Gill Moakes 0:03
Welcome, welcome to the heads together Podcast. I'm Gill Moakes. And I am obsessed with cutting through the noise when it comes to growing your business each week via intimate coaching, conversations and inspirational stories, I share what it really takes to get the results you want, in a way that feels right to you. I am all about attracting higher ticket opportunities, building authentic relationships, and creating the abundant full fat version of your dream business. I mean, how many of us have even away creating a light version of what we really want? The thing is, I honestly believe when you're outstanding at what you do, there is no limit to what you can achieve. So are you ready to put our heads together and make it happen? Let's go
Gill Moakes 1:05
Welcome Welcome to this death podcast, medium jazzy this week, I am phenomenally excited for this week's episode because I'm being joined by the fabulous Taylor Kampia. Taylor is the CEO and co founder of make a seen media. She is also just one of my favourite people. I love love chatting with her anyway, so to get to have a conversation that we record for the podcast is even better. And I really wanted Taylor to come on to talk about pivoting. And you all know by now that one of the things I am obsessed with is helping women really make the changes they need to make in their businesses or their lives, to do what they love, to be who they really are. And to do what they love. And so I was so happy when Taylor agreed to come on the podcast and just talk about her journey over the last few years and the pivots that she's had to do some of which were by choice and some which were thrust upon her by COVID. It's made for incredibly interesting story, which I think you're going to love. And what what Taylor does Now interestingly, at Maker seen media is around storytelling. Do you know what I'm I'm actually not going to put this in my own words. I'm going to read this from Taylor's bio, because she puts it way better at make a seen. They use their experience as television producers to create video content for organisations on the forefront of change and making the world a better place. Oh, how good is that? I love that she's an award winning director produce that and videographer. But she says her most important job is her being a mum to her amazing kids. So without any further ado, and to share her fab story with you and inspire you to make the changes you need to make to sculpt your business into the business that allows you to do what you love. I'm going to dive in now and introduce you to Taylor. Taylor, how are you? Thank you for joining me.
Taylor Kampia 3:39
Hello, hello. It's good to be here.
Gill Moakes 3:42
Ah thank you so much. I'm really excited for this episode because this topic and we were just talking before we hit record and I was just saying to Taylor that this topic is so close to my heart. And most people will know this about me that I've gone through two big pivots in my career. So God, I know how powerful that is. So I'm excited to get into that. But first, I'd love you to tell us a little bit about what you do now and what your business is.
Gill Moakes 4:13
Sure. So I am Taylor Kampia. I am the co founder and CEO of make a seen media, we produce video content for everyone from brands to nonprofits, government agencies, really anyone with an impact to make or awareness to spread. And they want to leverage the power of human stories to do that. And that's what we do.
Gill Moakes 4:34
Storytelling. I would imagine you are in demand right now because everyone's tapping into this secret now of what makes compelling content. We all want the story right?
Taylor Kampia 4:46
The story is being now right you know the content is king the story is Queen because what is content without the story and you know, making it relatable to your audience. The best way to make a connection with someone is get them to feel what you're trying to feel. And the best way to do that is through someone else's story, that power of empathy. And nothing does that better than video. You know, studies have shown that if a picture's worth 1000 words, video is worth a million.
Gill Moakes 5:13
Oh, I love that.
Taylor Kampia 5:14
Right? You can get so much more across in video than just reading something or just hearing something because you combine all of those senses together. And you've just forced that connection with those watching.
