Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. I’m your host, professional EOS implementer Joshua Kornitsky. And I’ve got really an incredible story to tell. Although I’ve got a little bit of a frog in my throat today. I have Tom and Joanne Curtin back with me from The Curtin Team, and we’re going to get to them in just a minute because their big project is coming up. But first, I want to make sure that we thank the Business RadioX Community Partner Program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Mainstreet Street Warriors. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors. Diesel, David ink. Please go check them out at diesel. David comm. So as I said, my guest today are Tom and Joanne Curtin. Tom is the CEO of The Curtin Team. Joanne is the founder of The Curtin Team, but also president and co-founder of Curtin Team Cares. It’s a charitable organization behind their Community Impact programs. Under their leadership, the Curtin Team has become one of Metro Atlanta’s most respected real estate teams, known for their focus on education, leadership and community connection. Today, they’re joining us to share more about their Roswell Home Refresh Program, an initiative that brings local educators renewed comfort and appreciation through the hands of on home transformation. Led by local partners, vendors and volunteers. Tom, Joanne, welcome. I’m so happy to have you guys here today.

Joanne Curtin: Thank you Joshua. We are thrilled.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s it’s, um. It’s always exciting when we get to talk about how we can help others. And with what you’re doing through kirtan team cares and the Roswell home refresh program. Um, will you tell us about it? Because I get very excited and I want to make sure we we explain what it is before we start talking about it.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. Well, the Roswell Home Refresh is, um, it it is a project you mentioned program, but really it’s a project and it’s a different project every year. Um, it was created through Curtin Team Cares, our 501 three organization that we founded. What year?

Tom Curtin: Uh, 2018.

Joanne Curtin: 2018. And, um, you know, we we were looking for real focus for our nonprofit. And, um, I’m a teacher, um, in, you know, I taught for five years, early childhood ed, before I got into real estate. And my heart really just is with teachers. I mean, that’s just kind of what I love to do is support. I mean, there’s no harder job in the world. Okay. That’s for sure. In fact, it is the, like the birthplace of sales. If you can get kids.

Joshua Kornitsky: You’re you’re.

Joanne Curtin: 100% right. If you can get kids to learn, you’re a salesperson, and it starts in the classroom. So I have a big heart for teachers. I was a teacher, and, um, we decided, you know what? Let’s, you know, our board met and we did a lot of, um, outreach in the community, but we decided, you know what? Let’s focus our efforts on the Roswell Area School District staff and teachers, and let’s, um, take nominations for a teacher or staff member that’s had a hard year. Um, we, uh. So this is this will be our second year of our project, our second.

Tom Curtin: And, um, so we learned a lot last year just starting it for the first time. But what I was going to add is these stories, you know, we take nominations and we have to decide who is going to be the winner. Um, and there’s a lot of tough stories, you know, when you read it, you just you feel for them. And, um, this year’s winner we’re really excited about. But, um, the project varies based on what they need. So, um, you know, Joanna literally go to the house and kind of, hey, what’s your wish list and find out what they want? And then we’re able to leverage our vendor network. You know, of all the folks that we lean into throughout the year through current team, through our real estate business. Right. And, you know, we’ve got great painters and.

Joanne Curtin: And everything is everything is donated. I mean, they’re they’re the labor materials, everything. Um, the project is completely donations. Yeah.

Tom Curtin: So so they donate, you know, we’re very fortunate to be able to lean into them for for donations, for labor and materials and all that. And then this year, for example, our winter is getting a lot of furniture, right? So we’re able to purchase that furniture through the donations that we raise through current team cares. And um, yeah, those kind of efforts.

Joanne Curtin: So yeah, it’s great. I mean, um, it is it is just so exciting to have, you know, the community involved. And it’s our second year. So it is it is slowly catching on. Right. Um, and it’s going to get bigger and bigger. I already feel it because when we go to the schools, you know, now the the receptionist pulls out her phone, she, you know, she sees the flowers, right? And she’s like, oh my gosh, you know, here we go.

Joshua Kornitsky: So as you’ve as you’ve grown now year two with the program and and you’re taking those nominations, which to be clear, the nominations are closed for this year but won’t, you know, won’t be too long before right around.

Joanne Curtin: And we end them August 1st. You know, we let them go all summer long. So we let the principals know in the schools that we’re going to take nominations all summer long. So it’s a real kind of relaxed summer. People just nominate anonymously or or with a name, but they can choose, um, all summer and then August 1st it’s over, and then we meet as a board and we choose the winner and then game on until Thanksgiving.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I think it speaks a lot of the curtain team that you’ve got all of your vendors and suppliers that are helping you, that that that kind of thing doesn’t come without trust and without knowing that you’re a good partner to them, right? For them to be able to volunteer and to donate their time. So throughout the years, is this now something you’re talking up with your vendors and your suppliers so that they’re aware of it?

Joanne Curtin: I mean.

Tom Curtin: Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s um, I mean, they they know we’re going to ask now, but, um.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah, but I mean, you would think, oh, you know, we can ask a lot there. They don’t want to not do it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Like, that’s.

Joanne Curtin: Awesome. I mean, so it’s like, wow, my painters like, if I can call it he calls it a blessing. If I can do the blessing this year. And I’m like, of course you can.

Joshua Kornitsky: How do you say no to that?

Joanne Curtin: I know, so they it’s like, I don’t know, we don’t have to shop vendors. Nobody is saying no. And I can’t do it this year or or really anything.

Tom Curtin: So and it you know, we don’t know until we know what the project’s going to be. Um, but for the most part.

Joanne Curtin: I mean, last year.

Tom Curtin: Paintings usually always involved.

Joshua Kornitsky: Painting and probably.

Tom Curtin: Walls.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah, right. Last year we had some, um, we had, uh, concrete work, and it was freezing. And these guys, I mean, I got a video of the dust flying. They’re all just decked out in their, you know, winter coats. And it was grueling work, and we just were. We couldn’t believe it. So.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, speaking only as a homeowner, I didn’t realize that concrete was an art until I needed some. And it turns out it is quite an art.

Joanne Curtin: It was crazy. Yeah, yeah. And they did it with a smile, of all things.

Joshua Kornitsky: When? When you’re doing things like this that are that are giving of yourself to help others. So let’s talk about last year’s situation or last year’s winner. Pardon me. Um, tell us a little bit about how did that land, how did it go over. Because this is the first person.

Joanne Curtin: So yeah.

Tom Curtin: Well I think kind of backing up, I what Joanne mentioned with it growing, I do think that because it was the first year I think people were like, is this real? What is this. Right. Where’s the catch? So I we didn’t have as many, um, nominations because I think people just thought, I don’t, you know, I don’t want to give these people my name. Right.

Joshua Kornitsky: This is just another way to get my name.

Tom Curtin: Yeah. So I think we had to, you know, some people knew us because we do other things through the school, but, um, you know, in a broad sense, they didn’t. So I think we had to build some trust. Um, but last year’s was, um, a pretty big variety. I mean, there’s painting, landscaping.

Joanne Curtin: And again, every winter. So last year’s winter. Um, something that was important to her was her home office. She’d had, um, some challenges, um, in her family. And, um, and she really wanted to commemorate, um, a past child. And it was just really a deep story. And we just were delicate about it. And, um, and then when you walk into the home, you know, you ask them what, you know, wave a magic wand. What’s something that would really mean something? And to her, it was kind of to have a respite of, of that room where she could just go and, and it could just be a room for her. So we created that. We transformed a bedroom into a home office with memories, um, all around the photos, all around the room. And it was it was delicate because there’s siblings involved and, um, you know, a lot of people came out in the community that knew her and wanted to help, and it was just so touching. Really, really was.

Joshua Kornitsky: So I think people love to help and people love to help others who, whether it’s through loss or other means, and we want to respect their privacy. But in order to help fill the the hole in ourselves, we help but to also help others who have endured things. It’s healing for everybody.

Joanne Curtin: Right. And we had, you know, we had nominations that we couldn’t choose. We had a winner, right? That we all chose. Um, but then we had a couple of, um, runners up that we couldn’t choose. So, um, you know, we we do something for them as well. I’ll just leave it at that. We definitely bless them in another way. And that feels good too.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and I know this, and I’m not, um, shy about saying it. Pardon me again with my squeaky voice. Uh, as a the reason I got to know you both is, is that I’m a two time customer. But I say this from a from a human interest perspective. Um, you do a lot in the community, and I know that because I receive regular communication as a former customer that this is going on. I got a thing that there is some PiS coming around.

Tom Curtin: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, but you guys do movie nights. You do all sorts of things.

Joanne Curtin: We we did wino bingo. Joshua, where were you? Probably here.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, but you guys have created your own community, and I think that that speaks volumes about the integrity of your business, because people that I know that I’ve recommended, that I’ve suggested the curtain team. It’s integrity. First it’s community spirit. Now it’s charitable giving. Not that it wasn’t before because Curtain Team Cares already existed. Correct. So it wasn’t that you weren’t doing other charitable things. This one’s just a little bit more public.

Joanne Curtin: It is. And it was just such a perfect project for our team because, I mean, you know, any Tuesday we can refresh a home. We do that for a living, right? And to do this, I mean, it’s such a large project for the winter. And to us, it’s it’s just something we take for granted. So we’re like, wow, you know, this is just perfect for us to get behind. And we should just, you know, um, just keep putting gas on it every year, see what we can do.

Joshua Kornitsky: And we want to make sure that we draw the attention to it. We’ll get we’ll get you on earlier before the nomination process next time, so that we can make sure to get the word out about that. Um, you know, we are all somewhat, uh, I don’t want to say numb, but we’re biased because we see renovation programs on television that let’s just go ahead and say are not realistic.

Joanne Curtin: It’s almost impossible to create what they’re what they’re.

Joshua Kornitsky: I have in my personal life, known people that have been, uh, not on shows but have been in the running to be on shows. And let’s just say there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors and leave it at that. Um, we won’t speak ill of them, but how long does it take once you have your winner and things get moving?

Joanne Curtin: That’s a great question.

Tom Curtin: Yeah. So we we do have to spread some of it out. So, you know, I guess originally we kind of thought could we do it all in one day? And the answer was no. Um, it does depend on the house. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: So like the.

Tom Curtin: Pro in this case, the paint’s already been done. You know, we bring the painter in ahead of time, so we. Yeah, we.

Joanne Curtin: We reach out to the vendors that we know we need these things fixed. We get them to, you know, let us know that that’s a possibility. Absolutely. But then I think what’s so great is the vendors can say, you know what? When it’s an ice storm or when it’s rained out, we can come over there with our guys, like, can, can we do that on, you know, this weekend or on a Friday. And so it’s really just whenever it’s good for them and we clear it with the homeowner and um, it just and and they’re so thankful they’re like absolutely. They can come over here. And so we’re we’re actually working on it for a good month prior to the day. But then the day happens and we get we get full like, you know, permission to bring our team and our board in.

Tom Curtin: Um, and the volunteers.

