Interview: Angela Hollowell

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[00:00:54] Welcome back to Beyond the Post with Rob Dunwoody and Bodie Grimm. I'm Rob Dunwoody

[00:00:58] and I'm Bodie Grimm. And in this episode we're talking with Angela

[00:01:02] Hollowell full-time creative entrepreneur documentary filmmaker, photographer, podcast

[00:01:06] or YouTuber and so much more. Bodie, I was so excited for this interview. We had been

[00:01:11] waiting all year actually all of 2023 to talk to Angela and we finally got it done.

[00:01:16] Yeah Rob, I thought this was a great chat with Angela. We covered all sorts of things, how

[00:01:21] she got started as a digital creator and then Angelie gives us some of her best advice on how

[00:01:26] to be successful in the world of digital creation. Yeah, man so this is a good one. I hope everybody

[00:01:32] appreciates it so let's go ahead and get into that interview. So Angela Hollowell first picked

[00:01:37] up a camera in 2015 and since has launched Rufu Media, a Durham North Carolina based production

[00:01:42] company that amplifies diverse groups and voices by taking a documentary approach to

[00:01:46] narrator storytelling. She has multiple active podcasts including Honey and Hustle,

[00:01:50] a video podcast focusing on early stage entrepreneurs across North Carolina and creative architects

[00:01:55] by Castles. Angela talks to the creators shaping the future of the creator economy. Angela also runs

[00:02:01] please Hustle responsibly of membership community and newsletter where she dies deeply into creative

[00:02:06] entrepreneurship, visual storytelling and marketing as an introvert. So Angela my first question

[00:02:12] is when do you have time to sleep? Because that's a mouthful. There's a lot there so

[00:02:19] so how do you how do you get stuff done? I will say that it is not just me anymore if you had asked

[00:02:25] me that you know three to five years ago the answer would have been completely different but now I

[00:02:30] do have a team of subcontractors helping me out so I do have time to sleep, I do have time to eat

[00:02:36] and go do things that I enjoy that don't involve work. I probably should properly welcome you

[00:02:43] to the show so welcome to Beyond the Post. We really appreciate you joining us and I was telling

[00:02:48] Boatie in our pre show that I was super looking forward to talking to you because there's just so

[00:02:52] much stuff and from the times we've crossed paths with you know just you know whether it be a

[00:02:58] a Twitter space or now I guess you call it an x-space or whatever the case is you've always been

[00:03:03] really in ciphon had really cool things to say so you know with uh you know with all the things

[00:03:09] you've been doing is how did you get started I mean it's nine is a nine-year journey for you

[00:03:13] I think you started all this back in 2015 so just just how did how did where you are now how did

[00:03:18] how did you come about this how did you get started. Oh man that's a good question so when I picked

[00:03:23] up a camera in 2015 it was after I took a trip to spate and I lost all my cell phone photos from

[00:03:29] that trip so my first I guess initial reason for picking up a camera was I want to document my life

[00:03:35] I want to document my journeys. I realized that college for me was a time of travel and learning

[00:03:41] outside of the classroom and I really wanted that to be something that I remembered forever especially

[00:03:46] with how much money I was spending on college so I got the camera after working all summer after

[00:03:51] that trip and when I graduated from college with my bachelor's in 2016 that's when I started

[00:03:58] thinking a little more critically okay like what do I want life to be for me outside of this

[00:04:04] you know title that I just have acquired right um what truly is going to make me happy if I'm

[00:04:10] going to give my time to it for years and years and years and uh for the moment I couldn't seem

[00:04:14] to come up with an answer that didn't involve a camera and so in 2016 that's when I first started

[00:04:20] the business it wasn't on legally on paper but I was being more intentional about thinking of myself

[00:04:25] as a photographer and wanting to get paid as a photographer and when I moved here to North Carolina

[00:04:32] and I'd started doing some videography stuff I think my options and possibilities just opened up

[00:04:38] to me a little bit more I could feel myself in a place where I wanted to dream a little bit more and

[00:04:42] be a little more intentional about creating a career that involved me using my camera every day

[00:04:48] or if not every day you know making money from my camera essentially and that's I guess the short

[00:04:54] story of how I got here I think it was a series of small steps and decisions where I just had to

[00:04:59] be honest with myself about what I was truly passionate about what I truly cared about

[00:05:03] and what I was willing to work my ass off for that's that's amazing because you you were quite a

