Episode Summary:

Welcome back to the Mind in My Creative Business Podcast! I'm Ronald Lee Jr., and I'm joined by my co-host, Shai Speaks. We're thrilled to kick off Season 2 with an in-studio episode right here in Detroit. This season, we're diving deeper into strategies, structures, and self-development to help creative entrepreneurs thrive. In this episode, we focus on a critical aspect of business growth: funding. Many creatives struggle with funding their ventures, so we share various strategies to help you secure the capital you need without breaking the bank.

We'll discuss the importance of personal investment, how to access local and national grants, and the benefits of brand sponsorships. We'll also cover the differences between business loans and business credit, and why having a solid revenue strategy is essential for sustainable growth. If you're a creative looking to turn your side hustle into a full-time business, this episode is packed with practical advice and resources to help you succeed.

Timeline Summary:

[00:19] - Introduction to Season 2 and our new in-studio setup.

[02:22] - Shai's first visit to Detroit and the benefits of recording in person.

[03:32] - Introduction to the episode's main topic: funding for creative entrepreneurs.

[05:24] - Importance of personal investment and bootstrapping your business.

[08:37] - Exploring local grants and how they can provide free money for your business.

[12:49] - National grants and the impact they can have on your business growth.

[16:53] - Brand sponsorships and how they can provide products and funding.

[23:07] - Business loans and credit: using other people's money to grow your business.

[33:38] - Developing a solid revenue strategy to ensure you can repay loans and sustain growth.

[38:13] - Diversifying your product offerings to increase revenue.

Links & Resources:

• Black Leaders Detroit: Black Leaders Detroit
• Local Grants in Michigan: Kellogg Foundation, Kresge Foundation

Closing Remarks:

If you found this episode helpful, please leave a review and let us know which funding strategy you're going to try next. Your feedback helps boost the podcast in the algorithm so other creative entrepreneurs can find us. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and join our Creative Corner Community for more tips and support. Visit MCB Podcast to join our community.

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ABOUT US We’re Ron & ShySpeaks, two music industry creators marching to the tune of entrepreneurship. Our goal is to help our creative peers keep in step by taking them behind the brands of some of wildly successful creative entrepreneurs. Our interview-styled podcast gives access to the strategy and structure that turn creative arts into viable 6, 7, and even 8 figure business!

R

What up though? This is your boy Ron ironically Jr. and I am your co host Shai speaks and this is the mind in my creative business podcast. Let me make sure I said in

S

my creative business podcast, that's exactly what we do. We say this is like the number one podcast, not like the number one podcast. This is the number one podcast for creative entrepreneurs to do what strategy, structure and self development. Yeah, you got to have all of those all at the same time to excel. We say Excel on this podcast, we're interviewing six, seven, and even eight figure creative entrepreneurs, a lot of times creative thing, this is going to be my side hustle, we already know that you can get to six, seven, and eight, which strategy, structure and self development. Now speaking of strategy, we need to go ahead and get in there and talk about today's strategy. What are we talking about? Well, before we go there, we got to address something.

R

Because this is season two. And if you are noticed, this is a different scenery a different you know, we're just gonna roll right off. We can't do that we got we got to do our we can't do it. What was the Fresh Prince of Bel Air when it hasn't been replaced? Which is when everything was now we can't do that. So welcome,

S

right into the in, in studio version, because we're in our own home studios. And now we are actually live and in person. So hopefully you guys feel more like this is pretty cool.

R

It is because you came so hello. So we're in Detroit right now. Right? So that's where I'm housed. I'm housed in Detroit. Yeah. And you're in another D city. So y'all call your city the big D? Yes.

S

We just the D the D so we we are right here in Detroit. I can't this is my first time being in Detroit too. So I was gonna really roll past like a big deal. First time being in Detroit, first time doing the MMCD podcast in person in studio. I actually liked the live in the atmosphere. And so I was so enjoying the vibe. I was ready to hop right into the conversation. We did the whole first season. Yes. In our separate so this is cool to do this one right here. So yeah, so

R

this is episode one for season two, in person she saw came all the way to Detroit from Dallas. And yeah, so you know, we don't get it. And so we're gonna get a couple episodes in person. We will be back on our normal settings, but we want to just bask in being in person. Please feel that we're gonna do here.

