The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - The Kyle Miller Show: Ty Cooper Of Lifeview Marketing & Visuals Joined Kyle Miller

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

Ty Cooper, Owner of Lifeview Marketing & Visuals, LLC, joined Kyle Miller live on The Kyle Miller Show! The Kyle Miller Show airs live Thursday from 2:15 pm – 3 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Kyle Miller Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Kyle Miller. Welcome to the show. I'm your host. I'm on a mission to bring you stories from people who are doing extraordinary things, from local areas, people in our community and neighborhood of Charlottesville, Virginia, and surrounding areas, making things happen, doing big things. Today, I've got a special guest. Today, not originally from Charlottesville, but has been doing big things, working with UVA and the communities, a lot of political stuff that you've been working with too, helping with the community. And that's what we're about. We're about giving back and passing on knowledge to everybody and helping everybody rise up,

right? And so today with our guests, we have owner of LifeView Marketing and Visuals, Ty Cooper. Ty, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for having me, man. I really appreciate it. Hey, I appreciate you coming on and joining us, getting to know you a little bit earlier before we came on here. And you just got a lot of good stuff going, man. Yeah, we try, man. I like to keep my hands.

I never like my hands to be idle. So really, you know, I like for things to be going on, and I like to make sure I have my hand in the direction of things. I mean, you're helping kids. I mean, it seems like you got your hand in a little bit of everything. What kind of stuff you got going on? It's a lot, man. You know, we just came off of a very successful indie short film festival,

you know um which was march 22nd through the 24th and that was the inaugural um festival and it was um we had over 75 short films we had people come in from around the nation we had um films come in or submitted from 14 different countries um i mean it was amazing it was amazing it was very successful first year so i was very happy sold out out screenings, sold out brunch awards. I couldn't ask for no more. So that was like, you know, most recent. But now I'm working on a documentary on some really serious stuff in Pittsburgh.

Oh, nice. Yeah. Nice. How did you get involved in this stuff? How did you get involved with the video making and making? I've seen you done music videos yeah photography branding you know the visual stuff that you do is just pretty cool yeah i mean you know when i first started my company it wasn't always um marketing and branding

it was a i had an event promotion company that's how i first initially started so i promote concerts and shows bus trips ski trips um on the college campuses for the most part. Yeah. Um, cause I started my company as a third year in undergraduate school at Norfolk state university as a marketing major. Okay. So for me, the trend, you know, like just kind of going into anything marketing was, that was like an easy, that was easy. Right. But as a college student, what was also easy is to look around and be like, okay, he liked to go to parties a lot. She liked to travel. She liked to buy clothes, or they buying fast food. Right.

So I didn't want to open up a restaurant. And I was leaning towards opening up a clothing store at that time. But I said, no, let me stop promoting some stuff, some entertainment, because that's where they're putting money in as well. They always want to go to parties every weekend. Right. And that's how I got into, you know. You saw the market, hey, my friends are doing this, and I see what other people are doing to get them there. Definitely.

And you said, I can do that? Definitely. Yeah, definitely. All right. And they had the most, not the most, excuse me, but they had a lot of discretionary income because when they first come to school, their bank account is loaded because their mom and dad put money in their account to make sure they do the right thing to last them until Thanksgiving. Quite often it doesn't last that long because they're spending money frivolously. And I just kind of wanted to be an intercessor. I wanted to put myself in between their pockets and something else that they want to spend their money on. So I wanted to kind of like be in the middle of that

so the money could hit me and don't go any further. Some, of course, get around me, but I was able to intercept a good amount and I started with the parties and the bus trips, like the ski trips and spring break trips and to Florida and stuff like that. College Weekend at Kings and Minion was another big one for the colleges. So what was your first job? Like the first one you got money on, because I'm sure you remember it.

Oh, job, job or as an entrepreneur? No, as an entrepreneur. Oh, as an entrepreneur. Like the first marketing event that you did. What was that like? Yeah, the first thing was this bus trip to Atlantic City. Okay. And it wasn't for the colleges.