[00:05:11] bit younger than Robin I I did not have anything figured out at that age at all and for you to say

[00:05:18] well this is what I want to do and this is how I'm going this is my path forward blows me away

[00:05:23] do you mind telling us what you went to college for what was what was your degree in yeah so I got my

[00:05:28] undergraduate degree in Spanish I was a Spanish major and then I got my graduate degree in peace

[00:05:34] and human rights studies so it was essentially a degree under the anthropology department when we were

[00:05:39] studying peace justice human rights things like that Angelou you said that you actually have gotten

[00:05:46] contractors to help you out that's uh so you're you're advanced in this you're actually paying

[00:05:51] other people to help you do the things that get you paid so could you tell us about that just how

[00:05:56] you moved from being the you know the the solo entrepreneur solo pernore into the point where now

[00:06:00] you've actually still maybe that solo pernore from a title standpoint but you actually got

[00:06:05] contractors that are doing work on behalf of the things you've come you know you've got coming out

[00:06:10] how did you how did you get to that point I radically the first so contractors are hired

[00:06:16] would not for client projects they were for honey and hustle I wanted help editing the podcast

[00:06:22] as you already know putting together a podcast is a lot of moving parts and it is something that we do

[00:06:29] largely as a labor of love some of us get paid some of us don't but when you're starting your first

[00:06:34] indie podcast probably for the first you know depending on how many episodes is pretty much

[00:06:39] going to be all you you know making all the decisions deciding the format doing the editing

[00:06:44] doing the publishing doing the marketing and I said if I could just take out the most time

[00:06:48] consuming part of this I could do a lot more in terms of client work and in terms of the

[00:06:54] podcast making the quality even better because I have someone else focusing on the packaging of

[00:07:00] the end product in terms of editing and doing short form stuff so that's kind of how it started

[00:07:06] and then I said hold on if I can get editors from a podcast maybe I can just write editors into some

[00:07:11] of my client projects because I was moving you know into a budget area where that would you know make

[00:07:18] sense right clients would expect for me to have some sort of a team and so that's kind of how it

[00:07:25] started I started with video editors as just my most time consuming thing and quite frankly

[00:07:29] my least favorite part of the video creation process I really enjoy the pre-production the planning

[00:07:35] the marketing that sort of thing and so it expanded from video editors I got an operations manager

[00:07:43] in May of last year that was super helpful I get really overwhelmed with emails I get a lot of

[00:07:48] emails so many emails I should be illegal and then I added a production assistant to help me when

[00:07:55] I was doing in-person episodes of the podcast so they would help run cameras run sound and also do

[00:08:00] a little bit up behind the scenes photo and video so that was really helpful it super excited with

[00:08:04] what we're going to do with all of that and then of course along the way again as the podcast is

[00:08:10] grown still has the business so we've had video editors working with us on client projects

[00:08:16] we've had camera operators working with us sound guys working with us shout out to the sound guys

[00:08:21] and yeah just a whole slew of people that you know I've been really blessed to work with

[00:08:26] they've made me a better creator and I'm super proud of the level and the quality of the work

[00:08:31] that we're putting out now but personally and professionally yeah we should probably back up

[00:08:36] just a little bit because I think we skipped over how many things you actually do because you

[00:08:41] robbed mention that you have the Honey and Hustle podcast and the Creators Architects podcast for

[00:08:47] Castos but you also make documentary films you when you do client work you're referring to clients

[00:08:54] in your video side of your business do you want to talk about that a little bit? Sure so Rufo Media

[00:09:01] has grown and evolved over time it first started as Angie Studio which is the most basic name

[00:09:05] that I could come up with but in November of 2022 I think that was shortly after I'd started

[00:09:13] working with my first set of editors and I said okay if I am building something that is bigger than

[00:09:20] myself then my name does not need to be the first thing people think of when they think of the

[00:09:24] business that I'm running and I also wanted a name that was a little more synonymous with

[00:09:30] the direction I wanted to take the business so originally I started Angie Studio as a photographer

[00:09:36] good-added video production and then as I kind of got more in my niche if you will I realized that

[00:09:43] I focused a lot on environmental storytelling outdoor storytelling human rights social impact type

[00:09:48] stuff and Angie Studio is not a name that reflected any of that right so Rufo Media is kind of