Gill Moakes 5:27
Yeah, so true. I mean, I'm a big reader. So I, I love reading, I love the entire ritual around reading. So that's a big thing for me. But I have noticed about myself that if I really want to immerse myself something in something, if I really want to learn, I need that visual as well. And I think that's what people are stepping into now isn't it is like how relatable you become. When people can see you, they can pick up on all your little nuanced behaviour when you're talking. I think it's Yeah, ironic, as this is a podcast and no one out there can see us Ah,
Taylor Kampia 6:11
But no if it, it's still it's still storytelling through personal stories, right. And that is that is the currency that that is most powerful. It's that personal story. And whether it's through video, or written or audio, again, it's getting to that personal story that's going to resonate the most with your audience. And then how you tell that story, whether it's in text, or video, or just audio, the strategies are a little bit different with how you kind of lead into things. But you know, I think podcasting I think is just as important and just as groundbreaking in terms of where we are in today's market and where content is going. So video, podcasting, again, allowing people the opportunity to tell their story themselves. You know, some of you a lot of people do call me a storyteller. And that's a common thing. But I don't like to say that I'm a storyteller. I actually like to say that I'm a story capture, I capture people's stories. It's their story, right? They're the ones telling it, I'm just capturing it. And then I'm just kind of packaging it in a way that I know is going to be most marketable or appealing, or whatever the impact is we're trying to make. That's the gift that I have. But it's still someone else's story. So I'm not telling it. I'm just presenting it back.
Gill Moakes 7:22
Yeah. And so as part of the service that your business, make a seen Media, do you kind of help people get their story out. Because I feel like, I feel like that's hard for people. I find that hard. Sometimes, I did a really interesting exercise the other day, for the book I'm writing, which was I wanted to kind of do a bit of a brain dump of personal stories that I might want to consider, including in the book. And you know what, it took me a while once I got going with it, they flowed. But I tell you what to begin with, it was just really, really difficult. I couldn't make that connection between the story or the little kind of thing that happened to me. And that being of interest or having an insight or a lesson in it for someone else. So I found that quite difficult really to get those stories out.
Taylor Kampia 8:20
Yeah, but it's the same thing with businesses, right? When you're trying to help a business come up with a brand. And to try to help the business come up with a story, it sometimes takes a little bit of workshopping to figure out what the actual story is within the story. Because your personal story or the thing that the interaction you might have had with a client that might have been a good example for your book, you know, as you start to think about it, and you start to sort of digest that particular story, you might say, Oh, wait, actually, that's a lesson for something else, you know, but the trick is to really think about that story or that idea and find that one, like nugget, that one sort of calling card. And that's the thing that you expand upon.
Gill Moakes 9:02
Oh, I think that is the fact that you help people to do that. To really kind of find the stories inside of them and bring those out is just fantastic.
Taylor Kampia 9:15
Before I got into this, actually, before I started make a scene with my partner, my business partner and I are both in television development. So we actually created developed cast and sold TV shows for networks like Discovery Channel and Netflix and National Geographic and you know, major cable networks. And one of the things we did with casting is we're looking for people who have interesting businesses, interesting jobs, and then seeing if they'd be good TV shows, right? A lot of times I would find somebody that I think is really interesting, has a cool business. Maybe it's a family business, they run together and I'm like, Oh, that's a Discovery Channel show right there. And my favourite thing is I would call them up and I would say, Wow, I saw your business online. You guys look really interesting. I would love to talk to you about potentially doing a TV show about you. And almost every time people are like me, really don't think I'm interesting. There's nothing interesting about me, you know, and then we start to talk. And then I find out that like, you know, they have 300 cousins, and they have a horse farm, and they rescue dogs, and they do all of these really interesting things that are just part of their everyday life. And to them, it's just normal life, but to the outside observer, it's fascinating. It's interesting. It's so cool. Yeah. And so sometimes it takes a third party perspective, to hear all the things that you think are mundane and boring, and just, oh, this is just what we do to then say, No, that's the thing. That's cool. That's exciting. And that is what we got really good at in that business of television development. And now we're taking that and helping these businesses helping these brands, again, find the story within the organisation, within the people, they help within the mission, they're trying to achieve that, then we packaged together and that is what we use for that campaign or the mission, whatever we're trying to accomplish. But yeah, it sometimes it takes a third person to really sit down and listen to and to convince you that Yeah, that's really interesting.