Joanne Curtin: And volunteers, of course, um, to come in and just put stuff together and do the install is what we say, you know, with all the fun stuff that we’ve.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so, so let’s talk about volunteers because there is still time for volunteers.

Joanne Curtin: There is totally time. We have blinds and we.

Tom Curtin: Have a.

Joanne Curtin: Lot of nature. We have it’s from.

Tom Curtin: Ikea, which is making me.

Joshua Kornitsky: Sweat.

Tom Curtin: Look at those boxes.

Joanne Curtin: Let me tell you, some Ikea shelves are about as good as I mean, that is like gold. I love those.

Tom Curtin: Um.

Joanne Curtin: Ikea shelves.

Tom Curtin: So yeah, we have that whole day and we’ll I mean, that’s the fun. I mean, I don’t know that furniture putting together is fun.

Joanne Curtin: The install of the furniture.

Tom Curtin: You know, once you get to see the finished product, like, well.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s the payoff that they keeps everybody tuned in to those silly shows, right? It’s because everybody wants to see the after.

Tom Curtin: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: So yeah, I love the fact that you guys are realistic about it because it it always struck me as kind of crazy how they could paint the house and put the furniture in on the same day, right? I mean, I guess you could.

Tom Curtin: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: You must not care a lot about the floors, right?

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. No. We’re humans. I mean, we’re we’re getting there. We’re getting there in the morning. We’re going to have lunch there. I mean, it’s a great obviously team building exercise.

Tom Curtin: And we do it the Friday before Thanksgiving on purpose so that the homeowner, the winner can have, you know, everything’s done for the holidays, right. For for Thanksgiving and, um, you know, going into the holidays. So. Yeah. Um, so that’s the day that we’ve chosen.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. And everyone’s in a giving spirit. It just makes sense, you know, it’s the perfect time to plant flowers. We usually put some flowers up by the front door. Um, there’s holiday decorations involved. We. You know, I don’t want to. Is she going to hear this after the fact? I don’t want to give away the funny thing that we’re doing in there.

Joshua Kornitsky: Then let’s.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Leave it secret. You can share it next time. Yeah.

Joanne Curtin: Um, so we have a little surprise.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I know from other conversations that we’ve had that you’ve got a really strong culture inside of the curtain team itself. So are your folks excited to get involved? Oh.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. I mean, they’re like, who’s the winner? Like, you know, who’s the winner? What can we do? And they’re just, um. Yeah, they block out the day and they they’re just. Yeah. They’re coming. Ready to be filled. Filled. Fill their cup.

Tom Curtin: Yeah, it’s it’s something that we can all kind of get behind. And the way that we part of the way that we fund curtain team cares is every home that we sell, we donate a portion into curtain team care. So just kind of throughout the year.

Joanne Curtin: There’s a kitty. I mean, there’s a kitty we’re drawing from. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Good to know though, because that’s not something that it even occurred to me how to how that comes about. Because lumber is not free no matter who’s donating.

Joanne Curtin: Right, right. Yeah. And and, you know, um, when we do sell homes, we have letters that go out and reminds them a portion of this went to our home refresh. This is what, um, you know, our nonprofit is supporting and just gives that homeowner a feel good of, like, what we donated on their behalf for that sale. They forget or maybe don’t even know.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, 100% they forget, because if it’s not in front of us, that’s just human nature. But I think that it’s the fact that it’s a portion of every home you’re dealing with says a lot about the integrity of the organization, and it’s about the consistency of keeping that kitty full, because we all know that it all goes up and down when it comes to availability and vendors and supplies and all of that. Um, so you guys are are really forward thinking that way. Do you and I ask this cautiously, we don’t want to give anything away. Do you have other plans for curtain teams care. Curtain team cares. Pardon me with with other things that you are okay talking about.

Tom Curtin: Yeah. Well, we.

Joanne Curtin: Actually do quite a bit.

Tom Curtin: Yeah. There’s some partners in the community that we partner with and we donate to regularly. Um, Children’s Development Academy is one of them.

Joanne Curtin: Cda.

Tom Curtin: School in Roswell.

Joanne Curtin: And they serve under um, uh. What is their mission? It’s under under low income families. Okay. Yeah, it’s a low income family. Support for early childhood ed. Yeah. And again, that was in line with.

Joshua Kornitsky: Sounds like it’s your passion.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah, it was in line with what we did, and we were just like, wow, this is fabulous. So we it’s all pre-K.

Tom Curtin: We also take kind of one offs. You know, I mean, there’s been just outreach. If something happens to an individual in the community that they need kind of an immediate support, then that’s what we’re there.

Joanne Curtin: Right. And we have a liaison on the board for every, um, elementary school, um, as well as, yeah, into some middle schools, too. Yeah.

Tom Curtin: One of the fun things we’ve been able to do is, um, a couple of the middle, uh, sorry, elementary schools where we are. Um, they don’t have enough funds to do a field trip. Um, like some, you know, some schools. The parents can donate.

Joanne Curtin: The school wide field trips, the school wide can get expensive.

Tom Curtin: Some of the kids, you know, their parents don’t have the money to to give to do the field trip. And we’ve been able to fund that so that all the kids can go and.

Joanne Curtin: And it’s a sleepover at the aquarium. That’s like, I remember when my daughter did a sleepover like it. And it’s all about, you know, your friends and just such a big deal.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and and the reason that I.

Joanne Curtin: And that’s a fifth grade trip, by the way.

Joshua Kornitsky: Thank you for clarifying. Uh, the reason that I asked that is I want people to understand that this isn’t just in the real estate universe of giving, right? That this is just community care and community, uh, consciousness. And for that, you guys should really, really be saluted. Why? I so, uh, was so excited to have you back on to talk about this, because these are the kinds of things that people don’t ever see happen, right? And in most, giving is invisible. And it’s no one’s business who does what, where, to whom or how as far as giving goes. But this should. We need more corporate responsibility. We need more corporate giving. Um, because this is direct and directly touches the communities you serve and that we serve. So to me, I love the fact that that it’s starting and ending with education focus, but it’s also giving into the community to help elevate, uh, folks within. So I’m excited to see this year’s winner. When when will that be made public?

Joanne Curtin: Well, actually, we had um, we had oh, it’s going out in the magazine. Well, we’ve shared who the winner is.

Tom Curtin: Yeah. So we’ve we’ve announced the winner already.

Joanne Curtin: Um, her name is Tony Reeves, and she’s from Hembree Springs Elementary School. Okay. And it was so fun to share that with our team because one of our team members was like, oh my gosh, my kids went to Henry Springs. So, you know, there’s such a connection. So, um, it was a it was an anonymous nomination. And Tony is very just grateful. She’s like, I don’t need to hide anything. You just share my story. But, um, she’s a single mom, and, um, she recently purchased a house. And, you know, in our business, I mean, anyone that pulls the trigger to purchase a house in a climate that we’ve been through is just a hero already, right? Um. And we just were really proud of her for doing that. And, um, and she, after she purchased the house, she had some things that just never got done. And that’s what her kind of wish was, was. Oh, my gosh. Like, I just want to get my kids rooms painted. You know, I haven’t done that. And, um, you know, some other things with the kids. We we got to talk to them about some things that they were wanting. So it was just fabulous, but I forgot. What was your question?

Tom Curtin: Initially, the winner was.

Joshua Kornitsky: The winner about who the winner.

Joanne Curtin: Was. Yes. And so, you know, um, we surprised her with, um, a beautiful bouquet of flowers donated. Um, and she came to the front. They called her up. She thought she was in trouble. And that was the best video. Um, and, you know, it’s just it it involves the whole school, and we’re going to involve the whole school again. Um, for her, um, for her install day, they’re going to do a little something for her. So we’re excited, but, um, and then Roswell magazine, uh, Roswell Neighbor magazine does an article about it to let the community know. And Michelle Berry helps us put that put that out. And, yeah, it’s just awesome.

Joshua Kornitsky: Is there a website where people can kind of see some pictures or if they want to learn more?

Joanne Curtin: Um, well, I mean.

Tom Curtin: We.

Joanne Curtin: Put.

Tom Curtin: It on our social media.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. Best thing is just our Instagram curtain team. Um, and then it’ll link up to Curtain Team care. So really it’s Instagram and Facebook. You know, curtain team care social is really where it’s all at. I mean, that’s that’s instant.

Joshua Kornitsky: Websites are kind of static.

Joanne Curtin: Well, you can go to our website to give money or sign up to volunteer.

Joshua Kornitsky: Please tell us what what that is.

Tom Curtin: Uh, curtain team cares or curtain comm.

Joshua Kornitsky: And it’s important to point out again. And I’m I’m a stickler on this one. It’s a 500 1C3. It’s a legitimate nonprofit. And not to intimate that others are not. But there’s a lot of confusion sometimes this is a charity and you are donating to a charity.

Joanne Curtin: Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s a charity that helps here in our community. And in this particular case, is fulfilling an educators wish list for what they had had wanted to get finished in their home.

Joanne Curtin: Um hum.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. Um, I think it’s fantastic. And, and as we roll forward into the the season of giving. I think it’s important to note that we got to keep the kitty full. So if people want to continue to donate, if people want to give, yes, those those doors are open.

Joanne Curtin: Absolutely, absolutely. They they can give with those, um, with the sites that Tom shared. And when we do these events like, y’know, bingo. And we have, um, we have breakfast with Santa and photos with Santa coming up in December, um, there’s a QR code where they can donate on the spot, because actually we weren’t doing that last year, and the families were so grateful that their kids could come, you know, and tell their, you know, tell Santa what they want. And it’s later in the month to where they they actually have an idea. Sometimes it’s so early, but they’re so grateful and they’re like, oh, how can we, you know, how can we thank you? And we’re like, oh, well, this is how you can thank us. You know, if you’re asking, that’s definitely fantastic.

Joshua Kornitsky: So you better buy a house. I mean.

Joanne Curtin: That too.

Joshua Kornitsky: That was a big.

Tom Curtin: Thing that helps. Yeah.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah, yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, I, I can’t thank you guys enough for the work that you’re doing in the community. Is there anything else that we need to let anybody know about the program? Excuse me? The project?

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. Um.

Joshua Kornitsky: Gosh, I want to.

Joanne Curtin: I mean, think about, you know, you know, just think about next year, if, you know.

Tom Curtin: We’ll open up nominations, um, probably in the early spring next year.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. And we want to make sure that you’re following them on, on Instagram for both kirtan team and kirtan team cares. So that that way you’re able to see what’s going on and, you know, maybe stay abreast of what’s happening in your community in a couple of different directions.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. And if if someone’s not getting our newsletter, I mean, we, we really I mean, and and follow us on Instagram. I mean, we just did a post about like what’s happening in the Roswell Alpharetta area over the holidays and over the giving times. I mean, how to give must ministries. I mean, there’s all kinds of ways people can give back, not just through kirtan team care. So we’re really rooted in the community.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I know you are. And I’ll tell you in a in an information age where we are all overloaded with entirely too much communication. I do read your emails. That’s how I knew about the pie.

