begin getting brand sponsorships? I think I mean, there's a couple of different ones that come to mind. I think the first one is the sort of time management aspect of it all. I think that as a creative person, I sort of tend to lean into perfectionism, And I've had to learn over time where to draw that line between having pride in my work and producing the best work that I can, but also not driving myself crazy and sort of acknowledging that, like, ninety nine percent is often, like, negligibly different from the one hundred and one percent. So I think that there's that sort of learning curve that comes with time as to, as to, you know, what you need to be doing in order to be creating the best quality content possible, but also being able to do that in a sort of time efficient way. I also think when it comes to working with brands, something that I struggle with at the beginning was the recognition of the value of what I was doing and the value of my work. And and the and, sort of coming to terms with the fact that different brands have different ideas of what this kind of content is worth. So I think that becoming super clear on, you know, what my offer was and what my value was as a creator and what I was bringing to the table really helped over time to sort of advocate for myself with brands and to be able to educate brands as to, the the value of the content that I was creating. Absolutely. And I love that idea of of knowing your worth and knowing the value of what you create, especially when it turns out, like, the examples you just showed us, which, again, are very high quality and look like they should be commercial ready in in any moment. So I'm curious then, is there any other top advice that you would give for creators or brands in the audience who are looking to grow their content in full, into a full time career? Yeah. For creators who are looking to to grow content into a full time career, I think that, like, practically, I think that one of the easiest ways to do that is to try to come up with an offering that sort of is like a higher ticket item and and and and do fewer fewer projects that are higher ticket rather than stretching yourself super thin and working with lower budgets. I mean, that that's the ideal for most creators. And the sort of practical advice that I would give to get yourself to that point is to come up with ways that you can inject more value into the work that you're creating and therefore be charging more for it, in order to create a business model that's sustainable, frankly, over time. So, for example, one of the things that I can do in the kind of content that I create is that, okay. Well, I'm already creating this fifteen second ad and and putting all this time and energy into creating this fifteen second ad. What are some other things that we can do with that fifteen second spot? Maybe we can cut it down into a six second. Maybe we can do a vertical and a horizontal version, one for YouTube and one for TikTok. And so there's different sort of avenues that you can take where you can then break that piece of content down into different spots and for the for to have different usages or or different, aspect ratios or things like that. And now all of a sudden, you're really getting the most out of the the work that you're putting in, and you're able to, to kind of have again, not not stretch yourself too thin and do more with, with less, I guess. Yeah. And that quality over quantity is so important going back to what you said earlier around time management. Right? When you're starting to ramp up with brand sponsorships, working with larger brands, it's so important to know your value, but also be able to manage multiple projects. And you wanna make sure that they're the highest quality. And then to your point, you can get the most usage out of all of them. Now you mentioned YouTube. You mentioned TikTok. You mentioned other social media platforms. And I'm curious, how did you grow your audiences on various plat platforms? I mean, you have over three and a half million followers across social media. What can others learn about how to grow their reach and ultimately monetize those channels through brand partnerships? I think that the biggest factor in the success that I've had on social media is my willingness to sort of let people into the behind the scenes aspect of what it is that I do. I very firmly believe that if I were just posting that final glossy fifteen second piece of content, that not as many people would care about it. Because I really think that the humanity in the content that I create is seeing the, you know, the the the successes and the struggles of the content creation itself and the sort of problem solving that has to be applied as well when creating this kind of content. And I think that, you know, that that sort of sentiment can be extended to any kind of creator no matter what type of content that they're creating is always sort of bringing it down to boiling it down to why should people care about this. And often what that translates to is, people care because you're establishing a real human personal connection with them. So anything that you can do to sort of peel back the curtain and share both the rises and the falls and the successes and the failures and all of that good stuff, the good juicy stuff, I think that that really goes a long way. Absolutely. Now