I wanted to see how, because that was a popular thing in New York. You know, people go to Atlantic City, you know, like the older people, my mom. Right. You know, dad and those age groups a lot, quite often they would go to Atlantic City back then. Uh-huh. This was back in 92. Okay. So I did my very first event was a bus trip

to Atlantic City in December of 92. It was successful and I was like alright I'm going to go and do this trip, this event called College Weekend at Kings Dominion. They used to have College Day at Kings Dominion but I switched it up and I created mine as College

Weekend at Kings Dominion. So instead of going to Kings Dominion one day with all these college students all around the country, I would do it for the weekend. So I would get the two-day park passes. I'd get the hotel, you know, and have this big package where I'm charging. I don't know. I forgot what it was at this time because it was so long ago. But I think like $100-something for the whole weekend. And I had about maybe, I think the first year of me doing that, I had about maybe three busloads, and I sold probably about 100 rooms

to people who drove their own car, but they wanted to get the package and without the buses. And then I did other trips too, like the ski trip was the next one after that and more, many, many others. So how did you have, like, the confidence and to be able to do something like that? Like, you were just like, oh, I'm going to make this trip for college kids, right? And we're going to do a weekend here at King's Dominion, right? What gave you the confidence and how were you able to like act on that to be able to know that you could put it together?

I'm from Harlem. So that's what I have to say. I'm from Harlem, man. So Harlem, you know, we are known for being confident. Right. Quite often, some people say cocky, but I don't say cocky, I just say confident. And also my mother, you know,

it was funny man is that my mom and dad never ever said that I was unable to do something that I wanted to do you know they just gave me free reign and um you know it was like a like a like a like a real free reign chicken right like just run around everywhere just go ahead and do your thing I'm not gonna stop you just. Just go and whatever, whatever. So that kind of confidence. And then also when I was in high school, I worked at Goldman Sachs. I interned at Goldman Sachs.

I was a paid intern. So I interned at Goldman Sachs. I worked at a publishing company before. I was big into fashion. And I actually got accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology, FIT, back when I was in into fashion and I actually got accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology FIT back when I was in high school

but I worked at Bloomingdale's and I was going to be in their bias program and then when I graduated I turned down all the schools that I got accepted to I turned down which was FIT and many others

and I decided to go to Norfolk State University. And I think it was a great choice. You know, I don't have any regrets. You know, yeah, maybe I could have been a stockbroker because I was on that trajectory at one time. Right. But when I made the decision to start my own business, I didn't think twice about it.

You know, when I really realized the demographic that I wanted to connect with, which was a demographic that I was part of, it was just super easy. That was a no-brainer. I didn't have to go to school, although I was in school, I didn't have to go to school to learn that craft or learn that, get to acquire that skill set. I was part of a demographic. I was already marketing. Because, see, in high school, I went to a school for commercial education, Norman Thomas, which was located on 33rd and Park Avenue.

And it was attached to a bank. So it was all about, like, you know, just business. It was just a business school, basically, but it was high school. And so I was a but it was high school. So I was a marketing major in high school, and most schools in New York didn't have majors. It was only a couple. So I was a marketing major in that school,

went on to Norfolk State University. I was a marketing major. So really I had about six years of marketing education before I started my business. So I felt confident and prepared. You were like, oh, I got this. I can make this happen. Yeah, yeah. And then it's just working hard and putting the pieces together.

Yeah, you're just trying to figure out, okay, how do you put together this event? Like, how do you do this and do that? So you just, but that's something that you learn over time. And I learned it immediately. My first five years in business from 1993 to 1998, I had never did anything where I just broke even. Everything was all profitable. And then I took my first loss on an event in 1998. That was the first time I lost like maybe, I don't know, six, seven thousand. It was for a stage

play that I wrote. Okay. But I made, that was the second show of that play. The first play I made about twenty-something thousand, and the second showing, which was another day, was like about five months later, in the same market, I lost about seven thousand.

So I didn't really lose, per se. Right. But that was a heartache. Yeah. Yeah, because I was like, you know, I'm not doing this. I'm going to keep on promoting parties and trips and events. I'm not going to do this play. Well, the thing with losing, you're not really losing. You're just learning.

You're going, oh, that didn't work as well as I thought it was. I didn't come out. But guess what? I learned that knowledge not to do it again. Well, when you were young. When you were young, you're not thinking like that. No, you're like, oh, man. I lost all that money.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I knew quickly that it wasn't a loss because when you look at the project, the stage play that I wrote, I'm up. Because I made 20-something thousand the first time. Right. It's just that I made the mistake in returning to the market. Right. I was supposed to took it on the road and it was going to take on the road. That was the second event, the second showing of that event in Norfolk.