[00:09:55] going to march to the slogan that I came up with for Angie Studio which is rooted in storytelling

[00:10:00] so I wanted to kind of play on that slogan and make something that was a little more indicative

[00:10:07] of someone who like cares about the environment cares about that sort of thing

[00:10:13] and I think once I made that transition to that name in that focus the vision for the business

[00:10:18] just became so much clearer and when I say so much clearer I didn't have a vision for the

[00:10:24] business when I first started it was just I wanted to make money you know using my camera and I think

[00:10:29] now I've been able to dream and really be focused on achieving what I call my first ever five year

[00:10:36] plan which involves so much more than just myself. So you said something really interesting there

[00:10:42] when you first started you just wanted to make money with your camera I know there are folks who

[00:10:46] want to make money with their pen or their keyboard or folks who want to make money with their

[00:10:51] microphone so how did you go from just going back to 2015 when you just picked a camera up to where

[00:10:58] now you're actually charging people to use it. How did you make that transition from this is a hobby

[00:11:05] for me this is now a career path for me to where I'm going to go charge someone I would have to

[00:11:10] imagine that first time you charge someone has that's probably a daunting task that's probably

[00:11:14] something that puts not in your stomach the first time you charge someone for your time

[00:11:18] to do something creative like that. Yeah so the first time I charged I done some portrait

[00:11:24] stuff and event stuff but one of the persons that I didn't event for he was also wedding DJ

[00:11:30] and he said hey I have this couple who's you know they're not really looking for

[00:11:35] that classic you know popular wedding photographer they're looking for someone who actually cares

[00:11:40] about the craft. And I brought your name up and I said oh shit weddings are serious you know what

[00:11:46] I'm saying like you can't take that day back right like that's a once in a lifetime thing. So I

[00:11:51] wanted to be serious and I said yes and the person who who's wedding I end up doing they ended

[00:11:59] up being the freaking director of the movie Woodlawn which is a popular feature film that came at a

[00:12:05] Birmingham Alabama which is where I was living at the time. And so not only are he and his wife

[00:12:10] these incredible like director producer power couple everyone at their wedding is like a camera

[00:12:16] a sound guy a first-day see like all these super huge you know people a steady cam operator like

[00:12:22] all these incredible like film and TV and video people. And I'm just like you know I'm in the

[00:12:28] same room and by the time the you know groom is like hey I'm ready to pay you how much do you want

[00:12:34] I'm like shaking in my boots this guys have drunk I could probably tell him anything but I don't

[00:12:38] know how much to charge. And so I charged him like 450 dollars which is way less than what I ever

[00:12:43] should charge for a wedding. So don't for if you're at first time waiting for time for don't charge

[00:12:47] that low but um he just like wrote the check I was like yeah here's a little extra for travel here

[00:12:52] you go oh my god this is great um but I think I would love to say it was just like an upper trajectory

[00:12:58] from there but it definitely has been a rocky roller coaster over the years of figuring out

[00:13:02] marketing and business and sales and all the things that I mean nothing about

[00:13:08] all while I'm still trying to figure out how to be a better photographer and a better creator.

[00:13:14] So what would be one piece of a device aside from you know working for a big director somewhere

[00:13:21] and accidentally stumbling into something really cool but what would be your biggest piece

[00:13:25] of advice for somebody who picks up a pen or picks up their mic and wants to start something

[00:13:32] based on what you've learned what's your advice to them what's one thing that they can take

[00:13:36] away to make their journey a little bit easier. I think that in the age of creating an online

[00:13:43] business and the sexiness and the allure that that um attracts to people um I think there's

[00:13:50] something to be said about starting off as a service based creative freelancer um if you want

[00:13:56] to get better exponentially fast and learn sales exponentially fast learn messaging exponentially

[00:14:03] fast get feedback on your work and honest feedback on your work exponentially faster being a service

[00:14:09] based freelancer is a thousand percent the way to go yes you have to leave your house yes you have

[00:14:15] to learn the actual fundamentals about talking with people and communicating with people

[00:14:20] and creating a sales process but all of that translates so much better to building an online business

[00:14:25] because you know what it means to establish a relationship with someone you know whether or not

[00:14:30] your work is good enough or somebody to pay you because people are going to tell you if they do not

[00:14:34] like something you produced um and you had the experience that you can actually translate into

[00:14:40] education right we see a lot of creators now who want to skip the hard part of not really um