I'm curious if you share this sort of advice, in your product film school and Studio. I'd love to learn a little bit more about that. If you could tell the audience about that, and specifically, how you connect students of yours to brands that you already work with. Yeah. So I have I started this course, January of last year called product film school because I basically came to this point where I was having a bandwidth problem. I I'm only one person and, I had all these brands sort of knocking at my door asking me to create these spots for them. And I I have a couple of people in my network who create similar content, but they too were having the same issue where they're like, no. I have no room in my calendar. I'm literally booked out to the end of the year. Yeah. And so, if that was the sort of epiphany moment for me where I was just like, I should really be teaching other creators how to to make this kind of content, because it is it is very different from a lot of other types of content. It's not necessarily, intuitive even if you know how to use a camera to create these kinds of spots. So I started product film school, which is this twelve week course that I teach a couple times a year to teach others how to create this high quality commercial content. And then as an offshoot of that, I recently started a new program called studio, which is essentially, allowing graduates me me personally connecting graduates of the product film school program with those tangible clients that I'm talking about that are that are literally in my inbox, and having you know, just do doing that in a more concrete way, rather than just teaching the curriculum. So it's been a it's yeah. It's been a super exciting process to be able to sort of, pass the torch a little bit in a in a way. Absolutely. Well and I love, and I think this is another important takeaway from your advice is as you're continuing to grow and build, you're lifting others up with you. Right? You're empowering others. You're teaching others. You're giving them advice from lessons learned on your own journey. So I think that's very powerful and another great takeaway for the audience. Drop in the chat, what's your favorite piece of advice from Grace thus far? What's resonating with you the most? But I think that's also really important in addition to knowing your worth and your value as well as quality over quantity. Also making sure that as you're continuing to grow and scale, you're continuing to give back to other people as well and empowering them to become even better video creators and professionals as well. Now I wanna shift a little bit and talk about Storyblocks specifically because you started using Storyblocks early on, and then you upgraded to a business license when you started working with those bigger brands. And so I'm curious if you could just briefly share why that was an important move for you and your business. Yeah. Absolutely. So as you said, I've been using Storyblocks now basically since the beginning of this journey, because I tried a I tried a couple of different asset libraries and by far, I felt that the the content in store the Storyblocks library was just superior by a mile. And what's been really exciting over time and, you know, the sort of beautiful growing pains of business is that I found that as I've worked with larger clients, my content and the videos that I'm creating are being used or being requested to be used in more, traditional media spaces. So Wow. Like, on broadcast television and on CTV and OTT and, that, you know, like, Hulu or Peacock or places like that. Right? And so I now, you know, fortunately, find myself in a position where I require more robust licensing. And so that was really the catalyst that encouraged me to move into a business license with Storyblocks. But but, again, it's one of those things that it's become such a integral part of my workflow that I couldn't imagine not, you know, not doing that. So very easy decision for me. Definitely. And I'm curious if you could talk about what about the quality of Storyblocks' library specifically helped you in producing visuals? Because as you just mentioned, as you're continuing to grow, scale your business, you're gonna need higher production, higher quality visuals. How did Storyblocks help with that quality specifically? Totally. I think that, I do a lot of as I've as I've grown and as I've sort of developed my style of content, I've leaned more and more into doing these sort of, like, fun, special, and visual effects. And what I love about Storyblocks is that there's such a vast variety of, like, video over like, video overlays that I can use within my special effects that really help bring them to the next level. And, like, just take them from, like, a seven to an eleven. And I've found that it's really just the, I don't know, the variety and the and the there's something there's always the thing that I need. Somehow, I always find exactly what I need, which is, like, which is so amazing because I think that, one of the big disadvantages of of other subscription platforms is you you feel like it's a needle in a haystack. We were just, like, searching and searching and searching and you and you can't find what you're looking for. And so I think that Storyblocks not only are the assets themselves fantastic, but then also just the the variety and the the breadth of