That second showing was supposed to be the first show of the tour. Okay. And then I was like, when I took that loss, I was like, oh, nah. I make too much. I do, nah, this other stuff have taken care of me for five years. Let me continue. And that was a mistake. But I made up for it because I've been making movies and stuff like that.

Right. And so your transition from events, do you still do events? Yeah, I do the United Nations of Comedy at the Paramount. That's my event. I created that tour in 2002. And many other events as well. And so that's just kind of been your promotion, marketing, and just getting people more exposure out there.

Is that fair? Yeah, kind of. It's much more to it than that. But yeah, for sure. People who experience my events, they're always being exposed to culture. For instance, the comedy show. We can look at the comedy show at the Paramount just as a comedy show if you want to look at it that way. That's coming up, though, right? Yeah, November. I do that one in November every year. Don't you have something else coming up? Yeah, I've got many things coming up. Yeah, I've got a comedy show in Eastern Shore, Cape Charles, Virginia, coming up. But that's a smaller version of what I bring to the Paramount.

Gotcha. The Paramount, I bring four to five national comedians who have been on television and movies. I don't do any – you've got to be national to be on that show. And it's called the United Nations of Comedy because it's a diversity effort. Okay. It's my way of trying to promote diversity, merge audiences, and create some, provide opportunities for exposure, cultural exposure. So I put white people, black people, Asian, Latino, Indian, LGBTQ, you know, I put them all on that stage. And I mix up comedians every year to provide that because comedians are truthful, right?

Sometimes it hurts. Yeah, sometimes it hurts. They're truthful. They have a tendency of being able to project what's happening in their lives but also project what's happening in real life for everyone. Right. And they put it on that stage. Some people get offended.

Some people don't. Some people laugh at it. But the tour has been hugely successful since 2002 and um i've been bringing it to the paramount theater since 2011 and that's one of the many events i bring i have another event called the best of both worlds dance and step competition okay um which i stopped doing it since covid because it was just too cumbersome to do with COVID happening, but I'm bringing that back as well. And then I do film events, film series, screenings, film festivals. I do a lot of different things. Yeah. And so you're constantly doing this. You're, you're staying busy.

You travel all over, right? Yeah. Yeah. I just, I just came out from Pittsburgh two days ago. Okay. Yeah. I'm shooting, I'm shooting a major documentary up there in Pittsburgh. I can't talk too much about it because it's a, yeah, yeah, it's. Now I'm intrigued, right? Yeah. I was like, man. I mean, it's, it did a bit of civil, it did a bit of civil rights, activists, things that, you know, FBI was doing back then and just a bunch of stuff.

But it's an important story. It's important. And it hasn't been covered the way we're covering it. And I'm doing that with Annette Banks, a really good friend of mine, someone who I admire. She's a five-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, director, producer as well.

And she's just a great person. So I teamed up with her. So she and I both are co-director, producer as well. And she's just a great person. So I teamed up with her. So she and I both are co-producing and co-directing this particular documentary. And I'm going back and forth to Pittsburgh. We're going to Mississippi, New York, hopefully, and some other places. And I'll let you know more about it, man. I can't really talk too much about it right now. No, that's fine. So it's intriguing because I like documentaries. I like learning. I like learning about stuff that I haven't necessarily been told

and the things that get covered up and the things that get pushed under the rug. Right? I like that stuff. And I feel like those need to be exposed more. But what goes into something like that as far as the coordination? I mean, I'm sure it's crazy. Because you are literally, in those documentaries, you're telling a story, right?

And an informative story. And I just get sucked in with those. And I'm like, man, I didn't know that. Oh, wow. But I can't imagine the amount of planning, the amount of coordinating, the amount of finding people to do interviews with, the amount of people that are connected with that.

Do you have a whole team? How does that work? No, just two of us. Really? In this particular documentary. She used to work, well, she still kind of does, but she works for a local affiliate of PBS. Okay. But this is a non-PBS project.

This is her company and my company, and we team up to co-direct and co-produce. So there's a lot. There's a lot. It's definitely a lot. When you're passionate about something, though, and you really want to expose something, you want to create exposure for it, it's all about the story. Then you don't look at it as work. You're up all night, you're researching, you're putting the pieces together. You're trying to figure out if you're

going to self-finance or if you're going to raise money to do it and stuff like that. But I'm one who believes in having skill in the game. I finance my projects and then I make sure that if I do go to people who want to help finance they know that I'm not just the writer of it or the director or whatever the case may be that I also have my own skin in it and they can match that

and that way you're not going to someone with like please please I'm begging no no I got my own money to finance. Right. I want you to partner with us because this is a very important story. Right.

