Starting a Creative Business: Real Talk w/ Chris Franklin

and on the phone this man says you know Chris I didn't really have faith in you going into design or doing anything with the art degree or anything like that but at the end of the day man I'm proud of you when I tell you I broke down crying driving from a Target I couldn't tell him I couldn't even express the way I felt because it was so new because I fought it for years and I finally have that affirmation and that reassurance really solidified the fact that this is the area of life that I want to be in it's now just this there is no other options there is no fallback plans I do this and I figure out how to do it the absolute best I can because this is my choice this is the only choice I have right now okay so Chris uh for the full disclosure and everybody that's listening to this podcast I know Chris Franklin in real life and I've met him and we've hung out in New York and we've hung out in La he's a genuine dude and the reason why I invited him on today's podcast is that he works in the video production space and he's been sharing the progress he's making and it's astounding you've been growing by Leaps and Bounds so if you're in the video production space if you are thinking about hiring someone on either side of the fence I think this episode is going to be one that you're going to want to stick around for so Chris for people who don't know who you are can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit of a story my name is Chris Franklin I run a video production agency here in south Mississippi I am kind of a born and raised south Mississippi Boy I kind of got into cameras by wanting to do photos and making these quirky YouTube YouTube videos they're terrible but somehow it developed into me doing senior portraits and somehow it developed into me doing weddings and ultimately I was like hey I can actually nail down the video production side of thing and go like Focus up in that one area and actually find a lot of passion in that one spot so I found myself doing the production side of video and hopefully doing it well enough to try to scale and grow and honestly it's still a bit surreal still a bit of adjustment that needs to be had but um yeah kind of out here living life In the Heat of Mississippi okay a couple different things did you go to college did you and what did you study or did you go straight into like trying to figure out how to be an artist going through high school I did Photoshop a lot I ended up being the staff the head Branch staff whatever it is in the yearbook then I went to pursue what I thought was my goal in life was I went to college with a degree in biological sciences and a minor in chemistry that was my starting college career completely medical field I wanted to be a neurosurgeon I love to figure out how things work and how to solve people's problems and the underlying theme of that was keeping the how to solve people's problems it didn't matter what I did that was what I actually enjoyed so I found out that I hated biology and I switched to graphic design graphic design was way better it felt it fit me so much more because in heart I've always kind of been an artist that's kind of I was the kid who drew in class and I tried to fight that urge by going to school for the money you know getting myself in a ton of debt and trying to climb out of it but I quickly realized that if there is no passion there is no Chris and I study graphic design graduated and did not use my major because I quickly shifted to video but truthfully graphic design still pops up here and there helps me understand the concepts the concepts in working with agencies I actually am still a designer by in like in heart so I know how to help them out when it comes to combining graphics with video that is a pretty hard pivot we've heard some pivots in our in our guests before but that is a really hard pivot so here here's the thing that you brought up earlier which I want to talk about for for a minute because you and I are not that dissimilar in that we knew that there's this creative person inside of us but external forces and stories told us that that's a path to poverty and a life of suffering and so we're not stupid we we want to use some of our self-preservation instincts so that we don't wind up panhandling for money and so we repress this creative desire and this urge I'm curious in the the world in the in the place and space that you grew up were their role models for you to to look at and to know like yeah I could be a designer because what ultimately was the trigger for you to to go into bio biological science versus design so growing up I watched my dad work three jobs he is the hardest working person I know uh he's finally retired as of like this year but every week every day even on Sundays he was working to become a provider and so I saw that and I was like I want to do something that can support my family that way money is never the issue what is the most expensive what is the highest paying job I can do and it was like you can be a neurosurgeon I was like oh yeah I can I can grind out 15 years of my life to become a neurosurgeon so let's let's do that but on the side from that I was always drawing I was always playing with photos or playing with video as my quote-unquote hobby or passion and there wasn't anybody in my family my brother worked with cameras like as I was growing up he was the Catalyst that helped me get my hands on a physical camera my God Mom actually funded she gave me like 400 bucks to actually buy my first camera there were other people who around me were pushing me to kind of achieve goals but the big obstacle for me was my dad and my dad had fallen in love with the fact that his son was going to school to be a neurosurgeon and he loved that and I I loved seeking his approval because I considered him a good role model somebody who works hard somebody who does what it takes to get things done and for a while I fought it I fought the passion to go towards art and I stayed in in medicine and things like that but when I graduated high school I moved out I went to college I realized that this technically is the only life I have this is it and I have to make my own decisions so one day I called my dad and I say hey I'm switching Majors he's like oh okay you know he's thinking I'm still you know neurosurgeon is the moon if I switch you know maybe it's a heart surgeon or maybe and I was like I'm gonna go to graphic design and he's like what is that and so as a 18 19 year old college student trying to tell your father that you're going to be an art student doesn't work out too well so for years he questioned me and he said what are you gonna do with this with this design degree and I was like pops I'm probably gonna hopefully become a creative director for a company you know that is one of the highest paying jobs in their field and he was like but are you actually like gonna use it and we would get into these bickerments back and forth my dad is he's military he's cop