S

We should record some at Dallas.

R

I think that'd be dope.

S

I didn't came all the way to the D gotta come down to Big D and make it happen. We make it happen. Okay, so acknowledgments. Yeah,

R

yeah. So now that we've talked about that, let's talk about what we're here to talk about today. Right? So as a creative printer, right? We know that one of the biggest things that just rug entrepreneurship, but just in general, right? Is funding funding your business, right. And a lot of times creatives don't know where to go to get funding. So that's one of the one of the things we want to talk about today. But tell us about funding, right, as a creative partner, how do I go about funding my business venture funding my business? My my idea. So we want to kind of, you know, give them some, some tips, some tools, some strategies on how to do that. So

S

I actually think this is really great. A lot of times I meet creatives, and they're like, Okay, how do I turn this into a full fledge business? You know, it's been a side hustle. And I really want to do it, like full time, but how do I get it to be there? And so a lot of times, they tried to spin their

wheels on how to like, just make more money or whatever. But it's like, there is a such thing as just funding is I wanted to talk about that. Because when you're in the entrepreneurial space, that's not necessarily creative. Maybe a car sales, a car lot, or maybe you're doing some type of tech or app, realize that I have to do funding funding is first of all, I will say, the personal investment before we get into the any of the other funding, we gotta we got to stop right there. Because you're trying to figure out how to make more money or you're trying to figure out how to be full time but you yourself haven't invested in it, then how are we going to expect anybody else to help with investment. So what I was talking about was to take apps or any other type of business, that's not necessarily what you would say, a creative based business. You would think that I have to get these fundings and they also understand that they have to do a thing called bootstrapping, in that regard is being but at the end of the day is really just being your first making a personal investment into your own business, so that you can actually do something more right. So let's say I have this good side business, we make canoes, some custom hand woven, wood, fire canoes, this is a creative thing. And we want to take this thing to the next level, well, we need to do some marketing, right? Well, in order to get the marketing done, if I feel like I could just sell more of these, I could be full time with this. I didn't make more sales. Well, you might want to start with the first level of funding, and that is personal investment, aka bootstrapping.

R

Yeah. And I always tell my clients, so where allow for your job to be your first investor, right? So a lot of times they like they want to go into a full time, but like you said that, that personal investments sometimes come from you having to work a nine to five, or sometimes a five to nine, you know, I'm saying so it's like, you gotta be willing to invest in yourself, like you, like you stated before somebody else is gonna be willing to invest in you. And sometimes it's going to come from that job. So you might have to look at your personal finances and see, okay, how can I maneuver and position things so that I can take a portion of this and invested in set? business venture?

S

Ronald Lee Jr. 06:38

R

And even that with the personal investment, I know we have other ones we're gonna get into. But sometimes even that personal investment, is a lot of times, maybe that can be financial. And when we talked about our other episodes, we were talking about that self development, but you have to invest in yourself from a personal standpoint, yes, financially, but then also like information and things like that, because once again, certain things you just don't know what to do. That's why we have this beautiful podcast is to inform you on what to do. But if you're not taking the time to listen to the podcast, reading information and investing in yourself, on a personal standpoint, right, the