the library, has been really, really helpful for me. Absolutely. Build those special effects in particular. Love to hear that. And that's something we definitely strive for here at Storyblocks as well. The emphasis on quality over quantity, but continuing to provide great quality visuals for creators such as yourself who are continuing to scale and have different platforms that they're working on. So we've talked a little bit about how creators can scale their business, but I wanna actually flip the perspective for a moment. Many of the brands and agencies watching today are looking maybe to collaborate with creators, and not all of them know how to form successful partnerships. So I'm curious, Grace. I wanna hear your thoughts. First and foremost, what do you think the best brands often get right when they're working with creators? I think that the best brands are able to strike a balance between maintaining their brand voice and communicating their brand voice to the creator and letting the creator adopt their brand voice in a in a sense, but then also giving that flexibility and that freedom for their creator to bring their own perspective and their own fresh, take to that content, and and bringing in specifically their knowledge of the platform that that content is being used on. Because I think that part of a creator's skill set and expertise is this very deep understanding of the culture of social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram and YouTube, and more than the broad culture also what's going on at that particular moment in time and what the discourse is at that at that particular moment in time. And so I think that the best brand partnerships are a marriage of, the brand's POV and the brand's sort of pre established identity with the sort of current, current events of social. And so allowing the creator to blend those two together and not to, I don't know, not to ice out too much the the the social media voice, I think, is really important, and really, ultimately, what helps that content perform well, particularly organically. Definitely. And I love that you said there are insights into what's happening in the culture. Right? That creators have insights into on these social media platforms that larger brands or agencies may not always be aware of or in touch with. So I love that the creators are also able to provide that perspective in addition to the, partnership that they're bringing to the table. Now brands should see creators as strategic partners, not just content producers. And so I'm curious for those in the audience who are looking to collaborate with creators, what would be your top advice for them? Yeah. I think that it it really is just embracing embracing a little bit the the the silliness and the playfulness of the mediums that we're working with. I totally understand the the sort of preciousness that we hold on to the brand voice with. But I sort of like to think of social media as, like, the same brand voice, but with, like, a slightly different accent. Just, like, adding a little, like, you know, a little bit of flare to it. And so I think that Yeah. It's that sort of willingness to be a little playful and to be a little silly that really helps brands shine on social. And I think we've seen that time and time again with, like, specific brand accounts that have really taken off on, like, TikTok, for example. The Duolingo owl comes to mind immediately or or the Ryanair plane, because it's this willingness to be a little silly and to not take yourself too seriously. So I think that in addition to having that trust in the creator, it's also having that trust in your consumer to be able to play with you in that way and to and to, and to not, you know, and to not hold you accountable to a brand voice that you might use on your ecommerce or your or your website, for example. Absolutely. I love that idea of knowing your consumer, listening to them. And then also as you mentioned too, having the flexibility to still know who you are as a brand, but also being able to adapt that brand voice for the platform for the audiences that you're working on and speaking to. So that's a great piece of advice. And audience drop in the chat if that's resonating with you, because I think it's a really important takeaway for brands specifically and how they can work better with creators. So we are going to shift over into q and a. But before we do, I know we've covered a lot of ground today from growing as a creator to working with brands and scaling creative work, but we did wanna open it up to all of you. So if you're loving our content so far, make sure to stay tuned for our next webinar, which I wanted to give a brief preview of today, Edit with Me, which is a Premiere Gal live tutorial on June twenty fifth at twelve o'clock PM Eastern Standard Time. Can also visit story blocks dot com slash resources for even more on demand webinars, tutorials, and posts on video marketing, content creation, social media, and more. So with that, we are going to shift over to q and a. And if you haven't already, please make sure to go ahead and drop your questions into the chat. So, Grace, our first question is, what are the best ways to advocate for yourself when working with a higher level brand? I think that the most important thing is to sort of educate the brand on what what the true reach of the content is and