he's like yes sir no sir one day we gotten too like it wasn't even an argument he was just down he was putting down on the stuff I was enjoying doing and it it it struck a little nerve and I I told him I was like I don't ever want to speak about this again just just give me time to figure it out we can go from there and Chris I told this story because I don't think I've ever like told the story publicly but one day a couple years down the line the entire time like gotta prove pops wrong it went from trying to be like my dad to I now have to prove my dad wrong I now have to figure it out and do it on my own and I told him one day I called him I was in Target I just left a meeting and I told him I was like hey Pops and it wasn't even it was just updating him because I had gotten to the habit of updating I was doing senior portraits for 150 bucks 200 and one day I called him and I said hey Pops I just booked a wedding for five thousand dollars and I was like and I'm actually very excited to do it and on the phone this man says you know Chris I didn't really have faith in you going into design or doing anything with the art degree or anything like that but at the end of the day man I'm proud of you when I tell you I broke down crying driving from a Target I couldn't tell him I couldn't even express the way I felt because it was so new because I fought it for years and I finally have that affirmation and that reassurance really solidified the fact that this is the area of life that I want to be in now how can I Niche down and figure out what do I want to do with this area of my life so that's kind of a long-winded way of saying that's how I got into video no I I wouldn't characterize that as long-winded I thought that was a beautiful story Chris thanks for sharing that there's a couple of questions I need to follow up with because I think you are going to go there and then you skip right over it your dad says I'm proud of you and for someone who's never had a a role model a father figure um say that to them before in that way and and completely accept you for what it is that you're going to do with everything to you because in the story and I may have not I'm maybe interpreting here but it sounds like you got nothing but love for your dad and to see the man bust his hump uh three different jobs providing for the family uh your main Drive in the world was to do something so that you could retire your father and then when you found that this is the thing you want to do it probably hurt you twice as much and that you probably still have that dream to provide for your family but your dad wasn't accepting of it so when he said that did it I think you were indicating this that it opened a Floodgate of emotions for you so I want you to not skip that part so are you on the road and you're talking to them or are you in the parking lot and you're like I gotta go so tell me this and don't skip any detail absolutely absolutely so I get in my car from Target and that's when I tell them and I start driving and I'm kind of explaining it too and I'm on I'm on speakerphone with him and he gives me this feel and he says he finally says I'm proud of you and for me it definitely opened up a lot emotionally because it gave me something I didn't consciously know I wanted and it gave me a little bit of fuel in my life and so I got on the phone with my dad and I utter off the words thanks pops and I say you know what it's getting late I I kind of need to hop off I'm I'll let you know when I make it home safe because I couldn't I couldn't speak because I hadn't cried in so long you know as I've always been told to suppress those emotions and keep those things down but that actually that moment changed a lot in my life in general that moment was a reflective point because the things I do now like I talk on my dad more I appreciate his existence in my life every single day I try to call him and check up on him because I can be more vulnerable with him now now that the the great wall is like fallen and I do stuff that gets me more emotionally emotionally vulnerable more often like I go to movies alone sometimes emotional movies just so I can sit and cry sit and let out a little bit of stuff that I keep held in because for so long it was unhealthy that I kept it all in and to be an artist and to do creative things we have to let that emotion and stuff out and I know going through Art School you can't become emotionally attached to the work that you create because you are there to solve a problem for a theoretical client that's how our desires are structured so I saw a lot of my classmates get critiqued breakdown crying and for me I just felt nothing a lot of the times because I was creating work that I was passionate about but I couldn't get attached to it and I remember after that conversation and I felt a wave of passion for the things I was doing I worked so hard on a project and a logo on a design and my teacher to be Devil's Advocate great design he intentionally told me to scrap it and do something completely different even though up to that point he had agreed with me on the design and we've talked through it but he wanted to challenge me and I told him no he gave me the critique and I said if this is your way of you know trying to make me do something that I don't want to I'm not gonna do it and in his eyes which is this weird roundabout thing I I had defended and I had created enough of a foundation to be like hey I am I am the one creating the solution for you what you are suggesting is not going to be an effective solution for the problem we're trying to solve and he was borderline testing me on that and I remember I was like I've never felt like this about the stuff that I create why am I just why am I emotionally charged now why am I feeling stuff and it was because I was really putting my heart and soul into it now and it was something I hadn't been able to fully do because I was self-conscious about what is my dad going to think at the end of this does this even have my family's approval but now that I had that approval I was able to fight for my creative life a little bit more and yeah overall it kind of made me more of a well-rounded creative individual because it's now just this there is no other options there is no fallback plans I do this and I figure out how to do it the absolute best I can because this is my choice this is the only choice I have right now so I I'm glad you told that story following the other one because I had to assume that you booked the wedding gig after you got out of school but you booked it before and you got your dad's blessings while still in school right yeah so that's exactly right this is a powerful moment I want to just spend a minute here that uh there's a kind of a monkey on your back this I need my my dad to say it's okay I know I'm gonna be okay but I need this person that I care about his opinion to give me that approval and this gift that he gives you in the words I'm I'm proud of you it changes you quite literally it changes you and and