Joanne Curtin: You know, I’m so glad to hear that because.

Tom Curtin: It’s.

Joanne Curtin: Hard. Listen, Joshua, I remember in the I mean, this will be our 25th year coming up. Um, next next year will be our 25th year. Wow. Everything’s going to have to have a 25 in it when we do something. But I remember asking people for their emails when we were first in the business and they were like, well, I’m not going to share my email. You know, nobody wanted to give their email.

Tom Curtin: So I don’t have one.

Joanne Curtin: I don’t have one. Or so now and then I’m wondering, do people really read it? So I’m glad to hear that we have something that you choose to read. Well, because so many people do.

Joshua Kornitsky: It comes down to is the fact that you’re you’re sharing useful information. And when you’re sharing useful information, when you’re showing the good you’re doing right. It’s it’s hard not to pay attention.

Joanne Curtin: Yeah. It’s a good email. Yeah. You want to open it?

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. Because we all get plenty of emails that we don’t want to read, right? Um, so that that always makes me happy to see. So I’m glad that you guys are maintaining the communication. Keep it open, keep it flowing. Um, and thank you for what you’re doing for our community, because I think that it deserves the thanks. We really appreciate it.

Joanne Curtin: Thank you.

Joshua Kornitsky: So for anyone who wants to learn more about the Roswell Home refresh or the curtain team cares, the best way to do that is to go to their Instagram or their website. Um, we will have those published when we publish the interview on Spotify and Apple and the other podcast platforms. My guest today has been Tom Curtin, CEO of Curtin Team. Joanne Curtin, the founder of the Curtin team and president and co-founder of Curtin Team Cares, the charitable organization behind the community impact programs that they do. Under their leadership, the Curtin team has become one of Metro Atlanta’s most respected real estate teams, known for their focus on education, leadership and community connection. I can’t thank you guys enough for coming in and giving us some more of your time. I know how short it must be these days.

Tom Curtin: Thank you.

Joanne Curtin: It’s awesome.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s. It’s always.

Joanne Curtin: A.

Joshua Kornitsky: Pleasure. And I expect to see you in the spring when the nominations open.

Joanne Curtin: Oh, that’ll be great.

Joshua Kornitsky: Absolutely.

Joanne Curtin: Great.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I just want to remind everybody that today’s episode is brought to you, in part by the Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Mainstreet Warriors. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor of the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Please go check them out at diesel. David. Comm. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I am a professional implementer of the entrepreneurial operating system and this has been Cherokee Business Radio. Thank you for listening.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. This is Joshua Kornitsky professional EOS implementer and your host today. Uh, before we get started, I’ve got a great guest here in the studio, but I want to make sure everybody knows that today’s episode is brought to you in part by our community partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Mainstreet Warriors and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Mainstreet Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Inc. please go check them out at David Comm. Well, as I said, I’ve got a great guest here in the studio. I’d like to introduce Joanie Chamberland, uh, owner and head instructor at the Rise Up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Welcome, Joanie.

Joanie Chamberland: Hey, thank you for having me here today.

Joshua Kornitsky: Uh, it’s wonderful to have you. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in and then ultimately created the academy.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah, absolutely. So I actually grew up doing martial arts for my whole life. I started when I was four years old, and, um, that was up in Canada before I moved here.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Joanie Chamberland: And then, um, when I got down here, actually, my parents had me start gymnastics, and I absolutely hated it.

Joshua Kornitsky: At what age did you.

Joanie Chamberland: When I moved here? When I was eight.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay, so. So you were already four years in when you got here?

Joanie Chamberland: Yes. Correct.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s crazy.

Joanie Chamberland: Um, and I was doing kenpo karate up there, and then I came down here, they made me do gymnastics, Monastics, and I was a tomboy. It was not my thing. I’m wearing the leotard, I hated it. Um, so then we found a taekwondo school here, and I trained there for a good bit of time, till my dad lost his job when I was in middle school, and. And then we were just working out at Gold’s Gym. And I remember I would have friends come over in high school, and my best friend and I would wrestle in the living room, like, we moved the tables and everything off to the side. And she was, uh, a very athletic soccer player. And I was a beanpole my entire life.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Joanie Chamberland: And, um, she would beat me up, to say the least. And one of my brother’s friends at the time, um, was doing, like, garage jiu jitsu, and he was like, hey, let me show you some stuff. And I was like, what is this? This is awesome. And he was like, it’s called jiu jitsu. And so it clicked to me because there was a school near where I was working out with my dad. And so I went and asked, you know, what jiu jitsu was about? And all of that. And they wanted a six day commitment. And I was like, um, I yeah, I can’t do that. So then I decided, well, let me go try Krav Maga, where I used to do taekwondo. And the guy looked at me and he was like, um, you’re too young. And I was like, it’s 16 and up. And he was like, yeah, but you’re also too small. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I’ll go train at this other gym.

Joshua Kornitsky: Isn’t that the point, though, that that size shouldn’t really enter into it? Well, it’s not the point, but a point with regards to it.

Joanie Chamberland: For jiu jitsu, yes, but not krav.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Joanie Chamberland: And and I mean, he’s not technically wrong because if you’re a certain size and your partners are a lot bigger than you and they’re kicking you, it doesn’t matter. You’re gonna get kicked across the room with the bag.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Joanie Chamberland: So, you know, I was like, okay, well, I’ll go here to do some jiu jitsu. And they’re like, well, we have a grappling program. And so I was like, okay. And so I started there in the grappling program and like within a month we had a really incredible instructor come in who was a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt. And our grappling program became an actual jiu jitsu program. And it was just I fell in love with it. I loved jiu jitsu, so I just continued to train with him until eventually he moved out of state and they offered me the job to start teaching it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah. So it was it wasn’t really something. I was just like, well, I’m gonna do this for a living, right? Um, even when I had that job, I still never really planned on opening a gym. Um, I was going to school for criminal justice and plan to work for, like, human trafficking or crimes against children. And, um, I went to law school. Not I didn’t finish. I did a semester, and it was just. I did not like it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Joanie Chamberland: And then it was just like, maybe I should open a school because then I could help people before things happen to them. And so it was like, you know, once they’re in the system and you’re helping them through the system, like, unfortunately something has happened for them to be in your care, right? So I was hoping that maybe if we start educating people younger and, you know, showing them those skills, that they would be able to defend themselves before anything happens to them.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and you bring up an interesting point. So. Growing up, I had a friend who was very involved in a different martial art, but he had always shared with me that that by and large it is a defensive art versus yes, it can be used offensively, but it’s meant to keep you from from being harm. And if if it is from being harmed, if it is necessary for you to harm. Most martial arts are designed to make that a very short process. Is that an accurate statement?

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah. Well, and it’s like, um, you’re right. With jiu jitsu, it is technically made for the small person to defeat a bigger person. Right? Um, which is not the case with a lot of other martial arts where you’re striking because you can only strike so hard. Right? You got to be very, very precise. If you’re not as strong as they are, like hitting the same spot. And I still have other martial arts that I’ve taken, right? I did end up doing Krav at some point. I have my level three in Krav. Wow, Um, I do Mikio Shirai and, um, did Kenpo karate. Taekwondo. So I’ve done a lot of different martial arts. Um, but I personally don’t like striking, um, in the whole Krav mentality, like you’re saying is more offensive, right? It’s. They hit you and you hit him back many times harder, faster, and try to get them off of you. Right? Whereas jiu jitsu, we don’t do any striking. I mean, there’s some striking defense depending on the gym you’re at. Um, I did choose a sports, um based approach to jiu jitsu just because I enjoy it more.

Joshua Kornitsky: Can you explain what the difference is for someone like me that doesn’t know what the difference is?

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah, absolutely. So you’re not going to come in and per se learn how to like block a punch or, you know, learn how to block a strike. Really, you’re going to be learning how to start standing and take somebody down if necessary, which most fights go to the ground. And jiu jitsu is is a ground based martial arts, right? So most everything is on the ground. You learn different techniques from judo, wrestling to do takedowns to take somebody down. But the majority of it is all based on how you control things from the ground, and how to knock over a bigger opponent and get on top, or get behind them to control their limbs. And so over that. Being able to have confidence in yourself and have confidence in being able to control an opponent that’s bigger than you are to move around their limbs, it’s going to still teach you, in a sense, how to defend. Now, is it going to be the number one thing? No, you might, but you’re still going to hit get hit in a fight no matter what. Even if you knew all that stuff, right? Um, but for me, it was just the most practical approach. I want to be training every day. So I didn’t go with an MMA route of jiu jitsu. Okay, um, my goal isn’t to create MMA fighters, it’s to create jiu jitsu practitioners that they can use everything that they’ve learned mentally and physically.

Joshua Kornitsky: And that’s actually the. So in in my other professional life, I teach leadership teams discipline and accountability. And I had the opportunity to to, as I will only say, a little glimpse not into your world, but just into martial arts in a broader sense, through a friend growing up and through another adult, one of my closest adult friends who practices another form of martial art. Uh, and I’m being vague because I don’t remember the exact name. Um, but both of them had told me. And I’d love your your perspective on this, that so much of what the physical training is, is really mental training. And it’s about building confidence and it’s about building self-discipline. And is that something that resonates with you as being correct?

Joanie Chamberland: Oh, absolutely. I tell people, you know, jiu jitsu is kind of like a parallel to life, right? Because you’re going to be constantly in situations that you are uncomfortable in you don’t you feel like you don’t know what to do? Right? In jiu jitsu and I’m huge about learning your fundamentals because it takes and it’s it’s monotonous. Right. Like I’m having a shrimp every day. I’m having to redo the same move over and over, get your drills in. Right. But that’s the discipline you’re talking about, right? In life. Like you can’t just write a sentence without knowing how to make a letter. Right? And if you guys remember tracing those letters over and over again, right. It’s like after a while you’re like, okay, I don’t need this, right? But they still keep making you do it till you’ve got it down pat. It’s the same thing. You’re learning your fundamentals. You’re drilling them over and over again so that the next time you get into a position that you’re super uncomfortable in, your body just knows how to do that thing. So it makes you use and realize too, that if you practice and you practice, once you’re in one of those positions, you realize like, oh, I can get out of this. And so that’s where that confidence comes from, right? Like you have to do the thing to gain confidence. You just don’t oh I’m confident I’m gonna go do that. Like that’s not really how it works.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s not like The Matrix where they just plug in the drive and you know it all. Boy, wouldn’t that be nice?

Joanie Chamberland: That’d be great. But it’s definitely not so. Yeah, it causes you to have a lot of discipline. And especially when you’re talking about self-control with jiu jitsu, you have to be able to control your limbs and someone else’s limbs that are, you know, moving at you. So if you can’t control your own limbs and tell them where to go and, and a lot of it. And I don’t mean like you’re just going to be punching without telling yourself to punch, right? No, I mean, you’re going to be told to move your hand and you’re going to move your foot. And then your instructor is like, no, no, no, your hand. And then you’re going to move your other foot like, no, the foot that’s connected to your arm, that’s what you move, you know, because it’s so much body like understanding. You have to understand every part of your body and which part to move at what time, because you’re having to use your whole body all at once.