And we haven't did that. It's just the two of us on this particular project is just the two of us financing it right now and doing other things. We got the life rights from a gentleman, you know, who was part of the civil rights movement. Right. You know, down in Mississippi and other places. So we're doing it this way. But it's a lot of work. who was part of the civil rights movement down in Mississippi and other places. So we're doing it this way. But it's a lot of work.

And one thing I respect about my co-producer, my producing partner, Annette, is that she goes into the rabbit hole. And when you're doing a documentary, there's a lot of rabbit holes waiting for you. Because you've got to do the research. You've got to tell the truth. You've got to do the due, you got to tell the truth you got to do the due diligence to put the stuff out there

and that's the kind of thing you could call it a burden but that is the burden of being a documentarian is that you got to make sure you do the due diligence to tell the truth and not something else I write narrative films too I have a bunch of awards

I was reading, I was looking and I have a bunch of awards. Right. I was looking and you have a bunch of awards. Yeah, I have a bunch of awards. People seem to appreciate my style of writing, my style of producing, my style of directing. And I really appreciate that because those awards came from peers at film festivals. So those are all my peers. And so when you're recognized by them, it's honorable. Sometimes you may have a, I don't actually have this really. I mean, I think I've been through it before, like once or twice in the past,

trying to figure things out. But sometimes you're going to have that poser syndrome, like, man, I didn't go to school for this. Am I supposed to be doing this? Right. You know, you may stumble a little't go to school for this. Right. Am I supposed to be doing this? Right. You know, you may stumble a little bit trying to figure things out. You go on a shoot and you got some good equipment, but you come home,

you're like, why doesn't my stuff look like Steven Spielberg's? Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, so it's like you had that moment where you kind of have a little bit of self-doubt. Uh-huh. But then you quickly, well, me, anyway, I quickly say to myself, like, nah, man, So it's like you had that moment where you kind of have a little bit of self-doubt. But then you quickly, well, me, I quickly say to myself, like, nah, man, you went to school for marketing. You did all these different things, a lot of accomplishments. Entertainment Company of the Year in 1998 in the Hampton Roads.

Like, you built for this. You're from Harlem. You built for this. Like, this is nothing. You just got to figure it out right you got to study right you can't be doing all your business your other business and then on a shoot put out the cameras that you got to practice before you know you got to shoot on Friday you need to practice Monday Tuesday maybe yeah take a break and then maybe go back to Thursday you got to practice you can't just be whipping out your break and then maybe go back to Thursday, you got to practice. You can't just be whipping out your stuff. And then when I started to practice,

that's when I was like, oh, okay, I got this. When you mean practice, and I know exactly what you're talking about. Like you can't, you know, you can think about it all you want, but until you actually go out there and like do it, then you'll see, I think a lot of people that are trying to do things and

they they study study study study study study study and that's how i do it that's how i do it but they never go out and practice that practice the action action steps i'm a youtube junkie i go to youtube university i got my i got my i got my bachelor's from norfolk state university in marketing and business administration i got my i got my master's on YouTube in the field of video production and doing those kind of things. I'm a junkie, so I

could sit and watch YouTube on one product. I just did it. I just did it for like five hours because I bought an anamorphic lens. Now I'm shooting with anamorphic lenses now. I didn't used to shoot with anamorphic lenses so now I just got the anamorphic lens I got I just ordered one one will be here tomorrow right I got to shoot tomorrow um tomorrow afternoon uh-huh but um the first anamorphic lens which I bought last week or the week before I took to Pittsburgh

and we filmed it and it was amazing but I was I But I didn't go to sleep the first night that I got that it arrived. Right. Because I was studying, studying, looking at YouTube, product review, product review. Then I started practicing all around the house. I think a lot of people, and they get paralyzed by this in anything that they do, not necessarily just a you know, a product that we, a new, a new thing that we got, but is that they, they'll research, research, research, and they'll, they'll have it sitting there, but they'll never start taking action. And the action is the only part that matters, right? Cause you're going to learn no matter what. Trust me. I know. Yo, I'm, I'm a victim of that. Yeah. I'm not going to say, I mean, this is,'m i'm open man this is open open season right here um

for me i remember i got this camera that i use now it's a it's a um cinema camera and i was used to using dslrs right yeah so i got that camera this is like a few years ago i got the camera yo man the camera stayed in the box for like three months after I got it. Yeah. Because I didn't want to take it on a paid shoot and be practicing on someone else's dime. Right. And I didn't want to fumble with it because it's much different than your DSLR. Right. But then I was like, yo, am I crazy?