the sort of impact of the community that you've been able to build and the audience that you've been able to cultivate. I think that, we're see we're at a really unique point in time where social media, although it may seem still like this sort of ancillary place to advertise or this sort of, like, cherry on top to advertise, and we see traditional media like broadcast television as being the bread and butter. In many instances, we're seeing that the analytics and the numbers support that way more people are seeing content on social than they are seeing it on TV. And the amount of impressions that a Super Bowl commercial gets, you could you could, in theory, get the same number of impressions with a very well performing post on social. And so I think that we have to sort of just reframe. And as a creator, it's important to sort of educate and help brands reframe where they see, their dollar going and being used most efficiently. And so I think that a big part of that piece is just sort of pointing out to brands the sort of nitty gritty of the numbers of, hey, I'm able to engage this amount of people, and I'm able to start these kinds of conversations and have these kinds of conversations with my audience in ways that, a a TV spot doesn't necessarily activate. So I think that that's kind of an interesting way in and something that a lot of brands still, aren't necessarily fully bought into yet. Yeah. And you bring up a great point about traditional advertising. TV is not what it was five years ago, ten years ago, even fifteen years ago. And YouTube, specifically, I think I was reading the other day, it is competing for traditional television spots. Right? It is competing with these streaming services. People are going to YouTube to actually watch TV, instead of traditional cable channels. So I think that's a great point that you make in terms of thinking creatively about how the landscape is changing and continuing to adapt and be flexible knowing, that as both a creator as well as a brand. So our next question is, how did you overcome fear and shyness in front of the camera while also being authentic? Oh, that's a great question. It is a great question. With difficulty, I can't be I can't lie. I think that at the beginning, I sort of had to hype myself up and just and just sort of remind myself that at the end of the day, this is all very unserious. And it's it's okay to, you know, be a little cringe in the pursuit of your your passions and of your dreams. I also think that over time, it it does become a little bit more second nature and feel a little bit more natural. And I often feel that whether it be being on camera or some other thing that you find intimidating or uncomfortable, If you don't push yourself to do it, and if you don't allow yourself to step outside of your comfort zone, you're never fully going to be able to find find the growth that you seek. And so, yeah, I think that so much of it is just jumping off the deep end and saying, okay. I'm gonna try this out. I'm gonna see how it goes, and it might be really scary. But it might also lead to something really, really cool. And, and, yeah, just just not taking it not taking it too seriously if you can. Absolutely. Well, practice, practice, of course. But to that person that asked that question as well, I think it was Hannah, also, you know, take a chance on yourself. Everything that you've said today, Grace, you took a chance on yourself to continue to build your business and continue to work with these brands. And so, just believing yourself is also a part of it and being able to go out there and push yourself outside of your comfort zone as well. And allow yourself to evolve as well because I think that a big sentiment amongst creators is, you know, they look back at their first video and they're like, oh my gosh. Like, I hate this. Like like, I sound so weird. Like, why does my voice sound like that? Whatever. Right? You know, whatever it may be. And so but I do think that at the same time, there's this sort of pressure on social media where if something performs well or does well, we wanna just keep replicating it. And so I think you have to sort of find that balance where you're allowing yourself to lean into things that are working, but then also not getting stuck in those things where you feel like you can't change and grow and evolve over time, because that's that's just the natural that's how that's how it goes. We we that's just how we naturally, perform as creatives, I think. Absolutely. That's a great piece of advice. So the next question is, how do you know what to charge brands for your time and the value that you bring to them? This has changed over time as I've become more aware of the industry and and and kind of been able to gauge more of what the market value is for content. I think that an interesting part of the way that this question was phrased is charging brands for your time. Mhmm. That's something that I think is important to actually not really think too much about as you're approaching pricing for this kind of content. Because I think that coming from other backgrounds, like, coming from like, I used to be a waitress, and I worked at a at a pharmacy, and I was getting paid an hourly wage. And so my concept of value was always time based. And so when I first started pricing things when I first started pricing videos, I was very