[00:14:49] having direct feedback from a client that isn't on gee I love you I love your testimonial they want

[00:14:55] to skip the hard parts of actually becoming good actually becoming great actually becoming prolific

[00:15:01] like they see these guys online that did not happen overnight and I can guarantee you their journeys

[00:15:07] didn't just start when they opened up their laptop one day like they like to sell you and so my

[00:15:11] biggest thing when I tell people and people coming up to me they're like oh I want to make money

[00:15:16] being a YouTube I want to make money being a podcast and it's like do you want to make money today

[00:15:20] or like 10 months from today right so you also have to think about the time frame that it takes

[00:15:26] to become profitable yes my road was a rocky is for bumpy it took a lot of learning for me

[00:15:32] but I'm grateful for that because now it just feels like I've opened up a faucet and everything's

[00:15:36] working in my favor because I had those rough experiences and I know what works for me

[00:15:40] and what doesn't work for me I know that what I know how to validate a product that I'm putting out

[00:15:46] I'm not afraid of feedback so I think that again in an age where everything glitters and

[00:15:53] everything is gold be honest with yourself about what it's going to take to actually be successful

[00:15:58] and what kind of life and business and legacy you want to leave as a creator.

[00:16:03] What do you what do you recommend for that hobbyist today that wants to actually be

[00:16:08] a entrepreneur tomorrow how do you get that first client you know is do you have any tricks

[00:16:14] of the trade or tools of the trade that you know I don't even know how to get someone to have

[00:16:19] me be interested for doing a wedding but you know what is your advice to that person is trying to

[00:16:23] make that initial you know that that initial foray into the world of entrepreneurship from when it

[00:16:29] was just a hobby yesterday. It's very old school is very rudimentary but like telling the people in

[00:16:35] your life what you want you know they're gonna you know they want to support you they want to share

[00:16:40] people you know share you with other people and they're likely going to be your first referral

[00:16:44] clients right so the people that you the first client is probably going to be like a friend of a

[00:16:49] friend right a friend of a family member and there's nothing wrong with that I think you know

[00:16:54] again healthy people ask for what they want. So ask for what you want tell your family members

[00:16:58] the direction that you would like to go in and allow them to help you my second thing would be if

[00:17:03] maybe you don't have a big support network in person go to some in person networking events

[00:17:12] yes old school but it's a lot faster than trying to build a relationship online with someone

[00:17:16] who does not know you from Adam it's a lot harder for someone to say notes your face

[00:17:22] and if someone sees you face to face they get a feel for who you are they get a feel for it they

[00:17:26] like you pretty fast within the first five to ten minutes and they have an idea of whether or

[00:17:30] not they want to work with you anyway so don't be afraid to put yourself out there and just ask.

[00:17:35] You say in your videos that you're an introvert I'm also an introvert I don't like being on camera

[00:17:40] this was this is not comfortable for me but I really want to do this podcast so I suffer through it

[00:17:47] how do you how would you communicate that to an introvert where you only have so much energy

[00:17:52] to give and some people have more some people have less how do those folks get out and actually

[00:17:59] make those connections while still feeling you know I guess comfortable and safe.

[00:18:04] I think that the best way to be a good steward of your energy as an introvert especially when

[00:18:10] you go on a network and events one don't be afraid to leave early if you feel like you've met

[00:18:14] three to five good connections please leave I think no vibe there's no extra credit for staying

[00:18:20] any longer than you feel comfortable um but first go in it with a goal you know don't say I want

[00:18:25] to meet everybody in the room I'm gonna aim for the most richest person I can find just aim for

[00:18:31] three to good three to five good conversations I found that that's really helpful for me

[00:18:36] and they don't always have to end in some like hard exchange like yeah we're going to go get coffee

[00:18:41] anything like that and I think an introverts power super power at least is that we're a lot

[00:18:47] better at following up than people because we care about the few relationships that we have and

[00:18:51] we're a little more intentional about the relationships that we have and I'm here to tell you

[00:18:55] nobody follows up at networking events nobody so if you can follow up that's just like an easy

[00:19:02] way to set yourself apart and it's low energy you can do that from your bedroom to send an email

[00:19:07] call it today. So I want to change gears a little bit I actually just watched one of your recent

[00:19:13] YouTube videos um and it was about the you know this things that you know what it picks that you've