I just spent $6,000 on that camera. Let me get that camera out of there. I think it was like two months I had it up. I took it out, but I didn't take it on a shoot. Right. And then, you know, but you got to try it. You got to use it up. I took it out, but I didn't take it on the shoot. And then, you know, you got to try it. You got to use it. You can't paralyze

yourself trying to do the research and study things. You just got to rip it out and go ahead and practice. And that's what I mean by practicing. Actually, practicing meaning using it is not on someone else's dime. Someone is not paying you to practice.

Yeah. Practice for free. But nothing's for free because your time is money. But practice on your own time and not on the client's time. Right. Well, you get good at something and then you can charge even more. Yeah. So to kind of switch up a little bit here, what do you, the clients that you work

with, right? What do you see that are, that are trying to do branding, that are trying to do marketing and trying to do that kind of stuff? What do you see that's working now in the market? What do you see that people are doing wrong? As far as, as far as what? Just trying to market and put themselves out there. Let's talk about political candidates. I'm not going to mention any names. When a client hires life view marketing and visuals, hiring me,

when a political client hires me, what they get is more than someone who's just whipping out a camera I'm a marketer I'm a marketer, I'm a consultant so you're getting a consultant a marketing consultant who so happens to know how to film who so happens to know how to edit

who so happens to know how to produce and put things together so there's times when I have political clients who have had how to edit, who so happens to know how to produce and put things together. So there's times when I have political clients, man, who have had a campaign manager who may have either just graduated or didn't graduate but passionate. And sometimes even those who've been doing campaign managing for a little while. I've come in contact with people who just don't know what they're doing. Right.

And I'm like, so I provide consultation for free to those clients who are paying me to create their videos or create their commercial and build their websites and all that kind of stuff. And what I've seen that's really been done wrong consistently is that they put marketing third or fourth down the line. A political candidate, you've got to remove yourself from that marketing piece and let a professional handle it. And if you, because you're passionate about fixing the traffic lights or someone complaining to you about the sidewalks are cracked and all this other stuff or whatever, that's cool. Yes, they want their neighborhoods to be better, blah, blah, blah. But you need to hire me, Life View Marketing, to focus on getting you out there and getting you in front of the voters and blah, blah, blah, blah. Right.

Don't push that down the line until you feel as though, okay, I've had clients contact me in the 11th hour. Right. To say, man, I feel a little pressure. And this is like, this is actually very popular. I feel like, I don't know, man, I feel as though I'm going to, I think I don't know if I'm a rent, huh? I need you. I said, well, I contacted you like three months ago, four months ago. He said, yeah, I know, but you know, I'm a campaign manager. And I said, yeah. I said, well, let me just see what you got. See what's in front of you.

So I do, I provide a SWOT analysis to all my clients. I provide a SWOT analysis because I need to know if I'm... See, for me, once again, it's not just about me creating the video. That's nothing. Anyone could... Everybody got iPhones

and Samsung phones or whatever. I got to do a SWOT analysis so I can know what we're up against. Okay. I find out your strengths. I find out your weaknesses,

your opportunities, your threats. See how we can like... Since it's like a last minute, see how we can like really push up and show your strengths and show how you are best for the job. What kind of opportunity can we do? Can I put into this particular video or whatever messaging I'm creating for the client. And I put together stuff, and then I've had several. And you know these people, trust me. I could tell you who they were off book, off camera.

And those people went on and won, their respective races. But they tend to put marketing and promotion down the line, and I don't understand why they do that. And nonprofit organizations do the same thing because they are also about the good work, whatever the mission is of that nonprofit, but they don't realize that donors may not know who you are. And yes, you may have this list that everyone get they get the same donors but how about the other donors who are not on that list

who may just see you and be like oh man this is a worthy organization let me donate how can i get in contact with this organization right right and um so i think the main problem is not prioritizing marketing and they really just kind of focus on the good work that they're trying to do or are doing. And you're talking about just political people and just trying to run for office and doing that. And I see the same thing with businesses in general. They don't do enough marketing. They pay their rent or whatever.