Gill Moakes 11:07
Yes, exactly. Because I have to do that for myself the other day, didn't for a minute, think of coming to you and saying, Taylor help me? I need to do this. But yeah, I find it really hard. I find it really hard to see the, the insights in there and to or to see it, like you say see it as interesting to other people. Or to be fair to and I do have one question. When you were doing that, I don't remember you calling me to make my discovery show. Very disappointed. I would have happily had the cameras in here next to me and my little cell filming me recording this podcast, you know, I can't understand that would have been thrilling. That would have been TV gold
Taylor Kampia 11:47
Right next to shark wrestling. You know, I think that's the next thing.
Gill Moakes 11:51
I would have done that for TV. Seriously. You missed a trick here. I have really low standards, I'd have done anything.
Taylor Kampia 11:58
We'll talk later I still I'm still I'm still in that world. Yes.
Gill Moakes 12:02
Notice.
Gill Moakes 12:04
Notice.You alluded to just then that, you know, obviously the business you do now isn't the business that you originally set up to do. And, of course, in this episode today, you've really kindly agreed to kind of talk to us a bit about the power of the pivot. And just what thats look like for you, and what you've learned, that will be of help to other people who are either in a position where they're being forced to pivot, or they're choosing to pivot further towards doing what they love, which is what I'm all about, you know, without exception, my entire mission in life is to get more women earning great money, building incredible businesses doing what they love. Yeah, so I'd love to hear a bit about that story, what the pivot was like for you,
Taylor Kampia 12:59
I think, like most women in this world, today, I am someone who has been on a constant stage of reinvention, you know, I think that that's something that we have to do as women as we age and, you know, become mothers or, you know, have families or things like that as our lives change. We're having to reinvent ourselves, because our lives just looked different. And the things that we need are the things that we want change. You know, those dreams that we had when we were little girls, and we kind of grew up and we're like, wait a second, being a Disney princess isn't a viable job opportunity. What? Find something else.
Gill Moakes 13:33
That's my five year plan.
Taylor Kampia 13:34
I Know, it's so it's so disheartening. I'm somebody who right out of college, you know, I chose the path of money because I had to not the path of what I actually really wanted to do my whole life, I wanted to work in television, that was something that I wanted to do. But that wasn't a very money making path, especially early on in your career. So I went on the path, I went into sales, you know, and I was good at it, but I was not happy. And finally, it was actually the recession of 2000 flip between 2007 2009 When this being a salesperson was not a great industry to be at it. And I can no longer justify saying, Okay, well, I'm doing it for the money because there wasn't, you know, as good and, and I felt like my soul was being sucked out every day by this work that wasn't fulfilling me. And so the recession hit, and I had a choice to make, you know, kind of keep grinding the pavement and keep eking out this existence, or totally change and be like, Well, what do I actually want to do with my life? I was in my late 20s. And, you know, I kind of was like, I'm ready to just make this leap and do this thing that I've always wanted to do. I didn't have kids at that point. I was like, I kind of realised like now or never This is it, I'm gonna make this leap and ended up becoming an intern. At 28 years old. I had been a sales executive, you know, like, I had people that got coffee for me. Now I was making the coffee.
Gill Moakes 15:00
A What a huge decision to have made. Yeah, that was a really big, brave decision.
Taylor Kampia 15:08
To me, it felt like the only choice to make because when I really was clear about how I wanted my life to look, my life didn't. The job that I had in sales wasn't going to support that life. Not financially, but emotionally and spiritually. Yeah, it didn't feel like a choice. It felt like the path was illuminated and made clear for me, because I recognised what I wanted. And this is where it was going. This is where it was leading. I completely restarted my career, became an intern, again, worked for free for almost a year, I was privileged enough to have saved and I had a partner at the time. And that was really, I was very lucky. And that, but that year that I spent as an intern, I was able to then kind of because I was I was 28 You're 28 year old intern. So it was kind of a little different from the other interns.
Gill Moakes 15:55
I feel like that's a TV show in its own right.