Joshua Kornitsky: And that must take a lot of fundamental drilling to, to get into regular, non-conscious thought about it, where it happens at an automatic level. Uh, and I imagine you have to continue to reinforce that otherwise things fade over time.

Joanie Chamberland: Right? And and it does come back quickly, though. I mean, that is something people fear when they’ve done jiu jitsu in the past. Or they’ll take a break like somebody who’s pregnant, let’s say, right when they have their kid, they’re like, I’m gonna forget everything, right? It doesn’t work that way. Like when you first come back, you’ll feel like you’ve forgotten it all, but it will click back in because it’s muscle memory, like it’s ingrained into your brain. How to move. Just like. Well, when we were kids and you guys were kids, right? You learn how to ride a bike, right? Like I haven’t ridden a bike in years just because it’s just not on my priority thing.

Joshua Kornitsky: So it might be wobbly when you get on it, but.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah, but then you’re gonna be like, oh, cool, this is easy. Now. Nowadays, I know a lot of kids who don’t even know how to ride a bike, but, you know, it’s one of those things you don’t really forget. It’s like brushing your teeth, right? You could stop brushing your teeth for a month and still know the movement of brushing your teeth. You know.

Joshua Kornitsky: I hope not, but. But I follow it. Yeah. Um, so how long ago did you create the the the academy? What? What drove you to create the academy?

Joanie Chamberland: Um, honestly, I was teaching jiu jitsu in a taekwondo school for years and the overhead like, not my boss as a franchise, right? So the franchise just didn’t really push the jiu jitsu, and so there wasn’t really ever going to be an opportunity for growth of that program. Even though we kept trying to get them to push jiu jitsu, they just never did. They stuck with the martial art that they were doing. And so I had a friend who was like, hey, you know, I’m thinking about opening a school, do you want to join me? And that didn’t end up happening. I ended up opening it on my own, but it was something I was like I was interested in doing. I was already teaching jiu jitsu and I loved doing it. I love teaching and helping people. So, um, I ended up opening the gym in July of 2019.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh wow. So you’ve been around for a while now, right? That’s fantastic. And and where is the gym located?

Joanie Chamberland: So it’s in Kennesaw right off of exit four by the Publix, um, where the harbor freight is. Everybody knows about the Harbor freight ferry.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yep. Okay.

Joanie Chamberland: Yep. Exit for Bell’s Ferry. It’s like right off the exit. So super close to Woodstock.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s fantastic. Well, so tell us about some of the programs and things that are going on in the gym so that if people are interested, they can learn more.

Joanie Chamberland: Absolutely. So we are an academy that focuses on GHI and Nogi, which is the the guy is the uniform. So we have classes where you’re in the uniform and then we have Nogi, which is more like kind of like streetwear clothing where you can’t grab the material in order to help you with different techniques. So we have both options available. It’s pretty evenly filtered on that. And we have youth programs as well as adult programs. How young we start them at seven now. We used to have a 4 to 6 year old class. It’s just very difficult and it’s a class that you have to have the right instructor.

Joshua Kornitsky: That intention spans awful small from 4 to 7.

Joanie Chamberland: Yes, yes. And so maybe one day we’ll open it back up. But the person who was teaching it had a child and moved away. Um, and that’s just not a class I’m willing to take on.

Joshua Kornitsky: Sure. Well, and you know what? Knowing limitations is smart too. So exactly.

Joanie Chamberland: So we take them at seven and, um, all the way to whatever age, right. Anybody can take it. And, um, what we did just open up a new offer for people that are homeschooling their kids because it’s such a thing that’s happening now. There’s a.

Joshua Kornitsky: Lot of it’s everywhere.

Joanie Chamberland: Right? There’s a lot of homeschoolers. So, um, for like, a PE credit, let’s say they could take jiu jitsu. So it’s a it’s a great way to get physical activity. But also your kids will be learning a life skill, right? They’ll be learning self-control, discipline, respect.

Joshua Kornitsky: And those with no disrespect to to the styles that you’re teaching. To me, those are things that that last forever. Uh, hopefully their knowledge of jiu jitsu will as well. But understanding, discipline, understanding, um, inner strength and confidence. You teach amazing things, right?

Joanie Chamberland: And it’s honestly, it’s it’s more fulfilling for me because I get to see the the difference and the change in the kids. Um. And the adults. Right. It’s it’s so cool to see somebody do something that they never thought they’d be able to do.

Joshua Kornitsky: I, I have two daughters, and I occasionally have those moments, and it’s it makes you incredibly proud. Um, so, yeah, I have to think you get to see that over and over again as, as time goes by. Um, and with. So you’ve been in business six years, so you must have had some students that that joined you quite young, that are now adults or young adults.

Joanie Chamberland: Oh yes. I’ve got some now that are so I was teaching before opening my gym for years as well. Right. Um, I think it was eight years I was teaching before opening my gym. And so I’ve got kids that were like 6 or 7 when they started with me, you know, that are old enough to drink now.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s crazy.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah. And it’s like, you know, people look at me like, oh, you’re so young. It’s not like you’ve been doing this that long. I’m like, guys, I’ve been teaching jiu jitsu for since I was 16. I’m 33, so I can’t math for life. Yeah, exactly.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so what do you say to people that are like, well, I’m interested, but I’m afraid or it’s going to be too much money or how do you how do you help people walk through that door? Because I imagine there’s there’s a psychological barrier, right. To to just crossing that threshold. What how can you help them?

Joanie Chamberland: So one of the biggest things is most people find out about jiu jitsu through like the UFC.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Joanie Chamberland: Right. And the MMA circuit. And so they’re like really worried that it’s going to be this, like, macho sport. Sure. Um, especially if they know anything about the Gracie brothers and what they were doing back in the day. Um, fighting on the UFC and just destroying people. Um, so the main thing is that I’ve been training for a very long time, and I am a small female, and my training partners were not mainly male. You know, and they were big dudes. I, I got my black belt at a gym where my small training partners were 180 pounds, and I’m 130. So and that was the small range. And I had a few women and some of them were like 155, 160 like Crossfitters. So I was.

Joshua Kornitsky: Always fighting a lot. You were always fighting up.

Joanie Chamberland: Exactly. And so, you know, I made it to where? At my academy. Well, one of my biggest goals is to one day have a small person Jiu-Jitsu class. Um, that would be amazing for us, but we aren’t there yet. Um, but I’ve made it to where whenever people come in, right? I have trained my higher ranks that have been training longer to be the partners for the the newcomers, and so that they can help them make sure that they’re training in a safe environment and getting basically like one on one help throughout the class. So I’m teaching the moves, and when they go off to do the moves, they have, like a personal helper with them. And it’s the same thing in the kids class. I try to always partner the higher ranks with the lower ranks so that they can help each other, because two people who don’t know what they’re doing, getting together to do something that they don’t know how to do, usually doesn’t turn out well.

Joshua Kornitsky: You know, you would be amazed how often I have a version of that occur in my professional life that you would, when you come to me with a problem, come to me with an answer. Well, if I had an answer, I wouldn’t have come to you. Similar concept, right? If you put two people that don’t know what they’re doing together, you’re going to have two very confused people making a lot of assumptions, all of which are wrong and some of which may hurt them.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah. Exactly. So and and honestly, as an instructor and I’ve gone to a lot of different schools, so I’ve tried to create a, you know, an environment of like where would I want to go. Right. And a big thing I’m trying to teach people is that, for lack of better words, you can be a bad a without hurting yourself and hurting your training partners. Right? You can have safe training and still come out hard and and beat people up when you’re going out there to compete. And so I want to make sure that that’s the same thing in all my classes. And when I go to other places I’ve been you know, I watch they have like a fundamentals class which is all white belts only like a white belt class. And and honestly, it’s terrifying as an instructor to watch that, especially when it goes to like the what we call rolling, which is the sparring version of jiu jitsu where you get to learn everything. We call it rolling because you look like you’re rolling around on the ground. Um, that’s the scariest part, is watching two white belts, especially males, because of the ego thing. And it’s always friends. Like, it’s not one of those, like, I’m gonna beat this person up. This guy’s. No, it’s it’s always.

Joshua Kornitsky: Funny, Jim.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah. Exactly right. And so they’re just out there going at it and you’re like, oh, guys, please don’t use 100% like, right. So that was my goal is to make a class environment where we wouldn’t have that happen because I’ve had that in the past. I’ve been teaching for a long time, you know, and I’ve had that in the past where two friends come in and they hurt themselves training together, and then they’re out and they can’t come back and train for a while because, well, I got my shoulder hurt or this and I’m a working dad. And it’s like I kept telling you guys to slow down. So instead what I do is I go ahead and partner them and don’t allow them to choose their friends until they’ve got more training in. And I can see that they’re not gonna hurt themselves. That’s kind of the goal.

Joshua Kornitsky: You have to learn enough to know how not to hurt yourself, which probably takes more time than most people give it credit for.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah, I actually have a new white belt who’s a college student, and he said to me, you know, how come you don’t train with some of the people in here? And I was like, well, I don’t like training with the white belts because they’re terrifying. And he was like, no, you’re scary. And I was like, I know how to do jiu jitsu, so I know how to not hurt you and not hurt myself. But when I go and roll with a new person, especially if they’re bigger than me, which is likely if they’re a man, um, and they’re going to use all their strength because they don’t know how to hold back. And so I have to protect me and protect them while we’re training, like it’s a lot. And honestly, it’s just not fun for me to be doing that. It’s a lot of mental thought, physical movement. So, you know, to me, the scariest people are people or the white belts, and that’s why we got to keep them the safest, right? So that’s the environment that we have going on, trying to make sure everybody understands. And in our fundamentals classes we actually don’t do any rolling okay. We do technique drills. And then there is an open mat at the end that if you want to stick around and watch people train. So you can start to see like how to play.

Joshua Kornitsky: How it develops from the fundamentals that you’re learning.

Joanie Chamberland: Exactly.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s really cool because a lot of times it’s not until much later in any type of scenario where when you’re learning the fundamentals, you don’t understand that, you know, these may be the movements that lead to all the cool things that you think you came here to, to learn that you will learn in time. But you have to master these, and you can kind of show where they all represent in the more advanced material and maneuvers. Right? I just think that’s awesome because to me, I love understanding the context of things. So if you tell me to, you know, No. Make this movement seven times. Every time I’m there practicing. But I don’t understand what that movement will lead to. For me, the light goes on when you show me. Well, here, if you look at these more advanced students, here’s where that lead, that move leads to. And for me, that always turns a light on. So I love that idea. Um, are the classes um. When when you have your classes and obviously you must have different classes throughout the week. Um, how does it work from an engagement perspective? If you want to just try it out, is there a way you can come in and just try it out?