S

funds will not be there. That's so good. So now we get in. Because, yes, your nine to five could be a funding method, or you can pick up a five to nine or some other side hustle to make this additional money but or you can attend a class that's all about how to get funded or there's you can attend a class that that there's going to be some of the things that we're going to cover here with these other funding strategies that we're going to give. So that class in and of itself is not going to be the thing that gives you the money, but it's going to give you the information to go out here and get the money. Right. So that is so good. There are a lot of times there's all type of enrichment programs that are happening in people's local cities, and they're not attending those things. Because you feel like I just need to you just need to hardcore cash. But no, you probably need to invest time into going to get information to learn the cash. Let me let the facts people who are in real estate, right people who are in real estate, they realize that I can't Yeah, I need the money to get the first property. But what a lot of them they attend seminars, and where people are tell them how they're doing the, you know, the flipping, or how they're doing the workout, wholesaling, and they'll go and get the information, the information is where I'm gonna learn how to pull in those funds. So that's good that you touched those two pieces, and we didn't even we haven't even got to the other

R

one. Definitely, definitely. I mean, we can we can go along or when I have personal investment, but like you said, you mentioned something about locally, right, we're going to be able to go to different local events and whatnot, which leads us to our next point is there are local grants, right? If you go to your you know, in your city or your county state, they have local funds that can go to you as a creative printer to fund projects to fund even your business. So having those grant opportunities and glistening grants, that's money, you ain't got to pay back. Right? So they're giving you money to fund a project. We didn't get to give them their money back. Alright, so we already just

S

gave you two funding ways that you don't have to pay back because that's that's important to you personally investment, you invested it on your own, you owe nobody anything and then grants you don't owe anyone anything. Now with grants, you do owe something right you have there's a deliverable. So when we talk about on your city level, so in your city, let's just say you're an artist from the right, you're from Detroit, there are arts programs that are they are literally geared to help creatives do good things in the world, like whether it's activism or create

more job opportunities, they do see creatives, creatives and small business owners, and so they they have those and I know a lot of people I had to go back and reiterate that because a lot of people don't even realize like that's the thing I can apply If for a $5,000, grant or 10,000 15,000 $20,000, you know, you have to do an application. So what you really want to do at that point is go look up, type in your city, find grants for arts programs, or creative programs, and what if what you're doing, which are handcrafted canoe visions, or whatever, if what you're doing is actually, in some kind of way is serving the community, or it's going to create jobs or it's going to do, they'll have their requirements, you fill out that application, or you fill out that application. And then you know, it's probably going to be some other creators in the community that are already tapping into this stuff. And they are you in the pool, and they'll determine if you are awarded, once you're awarded, you don't owe them back money, you're gonna take that money, and it's gonna boost your business, you then take that money, you, you take the money boost your business and what you owe them back as a deliverable. What they want to see is that you were able to take that $10,000.15 $1,000 and actually do something in the community. Maybe you're a muralist, and maybe out of all the money we gave you to do marketing this. And then the third, you did at least one mural in the city, you know, so there are just some things that you have to do, or maybe report that you have to report back, hey, this is what I did with the funds, I was able to build an email list of this many people. And now I'm letting them know about different things that are going on in Detroit or Charlotte or Chicago or New York, right. So there are some deliverables, you have to give back kind of like reporting back on what you did with it. That's it.

R

No, and you know, I'm familiar with that world. But me being in the nonprofit world, right. So I'm familiar with getting grants. That's how we primarily funded. And like you said, there was a liberal, some graduate dress those deliverables, and they vary based on the project operates based on the assignment, right, based off what you put into that grant, a lot of times, what you're going to do is you're going to put into that grant, okay, this is I'm requesting this money for this I did they put out what you call an RFP, right. That's a request for proposal, right. So when you put out your request for proposal, everything you put in that proposal, if they accepted, then you have to do so you want to have a list of all those deliverables and get you something like a deliverable tracker, you can get you a template in Google or anything like that, and list out all those deliverables, because they're going to want to see that you are doing with the money, what you said he was gonna do with that money. And rightly so he said, I'm not giving you the money back, but I am giving you something back.

S

Right. And that's usually they gave you the funds on the local level to enrich the local community, or they giving you the funds on the state level, that that goes to something that boosts the overall economy in the state. So there's something there. So people always say go with the grants, because that is free money is not necessarily just free in that regard. But it is free, isn't you? Oh, nobody, and you only have to return back. deliverables. You got to do some research, we already engaged users. Can we keep going? We can get other funding.