then there's this now this Clarity this confidence and like I don't have to second guess myself anymore so whatever the intentions of the teacher were whether it was a test or whatever it it re it revealed that you're a different person at that moment that's some Pro that's really powerful stuff Chris I appreciate it it's it's kind of something I've been trying to find the lessons in life every chance I can and you know not taking anything for granted because I consider myself to be in a very very like blessed position every day I wake up I'm like I gotta be in the top one percent right like there's no there's no way you're happier than me right like I still have I still have a way to go grow and I love that there's still room for growth but I'm like man it is so much to be grateful about because I I'm doing the stuff I want to do yeah so I I want to just see if I can connect a theme here in that you had said I'm Gonna Go My Own Way and as a Young Man quite literally a young man because you just exited out of your teenage years into full-blown adulthood that you stood up to an idea and you stood up for yourself but you didn't get any confirmation that that was okay and then the minute that your dad said it was okay that person was now confident to challenge anybody else to say like I know what I'm doing if I can get my old man to say it's cool go forward and pursue what your heart tells you to do then who is a stranger who is my quote unquote teacher who is he to be nothing relative to the man that raised me right powerful stuff guys and another thing that you said which I think if you can't hear it in this listen a little bit more carefully to this man's voice there's a Radiance a happiness that emanates from in when he says I have to be the happiest person I have to be in that one percent because that's how I feel and then what happens is the outside manifests to match the inside you know and I really believe this because some some people are rotten to the core and they wonder why so many bad things happen to them because they don't have that optimism they don't have that Outlook they don't have uh that abundance mindset they're limited by so many things they never take responsibility they're always blaming a society their culture or their parents their upbringing the city in which they live in they blame so much that they're always stuck in this negative spiral but I I almost feel from you that you're just waiting for all the external markers to line up with how you already feel inside and a person like that to me is just unbeatable it definitely reflects on what I try to do and who I try to be is trying to spread that overwhelmingly overwhelming positivity because it wasn't always there for me and I wanted to be there for other people as much as possible yeah I want to move the story along a little bit here so you're getting work and this is pretty remarkable because most people go to school because they want to acquire the skills to be able to get work and here you are already getting work while you're in school what does this do for your confidence getting work while in school is a double-edged sword because sometimes it makes you sit there and think what am I doing here so drop out for 10 drop out potential for me was escalating every single day but I told myself I would finish and when I realized I wouldn't be a designer uh probably my third year out of four but I told myself I would finish and so I didn't want to to quote unquote abandon the progress that I had made but I figured it had to help in the long run so it was a double-edged sword because it gave me the confidence to not care as much about class even though I've always been a good student you know I was always been a straight A student and I did what was necessary to get the work done a lot of times clients who were paying me actively paying me took priority over some of my schoolwork and sometimes school work would suffer and a lot of times I would I'd miss class or something because I was off in some specific part of the nation filming or doing something I remember what helped me fuel it my senior year was somebody made the comment I don't know why he's off missing class filming he's not going to get a job in that area and I came back and a friend of mine told me that I was like oh yeah no this is this this now has to work it was hard because I was like how are there so many people who are like non-believers of the stuff that you put forward and because I do my best to support everybody and all the things they do no matter how irrational sometimes they may be you know it happens but this was just adding fuel to the fire that I may use graphic design and I may use my degree but it will be in support of the thing I'm ultimately most passionate about and that was working with cameras and it just kind of it worked out that way being able to make 5 000 bucks when you're a junior in school that's a big deal did you walk a little differently did you stand up a little straighter because you kind of know something other people don't truthfully Chris no perspective I made that five thousand dollars but at the time I was building credit card debt I had at that time I had about 14 000 in credit card debt I actually ended College what about 22 000 in credit card debt and so getting a fire getting a five thousand dollar Band-Aid was nothing for me to really celebrate because I had dug myself in a hole so I like so deep that I was just trying to fight for it to get out and I was able to give classmates a little bit more experience with selling and real world clients to a degree um and a little bit more business processing but personally I'm glad that I got all of the stupidity and all of the uh lack of knowledge out of the way first because when I graduated college it was immediately diving into the big boy world like the advice I got from Tad Carpenter who was a designer in Kansas City um Tad told me he said guys don't start an agency or don't go to work like right after you graduate that Monday after you graduate he was like take a week or two and enjoy the freedom that you have and I did not listen that Monday graduation was Friday that Monday I was working on the creative agency that we had started we had investors and I was doing my best to put my best foot forward and it was hard it was definitely hard because what I had dealt with were young people people who were getting married people who were graduating but now we were dealing with people who do millions in Revenue who are demanding a logo on a website and they've paid you what you consider to be a large sum of money when in actuality is exceptionally small and they have they now have power over you and they have your phone number so they call you and I'm like this is this is not what I expected and I kind of wish I'd taken a breath before and I kind of wish I had studied more and I was kind of ultimately what led us and myself to you you brought the experience and the knowledge that my college didn't prep me for and they teach you how to be a