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah. So actually the way that it works is we do have fundamentals classes. It’s just I have high ranks in there as well. Um, honestly, they’re one of our more attended classes. Just because people understand the value of building up somebody new so that they get a higher, you know, a better person to train with. And so what we have right now is we have a two week offer where you can train for free for two weeks. Unlimited.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s great. And that’s as many times as you want to show.

Joanie Chamberland: Up, as many times as you want to show up. You just can’t come to the advanced class if you’re not advanced, and all the other classes are open to you.

Joshua Kornitsky: That seems like something that’s a pretty good decision for on behalf of that student.

Joanie Chamberland: Right? But if you were somebody that’s maybe taking a break off like we were talking about earlier, right? That’s you know, I don’t want to come back in. I’m gonna feel silly. Like, what if I forget? Like, it’s a perfect class to come into, to come back and come into that fundamentals class because you’re going to have some high ranks with you and you’re going to have some lower ranks, and it’s just an environment where you can just come in and like get those, you know, those movements moving back through right into your brain, into your mind, and then your body will just pick it back up. Right. So it’s not just for newcomers, it’s for anybody. Right? Anybody who just wants to come in and get some training with with people who have been teaching for a long time, have also been competing. Myself and Andrew have competed a lot, have taught for many years. So anybody who wants to come out can do that. Free two weeks and it is unlimited. So like I said, any classes for those two weeks you want to come to that is an advanced unless you’re an advanced rank.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s really an incredible offer to make out there for people. And once you get through those two weeks and you decide you’re going to stick with it, are there, um, prescribed days, so many days a week, or is it kind of up to you? How do you how does a student determine how frequently they’re there?

Joanie Chamberland: So that’s going to be up to the student. But we do have options. So like you could take two classes for three classes or unlimited classes a week. And then we have like a monthly breakdown on that. So and you can always upgrade or downgrade based on if you’re traveling or something.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’ll fit the needs of the student. That’s great because a lot of times, you know, you think about a gym membership, you sign up and you’re just stuck for whatever amount it is every month, whether you’re there or not. So to be able to customize it, I think is fantastic. So we talked about your background. We talked about your gym. We gym. We talked about really your philosophy and in helping the inexperienced not harm themselves, which I think is is notable in a lot of respects. But I want to ask one the one question when when I learned you were coming on, that I wanted to know the answer to is what are some of the assumptions people make about jiu jitsu? Pardon me? Jiu jitsu. Hard word when you’ve been talking all day. Uh, hard phrase. Um, what are some of the assumptions that that people walk in the door believing that are just not the case? Because I feel like that’s you had talked earlier about sort of that macho mindset, and I feel like that must lead to more damage than positivity. Right. So what are some of the other assumptions that people have about walking in the door about learning this style of fighting?

Joanie Chamberland: So I think there’s a lot of people who think that they’re gonna have to fight somebody that day, which is not the case. Um, if you would like to. And there’s somebody there that’s willing to work with you on it, of course. But, um, we’ve had a lot of people that think it’s going to be like a big click, right? Um, so they’re not going to fit in, um, which does happen often when you go to gyms where you don’t even get greeted when you come in and you’re kind of like waiting around. Yep.

Joshua Kornitsky: Scan the barcode.

Joanie Chamberland: Exactly. So there’s that. There’s a lot of just especially with having a female instructor, like, people don’t want to get beat up by a woman. And it’s just like, first of all, I don’t want to train with you on your first day either. Right. And I’ve got plenty of men here, if that’s what you’re looking for. Um, and I’ve had some people just think it’s not technical in which kind of is crazy to me.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s. I would from from a complete outsider’s perspective, it’s it’s somewhere between operating heavy machinery and ballet because it seems like it’s an incredibly graceful but incredibly complex scenario. Right. It’s it’s not anybody that could look at that. Unless. Unless you simply have no other context in the world and watch popular action films and think that happens naturally. I can’t imagine how people would, but obviously they do because they walk in the door with the wrong assumption.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah, and I think another big one is, um, I’m too old or I don’t want to get hurt is a huge one, right? I have another job. Um, and I’m gonna feel stupid. Yes you will. So did everyone who first started, including myself. It feels really silly. It’s movements that you’re completely unsure of. Um, and then you got that guy on the other side who’s like, well, I could take all of them. Jiu jitsu doesn’t work. I’ll just pull out my gun. It’s like, guys, that’s not what this is about. It’s a martial art.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right, right, right. And if you just dropped a bomb on the entire city. Problem solved.

Joanie Chamberland: Yeah, exactly. I can’t teach you self-defense for that. You’re right.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. You know, an umbrella. Good luck. Best of luck to you, buddy. Um, I learned a lot today. I appreciate it. Now, is there anything else that we talked about? As I said, the the homeschool class time? Uh. And is that how do how do we learn more if we if we’re interested in, uh, the two week free trial or if I’m a homeschooler and I want to learn how to get my kids involved, what’s the best way to reach you?

Joanie Chamberland: So you can go to rise up BJ B as in boy, G as in Joy. J as in Joy stands for Brazilian jiu jitsu for short, right? Com.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. Yep. Um, and when we publish the interview, we’ll also publish the link to that and make sure that people know how to get in touch with you. Um, Joanie, thank you so much. I learned a lot today, and to me, that always marks a great day. Um, my guest today has been Joanie Chamberlain, the the owner and the head instructor of Rise of Brazilian Jiu jitsu. Uh, I want to remind you that she’s added homeschool class time and that the gym offers a two week free trial, which these days unlimited, which is pretty rare these days. You don’t run into that. Thank you so much for coming in.

Joanie Chamberland: Thank you for having me here.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s my pleasure. So I want to remind everybody that today’s episode is brought to you in part by our community partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Mainstreet Warriors. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Please go check them out at diesel. David. Com. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I’m a professional EOS implementer and your host here on Cherokee Business Radio. We look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks so much.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. I’m your host, Joshua Kornitsky professional EOS implementer. And today I’m excited to be in someone else’s studio, which I’ll tell you about in just a moment. But I want to remind everybody that today’s episode is brought to you in part by our community partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Mainstreet Warriors and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Mainstreet Warriors. Diesel. David Inc. Please go check them out at diesel. David. So today is a show unlike any other. Uh, today I’m a guest within the incredible Podium Studios location in Marietta, Georgia. And, uh, with his gracious invitation, Devin Smith, the founder of Podium Studios, has invited me in to record Cherokee Business Radio.

Joshua Kornitsky: Today’s guest is Devin Smith, founder of Podium Studios in Marietta. Through his work, Devin helps leaders and brands create engaging, professional video content that helps strengthen personal brands and expand their reach. His background in design and his passion for branding give him a really unique perspective on how content can be shaped and really help change the reputation and influence the view. We’ll hear directly from Devin about his journey, his insights, and get his perspective on branding, and learn more about the work being done here at Podium Studios in Marietta, Georgia. Well, thanks for having me, having me. Devin, it’s really a thrill to be here.

Devin Smith: My pleasure. You know, honestly, like I was mentioning, I. It’s very rare that I get invited on somebody else’s show. So I’m just glad you’re willing to make the drive and come hang out, man.

Joshua Kornitsky: Absolutely, absolutely. We’re not that far from Cherokee County. It all works out. So tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, if you would. Because if we don’t know the origin story, it’s hard to understand where we’re at.

Devin Smith: I absolutely. So, uh, you know, essentially, um, I kind of I started out in, um, advertising, actually. Okay. Uh, I wanted to go into I wanted to go into animation. My dad convinced me that was a hard field to break into and talk me into going to design school. Okay. Went to design school and then went into advertising industry, working at ad agencies and stuff like that. And, um, and just got to work on, um, big brands, got to work next to world class creatives. Uh, you know, I’m sitting next to people who are writing copy for Verizon and BMW.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I’m curious, was that here in Georgia?

Devin Smith: That was actually that was actually in South Carolina. Really? So that’s where I’m from. I’m from Greenville, South Carolina. And, um, I was working at, uh, an agency in Greenville that, you know, you wouldn’t expect Greenville to house an.

Joshua Kornitsky: No, not at all.

Devin Smith: That is working on major brands like that. Um, but it it does. And now they, uh, I mean, they’re, they’re it was an agency called, uh, they’re now called EP and Co.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. They got class here.

Devin Smith: Yeah. Yeah. And they’re now like agency of record for like John Deere.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh that’s.

Devin Smith: Awesome. And all kinds of big companies. And I also worked at another agency called Jackson. And you know we were again working on Michelin, working on, you know, just um.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s fantastic exposure.

Devin Smith: Yeah, man. And getting getting to getting to work on those brands and getting to work with those people. Uh, it it taught me how marketing is done in the big leagues. You know, it taught me how brand positioning and creative is done in the big leagues. And, um, you know, I wound up getting out of the ad agency world going into tech. Every company I ever worked at, I just wound up. I wound up, you know, doing creative. Yeah. You know, I’d work on stuff. We’re working on building software. Building, you know, um, web, web apps and all that. And eventually I’d just be like, man, we. What are we doing with the brand guys? Like what? What is this?

Joshua Kornitsky: Which which, honestly, a lot of organizations that’s not high on their list unless they’re specifically marketing focused.

Devin Smith: That’s right. Yeah. Or if they’re big enough to where? They’re used to hiring agencies to handle that stuff, they’re just like, well, we don’t have anybody in-house. You know, we’re not paying an agency. And I just I’m a firm believer that, uh, you shouldn’t wait too long to make sure that you have Professional brand positioning, you know.

Joshua Kornitsky: Couldn’t agree more because it’s a defining. It is the defining characteristic of your business. It’s the public face. And if you’re not going to prioritize that at a certain point, I understand financially it may be difficult, but when you have achieved a level of success where you’re able to prioritize it, it is your best foot forward every time. Yeah. So so you’ve got this incredible pedigree of working with these top tier organizations that clearly brought, uh, a lot of expertise into their marketing and into their creative endeavors. Um, what what got you from being in, in that particular, uh, universe to here where you’re now helping create, uh, incredible video content for others?

Devin Smith: Man. Uh, so that’s a great question. So I, uh, the funny thing is, is that, uh, I wound up, uh, I wound up going out on my own. Um, it was late 22, late 2022. I wound up deciding to start my own business, and I was consulting, and I thought I was going to be helping people build software and still wound up doing marketing. Sure.

Joshua Kornitsky: And eventually tried to get out, and it just kept bringing.

Devin Smith: You kept bringing me back in, you know, and and, um, eventually, like John Wick, you know, people, you know, asking if you’re back. And I’m like, yeah, I’m thinking I’m back. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: There you.

Devin Smith: Go. And and so I had a friend, uh, who had the idea of starting a podcast studio. And so that’s how Podium Studios was born. And I got into podcasting, um, back in like 2020, um, I released my first show, and I tried to work on shows before that and never released anything because I was too much of a perfectionist, you know?

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and I imagine that does get in the way.