[00:19:18] got for 2024 and or trends that you see happening in 2024 and one of the things it really

[00:19:25] stood out to me because I think this is how you and I met is social audio um and that's so you know

[00:19:32] live audio but you know could you could you expand a little bit up on that you know why do you

[00:19:38] think that things like Twitter spaces or LinkedIn live or just these these areas where you can create

[00:19:47] audio in real time in front of an audience what what what has you thinking that that might be popping

[00:19:51] in 2024. I think we're seeing a small comeback in Twitter spaces of movies um using Twitter spaces

[00:19:59] as part of their marketing launch strategy um and I think that to me was the indicator that

[00:20:06] spaces had some some legs to it when it first came out um we saw the heart of they fall that

[00:20:12] crew get on Twitter spaces at least your keys when she was launching her music album she got on

[00:20:18] she did a Twitter space they had freaking Jay Z on Twitter when have you heard Jay Z on anything

[00:20:24] okay so he rarely does interviews he and he was on there freely Regina Kings set her home phone

[00:20:30] number on the dot com thing like not a care in the world I mean I think it was just a space where

[00:20:35] people yeah I think it was just a space where people felt really comfortable and people at all

[00:20:40] levels you don't have to leave your house you don't have to care about what you look like but it's

[00:20:44] almost like networking in a bottle right it's like community in a bottle right and I think that

[00:20:50] you know had spaces not gotten kicked in the teeth I think it was on its way to being a very

[00:20:57] beautiful beautiful place and really start passing what clubhouse had built even in its heyday

[00:21:03] and we see now the clubhouse is pivoted to something else we see Spotify gave up on what was

[00:21:08] it like green room pretty quickly amp shutting down but I think one thing that fundamentally people

[00:21:14] misunderstood about social audio and that why it works so well on Twitter was because you didn't

[00:21:19] have to reinvent the wheel you didn't have to read like move an audience there and you could do other

[00:21:26] things besides live audio it's very rare that I'm going to get on an app for live audio whether

[00:21:31] that's linked in or Twitter you know there's too many other things that I care about and I think

[00:21:36] live audio is just an extension of what I'm learning is called sonal branding so people being able to

[00:21:43] hear your voice get a sense of who you are I think that's irreplaceable at a time where people

[00:21:48] are still craving human connection and so I think that we've had some some near misses but if we can

[00:21:55] get something like an even more robust Twitter spaces maybe even replace that community stab it

[00:22:00] nobody's using on Twitter with the spaces tab again maybe get some more functionality with the

[00:22:05] spaces I think would be in a good place one other trend that I wanted to you know pick a brain on

[00:22:12] was Indie creator networks you think that this could be the year of Indie creator networks so

[00:22:18] I think all three of us are what you would consider Indie creators so that really you know

[00:22:23] peak my interest what do you have to say about that um I think that now more than ever people

[00:22:29] are seeing the advantages of collaboration and collective accountability and I say that because

[00:22:39] Indie creator networks a lot of them they still work on their own shows right there maybe they

[00:22:43] have their feed drop front of their show every now and then that you know people get to benefit from

[00:22:47] but ultimately the real benefit to an Indie creator network is having other creators to bounce ideas

[00:22:52] off of having other creators that help you stay accountable help you stay consistent give you

[00:22:58] honest feedback about how you can make your show better or have people you can run ideas against

[00:23:04] and I think ultimately that's what creators are seeing as being a huge part of their success

[00:23:09] and more you're seeing so many people crave those intimate spaces where they can talk numbers talk

[00:23:14] about what's working share resources in terms of sponsors they may potentially want to reach out

[00:23:20] to and in the podcast space which has largely been left out of that conversation I think people

[00:23:27] are now realizing you know it's been a couple years since I started my podcast I started in 2020

[00:23:32] and I think now in 2024 people are saying you know I've been out there still around they've been

[00:23:39] at this for at least as long as I have at least three years they probably go through some following

[00:23:43] they probably have a website they probably made significant investments they probably had the

[00:23:46] first one or two sponsors and they're like how much better could I be if I had a network of other

[00:23:53] podcasters with similar aspirations similar goals similar interests and maybe even some

[00:23:58] our audiences that I could be associated with how much stronger could my show be if I could cross

[00:24:05] network cross collaborate all those great things and I think that is going to be a really big super

[00:24:11] power as it comes to podcasting because when you look at YouTube one of the things you'll see very