They pay their rent. They try to have their inventory. But how about the marketing? The marketing is equally important. You need people to come through the door. Yeah. You know, but how about the marketing? The marketing is equally important. You need people to come through the door. Yeah. And if they don't know you, you're never going to do business, right? And so marketing, I would almost say, like, I just, you know, the landlord can't kick

you out for 90 days, right? And I'd be focusing on that marketing because if I can't get any money coming in the door, it's not going to matter anyway, right? Exactly. And then, you know, also, too, when you open up a business or what have you, you need to have a solid cushion. You know, back in the days when I was in college, and that was many, many decades ago, they would always say, you know, you have to have three to six months of rent in the bank. Right. I wouldn't feel comfortable opening up a place where I'm paying

rent if I didn't have at least a year in the bank. And that's me. That's me. Because I need to be able to be free all year long to build up that company, build up that brand, get in front of people, and really start to generate awareness. If I'm doing Google ads or whatever, I need to put money into those type of things. And I And, um, and I just think a lot of people, um, small business owners kind of into the business, um, ill prepared and not really having to have what they need for the future to sustain. They, they find, they find some, excuse me, they find something that they like. Right. And then they think that everybody else is going to like that. Right. And then they open up a shop or they open up a store front. Now everybody's going to

like this idea. And then they close up the store shop in six months, twelve months and they've made zero dollars and lost some money. They didn't do the market research. They didn't figure out what products are going to work. They didn't figure out how they were going to get

customers. They just said, well, I like this. A lot of people must like this, too. I like doing X, Y, and Z. Well, the market didn't like it. Marketing and branding is so important. For me, for instance, when I picked this up, I purposely didn't have no brand, because we're

not giving up free brand. We're not giving up free marketing on this show. I purposely tilted the name. That's how conscious i am of branding yeah like i do stuff like that now yes i do have one of my favorite brand clothing on you know but that's just because it's one of my favorites and they're not going to buy spots anyway they're in paris right so so so it's okay right but um but for anything else you know i'm not really showing it what would you say for for a young entrepreneur that's trying to grow a business that is trying to figure out what to do?

What kind of advice would you give them? Well, one thing I would say, I have favorite artists, right? My favorite artists, like a rapper is rock him and slick rick my favorite rappers um those back in from the 80s and they're just like you know my favorite i will not necessarily do a show with either one of those two in certain markets because yes they're my favorite but i, but I got to know what the market wants, what the market will support, what they are craving. So I think figuring out not just what you like yourself,

but figure out, okay, if you're going to start a business, okay, how many other people do I think that I can connect to this particular idea? Who needs this or who wants this? And I say, so really just asking friends, doing some research in the neighborhood, I mean, not neighborhood, excuse me, in your community on, okay, do you guys need this? What do you think about this? Have conversations. People, you know, we have this thing called social media, so you can easily type up in there, what do y' guys think about this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

How many people use this variation of that particular product or idea or service? Right. Do some market research. That's first and foremost. Yes, if you like something yourself, you will try to work hard at it. But you can work hard all day if someone else don't have a need. If you're the only person that have a need for that or your friends then that's not big enough you know and then i think and then i would say also try to be realistic about the expenses or how much it would cost to create that product

sell that product deliver that product or that service to the community or to your market try to figure those things out it's not really about about what you can afford to do, per se, but really, truly, you've got to find out how you can price it so you need to know your expenses, you need to know your break-even analysis. It's so much that you have to do. It's not something to be afraid of doing. It's just something that you have to do to be in business.

And then once you do those things, you feel confident then. You're like, yeah, they need it. Right. It's not going to cost me much money, too much money. I can afford to actually do this thing. Right. Let me move forward.

And then sometimes, you know, but we have resources too here in different communities. You know, go to your chamber of commerce. Yeah. Go to your, like maybe SBA or whatever the case, administration,

just to get information. Be a reader, you know, be a reader you know be a reader do some research you could do research online i wouldn't go to wikipedia i would i would go to something more in your niche in your you know i mean your element but i would do those things and those things are not um they're not sexy it's not the sexy stuff it's just but the stuff that it kind of save you some headaches it's not yeah it's not the sexy stuff it's just but the stuff that it kind of save you some headaches it's not yeah it's not flashy it's not you know it's it's the work yeah it's the work that's the work that you got to put in a lot of you know it may not be you know whatever the whatever the product may be it might not feel like hard work but that is the hard work sitting

yourself down going through there doing what you need to do to open up the right business. Yep. Yep. I mean, and do it for yourself, man. Do it, you know, never mind anyone else. Don't try to impress people. That's not the thing. You impress people. People will be impressed by your hard work and dedication and your success automatically. Right.