designer and they teach you how to be a worker no matter teaches you how to be the creative director because they imagine that you'll just gain that good experience and I didn't have the experience and I was the creative director and so it was a weird it was a weird case keeping it real you when you say you're like twenty thousand dollars in credit card debt is that for gear is that for school well how did you get so deep into debt that's funny I had thirty thousand dollars in student loans that I didn't have to have and twenty two thousand dollar credit card debt and a lot of nothing to show forward because I was taking out loans to pay for camera gear but why was I spending my credit cards on so I would buy a lot of food I would do travel I would pay for tickets to Los Angeles and stay and it'd be 800 bucks and I'd put it on my credit card and I try to pay it down per month but I was double dipping double dipping is when I would buy my friend a 1500 skateboard with my credit card he would hand me fifteen hundred dollars in cash and I would put 200 to my credit card and I'm like oh I got an extra 1300 bucks and that is that is so stupid and I didn't have much to show for it I bought a little bit of camera gear um it helped me get the lens that I needed to stand out from the competition of Hattiesburg um because I was the guy who had the 1800 lens that nobody else could afford and I had the 2500 camera I actually worked at Best Buy to help fund my camera gear because Best Buy would give you like this insane discount on these really really expensive cameras and so I was putting in side time with Best Buy going to school to be a designer all to just fund and do more camera stuff so I didn't have much to show for it but a great learning experience and a great mindset for money management came out of it and so if I'm understanding the situation correctly you you spent the money foolishly to do a couple of like young person things right yeah so had you used more of it to invest in your personal development or the equipment that you needed to build a business you might have been a little bit better off just coming out of the gate right yeah if I had if I had a 22 000 head start on my business oh man I I could have done I could have done so much more but instead I was I was young an experience I didn't know what to put it towards it's okay it's better to learn that lesson early on while the amount of damage you could do financially is finite as opposed to like in your 30s and 40s when you could do a lot more damage and spend money on foolish things the toys just get bigger the habits don't change right that's true yeah that's absolutely true okay so the the next part which I want to explore with you has a lot to do with our mutual friend MO Ismael who you met and then started a business with and then ultimately you guys decided to separate ways I don't want to get into dirty laundry or anything like that but I do want to talk a little bit uh about your emotional state when when one of your best buds and you ultimately split up in a business because I went through a similar thing with the school and informing the future take me back there when when when you guys decide we're going to go different directions give me the raw unfiltered emotional part and then allow me just to kind of lead the conversation but I just want to First understand emotionally how did you feel absolutely so mowing hour in business for about two years two and a half years we were experimenting I was more on all things creative and he was more on business management and he was very adamant about letting him handle the way the businesses managed because you know that was where he wanted to be that's where his passion last so I'm there to support and I love to be the creative and so we did that for a while and I remember we started Outsourcing you know more stuff trying to scale a bit more because we needed more than just myself and I remember slowly feeling like more of just a graphic designer again like I slowly slipped down into that versus a a partner but I was in slumps I was in a little bit of a slump and this was like two weeks I remember this two weeks vividly because I came back into the office and I felt like I was ready to to do so much more ready to create so much more I was like yeah if I'm gonna be a designer if I'm going to be you know that the the help borderline I was like let me just let me just own this and this is the story and I tell the story I've told it a couple friends I walked into the office and I was setting up my home computer in the office because I was just going to fully commit to everything and I'm in there screwing in a monitor and mo walks in and he's tense and I can see his tents immediately but I am overwhelmingly happy today because I've been I've been tense for the last two weeks and he sits down and he's like hey we need to have a chat and I was like okay and so I put the gear up and we sit and you know when we talk and he says very very straightforward he was like I'm not happy with the way things are going and I was like okay I'm you know absolutely we can we can figure out what is this source of unhappiness stem from is it something that you're feeling inside is this something that you're working through and he was like I just don't I what I'm feeling is I don't think we should be in Partnership anymore and I was like understandable that is a that is a deep deep feeling to to have and I'm proud of you for like articulating it because you could have sat on this for for weeks right and I was like what can we do and what can I do specifically that we can work on this and mo hit me with I love Mo and I like we we still communicate we still hang out I'm going to his son's birthday party in like two days but Mo hits me with oh no this is a decision that I've made so it's not anything that I can do and I was like oh okay all right so just give me a little bit time to process and I took that in for a little bit and he kind of expressed how he had been feeling and how he wanted to go a different route and we were in partnership with two other guys who were our Angel Investors they were uh silent partners so it's four of us total and I asked him I said hey can I step out of the room for a bit and he was like yeah yeah and we both soon as like the door closed like all the emotion hit and I remember I was just sad because it just felt so new and it was so jarring and it was it was so different and I let all of that out and I sat for myself for about an hour and a half and mo was like we have a meeting with our two other investors um in like two hours and he was like I don't know what the solution is I don't know if it's like I step out of the company or you step out of the company I don't know what the exact solution is but we're gonna we're gonna meet with them about it and so we get into this meeting and you know the two guys are talking and talking with us and the way the conversation is is yeah Chris it's everything's gonna work out you know the best thing that