[00:24:16] often is smaller you know YouTubers they'll make a video about Peter McKinnon they'll make a video

[00:24:22] about MKBHD they'll make a video about insert Mr. Beast right like trying to get you know the attention

[00:24:29] of these big YouTubers and sometimes it works and those collaborations are you know like a shot in

[00:24:34] the arm for those people what if we could do the same thing for podcasters and I think that's what

[00:24:38] people are starting to look at a little bit I think that's fantastic one of the reasons why

[00:24:45] I wanted to do this show is because when I started my podcast in 2016 I basically went

[00:24:55] I had no creator friends until 2019 and that was that was lonely and rough I'm not gonna lie

[00:25:02] and now I have a really nice network of people that I can go to and bounce things off of

[00:25:06] and I think that's really really important and community to me is the most important thing that we

[00:25:12] do as creators can you talk a little bit about you know your how you address the your audience

[00:25:20] community and then you have your internal team how do you keep everybody kind of focused on board

[00:25:27] engaged because it's probably very different skills between audiences in your team.

[00:25:33] So in terms of communicating with my team and communicating with more audience yet it is two

[00:25:38] different skills and I quite frankly feel like I have communicated with my audience a lot more

[00:25:43] than I've communicated with my team just because I talk to my audience every day just about I've

[00:25:47] been tweeting daily since about 2021 2022 so a couple of years now and then LinkedIn as I've

[00:25:57] gone in and out of phases of daily LinkedIn posts but for the most part I've been pretty consistent

[00:26:01] there as well. So I think I've developed the language that I know that my audience responds to

[00:26:08] I think it is a constant learning curve of how to communicate with my internal team especially

[00:26:15] as we onboard new people and just learning their communication styles and in terms of keeping

[00:26:21] everyone engaged I think the short answer is aside from paying people fairly really for me understanding

[00:26:29] what people's strengths are I think people are just going to thrive in spaces where they feel like

[00:26:33] skills are being best used whether talents are being best used and where they're interested.

[00:26:38] And so I just try as hard as I can to be have conversations with my team about is there something

[00:26:44] you want to do is there's something that fits into where you want to be going as a creator

[00:26:48] and if that answer is yes then obviously I try to keep working with them as much as I can

[00:26:54] and growing with them as much as I can and really you know the end of the day my success is in part

[00:27:01] there's success and vice versa and I try to as much as I can openly share that success with them

[00:27:07] and bring them into the process and the ones that I have. What is running your membership community

[00:27:16] that was something I didn't know you were doing before I started researching specifically for this

[00:27:22] you know for this interview but it's like on top of everything else that you're doing

[00:27:25] you actually are running a newsletter and a membership community so how is that going in

[00:27:32] what drove you to you know what any badness to my plate as well you know what drove you to

[00:27:37] just doing these additional things with community. So ironically the answer to that is actually

[00:27:43] working on the creative architects podcast by Castos so that was a branded show and one of the things

[00:27:50] that I really found that was going to be great for me in the partnership was that Castos had

[00:27:55] their own email list so I didn't feel the need to create my own and I know you're going to come

[00:27:59] from me through the screen but just stay with me for a second. So I have been a person where I've

[00:28:06] tried to start an email newsletter in the past and I just didn't know what to say I didn't

[00:28:11] I didn't know what to say I didn't know how to stay consistent I didn't know what to talk about

[00:28:17] I wasn't creating consistently enough to have anything to share my own in those newsletters

[00:28:22] yada yada plethora of issues right and I think now after writing for two plus years online

[00:28:32] after creating for three plus years online both YouTube and podcasting I finally feel like I'm

[00:28:38] out of space where I have a vision and a plan for what that's going to look like for me going

[00:28:41] forward and I have something to say right and so I started the police also responsibly newsletter

[00:28:49] in the end of November 2023 so it's not even three months old yet so we're still in baby phase

[00:28:55] but we're learning a lot very quickly we're iterating a lot very quickly and the response has just

[00:29:01] been incredible. Substack is a platform that I ultimately ended up choosing I played around with

[00:29:07] a couple as I was thinking about it but ultimately I ended up going with Substack for the fact that

[00:29:13] yeah I may lose a little more money when I get paid subscribers but the functionality the UX UI

[00:29:19] the ease of use then being able to post on the app and post on and send people an email whenever