Gill Moakes 16:02
As i said that I was thinking, is that already a movie?
Taylor Kampia 16:05
I think it was, but I think they were really bad though. They were not good at 30 I was the opposite, right?
Gill Moakes 16:11
It's not, you.
Taylor Kampia 16:12
No, I came in and I was like, I'm gonna be the best intern you've ever had. You know, when it worked, though, because I was able to kind of catapult from being an intern, I skipped like two levels of the career, you know, and got into the into the industry and television. And in here I was in my dream job. I didn't even know that the job that I had existed necessarily. But once I got in, I was like, This is what I was meant to do. And I'm so excited. And it was awesome. And I spent the next decade loving my life. I travelled the country, I met so many interesting people, I worked on some really incredible projects, and some really meaningful projects, you know, get on air on television, and everything was great. And I happen, you know, I had a great team around me, I worked for a bunch of different places. And then finally it was at sort of one of the biggest production companies on the East Coast and felt like, all right, I am here I have arrived. Right?
Gill Moakes 17:03
I have made it.
Taylor Kampia 17:04
I made it.
Gill Moakes 17:05
Oh god, you make that sound way cooler than me. Yes, I've made it in my reserved English accent.
Taylor Kampia 17:12
But then the company that I was with went through a reorganisation, you know, and a lot of the businesses that work in television, there used to be a thriving hub in my area that used to be a lot of companies and businesses in my area that did what we did. And they were all moving. And they were all leaving the area for places like New York and LA and these other places. Apparently, Washington DC isn't cool. I don't know. I think it's cool, I think rude. Thank you. And so my coworker, my boss, like our whole team got laid off in one minute. Right? This was my dream job.
Taylor Kampia 15:58
I think that was a movie. I think there was a movie about like, 30 year old interns.
Gill Moakes 17:47
I was just to say, as you said that I was just, I feel like that's been a bit of that was a bit of a roller coaster. That little story there because it's sort of like. A lot of people never get to say, I'm doing my dream job, right. And for 10 years living the dream job travelling the country, you don't just absolutely top of your game, and then having the rug pulled, that's how I'm feeling it must have felt like if
Taylor Kampia 18:16
it was I mean, the fact that it was the day before my birthday, we you know, it was also just like insult to injury.
Gill Moakes 18:22
Story can't get any worse. Like God, I know that there's a happy ending.
Taylor Kampia 18:27
But you know what it you know, and this is, this is an interesting part of the story, because in the first case, I pivoted, it was a choice I made, and I was very clear and intentional. And I said, Okay, this is the path that I know, I'm gonna have to kind of suck it up and reset. And I had that mindset kind of going into it that it was going to be a very prolonged sort of process and steps. And I did it. And that's how I got to where I was,
Gill Moakes 18:49
It was a big, brave, bold decision. But it was the decision to do something you wanted to do, right? Whereas this feels like a very, very different version of the pivot.
Taylor Kampia 19:02
Was a very different version. And then I handled it very differently as well, you know, you know, it's funny, so my coworker who actually got laid off with me, she's not my business partner, and we had kind of, you know, before we'd been laid off, we had been just talking about the state of the industry and how everything was moving away. And you know, oh my goodness, what happened? If this happened to us, we're like, well, we should start our own business and what would we do if we started our own business and kind of dreaming up these things for a while? Yeah, but I can tell you that the day that I got laid off, before I walked out the door I had like three or four jobs lined up. I didn't I wasn't gonna stop I wasn't gonna take this lying down. I was like, You did not just pull the rug out from underneath me. You just gave me ammo. You know, like I'm, you're not stopping me.
Gill Moakes 19:46
Wait, complete paradigm shift, which we're all capable of doing. In any circumstances. We all have the power within us. Don't wait to shift the paradigm and look at it in a different way.