much thinking about it as, okay. Well, I used to make, you know, fifteen dollars an hour at this at this minimum wage job or whatever. So I'm gonna charge thirty dollars an hour, and it's gonna take me this long, and that's how I'm gonna arrive at my price. But if the brand is then using that piece of content and generating tens of thousands of dollars worth of revenue in sales, now all of a sudden, that doesn't feel necessarily like you're being adequately compensated for the work that you've done. And so I think that that's the first step is being able to reframe in your mind what value means and not approaching it from a sense of how much time am I spending on this. That's obviously a little bit a part of it, but it's not really a a formula in that way. It's more about, where is this brand going to be using this content? How long is the content? For how long were they will they be running the content? Are they gonna be using it globally or domestically? More questions like that that have to do with, the value of the content to the brand rather than the value of your time to yourself, if that makes sense. Love that. Yeah. To your point, it's about the longevity of the piece as well. Right? Going back to what you said around the usages, they might cut it down or you might choose to cut it down. So thinking in the long term, not only how is this content going to be used in the present just for this particular project, but also continually repurposed over and over again, to make it evergreen. So that's also a great point too. Now someone asked, have you noticed any social content trends influencing traditional commercial media? I'm curious if you have any of those. Yes. Oh my gosh. Absolutely. I mean, I think that for to just one of the most obvious ones that comes to mind is I have been seeing, vertical video being used on in traditional media spaces. I've literally seen vertical commercials on my television. Yeah. And that has been insane to witness, and a little jarring still. Like, I'm still a little like, oh, are we doing this? But but it's but it's happening. I also think that even just some of the like, not to get into too much into, like, the nitty gritty of of things, but, just some of, like, the perspectives and camera angles. I feel like I see a lot of, like, POV shots and things like that where you can see the sort of direct inspiration from, from methods of shooting social style content influencing the way that, com like, more traditional commercial directors are treating more traditional commercials. Yeah. So, yes, I definitely think that we're seeing a lot more crossover than ever before where the two sort of, again, like, spaces that we see as being distinct are becoming more and more I don't know. They're becoming more entrenched in each other over time where they're not sort of crossing into each other. Yeah. Definitely. That is a great point on vertical video. And audience, drop in the chat if you haven't already. What are some examples of some commercials that you love or things that are inspiring you from social media? I definitely think vertical video is one of them that I'm seeing in a lot more commercials, whether it's food or furniture, it's it's all over the place for sure. So someone asked, I think it's Kirsten. She said, thinking back to when you start scaling this to a professional level, is there anything you would have done differently? And do you and do you still produce these alone, or do you have a team now? So, I mean, one thing that I think for me in particular, when I was scaling and something that I had to sort of learn over time, was like, going back to the question of, like, sort of pitching and and and, proposals and pricing and things like that, treating the treating projects as sort of of an entity, and not trying to itemize too much everything that's being that's being put into a project. What I mean by that is, I kind of found that brands would get a little spooked when I said things like, okay, I'm gonna charge you this much, but then the production budget's gonna be this much, and I'm gonna charge you for props, and I'm gonna charge you for this, and I'm gonna charge you for that. And it could get a little convoluted and, sort of scare the brand away because they're like, okay, how much are we spending on this? And so I think that sort of going into a pitch and going into, a partnership, having a clear idea in your mind of, what exactly the scope of work is and what the deliverables are. And, obviously, you can negotiate this and and you can this can be, discussed with the brand, but you having your sort of ideal scenario of what this project looks like, rather than it becoming this very piecemeal conversation that happens. It's like, okay, we're gonna have this this asset, and then it's gonna be this much, and this asset is gonna be this much, and then we're gonna have this this much for production. I think that sometimes helping to streamline the conversation with the brand, that that was something that I had to learn sort of the hard way to keep things simpler. Second part of the question, which was, yeah. Are you still doing it on your own or do you have a team? Yeah. So as of January, I was completely a one woman show. I now recently hired one assistant who does help me, particularly with, like, sourcing and things like that. Because I think that's a big part of the process