happened to me was I was let go from my company and and I was like oh I am being I am being like parted ways with like they've already had the conversation and I'm just not getting the information and so four bit man I remember I let myself I was like I'm gonna give myself because I'm true through and through I'm still a very calculated person I was like I'm gonna give myself a week maybe two weeks I'm not gonna do anything I'm just gonna sit for a bit and then on this specific date where I like I am going to go back into being back on that original path I was so my thing was I was gonna do start doing wedding films and I started accepting weddings again and it felt kind of kind of subpar from what I was doing and from what I wanted to do but at the end of it I was like oh wow I think whether Moe knows it or not he did me the absolute biggest favor because he set me free like he was still with the company with the partnership but I was able to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and it really hit home when I started doing consistent income so my first year when I was with you know the company I think what we're doing we were paying each other like 3 500 bucks um a month it was 3 000 a month but I had twenty eight hundred dollars in expenses because of my credit card debt and because of my other things and so barely barely surviving you know but I was willing to to grind out for the sake of company development but the great thing is when we split we were able to cover more ground individually he sent me work I sent him work we read a couple more rounds individually in the areas that we focused on and my first year in business I was able to do I think it was 91 000 solo and I was like wow I'm able to buy all the camera gear that I wanted do all the things I should have done when I was in college but I can do it with the clarity and the knowledge that I've gained over the past two years I know how to handle clients I know how to negotiate price I I've been studying I've met Chris though like I've been able to apply all of that to my solo life and I was grateful in the end because all of the raw emotions all of everything I never I never disliked Mo people were like how do you not dislike somebody who broke up with you I was like what do you mean like still like business relationships we were always very clear because we were like the best of friends we were always clear business relationships are different in friendships so when we broke up business-wise I still went to his house on Saturday we still hung out we still chatted and like nothing's changed there because it's always been love and it always will be and I was so grateful because I was like man it feels so good to do it on my own because I've always wanted to apply my efforts towards the business development side of things but I felt so caged I was like I finally get to to use my expertise in the things I've learned the things I've learned in the work that I do for myself and so yeah the raw emotions led to me being exceptionally grateful and it led to me being like I wouldn't I wouldn't do it over again like I wouldn't I wouldn't I mean I wouldn't change a thing that's what I'm saying because in the end it's put me on a platform way bigger than I than I could have ever ever imagined um I have more questions for you but I want to summarize a couple things that I heard you had said that you were going through some kind of slump or a funk prior to even having this conversation so for whatever reason whether you knew at that time or not and maybe it kind of led to this like I don't know if Chris is really into the business the way I'd hoped he would be right and that's a difficulty of having Partnerships is why I caution almost any of my friends who are willing to listen do not get into a partnership oftentimes we seek Partnerships because there's something that we need to work on ourselves that we don't want to do so we find a surrogate who can do that thing and then we then we check out a number of different reasons right I I think knowing both of you obviously I spent a lot of time talking to Mo but I think you have both benefited by being more independent because you started to learn what you needed to learn about yourself and about each other and all those kinds of things a funny thing is the person who told you was a Tad Carpenter who told you when you get out of school don't work for a week or two or take some time off and you didn't heed that advice but I don't know if you've noticed when when you were let go or the breakup happened and you're on your own you were like I'm not gonna do anything I just need to get my head clear I need a process and and so maybe it was just a delayed two-week break from your kind of postgraduate kind of mindset right what it what it was is at that moment when I when we broke up I realized I had never had a breath of fair share and so that's what Tad was trying to tell me to do and I was finally in the mindset to be like oh yeah this is definitely definitely needed in this moment I also want to point out because it kind of brings a smile to my face because the first thing that Chris talks about after having his first year as a solo creative is he made ninety one thousand dollars and the first thought he's like I could buy camera gear it's not like I made it I proved you all wrong here because it's like you and I were kind of Gearhead so it's like let me Tinker around with this a little bit right so it's kind of hilarious as a Side Story okay what year is this um how long ago was this that was your first official full 12 months on your own first of all 12 months started in January of 2020. okay this is pretty strong working yeah this is this is right now I'm in year three right you're like three months into year three let's do the numbers if you don't mind can we do the numbers absolutely first year on your own I think you are you're not quite tripled but somewhere close to that in terms of your income because before you're paying yourself very little and there's too many miles to feed there's four people that are feeding into this business two silent Partners a partner and yourself that's a lot of mouths to feed so even if you made the same amount of money at least now there's only one amount to feed and it's a lot easier to manage so 2020 what did you do gross revenue 20. 2020 was the 90. 