Taylor Kampia 19:59
You can And, and in this case, though, I wish looking back and taking a little more time, right, but it's good. I think on the one hand, it was great that I didn't let it kind of get me down. But at the same time, we hit the ground running Heather and I, you know, we had, we basically were like, we're doing this business, we're making this work, we're going to basically kind of recreate a similar model to what we were working before and just try and make this work, right. Well, we're both mums, we both have, you know, lots of things going on in our lives. And what we realise in the first year, I mean, we were doing really well, like, it's, like I said, we hit the ground running, and we got some great clients, the first year, we were able to hire, you know, employees, we, you know, things were really humming along. But we were getting burnt out really, really hardcore, because we were very, you know, first year in business and, and mums and everything else. And so, because we hit the ground 110 miles an hour, and we didn't really stop to think and plan, everything was just sort of like ad hoc, and band aids on band aids on band aids and band aids and band aids.
Gill Moakes 21:08
And I think the point you made as well about not stopping and considering whether that business model was right for your circumstances. It's not necessarily that the industry was wrong, it was the business model was probably just not the right fit for you.
Taylor Kampia 21:27
Exactly. And especially now, where we are a lot of the work we were doing with television development is speculative, you do a lot of work without necessarily knowing you're going to get paid for it. And when your own your own business, and you are your own breadwinner. That's not a model that can continue anymore. And then we made a lot of the mistakes of first time business owners entrepreneurs make about insurance and payroll and all of those things. We made all the mistakes you can make, but they weren't good.
Gill Moakes 21:56
That's the right of passage, I think.
Taylor Kampia 21:59
It is it is. And then COVID hit, we had been doing okay, we'd been we'd been succeeding, we were making money. But it was tough. And it was hard. And we were burning out fast. And then COVID hit. And we realised that all those were good problems to have.
Gill Moakes 22:16
Another paradigm shift.
Taylor Kampia 22:19
No, you know, we work in the world of television production, when COVID hit that that all shut down completely. No one really knew what was going to be on the horizon. Nobody knew what was going to be happening down the pipeline. So it was just sort of like, okay, now What?
Gill Moakes 22:34
What a scary time I had a I have a really dear friend who owned a business letting apartments in London for foreigners coming over on business travel. And so of course, you can imagine literally overnight, she had no clients, and I'm guessing it, it must have been kind of the same as that for you. There was nothing you could actually move forward on a project, nothing,
Taylor Kampia 23:01
Not in that business model, not what we were doing before. Exactly. Yeah, with that, with the in the world of television, it wasn't something that was viable. And so we really took that time and COVID to kind of reset emotionally and spiritually and say, Okay, this was our dream, this is the thing we wanted to do. But now what, you know, now, what are we going to do? How can we have a life that we want? How can we kind of still make content that we care about and that we love, but do it in a way that's going to be, you know, put food on our table at the same time?
Gill Moakes 23:35
So COVID Almost enforced that pause that you probably needed when you first set up the company?
Taylor Kampia 23:45
Yep.
Gill Moakes 23:46
It's just that it didn't come until you were forced to take it. Right.
Taylor Kampia 23:51
Yeah, that's exactly right. And, you know, COVID, obviously had devastating consequences for millions of people globally. And we're still dealing with that. And in some ways, though, it's changing the world. In some positive ways. I think it's changing the way we work, how we view work. And all of those things are wonderful, because the fact that Zoom is now such a popular medium, and you know, all of these other things in the connectivity, I think, is as much as we were disconnected, we found new ways to be connected, which is really cool. And then for us, it was this gift of time, it was this gift of being able to reset and say what do we want to do? And how are we going to do it a little bit smarter this time around? And I think and we're still sort of in the process of it. I mean, we're in 2022. Now going into 2023 We spent all of last year, you know, we kind of come up with a new game plan. And our new game plan was okay, television development, we still love doing that. But that is a long slow burn it takes sometimes takes years to sell a TV show. So we'll have one or two of those projects always working because that's where our heart is too. But we also know that we have these gifts of helping people tell their stories, finding incredible stories and making really great videos. So how can we do that work and continue to help people. We live in Washington DC, the home of associations and nonprofits and agencies that are on the forefront of helping people and trying to make the world a better place. So we said, hey, this seems like our new target market. And that's what we've started to do. And that was what was interesting too, is that's where money was being spent during COVID. And after COVID, because government services were still running, nonprofits still had a lot of work to do, you know, and they had to spread awareness about services available about medical updates, there is still a lot of this work happening, right. So that's what we did, we decided to relook at the landscape. But still looking at what we love to do, what we're good at, yes. And then applying it to this new realm.