Automatically. They admire that. So they'll kind of like sink their teeth into who you are and try to attach yourself or be around you or they respect you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But don't do it for them. I don't think only Elon Musk gives one iota of a four if I respect him or whatever, whatever. Right. But the reality, he knows that reaching a certain level of success, putting a certain

type of product into the marketplace, if he cares or not, you respect them. Yeah. Now you got some people who hate him so much, but that's, that's because emotional thing, whatever they got going on with them. How many people are here in the United States just alone? I mean, you can't please everybody. You can't realize that too. Yeah, I can't.

But you got some people who just really truly have that in the front of their mind. Right. Because they want their business to succeed. They have nothing to do with it. Put the blinders on. Yeah. And then just kind of focus. Like, you know, have the dog with the little thing.

Yeah, with the cone. Yeah, with the cones on them. Yeah. And just like, just have tunnel vision, man. Where, where do you see, um, you know, with the rise of social media, with, uh, the marketing, YouTube, Tik TOK, all of that, right. They're all video platforms. They're all, um, growing, right. That's they're not shrinking. Where do you see kind of kind of what you do in being able to help other businesses and expand their personal brand, expand? Like, where do you see that market going? I think I think, you know, I think it's a big market. I think it's something that really is developing. They're adding more to it

and making it a little bit more robust. Like analytics, you could really kind of, if you trust them, if you trust analytics, you can really kind of hone in and see what works. And that's really a good thing. Because at first,

we could put stuff out there and not know if it's working. Right. Because we will say that it's working if it increases our market share or people buying more of what we're selling. Right. People are like, oh yeah, this is working. This works.

But you don't really know. Yeah. Because you don't know per, you don't have the CPMs, you don't really know exactly what's truly really working until what they're providing you to show. Right. You got these many impressions, this click rate, you have all these different things, now you're able to see it. And I think if they can continue to improve that,

then it really allows me as a marketer to provide that to my clients right in a way where it's really um part of the strategy for the future you know so um strategic marketing is really important but if you don't know really truly how like you you buy radio spots you have no clue unless people are saying hey i heard your radio your radio. You're a spy. You're a spy. Now, one thing I know about radio or television is that one day I do know, although I may not have the analytics, they try to provide analytics. I don't believe them. Like the Nielsen stuff, I don't believe all that stuff. Right. Because you could just be saying, okay, well, there's this population in Charlottesville or Albemarle County.

Right. We have this many watts. Yeah. So these people must be listening. Right. 10% of those people must be listening. They have to. Yeah.

But no, they don't have to. Right. And there's ways for you to hone in on that, especially if you are streaming online like if the tv or the radio have a streaming platform through their website then they can see who clicked on yeah and that's why i come back to online because you're able to get that information that's to scenes more um believable i i agree i agree that's that's the one thing I do like about the online stuff is because you can see

you can track, you can run numbers and people think that market is completely saturated but there's only a certain few marketers out there that are doing it that are really doing really well at it I could be doing a hundred times better it's a full time job

just to do that so I do lack on my do that so so I do lack right on my own stuff so what I do and this is what I do sometimes and I'm not gonna you know mention anyone on this show particularly but when I go to let's say I go to a television station to advertise they also provide service same service I can provide, but they provide a service where on YouTube, put your commercial on YouTube, put your commercial on CTT, like on the streaming platforms. So instead of me doing that individually,

I just go ahead and go to my advertiser. I'm like, yo, okay, I want this on YouTube. I want this on the streaming services. I want this on your network as well right and blah blah blah blah right right because that way i have someone else working for me who i'm not paying a salary but they doing the same things yes that i can do but my time is valuable yeah delegating you know i'm saying that you can't do it all everybody there's a lot of business owners out there that think they have to do every little piece of their business, too. The bookkeeping.

The editing for you. The filming. This. You find out what you're good at. You take those skills. And then you outsource the rest of that stuff. Yeah, if you can. If you outsource it to someone who you trust, to people that you trust or entity that you trust and cool. If you don't trust them,

then you really need to get your skill set up to be able to take things into your own hands if you have to. But when you get to a certain point, you can't scale without opening up and dedicating to different individuals to kind of make your life a little easier. Yeah.