91 000. yeah 2021 was 147 000. guns going places just out of curiosity I don't want to side rail to come derail the conversation but when you do 147k you tell your dad dad you found 47k yeah Dad is the only person's face I rub it in because every because he oh man he deserves this he does he knows he deserves it and he's like oh man you could finally get me that truck like if you go to my Facebook page right now you will see he's tagged me in Denali like GMC truck ads being like Oh you know Christmas gifts and I'm like Pops I don't make enough to buy you a hundred thousand dollar truck like like that's not responsible exactly exactly okay now we're three months into 2022 and the reason why I was like I need to talk to you right now because a lot of people are going to find a joy in hearing your story and be able to relate to you is that you sent me a little text and you're like Chris you just won't believe it but I'm already at 2022. yeah what was that number currently we are three months in actually two months two weeks I'm at 165 000 okay everybody perspective here in two and a half months let's just call it three months in three months time he's already surpassed his gross revenue from all of the previous year you're on a rocket ship my friend what story does this money tell you right now the kind of success you're having so it takes some getting used to but right now it's telling me that I did the right thing I'm a big fan of delayed gratification Grace so when I say I made ninety four thousand dollars and I bought camera gear it's because I needed to lay the foundation and when I did the next year I was still in I'm still in Foundation mode I'm still laying Foundation to where I can have the capability to do bigger work because I know my limit isn't three thousand dollar videos or four thousand dollar videos because I I know that isn't the cap even though that may be what people will tell me you know a lot of people can't afford stuff that high and I'm like I beg to differ and so I am just still laying the foundation and this year I consider the foundation lead I consider myself being able to take profit and I've been able to really appreciate the amount that I have while still being able to divide and delegate literally everything that comes in I use the profit first technique I you know run my business off less I think about something you told me a while back when you were referencing like 120 000 Google commercial or something and you were like we do everything for 30 percent like if it can't get done for 30 percent it needs to get done for 30. there is no over there is no over and I'm like that makes so much sense because at the moment I take off her taxes I split the number in half and I run my business on lists and everything else has to go to securing my future to saving for a house to paying off my car or getting rid of any debt I am currently debt free aside from one student loan I do my best to not take the time I have and the money I have for granted because I don't know if I always make 150 000 a month this could be the start and it could dwindle down in April and I could you know Coast Coast the rest of the year out but I'm trying not to let that fire burn out I'm trying to stay on top of the relationship that I have with the newer clients and I'm trying to keep things going and not get comfortable and that's something I haven't been comfortable actually I kid you not I almost guess I haven't been comfortable since the breakup I told myself this is what it feels like to be uncomfortable let's stay in the pocket and let's just do take the advice I'm giving do the things I'm told because like the calls that you have and the the talks that we have with modrico and when we came down there's this thing in gaming where we say turn your brain off and like run it means turn your brain off and just listen to me listen the words I'm saying and I was like well what's the worst case that happened I feel like I've already hit my absolute low so I just listen to Chris indefinitely what is the worst thing that I can have that can happen I go back to the low well that I've been there before so it will not feel as bad so it is it has been great and it's been as I said thanks I'm getting used to I I think when we Face adversity when we have Financial challenges when our future is uncertain and we're at an emotional low point in our lives we find out the stuff that we're made of and this is not the curse that many fear but it's the gift when you look at it through the right lens so you're going through a slump you think everything's cool you're gonna get re-engaged and right as you make that commitment which probably hurts even more because you're like dude I'm ready to turn this to 11 right now and then the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and I don't want to get into all the Gory details but now you're on your own and it's making a break of time baby yeah and you gotta stare at that guy in the mirror it's like what do you want to become and every day you kind of brush your teeth look at the mirror and then two weeks you emerge from the Cocoon saying I know exactly what I'm gonna do I know where I'm gonna be and what's really cool is you recognize that moment that feeling that fire and and you're you're saying to yourself whether or not you're super financially successful or not never forget that feeling never sit there and cruise into like some weird mental state uh or shift into that that cruise control in that mental state keep hungry no matter what don't get ahead of yourself I want to ask you some some questions here and you know what before I ask this question let me just say this because I've met you in real life several times and I feel like I'm watching an evolution of Chris Franklin because in social situations you and I were not that different we're really quiet we don't really know what to say to whom so we're always like staying here by ourselves it's like and I see you I'm like you could not be the more opposite of Mo how you guys like did your business it's like this and how you guys became best friends that's a miracle in itself but there you guys are and then I see you making videos on YouTube and and with that super deep voice of yours I'm like oh my God this is something do you got something here and this person is emerging from the Cocoon of that two-week moment of processing you seem to be a different person you see more outgoing you seem to be more comfortable in your own skin there's a quiet power and confidence I'm feeling from you what are three things that that hard breakup created for you like how did you transform do you recognize those things the first thing and the one thing that I immediately took away from the breakup Moe and I were talking and we were like we don't know how to split the company we don't know how to do Financial who gets what camera gear what gets what I had one request when I kid you not this is in the this is the same day that I just got told or actually it was the same week and I was like hey he's like you have any specific questions I said I want the YouTube channel we have 300 subscribers but I in me I was like I've seen Mo do what he does he's a very charismatic speaker and it would it used to take me 55 minutes to record a three and a half minute take on our YouTube channel because I was it wasn't me I've always kind of done public speaking to a degree you know second choir I did speeches like but the moment you put that camera lens in front of me and the potential to reach thousands if not millions of people I would always freeze it gave me the headspace the confidence to immediately be like I'm going to make this outward this this this social appearance