Gill Moakes 25:54
That's so important. I think sometimes when something's not working for us, we have this tendency to want to say, Okay, I want to do something completely different. And actually, that's not always the best solution, the best solution is, okay, exactly what isn't working? And how can I tweak it and pivot gently into what could work really well. So I love that whole, the way that you I know that that pause was forced on you by COVID. But I do love that recognition of having that time and space to reexamine it. And then be really intentional about looking at new markets. And knowing you as I do, I feel like that whole nonprofit and mission purpose based purpose led businesses is just so you anyway, and I know that those are the people you want to work with anyway. So that must feel good. That's like another layer of good on the top, I would imagine.
Taylor Kampia 26:59
I mean, if it feels really good, because Heather, and I, you know, in our personal lives have always been strong activist volunteers. And so again, we're taking something that's personal to us. And now bringing it into this world where we can do both things, we can have it part of our business. And I think every sort of pivot that I've either taken by choice or had to take, I've taken something with me from the previous iteration, right? I was in sales. And then I went to selling TV shows, and making videos to sell TV shows. And now I make videos to sell ideas, or missions, or people or products or things like that. So everything is kind of like it's all kind of like stacked on each other. And so even though you pivot, you're not leaving all that behind, you're now bringing a whole new package. Like it's just, it's great. You bring it with you. You don't have to say goodbye to it. I think that's a miss misconception, too. Sometimes. Yeah. When you pivot, you have to, like you said, totally reinvent yourself, change everything up, throw away the business model, you know, and just like start over. Yeah, sometimes they might call for that. Sometimes you need that sometimes you want it,
Gill Moakes 28:04
Sometimes you want that. But I think more often than not, I think you are so spot on that really organic progression. And bringing something with you from each iteration that you say is just, that must feel good. I feel like that must give everything that kind of oh, this is this is how it was meant to play out feeling.
Taylor Kampia 28:27
I mean, I'm very into the Whoo. And like, you know, the universe has your back. And you know, there's opportunities, but I really feel like opportunities are presented to you when you you know, you're ready for them. And if you recognise the fact that everything that you've done up to that point is training for the opportunity, then you can capitalise on it. And you can turn it into something really wonderful. But you know, I read it a long time ago, and I'm sure you've heard this too, that in business, if you treat everything like an experiment, yes, then nothing ever goes wrong. You just get new data. Right. And I love that. I love that idea.
Gill Moakes 29:03
That's so weird. I'm going to show you something sorry for everyone just listening. I have a post it note here because you know, I was doing this brain dump for the book. And this one says experiments. Isn't that weird? That's very aligned. I was just having this exact same thought process earlier today. And the context I was thinking about him was around marketing strategies. Everything's an experiment. If something doesn't feel good or doesn't work, it's not a great big massive failure. It's data. It's new information that will inform the next experiment. Yeah, I'm so on the same page on that.
Taylor Kampia 29:43
Yeah. Does it experimenting sound a lot more fun than trying something? I don't know. Like, just just the language alone of like, let's get into a lab and experiment. Something like it just gets you excited rather than like, okay, we're rolling out this new initiative, and we're gonna try this for six months.
Gill Moakes 30:03
That is so true, exactly that. And I think experiment as well, it makes you include an element of the curious, the know what the outcome of this is going to be. But I'm, I'm willing to go all in and find out. Whereas I think committing to a certain course of action, or like you say, rolling out an initiative, it's almost like, there's only one possible right outcome for this. And if I don't get that, then that's a failure. Whereas experiments don't fail, they just teach us.