R

Before we before we do, because we would like to give him some practical things. So I know. So I don't know. So you can look, once again, Google is your friend. So Google, local, you know, you have foundations. So I know here in Michigan, we have kreski. We have Kellogg, there's an actual few others. I know one of our mutual friend, mahogany Jones. She was a kreski. Fellow, I think they were to her like 20 $25,000. Right, a few years back. So. So look, so yeah, Google that, I just want to give you a couple of those. Because I know Kellogg and kreski are too big. And they're not just local there. Those are some national organizations as well.

S

And that's good that you say that, because I did want to mention that we talked about the local grants that are available. There are on the state level, but there are some that are on the national level that you can apply for and it changes the game, you'll be surprised that you wonder what's going on in your business is different than other people just like they're prospering and and flourish. And it's not because they just make an all the sales is because they had a good boost in income, boom, 25,000 boom $10,000. And they were taken, they were able to take that and enhance their creativity or enhance the backside of their business so that they can actually succeed and become that six, seven, or even eight figure business owner, correct. Correct. National level. I didn't know at first I myself, have recently just got awarded and a grant for my, for my business, one of my businesses, right. And so it's a creative based business. It's a festival business model. And I did the same thing I applied. And once I applied through the application didn't take me very long. It wasn't like a three day application. It's just a short application period, probably not even an hour, right. I did the application I did whatever else they needed me to do emailed whoever. And we were awarded right so boom $25,000 That now goes into this other business so that we can kind of keep things going. Don't try to come knock on my door. grant money don't do not come from Me. I'm telling you. We're

R

not less than that. Once again, that's just that's huge. Because once again, we don't know about these opportunities like they're out there. I tell people listen, in the creative space. There is money out there.

S

And and so the whole idea of a starving artist There are grants that exist to try to obliterate that idea I myself didn't know about. So I wish there was a mind in my creative business podcast available, because I would have actually applied years ago had I known about these things. And I'm saying so, by the time I figured it out, I started to I started applying, so we want you to do the same. Let's go to the next one. All right. So that's pretty much enough on the grants, go find out about your local, your state or your national and start applying, I'm telling you, it's gonna change the game. And it's really going to boost your business, let's get into this next funding option we didn't already gave them two. Now this third one is another one. That is when we can say say like free, you don't owe anybody anything. Or them something you always owe somebody grants you owe deliver. But when it comes to this one, this one is one of my favorite ones, and it is brand sponsorships. And we've seen over the past couple of years, we've been in what we would consider a creator economy. So more people are becoming digital

creators, more people are tapping into the creativity, period. And then they're developing business models out of it, right. And so as I develop business models are live, they get started getting followers. And once you have all these followers, that means you have an audience. And once you have an audience that businesses want to get in front of your audience. So yes, you're a creator, with the 10,000 20,000 100,000 100,000 followers. But there's other brands, who also want to be in contact with those followers. Right. So I just, I want to break that down. Because sometimes I think people who are creators are like, they're just trying to get their followers up for them for themselves, right. They're not trying to get the not realizing that the people that you're growing is an audience that another brand probably wants to get in front of his will. So brand sponsorships, well, you're gonna say,

R

Well, no, listen, there's a gentleman that I follow online, and he focuses on brand sponsorships. He has a brand sponsorship with Zinni and I actually wears any glasses. So there's any of y'all out there. I need a sponsorship because I'm rocking golf glasses. But yeah, so what they like to say what they'll do is they give you product, right? And pay you for it to get in front of your audience and for your audience. So that's just a phenomenal way to where you don't really have to do anything extra. I'm not telling you to partner with brands that you don't utilize. But if you if these are brands that you use, I eat, right, it would behoove you behoove me to partner with Zinni, right, because I'm already using it and put them in front of my audience. So we're not I'm exposing them to an audience that they may not be exposed to, to where now they can increase revenue. They're paying me for, say, an audience that I've already cultivated for for me, right. I've cultivated them to follow me to get information into develop as a credit printer and things like that. So now it's like you said, we talked about this before, like b2b. So it's like, it's like you're doing business, a b2b business to other businesses, we're able to do business together, right.