of me be a thing because I know the confidence I draw from doing this no client is going to be a challenge to talk to and that's just that's just what I saw from it because talking to clients wasn't my biggest fear pricing a negotiation wasn't the things I was scared of for some reason it was this camera and I wanted the channel of our 300 subscribers one because I didn't want to do the work of getting the 100 again the first 100 is the hardest but I was like I can turn this to 11. I can do the stuff that I've kind of had in my mind that I kind of dreamed of and I I not have it so broad I can Niche it down to fit me and when I did that the areas and expert the things I talked about I was much more confident in and it took me 16 minutes to record a five minute video and then it took me 10 and now it takes me like seven minutes to kind of sit down and do a one take and kind of keep things going and it feels different because I am more confident because I kind of pivoted to the things that I enjoy so that was one big thing that I took away from him it was the confidence the second had to be the financial management of it I as I said I do not have an emotional I don't believe I have an emotional connection to money so when I tell a client a price and I use you know your strategies and I use the the methods that you've taught me I just sit back and let them speak because my urge and my wants was always like but if that's too expensive you know we can we can we can work something out and I'm like no because when I got my first little bit of success with that I was like I can say any number I want to can I and I can I can kind of keep pushing and recently I met with a client pretty large client and I was like hey you know I just want to let you know before we continue in our conversation before we like dig too deep on the relationship piece um 30 second videos that I usually do that inquire like a day or two of shooting usually range between like Fourteen and eight thousand dollars is that something that you're being comfortable with and they were like yeah that's fine and in that moment I was like oh my God I anchored too low again even though this number is four times higher than anything I've ever charged it's still too low because I'm I'm I just need to keep adding more and more confidence and getting to those bigger and bigger numbers because what you told me and this is post breakup when we first came down you're like you you can't do the you can do the 120 000 commercials but one I don't have the confidence to say the number two nobody can find you because you're not doing the work and I'm not putting myself out there and so turn my brain off and I'm just like I'm just gonna put myself out there and I'm gonna say a number that's big for me it doesn't have to be a crystal number but it's going to be big for me and it's going to be life-changing for me and they were just like yeah that's fine like that's no problem I'm like oh okay there is so much untapped potential and I live in a relatively small City but there's so much untapped potential that the only thing holding me back is my fear getting past that and getting the confidence to talk to clients was another thing and the third was immediately not doing the work the first thing I did was when I got enough money I brought somebody in to do the work I started Outsourcing immediately because I could grind the workout but I had seen what we did for mocks and keeping everything internal trying to keep the profit to ourselves really just keeps the profit away from you truthfully so the first thing I did was bring somebody on who could help me who can help not a partner but somebody who can actually help me load and unload camera gear and then I needed a blank slate that I could mold into cutting videos exactly the way that I do it so I can just kind of duplicate myself and over the past two years I've been teaching an editor and he can now fully do it on his own now and he can do any and everything that I request and at the moment I'm doing what you tell what you call closing the Gap I got him to 60 and I would take the 40 which means I'm doing 60 less of the work in a video edit then I got them to 80 90 95. now the only thing I do is I transfer the footage and make files I hand him an edit he hands me a colored rendered I mean a color full color file I checked for small mistakes and then I send it to the client and they say oh my God you guys are incredible you do such great works I love your editing Chris and I'm like hahaha I didn't edit it but it's not up to you to know that and I've been trying my best to Outsource more and more because I've seen what Outsourcing gives me the capability to do and it's been exceptional it's been the only way I've been able to hit the numbers and the current number that I have to keep up with the capacity that we're doing I'm having to give a little bit of work away to get so much more in return whew taking notes Here the future does not issue certificates or plaques or degrees or diplomas or anything like that but we probably should given what you just said like if I had an honorary degree to give to you I would Chris because you did everything you're supposed to do you built yourself up Brick by Brick you faced your demons by staring at that one-eyed Beast known as the lens it's a heartless monster it will see right through you and it'll expose everything you hate about yourself but you kept going and going until you could tame the Beast and in doing so you found your voice and you found yourself that's number one so that would be a test number two you learned to talk about money in detached ways and you discovered that you had this power that you only needed to believe in yourself and not generally speaking if you have the skill set which you obviously do the next biggest hurdle is you getting comfortable talking about numbers and then just trusting the process anchoring high price bracketing you're using everything that we talk about on our Channel and and the key is you're implementing it to perfection staying silent letting the clients say what they need to say and if they say yes too quickly you know that oops the ceiling on this as high as it was for me is still not high enough because the clients need to feel a little bit of pain we want them to struggle to say gosh Darna Chris that's a lot of money we're gonna have to like pull uh steal from Peter to pay Paul but I think you're worth it and give us a day to like find the numbers then you know you've reached your ceiling for now apparently you still have a ways to go and I actually hit it recently did you wear the okay it's too much High attention yeah and I was like how about this I'll just I'll take 30 off we'll split the invoices up and they're like yeah that would be so much that would be so much more breathable yeah and that ceiling is about twenty thousand dollars a day okay for now for now for now that's exactly right for the type of work that I'm really doing for now because you do two or three of those