[00:29:24] a new post is live that was kind of unmatched and I really didn't need all the functionality of

[00:29:31] B-Hive at the moment I feel like I can get that somewhere else so

[00:29:36] Substack has been great I've been loving it I do have a writer that helps me with a couple

[00:29:40] posts here and there Anthony they're awesome and we we have a plan for moving forward I'm really

[00:29:47] excited about. What is your take on the folks who say the newsletter is replayed nobody's

[00:29:54] checking email anymore we can do everything in social media you know I've got 10,000 followers

[00:30:00] on this platform or that platform but I don't really need to have an email newsletter you know

[00:30:05] what do you say to those folks? One I would say that the engagement right for a newsletter is so much

[00:30:11] higher the connection that you build with your newsletter subscribers is so much deeper and your

[00:30:18] ability to just tap in directly with your community is something that truly doesn't happen in the

[00:30:24] way that we think it does on Twitter and LinkedIn you know on Twitter and LinkedIn you know the

[00:30:29] lifetime of a tweet maybe four to eight hours if you're lucky maybe a 10th 20% of the audience

[00:30:38] sees it right that's why a lot of people repurpose tweets because it's very likely that your audience

[00:30:43] didn't see it the first time LinkedIn the amount of people that you are connected with and the

[00:30:48] amount of people that are active on LinkedIn two completely different numbers the lifespan of a

[00:30:53] you know opposed maybe a week but you know if only again 10 to 20% of your audience is seeing it

[00:31:01] okay cool um and yeah people could make the argument about DMs but DMs are more annoying than

[00:31:07] email so you might as well get an email this time we're just being honest and I think there's

[00:31:13] something to be said for long-form content in general and I think that's just where again I'm putting

[00:31:18] on my eggs in one basket I'm going all in on long-form posts I'm going on a little long-form video

[00:31:24] I'm going on it on long-form podcasting anything now that you see me post probably since January has been

[00:31:31] me sharing YouTube video has been me sharing news article has been me sharing about the podcast

[00:31:39] more often than not and I think that's direction that I'm moving with social media it is strictly

[00:31:43] a place for me to market other other things that I'm doing and get people off the platform and

[00:31:48] hopefully get them on some newsletters so they can get direct access and first access to podcasts

[00:31:53] episodes YouTube videos and original articles that we're writing in your 2023 Roundup video you said

[00:31:59] that one of the things that you wanted to work on was making sure you have time for your friends

[00:32:04] and family and the thing that I thought was the most that hit me the hardest was you also said

[00:32:12] while still while being okay with that time that you're taken away from yourself how are you

[00:32:19] ensuring that your own personal being isn't being overshadowed by all of these other things you

[00:32:24] have going on yeah I think this year I had some serious conversations about why I was getting so

[00:32:34] overwhelmed with my email and why I was getting so overwhelmed with my schedule and I came to the

[00:32:40] conclusion that I was in a lot of meetings that I probably should not have been in last year I

[00:32:45] probably should have some note too and that I didn't have an email app or email tool that really

[00:32:53] allowed me to have a focused inbox so one of the changes I made this year was I restrict the days

[00:33:01] that I have meetings so I have at least two days a week where I have no meetings one of those days

[00:33:05] this week is tomorrow and I restrict the days that I create so I do set aside specific days for creating

[00:33:15] and sometimes creating doesn't always happen sometimes I just sleep sometimes I go for a walk

[00:33:21] sometimes I write a little bit I may read a little bit maybe in YouTube but you know what

[00:33:27] that's my day to do what I want to do for me and I think also I recently purchased hay.com for

[00:33:36] email where I get all my emails my Gmail's forwarded there and it's really good about filtering out

[00:33:42] things that I don't want to get in a way that Gmail has not been able to do thus far I can't tell you

[00:33:48] how many things I've unsubscribe to that still end up in my inbox but with hay it's so much better

[00:33:54] and I get so much less overwhelmed because I know that anything that I'm seeing in there

[00:33:59] is meant to be in there and I also don't get notifications from hay so I also like that I don't like

[00:34:04] having a lot of notifications which sounds so very anti-millennial but that just stresses me out

[00:34:10] like if I feel like I'm late I'm responding to someone if I feel like there's something urgent

[00:34:16] that I haven't done like whether or not we admit it to ourselves that's like anxiety

[00:34:20] producing that is cortisol inducing and I just don't want to live my life like that so when I

[00:34:25] have a lot less stress when I have a lot more time to be focused with my time you know when it is

[00:34:31] time for me to spend time with my friends or family I can be fully present and I think that

[00:34:36] is such a great transition that I made this year and it's crazy that it took me this long to make

[00:34:42] it but I'm happy that I had that tough conversation about like what do I want to prioritize in 2024?