S

So this is, this is not funding that you're getting, because you're going to be to see, right, this is a consumer, I'm selling you say, a canoe or whatever it is, you're selling. No, I'm partnering with the sticker company that you put on there. I'm partnering with the seat cushions that the that we put inside of there on the floor matting. And we use the same stuff all the time. And my people who are into these canoes are like, Oh, I liked that flooring, or I like these cushions. Why not partner with the brand, right? So yes, I'm going to eventually sell it to a consumer. But I am going to talk to the businesses. And his business is going to come in partnership. And now that we're in partnership, they may actually offer me a sponsorship. And with this sponsorship, they are going to say hey, for your next 10 canoes that you make and put that flooring in, we're going to give you those I want you to show this spotlight that so that other people who are into it or want to upgrade their own or whatever can know it. And then also, we know that it takes you money to film this content, we know that takes you time. So we're going to give you a maybe a $15,000 sponsorship, so that now throughout the year, we're paying you maybe $1,500 a month, so you're on a retainer, it feels like a retainer. But it's really as far as you know, $1,500 a month so that every month you're creating content that supports that brand. And it also is something that you're still serving your audience. So you're serving two audiences at once. And so now you have the product, you need a you have to.

R

And a lot of times you don't have to do anything extra, right? A lot of times it's things that you already doing. So as I said, if you are already creating content for the sake of creating content, now you're creating it with a purpose because Okay, cool. I would normally do this. And as I'm doing this, I'm just highlighting this product that I have a sponsorship deal with, right?

S

That's it. I mean, it's really, really simple. So I want I wanted to start off by telling creatives to start with Thinking of their followers, it's just not a number count, like the people you're attracting and that you're serving with your content. That is an audience of people, they have interests, they have views, they have likes, desires, pain points. They fit a certain demographic, and whatever that demographic is, there's another business out there this trying to target them. I'm telling you that

R

lesson, I don't know if I think if you had to listen to what he just said, All right. You are not just building your audience, and you're in these people just to be building them, right? Like, there's demographic, their psychographics. There's all these things that go into these people that go into building this audience, to where there's other people that that want to access to them that you already put time into growing based off of like you said, those demographics and psychographics.

S

Yeah, they want, they want to get in front, they want to get their product in front of that exact audience that you've already called. That's basically what we're saying. You're cultivating an audience? Who is that audience? What do they consist of, I guarantee you, if your brand is doubting your personal brand, or your business brand, or whatever, there's another business with a brand who also wants to get in front of that audience and their product can serve them as well. Right? So this is something I've experienced this as well recently, right? So my brand so as far as like, not my festival business, but me as an artist, as an artist, I would say my music is positivity and spiritual was inspirational is activism is, you know, it's all of those things. And there are people who want to get in front of an audience of people who respond just for positivity, an audience of people who are predominately probably in a person of color, like black and brown community, people who are also talking about being kind of health conscious as well with the thing that I have called free lunch Fridays, free lunch Fridays, it's just me rapping, I'm sitting down eating some healthy cuisine, because I want to slightly promote to people to pick healthy options, right? I do the free lunch Fridays, I put the food on there. And then the brands reach out to me. And it's like, hey, we want to partner with you. Why? Because they realize I'm already cultivating I have the attention of people. They like her, and they're gonna more likely to listen to whatever suggestion she's making about a healthy cuisine. Right? So then, let's say I'm making a healthy Beyond Meat, right? That's actually someone who became a sponsor of mine at one point, right, so I got a brand sponsorship with Beyond Meat because I simply talked about vegan and vegetarian options quite a bit on my platform. And so

they're like, Oh, we want to we want to get in front of that audience. And so they I'm not gonna tell you the details of the brand sponsorship, just no sponsorships are available out there. I want to keep it we'll be right back after these messages. You are now coming into the minds of my creative business. What's the irony is because it's us in different color clothing. I mean, listen, we've been doing a lot of talk. And we want to make sure that you have an opportunity to make a statement as well,