Devin Smith: Yeah. Oh, yeah. For especially, you know, my dad, my dad’s an audio engineer. Musician. Oh, okay. So?

Joshua Kornitsky: So. Yeah. So you do. It has to be perfect.

Devin Smith: Yes. Like, you know, I watched my dad doing that stuff, and he was absolutely maniacal about sound quality. Sure. You know, um, and so I was like that, and that stopped me from releasing things. And eventually I realized, like, I just got to put it out, you know? And so I started doing that. Fell in love. I just fell in love with podcasting. I love I love making shows, man. I love making great shows. One of the things that I, I noticed is like when I’m making my own stuff, you know, I love just going and listening to different theme music and thinking, what kind of podcast could I match this theme music?

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s kind of a that’s an interesting mental exercise. Yeah, yeah, but it still helps you visualize it. I’m all for that. Yeah. So who who are the types of organizations or what size what what are the organizations you find that the work you’re doing is resonating with?

Devin Smith: Oh man. That’s so that is a it’s been an interesting journey to figure figure that out really. And what I’ve found is that you have, uh, people, um, whether they’re business owners or executives who know that content content’s the game now, um, you know, the the smartphone we got in our pocket is the new TV, right? And so people expect you to be there and and we find that we resonate the most with business owners, with executives who understand if you’re not there, it’s kind of like, you know, when we were growing up, if you weren’t on radio or TV.

Joshua Kornitsky: You didn’t exist.

Devin Smith: You didn’t exist. Like, you know, you just weren’t or you weren’t a big deal. Right? Right.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, mom and pop, location store, restaurant, whatever. One, one location. You didn’t expect anything. But if you’re in multiple locations, you got to have a presence.

Devin Smith: That’s right. We expect you to be on the radio. We expect you to at least be on local TV. People expect you to be on social now. They expect you to be on YouTube. And and they go looking for you there. And some, some people will go looking for your Instagram, especially if you’re a local business. They’ll go looking for your Instagram before they look for your website. And and so people who get that have been our our best clients. And we love working with people who know, hey, we got to get attention. And that’s what we do. We bring people attention through doing great content for them. You know, we do. We do video content, we do podcasts. And, um, you know, we we try to make it to where people just don’t have to think about it too much. They come in and we go to them and we shoot and they don’t worry about the rest.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so that brings up to me a really interesting question, which is, okay, it’s harder to put a finger on the exact size because it’s really it sounds like it’s more about mindset, right? They’ve got to understand the value of the content. Yeah. Assuming that you’ve crossed that hurdle and you have someone or a group of people that understand the value of the content, how do you help them arrive at what it is the show is going to be about. Because if I am a painter and and I understand the value of building the the brand of my company, I, you know, people don’t want to talk about paint drying, right? It’s not particularly interesting. So, you know, is that something that you’re able to help understand their brand or do you help them create their brand or how does that work?

Devin Smith: Great question, great question. So, um, coming coming from the branding world, um, that is one of the things that if somebody needs that, uh, we will do that. Most of the people who are coming to us, they have their brand, uh, they have their company brand at least established. Okay. Um, most people don’t have a personal brand established as much. And so we will we’ll go from end to end. So we’ve helped people start podcasts and YouTube channels from nothing. Um, and so we’re talking about the content strategy. We’re figuring out what does your audience care about. You know we’re going to do an audience research to find out what kinds of questions are they asking. Um, what kind of problems are they trying to solve that they’re out there looking for information on. And that’s the stuff that we’re that we’re going to make content about, because we’re meeting them where they are with the way that they think about the problems that they have. So, you know, the titles that we’re going to suggest because we’re we’re helping our clients with, with content strategy, with titles, with, with the actual publishing, with monitoring how the content’s performing. And we’re saying, hey, we need to do four videos. We need to do four videos next week on these topics. You know.

Joshua Kornitsky: So I don’t have to come necessarily with an agenda of these are the things I want to talk about, or that this is what I want to create content around. You’ll help them actually understand what the market’s looking for.

Devin Smith: Totally totally. Because it’s just there’s so much guesswork and you can go, I mean, you can honestly go a year and not strike gold, and it’s just better to go and do the research, find out what people care about, and just skip right to that. And so we we do that. Some people are able to come in here. You know, we had we had a local law firm come in and the partners, they’re just so good at sounding like they prepared a statement, uh, that we could give them a topic and they would go for five minutes straight and it sounded like a scripted video. Most people don’t have that skill.

Joshua Kornitsky: Sure. And that’s that’s sort of a sort of directly related to what they spend their time doing. But yes. Um, what are some of the misconceptions people have? Right. Because I imagine I work primarily in audio and and in audio, it’s considerably more forgiving. Right. Because other than when I broadcast live, I have the ability to help fix things that get stepped on or screwed up. How is it different working with video? What are some of the things people walk in? Um, perhaps misunderstanding?

Devin Smith: Oh, I think the biggest thing is that people expect you to be perfect and they don’t. People don’t expect you to be perfect on camera. They don’t expect you to know every word that you’re going to say. As a matter of fact, they want, especially in the age of AI. They want more evidence that you’re human, that you’re authentic.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s that’s terrifying, but accurate.

Devin Smith: Yeah, right. You know.

Joshua Kornitsky: We’ve all gotten that one email where you’re like, yeah, no human wrote this.

Devin Smith: That’s right. That’s exactly right. You yeah. You get those emails. You see that blog post? Yeah. Uh, that that it’s evident that somebody just phoned it in with, with, uh, you know, AI and they didn’t even really spend much time on it. And one of my favorite sayings I saw a writer post this on X. He said, everybody wants to write content with AI, but nobody wants to read content.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s very boy that’s really telling. Yeah.

Devin Smith: Yeah. And so we are I think the biggest misconceptions you got to come in, you got to say all the right words and you got to you know, you got to be perfect. Actually, what people want is for you to be authentic. And they want they want to feel like they’re getting to know you and what you’re going to be like when they meet you in person. That’s actually what they want. And we have to tell some of our clients who are really good presenters, we have to tell them, like, dial it back a little bit.

Joshua Kornitsky: You’re you’re too polished.

Devin Smith: Yeah, exactly.

Joshua Kornitsky: Really. So I think that’s interesting because we were talking earlier about sort of, uh, something I talk with my clients about that perfectionism. Perfectionism is the enemy of progress, right. And if you’re hyper, hyper focused on getting every word right, not occasionally having a misstep, I get that, but we’re not in movie production. We’re we’re having genuine conversations. Yeah.

Devin Smith: And you should be able to let your hair down. You should. I should relax you. Some people that stresses them out. Some people want everything to be prepared ahead of time. Totally understand we have a teleprompter for that reason.

Joshua Kornitsky: You know, there’s lights, there’s microphones, there’s cameras. So people I do think have a tendency to be nervous. Oh, yeah. And and in that, in those contexts, how do you help them overcome that?

Devin Smith: Uh, you know, one of the best tools that we use, essentially, is we just start asking them questions, and we have the cameras rolling the whole time, and they’re just talking and, and we get great content out of just asking them honest questions, especially if we’re, you know, we’re a layman to most.

Joshua Kornitsky: Of our.

Devin Smith: Universe. Yeah. To their whole world. We don’t we’re not experts in that. So we’re asking the kind of questions that somebody who doesn’t know anything is going to ask, right? Um, and that tends to be good content.

Joshua Kornitsky: Near and dear to my heart. Because for me, I always want to make sure that I’m asking the types of questions that if someone ran into you on the street, Devin, and you said, well, I you know, I help companies create content. Yeah. Well, what does that mean? Right. Right. Because those are the things we we all tend to live in our own little professional bubbles. And in in my life as a as a business coach and teacher and facilitator, I have a list of acronyms that I have to carry a lexicon to hand to other people. Yeah. To be like, okay, these are the this is what I’m talking about. Right. Um, that shouldn’t be necessary in a normal dialog.

Devin Smith: Right. And you don’t want that on social media because you won’t get the chance to explain it. And, you know, you think about how much time you spend on a reel before you go to the next one. I mean, you’ve got you’ve got 3 to 5 seconds, tops. I mean, five seconds is generous to get somebody’s attention. And if it’s not, um, easy for them to grasp why they should invest the full 30s to a minute to to watch your your video. I mean, you’ve lost them, you know.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well. And that brings up another question for me. So when you’re when you’re helping create the branding that leads to the content, even if they’ve brought their own business branding to you. And I’m saying branding meaning their their identity. Yeah. Excuse me. Oh. You’re good. When? When they arrive. How do you help separate? Uh, for lack of a better expression. Sort of the ego from the business. Um, because just using an easy example of somebody like Elon Musk. Right? He is his own brand identity. He also has SpaceX, and he has Tesla, and he has Starlink, all of which kind of have their own identities as well. Right? I know he’s an extreme example, but but having worked with many small businesses, often the founder or founders do have their own community identity. So how do you help balance that?

Devin Smith: That’s an excellent question. So the one of the things that we will do, um, is if the if the business is to a certain level of maturity, we will actually create content that is intended to go on the business owner’s personal pages. Um, and so they are drawing people to the business and we’ll make, we’ll make content that goes to the business page as well. But we’re, you know, the thing about social, uh, and YouTube is that people want to connect with people. And so we prioritize, hey, we’re going to make content that get people to know, like, and trust you without having met you in person. And then they’re going to naturally, if they want to do business with you, then they got to go through your company. And so we’re going to make sure that we’re linking off to your company on your social profile.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right.

Devin Smith: You know, that that, uh, they know exactly if they’re in a position where they’re ready to start having serious conversations or they’re ready to buy that they know exactly where to go. But up until then. Um, as a as an executive, as a business owner, as a salesperson, you are producing stuff and putting it out that allows you to be yourself and feels authentic without, um, without you necessarily, uh, painting the entire company with that brand.

Joshua Kornitsky: It sounds like it’s a lot of work.

Devin Smith: Yes, yes, yes. We I when we when we started doing this and it was just a it was just a couple of us and I mean, we were I mean we were up every night, uh, you know, it was me, um, my business partner and my wife. It was just the three of us, and we were doing everything. And my wife was the social media manager and the copywriter, and, you know, uh, me and my business partner were doing the editing and the graphics and the sessions, and, and we were up super, super late every night doing that stuff. And now we have more of a team, which I’m very thankful for. But it is. It is a ton of work. And I think that people, sometimes our best clients, know how much work it is. They know how much work. And I’m not doing that myself.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well and doesn’t. Isn’t that another misconception that this is easy? Right. And and and on on the subject before we leave it of understanding what resonates currently. And and I don’t profess to have any level of social media expertise, however, just on my own personal life, what interests me personally versus the articles I read professionally are really quite different, and the things that catch my attention are quite different. So how do you balance that? Because sometimes, right, if I’m B2C, if I’m home services, right, I sort of straddle that line. But if I’m if I’m in a business accounting firm that only works with other businesses. You know, the the the home grown content probably doesn’t resonate.