Taylor Kampia 30:41
And I think that's where pivoting kind of comes to play to where it's, you know, I didn't get laid off, I feel like I got liberated, it just a different perspective, it didn't change, it didn't end my career, it allowed me the opportunity to change it, and to find something new, and what a gift, you know, and just, it helps you just reframe a little bit of everything, too, because everything feels like a gift instead of such a negative experience when things don't go exactly the way we've thought them to. They should go.
Gill Moakes 31:12
Absolutely. And do you feel like for where you are now, do you look back at when you were at the TV production company, and think I have so much more freedom now. I am so much more autonomous. Now. I have so much more time to be with my family, my children. Now, I think it's like once we've made the shift the pivot. When we look back, it's almost like God, how did I work with all those constraints?
Taylor Kampia 31:44
Yeah, I think the difference between working for yourself and working for somebody else is that gift of knowing that you own your time, and knowing that you own your choices and your decisions. And so it feels so much more empowering to say, This is my choice to spend my time this way or to spend this way, the granted is a breadwinner. Sometimes those choices are taken away, and you have to do things. But it feels so much better to do it for yourself, let me just tell you to do it for someone else.
Gill Moakes 32:16
I remember when I made my final pivot, which was from online business manager to business coach, it was one of the main reasons for me was that I was really done working so hard to make someone else's dream come true. Whereas now I get to work with women to make their dreams come true. It was such a revelation to me to have that it's all I talk often about, you know, in praise of the and, I want to have the freedom of my own business, I want to make great money as an entrepreneur. And I want to have impact and help the lives of purpose led women, help those women bring their visions to life. And I think when you're an employee, even if you are in the dream job, you don't have that freedom and autonomy, you simply don't. And you don't have the freedom to make your own dreams come true. Everything you're doing is for the benefit of the company that you work for. When it comes to the bottom line. It's a huge shift. I'm interested in your opinion on how much this has changed since COVID. Because what I'm seeing now is, you know, everyone's been talking about the great resignation. And you know, certainly I think there's a lot of new entrants into the world of entrepreneurship, which is, in my opinion, fantastic. I think women are only now realising that it's available to them.
Taylor Kampia 33:59
Yeah. Well, I think first of all, just COVID illuminated all the ways in which the gender gap was still happening in America or in all the world actually, right. Women were even though we're in the workforce, we're still doing more of the housework and more of the childcare and those things and when COVID hit it was very clear what was going on in the homes. And I think now there's been a little bit it's an equaliser I think, hopefully will happen. I think there's still a lot of women that are out of the workforce, or I would say primary caregivers, you know, or can't really reenter back into the workforce. I feel really lucky that I have a business partner who's also a mum, and we basically have a job share, you know, because but what's really cool is we have individual skill sets that we're we're good at independently, like I'm a videographer, and she's an editor, but we have a lot of complementary skills. So what's great is she can pick up the ball, you know, let's say I'm carrying something and I gotta drop it because my kids sick and I gotta go pick them up from school, you know, she can pick up that ball and run it down the field. And so I think this power of collaboration, actually, and the power of networking and the power of people relying on each other for some of that help and across, not even just with partnerships, but I think across teams and businesses and organisations, people realising, we don't want to spend hours and hours in our commute, we don't want to do all these other things. We want to figure out ways to work smarter, so that we can be more efficient, and so that we can do all of the things that we need to do not just for our work, but our home lives, our spiritual lives, so that we're whole people, instead of just automatons going to work nine to five, commuting for two hours a day, you know, clock in clock out,
Gill Moakes 35:40
And never questioning whether there's something more available to us. And that's where I think there's a shift happening now and that people are questioning and people are claiming what's available for them. It's just fantastic, really, to see that happening. God who knows, eventually, even the gender pay gap will reduce me.