R

because we've seen people make statements with their athletic apparel. We've even seen people make statements as entrepreneurs. But one thing I haven't seen is somebody makes a statement as a creative entrepreneur. So none is we have given you an opportunity to make a statement as a creative entrepreneur. Oh, okay. Okay. So

S

if they want to make sure that they're rocking that creative printer gear, where can they go get that? You

R

can go get that gear from? What's the irony.com?

S

I want to keep it rolling on the funding. I hope you got it. You gotta you good. Let's keep it moving. All right.

R

So next, on our list our loans, right, getting a business loan, and business credit. So that's why it's key as a creative partner is to have the your business entity set up properly and structure properly, because there's opportunities for you to get funding via loans and build business credit. Yeah,

S

so many creatives that I know especially and they don't even have to be once it's just getting started, right? They bootstrapped from the beginning. They were like, Oh, I already know that I was my own first investor, get to the good stuff, right. And so this is the good stuff, because they stay in that bootstrapping, kind of keep fronting the money themselves. All the time. I did that. I remember, I had some big event, right? It was like a video release or some something like that. And I was like, Okay, I'll find a building. I paid for the talent. I pay for all this and then I recouped off the tickets and that's cool. That's cool. But what would have would have been

different? Had I had a business loan or I could use some type of business credit. I wouldn't have had to tie up my own car. As that personal investment no longer has to continue to be made. In that regard, I take the same, maybe I maybe I fronted $5,000 To cover the entire event open that I will make $10,000 After ticket sales and, and vendors and all the things that go into making that event, and then I'll make a profit. And but I had to tie up my cash, if I had a business loan that I had access to, I couldn't use the loan front of that. And then once I recoup, pay the loan back, and now I just walk away with the profit, never had to touch my own cash, right. So we really want to encourage people to first of all, like you said, see yourself as real business and have real business structure because real businesses can go into banks, put down their credentials and walk away, not just with a regular bank account, or walk away with a business loan that you can use to fund certain endeavors when you're trying to float an endeavor, and then recoup on the back end. Exactly.

R

Yeah, that's pretty much it's just using other people's money, you know, saying, oh, PM, right. Yeah, I want to use other people's money to fund what it is that I'm doing. Why use my own money, right? When I can get other people's money for pennies on the dollar? In some cases, right? They have no interest. Right? So if you aren't Detroit, this is another gem. I'm plugging my people, black leaders, Detroit, black leaders, Detroit, they are giving 0% interest loans for black businesses that operate in the city and benefit the city of Detroit. Hello. So it's your three, three years. So what they do is so so so listen, this is this, this this past summer, I applied, right? I'm just like, why not apply? My business stuff is on point. So I applied, I got awarded $25,000. And that $25,000, I got to pay back in three years, but no interest, no

S

interest. So it's just really, I almost kind of almost felt like a grant. Because it's like is that it's a grant with no like deliverables that I have to do. I just have to pay the money to pay back interest. Yeah. Because when we think about loans, people like I don't want to be in debt and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, but if you have a real business that's generating revenue and stuff, you should be making the money back anyway, pay that back. You don't have to touch your personal funds. And it's just really cool. But the part that they're scared, afraid of is like the interest like, oh, man, I got a $10,000 loan. But now I had to pay 15, almost 20,000 back. Now, that's not the type of loans that we're encouraging. We're talking about having your LLC, right, having your business address, right, having your phone number, right, there's a couple things that you have to have, right, definitely, in order to get business credit and business loans. But once you get it, and you can have 0% interest, that's almost that's like cash, right? So I was able to use the 25,000 made money off of it may interest off of it, and then I wind up paying it back. Like that's, that's really cool.