Devin Smith: Right, right. And that that is why we try to make sure that we have a balanced approach to it. So there’s some stuff that it’s it’s only really going to make sense on the company profiles.

Joshua Kornitsky: On LinkedIn versus.

Devin Smith: Right. Yeah. And and I will say, you know, for instance, like LinkedIn really good, really good for B2B content, really good for, uh, you know, it’s expected that you’re talking about business there. Sure. Um, Instagram, surprisingly. And I had to unlearn what I thought I knew about Instagram.

Joshua Kornitsky: I’m listening carefully now.

Devin Smith: Instagram is really, really good for local businesses. Um, if you are, if you have a, a, a radius, essentially, uh, a physical radius that you serve. You have a local business that people show up to, or you serve a certain, you know, local geographic area. Instagram is really good at putting you in front of people who are in your area. Linkedin is not as as good at LinkedIn’s.

Joshua Kornitsky: It pretends to be a global stamp. I don’t really know that it is, but right. But on that point and that brings up something very interesting. I know we’re sitting in your in your beautiful production facility, but what if I’m a local business and I what you’re saying right now about Instagram resonates with me. But I don’t have the budget for what I presume is, you know, not an inexpensive endeavor to go into video production. Do you still offer, um, services and advice and guidance to to companies that aren’t going full in on video and just looking for content guidance?

Devin Smith: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we we definitely still offer assessments and, and and advisory uh, That, you know, if you, you know, we we like to follow a process that, you know, everybody, everybody when they’re starting with us, if they’re going to go full in, we still have them start out with the assessment advisory. Um, because all that still has to be done anyway. If they bought in fully, still got to do the.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s a discovery process, right. You got to learn about them and what matters to them and what message they want. Right.

Devin Smith: That’s exactly right. And basically what we do is we start out with the we start out with that process. And if they decide that they want more, we apply what they paid for the advisory and deduct it from the full package. And so somebody who decides, hey, I just want to be able to sit down and hear from you guys on research that you did on, on our market. And, and you give us advice about what content we should even be making, what should we be doing. And we’re able to do that at a low enough cost. It’s accessible for most businesses.

Joshua Kornitsky: And and that’s funny because it doesn’t seem while I get the ask. And I encounter that myself quite often where people people would like you to, they don’t want you to solve the problem. They would just like to get direction from you. And working with entrepreneurs, as we both do, that’s not uncommon because they’re used to solving their own problems. And, and, and some come back around and realize that additional guidance in in ongoing um, let’s go with encouragement is beneficial for them. Some are not. And for some people it is enough. But tell us what if there is an average engagement? If, if if an organization, let’s say they’re going what I presume is the more traditional path that they’re looking for, video content creation, um, what does that look like? Is it for a set period of time, a set number of episodes? Is it a one size fits all? How do you approach, uh, engagement in that regard?

Devin Smith: Great question. So, um, we generally we generally approach it from two different angles. We will, um, come from the we’ll come from the angle of if you’re basically looking to have a us be your content marketing engine, you know that that is that is where we will say, all right, we do a flat retainer and we just take it over. We manage it. We we act like we are taking, uh, control of that function within the business. And you don’t really have to worry. We lead it. We act like a fractional content marketing executive. Okay. Um, and, and, uh, you know, those, those usually start around. Do you want me to talk about pricing?

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, that’s really up to you. And the reason that I don’t typically push on pricing is, you know, for, for a ten person operation versus a 250 person operation, the needs and the frequency. I feel like you’re you’re certainly welcome to. But I, I feel like it wouldn’t be fair because no matter what the price is, it’s not likely to align. I was thinking much more about the sort of the time commitment and and even the production time. So, you know, I don’t know how long it takes to go from ideation to discussion to getting guests in to getting that onto whatever medium you’re going to put it on. I think those are the types of things that that, that people would benefit. Yes, everyone wants to know how much it costs, but like everything else, it the answer almost universally with every guest I have is it depends.

Devin Smith: It depends. Yeah. Right.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. So you can you can order a glass of water, or you can order six lobsters in six steaks. It depends. Right. Right.

Devin Smith: And we generally we try to we try to keep people in rails. We do have an opinion about how it should be done. And so we have some folks who may just want, you know, you can have folks who just want to do some content. They want to come in, they want to do some content. We’ll schedule out a day. We’ll literally do a content day. That’s what we call it, do a content day. They come in and shoot, get, you know, eight short form pieces. We we still do the audience research and and all that and help with the ideas ahead of time. Um, and, you know, we go we go all the way up to like I said, it’s, it’s we are taking over that function and the, the time commitment on the business owner’s part really comes in on, you know, obviously the meetings with us, we try to keep those to a minimum. Um, but we, we want to be available. So we, we try to make it to where the whole reason people are coming to us is because they don’t have time to deal with it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, or the skills or the knowledge, because that’s the other piece I’m going to ask about next.

Devin Smith: Sure. Yeah, you’re exactly right. And they don’t want to they don’t want to have to be an expert in that. They have a business to run already. And so we we try to keep it to a minimum. So at most you’re looking at um, somewhere between uh depending on how much content you want to produce. Because. Because, you know, you can go from, hey, I just want some short form videos to I want to have a whole show, and I’m putting out short form content and excuse me, I want clips off of the, uh, off of the show. And so that can turn into. Yeah, you’re looking at probably somewhere between ten and, and and 12 hours a month, you know, depending on how much content you want to produce. 4 to 8 of that is, is, uh, actually shooting content. Um, and then you’ve got meetings and all that, but if you’re just producing, you just, hey, I want to have a steady, steady drip of content coming out. I mean, we’re definitely able to to do that in in eight hours or less, uh, per month. And, uh, I mean, if you give us honestly, if you give us eight hours, we can produce several months of of content.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s that’s really good to know, because Is one of the other things that’s indicative of of entrepreneurial organizations that are still learning and growing. And a lot of the folks that I work with is the idea of a marketing budget, of having dollars set aside. It’s not that they don’t get there, it’s just that’s part of evolution. Right? And my my wrapped van for my plumbing business is my advertising budget when I start. But when I get up to 4 or 5 vans, I have to think about how to keep calls coming in across the board, and that requires dedicating resources to that on an ongoing basis.

Devin Smith: Yes, yes, that’s right. And that’s generally who we’re going after are people who have said, okay, I know that I need to be marketing. I am willing to spend this much on marketing per month, and we’re able to say, give us, you know, a part of that budget and we will produce results with that budget. Because like I said, we are on, we are on the screens. We are we are in the earbuds. Right. And that’s that’s the game right now, you know.

Joshua Kornitsky: So here’s the question that I was thinking of before. And yes, that that all makes sense to me. So I was trying to think in my head. And I am not a content creation expert in, in the arenas that you are. But I’m thinking, you know, again, that entrepreneurial mindset of I can just do this myself, never mind the cost of the equipment in the room, most of which I can’t identify. Never mind that. Just set that aside. Uh, help me count off how many people need to be involved. So so you’ve you’ve got to have someone. You’ve got to have someone that’s doing the research into social media. Yes. You’ve got to have someone who is steering and directing the client, engaging with the client. Uh, or in this case, let’s pretend we’re doing this in-house. Someone that’s making the creative decisions. So call that a chief marketing officer. What have you. Then you’ve got to have how many production staff would a would an average thing need. 2 or 3 people. Then you need an editor. What about sound and lighting.

Devin Smith: Yeah. Yeah that’s that’s great.

Joshua Kornitsky: And so so I’m up to eight already and and that’s just with the stuff that occurs to me. Yeah. Um, I, I imagine there’s a few more folks that probably get involved. So you’re talking about for, for midsize content creation, anywhere from, what, 6 to 10, 12 people in aggregate. Right.

Devin Smith: Even between our company and their company. Right. And and so we one of the things that that I wanted to do and putting a studio together is that because, you know, because we still go on site for people and we’ll show up with a crew, you know, really.

Joshua Kornitsky: So you can take the whole show on the road.

Devin Smith: Yeah. So we yeah, we can, we can show up on site. Um, uh, you know, if people don’t want to come into the studio if they’re too far. Um, or, you know, some people, they want to be able to show off.

Joshua Kornitsky: Their beautiful space. Yeah.

Devin Smith: And they want, they want because that’s a part of their culture. It’s a part.

Joshua Kornitsky: Of.

Devin Smith: The draw. And so absolutely, we’ll go we’ll go on location and get some of that stuff. But with the studio makes it possible for us to do with, you know, 1 or 2 people what it would normally take 3 or 4 people to accomplish. And so, you know, we’re we’re able to do it at a, at a lower cost. When people come into the studio and we’re able to be more efficient, it takes it takes a lot less time to go from you walked in the door to we’re rolling. You know.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s the difference between going to a restaurant and having an event catered. Yes.

Devin Smith: 100%. That’s exactly right. And so we, you know. Yeah, you’re. But still even with that, you’re looking at you’re looking at probably 4 to 5 five people who are touching, you know, touching a piece of content to make sure that it it goes up. It’s done well that it’s on strategy and that it goes up on time and with as few errors as possible, we try to make sure that we have zero errors. Right? Sure. But I mean, you’re looking at, um, strategists, you’re looking at, uh, you’re looking at a line producer in the studio or on site. You’re looking at, um, the, the, uh, designer. You’re looking at the social media manager and the project manager. That’s five people, right? And that’s that’s that’s the minimum of of. So you don’t want to hire all those people. Most people don’t want to have.

Joshua Kornitsky: And it doesn’t make financial sense in most. You have to be scaled to a pretty good size for that to make sense. And the reason that I bring all this up is, is it seems to me that hiring a professional who brings all this to the table is actually a cost savings. And um, in my universe, it also creates accountability for if I hire all those people and I’m not afraid of suggesting people take on accountability. But if I hire all that in-house, never mind whatever my budget is and whatever my spend is and my explosion in headcount, I’m now accountable for being at a professional production level. Right? And unless I’ve done this before, that’s that’s like hiring all the staff for for a michelin starred restaurant, walking in the kitchen and expecting to know what to do. Yes. Uh, and and as we talked about earlier in your journey, there was a learning curve.

Devin Smith: Oh, absolutely. So, absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: So if if I’m a B2B accounting firm that decides that they get the value of the content. Right. But I think that I should do this myself, it seems to me that politely, the math doesn’t add up.

Devin Smith: No. We were actually, uh, you know, I had a leadership meeting yesterday. We were working on a proposal for, you know, what could be a pretty big client. And we were doing the math on what it would take for them. It’s like, okay, we have to make sure this makes sense for them. What would it cost them to hire what we’re going to do for them? Sure. And I mean, they were at they they were at somewhere between 180 to $300,000 a year in just staff. You haven’t bought any equipment yet, right? You don’t have a space to record in. Um, you haven’t done any of that. You literally just hired staff, and they expect you to be able to direct them.

Joshua Kornitsky: With no experience.

Devin Smith: Right?