[00:34:48] Well Angela at this point of the show one of the things we like to do is get into some rapid

[00:34:56] fire questions where you just want to ask your question and just right off the top of the dome

[00:35:02] you know quick answer reply so buddy I'll let you go with here you know wish your first rapid

[00:35:07] fire question for Angela okay if you could collaborate with anyone past your present living

[00:35:12] in her dead who would it be and why? Ayua Debrey go ahead I'm not familiar with that first thing

[00:35:20] tells me Ayua Debrey she just won an Emmy for the Bear she's an incredible actress she was also in

[00:35:28] bottoms the movie that came on August of last year and she's also from what I understand a really

[00:35:35] great TV writer and movie writers so I really would love to work with her pin as I started to dive

[00:35:41] more into narrative filmmaking I feel like our humor styles are very similar and the style of

[00:35:48] shows that she's done really speak to a lot of the work that I want to create something that is

[00:35:53] a little more on the quirky humor aside but also still kind of felt in a way um and yeah I think

[00:36:02] Ayua Debrey just speaks to to that so when it comes to content creation one of the things

[00:36:11] that you have said multiple times is long form whatever it is that you're doing as long form

[00:36:16] but you do a little bit everything you do audio you do video you do photography you know

[00:36:24] is there a particular modality this stands out to use like okay this is what I rock with whether

[00:36:30] it be video audio writing podcast and whatever the case is um photography will always be my first love

[00:36:37] I mean there's nothing like picking up a camera going outside with no agenda no time frame and just

[00:36:42] seeing what I can get I mean like if I could I could probably just like staple this to my chest you

[00:36:47] know 24 seven right that'd be great oh so I think photography if I had to get rid of all the other three

[00:36:54] would probably kill me but at least I would know that I have photography for me so okay and

[00:37:00] the final one and I realized you're maybe not doing as much editing as you did when you first started

[00:37:04] but what is your favorite tool software that you use for creating and it could be literally anything

[00:37:12] right now it's a notion I think 80% of my life is organized in notion and it's just been this

[00:37:21] I don't know I mean it was just like a surprise for me like so many people have posted about

[00:37:25] notion before I started using it and once I figured out how to use it for what I wanted also

[00:37:31] this thing is amazing and it's free nobody's charged for this yet like this is awesome um

[00:37:37] and really the first time I really tried out generative AI it was notion AI I've never used chat GBT

[00:37:43] so think notion for me is just that fundamental software that runs my life

[00:37:48] haha

[00:37:50] if I could give your newsletter a little plug don't you have a notion template that you give out on

[00:37:56] your newsletter was it on your newsletter or did I see that somewhere else? It's very possible

[00:38:00] I haven't created a notion template in a while but we are in the future so stay tuned for that um

[00:38:05] but please also responsibly I did just make some wallpapers for the community so you can get your

[00:38:09] phone or your laptop or your desktop all saw stuff ready to rock ready to take on 2024 and a beautiful

[00:38:16] minimal way that hopefully helps you declutter your space and and get focused to work but please

[00:38:23] also responsibly is our twice weekly newsletter for creators and entrepreneurs who want to grow their

[00:38:28] audience and impact so I really really hope I get to see some of you in there

[00:38:33] so so Angela Angela Angela Hollowell we got to thank you for coming to the show

[00:38:39] uh and let me put respect on your name so you are Angela Hollowell the photographer the videographer

[00:38:46] the youtuber the podcaster the documentary filmmaker um just tell us where folks can find you

[00:38:54] because clearly you're everywhere on the internet um but uh could you direct people who are

[00:38:59] listening to us get to you in case they have any questions or like just a season of things to do

[00:39:05] yes the easiest way to find all the crazy chaotic things that I create is to go to my personal

[00:39:10] website www.enchlawallowell.com just my name no funny business and you'll see everything that I'm

[00:39:16] working on there everything that's free for you everything that's paid everything that's awesome

[00:39:21] everything that I put my heart and soul into