R

I use it. And we've been we've just been talking about the loans. We really didn't I mean, we mentioned credit, but we didn't talk about credit. Yeah, so business credit is similar, right to where, once again, make sure your entities and all that stuff is set up properly. But what you're

ShySpeaks 28:13

S

Ronald Lee Jr. 31:26

R

somebody told me that they were able to fund their entire marketing department, just from their reward points. So because you got some people to give you they give you cash back,

right. So they give you cash rewards. So they were able to, because they once again, they're using their credit card for all their business expenses, they're not using their their personal money or their business money, they're using credit. So as a result of me using this credit, I'm building up these points, I'm getting this cash reward back and they were able to fund somebody to do the marketing, just off point,

S

Ronald Lee Jr. 33:38

R

last one. So all these things, right? You want to make sure that you have a revenue strategy. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, you need a revenue strategy. And what I do a lot of my clients is I help them identify, Okay, based off your skill set based off your passion, and then based off a nice that you that you can identify, right? What are some things that you can provide to your audience to your target market. Right. So you go down that list and you start to see, okay, cool. Let's use the artist as an example. Right. So a lot of artists, they'll start with, you know, streaming because that's what's poppin right? Recording Arts, right. So they start with streaming, right, so they pay for streaming, that's one way but we know that that's that's a marathon, right? That ain't no sprint, like that's you. We just saw what was that snow city had a million streams of being streams on he made $40,000. So that's not isn't a lot of springs for a little money. Right. But we noticed that's that's, that's that's a part of it. We got streaming, but then depending on your audience, depending on your knees, they may want a physical product from you. They may want a I know somebody just put out a cassette tape right now when you're synchronizing yours, right but they just did a cassette tape because their audience wants it. So because that's so nice. Now they can charge a premium for that. Like that's not like something that you would charge 10 $20 for they charge $100 For that cassette tape, right. So

they do cassettes and somebody may want vinyl somebody They made one CD. So you identify what your audience wants, because they're gonna tell you what they want, right? So you identify what they want. So okay, cool. We got it on streaming platforms, but we know our people want a physical product. So we're gonna give them a hard copy, right? Then we want merchandise, right? We like we take our song lyrics and put them on T shirts. So we sell T shirts, because our audience wants that. Right. So that's another way to generate revenue. We performing live, right, we're doing shows. And then because of this market is one this is an untapped market. And I'm telling the client years ago, I'm like, because everybody doing stuff virtually online, start doing virtual concert, still do the in person concerts, virtual concerts, private

S

steps, like some virtual stuff that just group of people can tap in, and just like, hey, it's gonna be exclusive. Ya can make song requests. That's a whole nother thing.

R

Because this is probably this exclusive. This ain't for everybody. This only for some people. And why? Because this exclusive thing you can charge a premium. Right? Right.

S

Yeah. Okay, so So you just talked about having a product diversification as a revenue strategy. But there's also we say, like having a revenue strategy, don't just think that I'm gonna go out here, I'm gonna just keep putting my own money into it with no plan on how to recoup the money. Oh, I'm gonna do some loans with no plan on how you're gonna make that $10,000 back that you just been in business credit, like, that's not, that's not why needs to have a plan on how I'm going to make this money. If I do this advertisement, that's gonna get me in front of 100,000 people out of 100,000 people, I only need 10% of those people to buy this product, which is what 10,000 People 10,000 People buy my product, and I'm only charging $5 for this product. Now, it's 10,000 times five, that's I know, I can make $50,000. I spent five on the advertisement, I may fit it down. That's just that's just mad, but just have a strategy in place on what am I going to do to generate revenue. Like at the end of the day, I need to figure out and you talked about diversifying your product thing. I know that you had a client one time listen to a makeup artists or something like that. makeup artists are creative entrepreneurs. And so I had a friend of mine who is a makeup artist, obviously, she does the makeup herself. But I was telling her she can also offer like a little package, she noticed that she was specializing in people who had like some skin conditions and stuff like that. So she would teach them how to wash their skin and get everything. And so it's like, Well, why not, why not make a little bundle every time they come to you pay for my makeup, they're also going to get the stuff to wash it off. And then the regimen to keep up for the next couple of days. So they can have that clean and clear skin. And so you're worth solving another problem for them. So now she just had this increase in her revenue strategy, you're already gonna book client's to do makeup. Now I'm adding a another, I'm attaching another service or product on to it. And that's going to increase my revenue. Right? So let's say she's charging $100 for face. Now, you say, Hey, it's 150 to get