that people, don't necessarily know how time consuming it can be. Not just the the building of the sets and the filming of the content and the editing of the content, but then also looking on online and finding the exact ice cream scooper that you're gonna use or the exact color backdrop that you're gonna use, things like that. So, yes, I do have support a little bit now in the in that sort of particularly in that set building and and preproduction realm. But it's it was really nice to have so much time building my business alone because I think I've I've obviously become incredibly familiar with all the different aspects of production and many different aspects of entrepreneurship as well. And so now I feel like I have a really great grasp on if I were to hire more people, I have a really great grasp on what their roles are and an understanding of what their roles would be. Absolutely. And I'm curious as a my own follow-up question. At what point did you know you needed to or wanted to bring on an additional person? Because as you mentioned, you've been scaling this yourself. At At what point did you say, I I think I wanna bring someone else on? That's a great question. I think that, for me, I had built, like, in the last couple years, I had built this business that was thriving and very sustainable, and was giving me everything that I needed from a financial perspective. Yep. But I found myself really craving more, more flexibility in my schedule because I think that, obviously, creators, we have a lot of flexibility in our schedules. But with the kind of production that I do, there is a little bit more rigidity to it because it's like, okay, I do have to be in the studio on certain days and I and I have this deadline for for this commercial and this client. And so for me, bringing someone on was really more of a way to sort of, allow myself to, oh, I I wanna take a walk in the park in the middle of the day. Or, oh, I wanna go do this or I wanna go do that. And now I have support where I can have a little bit more flexibility of time and a little bit more, yeah, freedom that way in addition to the sort of financial freedom that I had built previously. Yeah. I love that. And it sounds like it's also a lot of finding balance, right, and maintaining that balance too, which is so important as an entrepreneur, which you said comes with its own sets of challenges, but also being able to have that flexibility to still think creatively, but also strategically about your business. I'm curious, audience, if you could put it in the chat. Where are you at in your stage of scaling your creative business? Are you still in the ideation phase? Are you where Grace is at, looking to hire someone or having already hired someone? Be very curious to see what other folks are doing in their own work. So someone asked Ken. He said, how do you balance fun and silly content regarding serious topics, oh, such as, for example, medical treatment or legal services? I mean, to be very honest with you, I I sort of reserve any sort of, like, more serious topics of conversation for the discussions that I have in my product film school course. Like like, if if if we're gonna be talking about finance and legal and things like that, which, of course, I'm not a lawyer or an accountant or anything, those things. But those sort of more, like, I would say logistical and, granular aspects of what I do. I usually reserve those for the course just because, to be honest, I don't think that they're as, as, I don't know, broad of a topic that would necessarily be someone would be interested in that follows me. Because I think that what's interesting about the platform that I've built is that I'm not only followed by fellow videographers and fellow content creators, but also just by people who are entertained by the content. And I've managed to sort of strike a hybrid between the two of people who care about videography and also a lot of people who don't and they just think it's cool. And so I usually don't delve too deeply into some of the more quote unquote serious topics on my short form social just because I feel that that the the content that works and lives best there for me based on what I do is this sort of grabbier, like, behind the scenes content and just sort of, like, the more lighthearted aspects of what I do. But I do think that that might not be the case for everyone because a lot of other creators lean more heavily on, their personal lives as sort of, like, a narrative element of their content, whereas, like, that's not really something that I focus on in in my content. Where my content is very much just all about what I make as opposed to, you know, where my friends went for dinner last night or or something like that. Definitely. Definitely. Well, this has been such a valuable conversation. Thank you so much, Grace, once again for sharing your insights. And for those of you who are looking to take your creative business to the next level, whether you're a solo creator or you're working with brands, Storyblocks is here to support you every step of the way. If you're ready to scale, check out our business license for more flexibility just like Grace did. And, again, make sure to stay tuned for our next webinar with Premiere Gal on June twenty fifth. Thank you so much once again, everyone, and thank you again, Grace. Thanks, Casey. See you, everyone.