Taylor Kampia 36:01
Don't get too crazy here. I'll be a Disney princess will be Disney Princesses before that happened.
Gill Moakes 36:07
Ah, that is true. A final thing I really would love to know from you is what has been the best surprise for you. Since you've pivoted to what you do now, which I know is the business that you love. What's been the best surprise at that
Taylor Kampia 36:31
This is a great one. And I really want to make sure I answer this one. Well, the biggest surprise, it's pivoting into this new role. There's There's a famous movie, quote, If you build it, they will come you know from Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner. And I think a lot of times when you're starting a business or changing your business model, or you know, taking a big leap, there's a huge amount of fear and a huge amount of is this going to work? Is my idea going, you know, is this going to play out? In any way that I think it's going to do, as business owners we put faith behind the work, we've say, Okay, if we take these steps, and we and we make this action, and we follow the things, we have to have faith that it's just going to work out, but you never really know until it does. The biggest surprise is that that process works. Right? It does. It really does is and it's not easy. I think and I'm not surprised by that. Not surprised that it's it doesn't just happen overnight, take the time to evaluate what you're doing. Are you doing it in the most effective way possible, find those thought leaders and those other experts and those coaches and other people who already know how to do the work and reach out to them get their help. And that's what we've been doing too. We recognise that we're TV people. We don't know how to be marketers, we don't know how to be brand strategists. Get those people hire those people find that talent, don't try to do it all yourself. And if you by putting in that work and putting in the steps, you can be successful, and that work will come to you and they will find you and then it's so exciting. Because oh my gosh, here you are.
Gill Moakes 38:07
And it's so true. I love that. And I love the simplicity of the realisation that actually success comes when you just do the steps. Do the work. Don't future trip the entire time don't agonise over all of the problems. I mean, I often what makes me laugh with quite new entrepreneurs sometimes is the way that they really stress out over their future problems. You know, well, I'm just, you know, I'm not convinced how we're going to handle this when the when the business grows? Well, let's cross that bridge when we get to it. I think you're right. I think it's a such a validating and great feeling. When you're very intentional. You build your business by doing the steps you get the right people giving you the right advice. And then step by step you get to where you want to be. Is that simple, right?
Taylor Kampia 39:05
It's that simple. And treat it like an experiment, right? Again, even though you have the steps, you have a plan. You have all the people in place. Life happens COVID happens.
Gill Moakes 39:16
Failed experiment isn't a failed business.
Taylor Kampia 39:19
No, it's not. It's just more data for how to do it differently next time, which can lead to a better outcome.
Gill Moakes 39:26
Exactly. The power of the pivot.
Taylor Kampia 39:30
That's right, it is powerful.
Gill Moakes 39:32
Taylor, I know that people are going to want to reach out because I know that a lot of my audience has phenomenal women who they have stories that they want to get out there so badly. And I think what you do is just so incredibly helpful for people who don't really have a handle on how to do that. If someone wants to reach out to you. What's the best way for them to do that?
Taylor Kampia 39:59
Oh shoot me an email. I'm at [email protected] We're also on Facebook, Instagram, just check out makeascenemedia.com
Gill Moakes 40:07
Okay, perfect. We'll put the links in the show notes. We'll link to your website and I'll put that email address as well in the show notes.
Taylor Kampia 40:14
Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
Gill Moakes 40:16
Oh, my goodness, thank you for being such a fantastic guests. I've really enjoyed this conversation. I mean, I think it's a subject that that's so close to both our hearts. So I've really loved this conversation. Thank you so much. Please come back again. At some point
Taylor Kampia 40:32
Absolutely, absolutely. Anytime.
Gill Moakes 40:34
Thank you. Bye for now.
Gill Moakes 40:41
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that getting our heads together this week has filled your mind with what's possible. If you love the show, would you do me a massive favour please? Would you leave a five star rating on Apple podcasts? It would really help you put more heads together, reach more ears and expand more minds. Until next week. Bye for now.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