the wash pack seven day, whatever. And so now she can think I normally do 10 People in a weekend are making $1,000. But if I add that $50 To write that, boom, I just added in another $500. So I have a strategy on how you're going to generate that

R

upcharge right there. Yeah. And there's so many things you can add to that strategy, like the upcharge especially, and I tell people focus on people that's already spent money with you. Right, a lot of times we're looking for new customers and new clients. But if somebody has already spent money with you, they're willing to spend money with you again. So find other ways, right? To make this a part of your strategy, find other ways where they can continue to pay money where like you just say it, it's like, okay, you just come to me for your face beat. But I got this package, right? Not only not only do I have a package, but I can think of something else. Maybe I'll give you a home tutorial. So you can do it on your own. Exactly right. So now just start thinking away. So whereby you say but that's, that's key, because especially if you're doing loans, right loans or credit, you got to pay that stuff back, you gotta pay. And if you don't have a revenue generating strategy, then you're gonna put yourself in trouble. And we don't want y'all getting in trouble. We don't want you to hear me, we don't want you in trouble. So you want that strategy in place, even before you even even that listen, when it comes to loans. For the most part, they're going to want to ask you for a revenue generating strategy. A lot of times not every, not everybody, but some people are going to ask you for that,

S

Ronald Lee Jr. 40:52

R

ma'am. That's good. That is good. This is good. So we're gonna we're gonna wrap up on this episode, right? I think I left. I don't know about y'all. I know, I got some gems or some jewels,

episode, right? I think I left. I don't know about y'all. I know, I got some gems or some jewels, right,

S

I got some stuff that I want to do. Again, I definitely need to get back active on applying for some of those grants and things like that. Listen, if this was helpful for you, you enjoyed this content, we do want you to please leave a review, I know you like it's gonna take, you could just say dog episode, you could just say something simple, good gems, I'm just saying just do something because it's going to help the podcast is going to boost it up in the algorithm. So other people, other creative entrepreneurs like yourself, we'll see. And then also, we want to tell them if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you like the video. It don't take nothing. Second, just to hit like, subscribe,

R

like and subscribe, like and subscribe. Also, we want you to join our creative, creative corner community, right? So it's a monthly newsletter, as well as the Facebook community to where you will be surrounded by other creative partners like yourself, like me and shot that will be there to encourage you. But you also get some more tips and things like that to assist you along your journey. So we encourage you to go to MCB podcast.com. And once again, you can be a part of that community. So please, yeah,

S

I just say he read it sound real smooth. It's just it's a community, it's a group. And as well it's a newsletter, that newsletter is giving you those tips you need, that motivation you need and so forth and so on. It's really really really, really insightful content in there. So, creatives corner MMCD podcast.com. Now, um, we're talking about creatives, creative entrepreneurs, I want to tell y'all, we appreciate you for sticking around the entire episode listening to all these funding strategies, if any of these things helped. Or you know, you want to apply one of them which one you're going to do next drop a comment somewhere let us know what you're doing so we can know this stuff is helpful.

R

And I know shots you gotta have you gotta you gotta do the martial to take them out. Oh, we gotta go.

S

So normally at home studios, we let people know this monitor and I can read it off the screen. So let's see if I really let's see let's see if you got here's what we want you to do. We want you to repeat after us before we get out of here. All it takes is strategy, strategy, structure and laser focus, my creative you go so all it takes all it takes is strategy strategy, structure, structure and laser focus, laser focus, my my creative visa my business