Joshua Kornitsky: And and that brings up the other point that that was on my mind, which you just very carefully articulated without meaning to articulate it. You’re putting your customer first in that consideration. I know that that sounds like you’re structuring a business proposal to win business. Yes. Yeah, but it sounds to me like you’re still putting your customer first, because I imagine depending on the engagement, there could be a circumstance where if they had certain staff, maybe you’re not the right 100%.

Devin Smith: You’re absolutely right. And that’s basically what we have to make sure is that we’re acting, uh, we’re acting in the best interest of the client. And so when we do that math, we’re saying, does this make sense for them? Because we’re looking at how much work it is. We’re like, how are we going to do this? And it makes sense for us, but is it a good deal for them? And I’m, you know, I’m a business owner. I’m thinking to myself, well, would I, would I hire me at that rate? If I were them, would I hire me and my team? And absolutely. The the idea of me having to hire all those people to be able to do this stuff. The crazy thing is that this particular company has two people on staff who are really good at production, but they already have other jobs, and so they were doing production for the company. You know what they said? The last.

Joshua Kornitsky: Conversation.

Devin Smith: I had with the marketing director, she said, I asked the question, hey, is so and so still doing video for you guys? And she said, yeah, he’s going to do one more for us. But he said he doesn’t want to do it anymore and that’s why they’re having the conversation with us.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and that again not to tie it back to the entrepreneurial mindset, right. Is is in most organizations, even if they’re 200 people, you still have you have folks who have God given talent who are willing to pick up tasks or accountabilities that really aren’t part of their universe, but you get to a point where it’s not scalable, right? Where, where clearly you ask that person to do that job, or to assume that role because of budget, because of constraints of any kind. But at a certain point, if that is a valuable role, you either need to hire someone who is the right person for that seat, or you need to outsource. And this is where I was going before to a third party who is accountable to the contractual standards. The production standards and that if those and I’m sure it doesn’t happen, but it can if those failed to be met, somebody is accountable for that. And the value of having that as someone outside of the house is your hiring expertise. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it’s not I don’t want to equate it to a lawyer, because a lawyer can lose a case for reasons that have nothing to do with the lawyer. That’s right. But a lawyer can also lose a case because they’re a lousy lawyer. Yeah. And if they lose the case because they’re a lousy lawyer, that’s who you hold accountable.

Devin Smith: You have recourse.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right. And that’s the piece that I think, particularly in that that entrepreneurial arc, when you reach the point of realizing, okay, content’s unavoidable. I have to create it if I’m going to stay relevant. And I and I even if you weren’t in this business, I think everybody can agree that we’re at a point now where that is the billboard. That is the radio ad. That is whether it’s social media or any of those other mediums. You’ve got to have a presence. If you’re a business that’s looking to grow.

Devin Smith: That’s right.

Joshua Kornitsky: And if you accept that at a certain point, you have to accept the fact that, like your, in most cases, your taxes or like your legal representation or, you know, like the plumbing in the building, at a certain point, you have to engage a professional in order for it to get done, because it becomes cost prohibitive for you to do that on your own. And more importantly, it becomes skill constraining because you know you can be the the greatest B2B accountant in the world. You can have 15 people on staff, you can have 30, 300 whatever. That doesn’t mean you know how to create content. That’s right.

Devin Smith: That’s right. That that’s so well said. Because you realize that this is an entire focus. Um, my business partner, I picked him because he is not just a video guy, he’s not just a photographer. He’s a marketer. And he understands, uh, that you have to be able to make, not only make content that’s of a certain level of quality, but it’s got to be the right content. And we we’re plugged in to what’s happening. I mean, this guy always I love it because he’s always on the cutting edge of what’s happening in the social space of what’s happening in the AI space and all of that. And we’re always talking about, okay, well, how can we take this and apply it to this client? How can we change up the strategy?

Joshua Kornitsky: And that’s expertise. Yeah. And you can’t. Money doesn’t solve expertise. Expertise solves expertise.

Devin Smith: I’m gonna steal that.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s really it. It’s all yours. You can’t hire intuitiveness. And an intuitiveness comes from exposure to the industry to being in depth and immersed in the industry. And it’s built over time. Yeah. And and you can hire experience, but you can’t hire intuitiveness. Yeah.

Devin Smith: Um, I you get that some of that intuition you get from getting punched in the face.

Joshua Kornitsky: 100%.

Devin Smith: You know, sometimes.

Joshua Kornitsky: Most of it.

Devin Smith: Yeah. And and you learn how to learn how to slip the jab, and and you realize over time that, um, that is something that when you’re a business owner, you can’t always afford the learning curve. You’re at a stage or you’re at an inflection point. The learning curve is actually a much higher cost than just paying the experts.

Joshua Kornitsky: If you get to the point where you’re hiring or considering hiring for content creation, you’ve learned that lesson a bunch of times on a bunch of other subjects already. You have. Yeah. Right. And the the smartest business leaders that I know get to a point in everything across the board that’s outside of their core focus. They hire expertise if it doesn’t make sense to bring it in-house. Sometimes it does, whether it’s content creation or something else. Sometimes it makes sense to hire a creative. Sometimes it makes sense to to hire a maintenance person to care for the buildings. But at a certain point, you realize that that’s not your strong suit. So you’ve got to bring somebody in that, that or someone’s in that can do that. That’s right. So one more question that just is, is I want to know, because I think it’s very telling about you as, as a, as a business owner, but also about you as a creative mind. Tell me a story where you had fun doing what you’re doing.

Speaker4: Oh man.

Devin Smith: Oh my gosh. So so many.

Joshua Kornitsky: I put you on the spot.

Devin Smith: So sorry. No, there’s so many of them. Uh, I gotta, I gotta pick one because one respecting.

Joshua Kornitsky: The privacy of those whose privacy? You know. Yes. You can just call. You don’t have to say Mercedes. You can just say a B, and I put that out there. I’m just saying you can just say it’s a a car brand.

Speaker4: Yeah, yeah.

Devin Smith: So. Well, well, I’ll actually give I’ll give an example of, um, you know, one of our, our clients, you know, we’ve been working on their show now, um, for over a year. And, uh, it’s been so cool to see the progression of, um, their podcast and their skill and, um, the production quality as we’ve increased and just always thinking about how to improve it, you know, I kept threatening them because they keep coming in here and they say a lot of funny stuff, you know, outside of the actual show. And I’m like, man, I’m gonna put I’m gonna start putting some bloopers in the show because, you know, they’re talking about wealth and finance and you know, it. It can be it can be funny a lot. A lot of that stuff is just, you know, it can be, uh, they they have great personalities and they make it. They make it fun. But I was thinking to myself, you guys have so much fun off camera. It’s not right to hide this from the audience.

Speaker4: And so.

Joshua Kornitsky: And it shows that human authentic side. That’s right, that’s right. So so my last question is before I ask how people get in touch with you is, is, uh, going back to that progress over perfection. And this might be a little selfish, but I’m going to ask it anyway.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: If you don’t have the ability to produce the top tier content, is some content better than no content?

Devin Smith: Absolutely, absolutely. So so the, uh, the thing that I tell people, I actually have a kit, I have a kit I’ve built out in a spreadsheet because I get asked by people so many times, they say, hey, we’re not ready. We’re not financially at the point where we can work with you guys. How can we even get started? And I send them our, you know, I send them that spreadsheet with the starter kit of what you should buy. And thankfully, just as technology gets better and better, that.

Speaker4: List gets cheaper, it gets.

Devin Smith: Easier. You have to have the less less pieces of equipment. I mean, if you’re literally just starting out on your phone, um, that’s what I tell people. Just start. Just start putting stuff out there. Show people what you’re doing. Right. Um, tell people what you’re what you’re working on. And one of the things that I love that I have seen with our, with our clients is we’re producing this, you know, this high grade content for.

Speaker4: To your stuff. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: I mean.

Devin Smith: We try, we try, you know, um, uh, but they will we still encourage them, even though you’re coming in here doing this every now and again. You have a thought. Get the phone out. Just record a story, get the phone out. Just record something and post it and just post the raw thing. And we found that people gravitate towards that. They trust you because they’ve seen all the other stuff we’re doing. Right. But even still, after they’ve done that, some of that raw just I picked up my phone. I had a thought. I wanted to share it with you. Everybody who’s following me, that stuff still plays. If you can’t afford any of this, still do that stuff. That stuff will get you going.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, it sounds like if I had to distill this down, it sounds like if you are authentic and that that resonates in your message, um, something is going to be better than nothing.

Speaker4: That’s right.

Joshua Kornitsky: And if you’ve got nothing, you still need that brand.

Speaker4: Yep.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, I can’t thank you enough, Devin. I learned more, uh, today than I have in in the last several weeks.

Speaker4: Uh, it’s great discussion.

Joshua Kornitsky: What’s the best way for people to reach you and for people to learn more about Podium Studios?

Devin Smith: Oh, awesome. So, um, I think the the best way for people to find me, uh, is generally on, uh, if you want to find me on LinkedIn, uh, LinkedIn.com. Devon. Smith. Super easy. Um. Uh, and, uh. Instagram. Devon W Smith on Instagram. If you want to look at our, uh, content as a company on Instagram, uh, that is. I hope I’m not getting this wrong at the podium on on Instagram. So, uh, that and we and we try to provide value to people with our content. Um, if you’re not in a place where you can afford us, we’re trying to help you still make great content.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I think that, more than anything speaks to who you are, right. Uh, because the entirety of this discussion has been from your heart. Uh, and, and it’s clear that helping people grow and succeed is is what’s driving you.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Don’t get me wrong. Gotta gotta have money to pay the bills. But but that impact that you’re making Speaking clearly is making a difference for your clients, and I can’t thank you enough for inviting me down here to Podium Studios in Marietta. It’s it’s absolutely beautiful. And the quality of of the production facility alone tells me that they’ve invested a lot of time and money and effort into this. So, um, thank you again. Uh, my guest today. And I’m going to turn because I’m not used to cameras. Uh, my guest today has been Devin Smith, the founder of Podium Studios in Marietta, Georgia. Uh, through his work, Devin helps leaders and brands create engaging, professional video content that strengthens personal brands and expands their reach. And I’m going to stop reading my page there to tell you he’s just a smart, clever, creative, incredible guy that wants to help you succeed. That alone, plus the fact that he can help provide the guidance that’ll get you where you need to go so that you’re in a position to create the video content and other content that they can help you with. Is is worth your time, so please check him out. Um. Thank you. Devin, it’s been a pleasure.

Speaker4: My pleasure, my pleasure.

Joshua Kornitsky: I just do want to remind everybody that today’s episode was brought to you in part by our Community Partners program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Mainstreet Warriors. And a special note of thanks for our title sponsor at the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors diesel David, Inc. please go check them out at diesel. David. Comm. I’m your host, Joshua Kornitsky. I am a professional implementer of the entrepreneurial operating system, and it’s been my pleasure to share today, uh, from the Unbelievable Podium Studios in Marietta, Georgia. Uh, we’ll see you next time. Thank you.