you're like no it's worth more than this so regardless you just climb the mountain and I want to Circle back to that a little bit but the last thing is you also realize the super important thing that if you keep everything to yourself you never really grow and people don't understand what I say this but obviously you do being an entrepreneur is synonymous with being a great teacher not leader teacher right so in order for you to grow your business you have to teach other people your systems are process the way you look at the world and your client gave you the biggest compliment as a teacher saying nice edit Chris and you're like ding yeah I know because you trained another person you gave them skills which they can take with them for the rest of their lives you've enriched that person's life on a skill set level but also financially because now they have a job and they have opportunity and they have more opportunity to learn from you your true test for the graduate degree is when you say to me by my the people who shoot for me the people who edit for me they're actually better than me Chris and that will be like graduate degree level okay now I want to Circle back a little bit because there are going to be people who hear this and they all almost always say this to me on online which is you live in LA you have this this and that and you can say whatever price because all the fat clients are in LA but as you we began this episode we we kind of are Marching towards the end of the episode your boy from from south Mississippi in a small town in in if anybody that knows what geography knows that this is not Beverly Hills and here you are as like a solo operator with a team of Freelancers able to get twenty thousand dollars to do videos videos that you used to charge thousands of dollars for and essentially it's the same product is it not yeah high quality imagery Immaculate editing stories are being told that's like a weird Haiku okay but the thing is you found clients who have a bigger problem to solve so the thing that you provide is just worth more to them so I'm just I'm just thrilled Chris I'm gonna updated for you and I just I I I I I can hardly believe but I I say that with tongue-in-cheek because I expect it from you that you're just smashing through every perceived barrier I can't wait to hear what the end of the year story is going to be like for you because I'm prepared to be blown away I hope I hope to blow myself away as well because the start has already like encapsulated some of my biggest goals that I had and it's as I said it's actually getting used to but there's no taking the foot off the gas there's no getting comfortable I want to see how far I can push this and I want to see how much I can grow in south Mississippi okay I have one one final request for you and it's a difficult one because somewhere out there is another Chris Franklin perhaps um pre-breakup perhaps pre-conversation with pops I I need you to talk to that person now in in the way that you can look down the barrel of the lens help this person out what did they need to hear right now to get through this next very tough hurdle in their life this is basically like talking to the 19 year old confused me who had a passion for art but wanted to solidify their future and be comfortable with making money who was willing to eat dirt for 15 years in college to become somebody else's dream I wish I would have believed in myself more and I would have believed in myself to the point to where it affected the people outside of me the overwhelmingly the overwhelming confidence that I try to exude now if I I wish I tapped into that sooner and I believe the person that will be listening to this there is a spark inside that is waiting to be like a raging fire that we're just not Fanning the Flames enough because we don't believe in our self enough to be able to achieve like to align the goals so I knew I could either make money or be an artist I could and though I believed I could do those things those things but I didn't believe I could combine those things together and be happy and the great thing about it is when I took the risk and when I became uncomfortable that was the only time in my life that I actually grew so it is exceptionally important for you to be uncomfortable in what you're doing be able to try and experiment with new things say numbers that just do not want to escape your lips like be able to shoot for the prices that you feel like you deserve because I feel I've always felt like I deserve to make 20 grand in a day because I didn't believe my cap was 1500 because that's what the industry and all the people in the camera chats told me they were like our day rate is 1500 and that's pretty industry standard I never felt comfortable with that and I was like I feel like I bring you so much more in a day of work and a day of my time and my knowledge because I spent the last 10 years bringing all these skills into one day for you and I feel like you should capitalize on that moment capitalize on that feeling dig deep and not let anybody else tell you otherwise whether it be your family whether they be friends be able to invest in yourself has been one of the most impactful things that I've been ever able to do in my life and I feel like I'm just now starting my life at 27. truthfully I feel like I finally got a foundation so it's never too late to figure it out and it's never too early to start truthfully wonderful we'll end the episode here and I want to tie a little ribbon on this in that you talked about your that one percent we're not talking about one percent wealthiest people in the world but the one percent happiest person or people in the world and 100 believe that everything that you say you do and how you carry yourself I'm not your father but I'd be proud of you young man and I'm just so excited for where you're going and if I can take any small sliver of ownership of your story I'm I'm just thrilled that some some surrogate stranger off the internet and just seeing you grow and how how you've taken in in what you've learned and just grown on your own we're just waiting for the outside world to match the inside and if you keep down this path of being optimistic about being positive about being happy but also super objective and kind of almost unemotional when it comes to to business and money and not letting this stuff get to your head I think you will continue to be super successful Chris Franklin it's been a pleasure thank you for being open for sharing as you have appreciate you man thank you so much Chris it it's been amazing honestly my name is Chris Franklin and you're listening to the Future is that your uh yeah where'd that come from it's my it's my dad's voice I kid you not he sounds like that all the time and it's always the they call the Mufasa voice in college because it's Simba you deliberately disobeyed me you put Nala in danger it's just that like it's that lower register that I get from singing all the time you know what helps she's on the beginning that's good