A little easier. Then you take on more clients. Yeah. But if you boggle down, if I'm boggling down and trying to do... One thing about me, Kyle, is that I know how to do all of it. Right.

I'm a great editor. I'm a great cinematographer. I can use help in my coloring. Mm-hmm. It's not my strong suit yet, but I know that. Right. I know that. We. I know that.

We got to know our weaknesses. Yeah, exactly. You know? I'm pretty cool with engineering, sound engineering, but I have a sound engineer that's ready for me anytime I have to pass stuff to them.

Right. So, but I know how to do it. Right. So I can, I can take in a client and let's say that it's a client that I want to give a heavy discount to.

Right. I would say, all right, I would let the client know, look, I'm going to save you money and meet your budget, but I need three hours to set up. I may not need that much time, but I just say three hours. I need three hours to set up. I need, instead of you getting this back in five days, I get it back to you within two weeks. Right. Because I have to edit.

I have to color. I'm saving that person's money. Right. But I need more time. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But then when I save that person more money,

I'm also possibly able to make more because I'm not bringing people into the fold. But if I don't have time to do that, then I have a team of people where I can send stuff to. I like to do my own editing because the editing is the manipulation of the story. Yeah, you have the vision for it. It's kind of hard to tell somebody. Yeah, sometimes. They can easily read the script and see, okay, this is how you edit. I have my film, Amanda.

It's a sweet, beautiful film. But we shot it in Richmond for five days. I hired a DP from New York, a buddy of mine, who I met through someone else. And my other buddy who introduced me to him, he was the

DP or Madam Secretary for eight years. And this gentleman worked with him as well, worked under him. And he was on different shows and everything. So I was like, all right, I'm going to hire him. I hired an AC, that's an assistant camera guy from out of New York to do focus, focus racking. I hired an AC, that's an assistant camera guy from out of New York, to do focus, focus racking.

I did, we hired another friend of his to do the Steadicam. He did Steadicam on Transformers and everything else and many other shows. And then I hired an assistant director out of New York. So my whole team, those four, came down from New York. I had my crew down this way in Richmond area and had actors from all different places. Yeah. Can I do cinematography? Yes. Can I do lighting?

Yes. But I had a whole team. This was a serious production. Right. For five days, full production, 11 hours a day you know 12 up to 12 hours so for me it was all about um that collaborative process and then for me to learn from others right because if i would have did it i wouldn't have learned from anyone yeah i would have learned from my mistakes i would learn from you know whatever process i would have used i'm like oh

yeah yeah this is cool for me to oh man i man, I'm glad I did it this way. No, I was able to watch and listen to people who have much more experience than I do. And that's the thing, right? In life, that's what I constantly do. Who's got more experience than me? I go and meet with them. I talk to them.

I get ideas from them. And I bring that in to internalize it, make it what I need to make it. But that's just life in everything that we do. And I'm glad you said that because it's so important to be learning from other people. And that's why I'm doing the show. I learn from people that come on the show every single time. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that.

Oh, that's how they do it. Oh, okay. So it's this constant process of I want to be in a room where I'm like the dumbest guy because if I'm the dumbest guy in the room, then I'm looking around going, oh, and I'm picking stuff up every single time. But if I'm the smartest guy in the room

that knows everything and can't be taught anything, I'm not growing at all. I'm not pushing myself. I'm not doing any of that. Hey, Kyle, you know what? I'm not pushing myself I'm not doing any of that hey Kyle you know what I'm sorry for cutting you off by the way um Ty Cooper me talking in third party third person excuse me um I work for myself right I have my film festival, the Indie Short Film Festival, but I volunteer for Sundance. Okay. You get me? I volunteer. That means I pay for my flight. I pay for my lodging

and all that. And Park City, Utah, one of the most beautiful places. It's gorgeous there. Yeah. I love it. I go every year for 10 years, nine years. I volunteer for Sundance because what it is, man, is that Sundance provides me something. I'm part of a machine.

Yep. I have the tendency of, entrepreneurs have the tendency of being the machine. Right. I'm part of the machine. And I'm just one tiny, easy-weasy part of it. And I'm soaking up everything. Yep. I'm watching. I'm part of the machine and I'm just one tiny easy-weasy part of it

and I'm soaking up everything. I'm watching. I'm looking. I'm like, oh, they do it this way. They do it that way. And now since I have a radio show called Cultural Vibes Radio,

it's on WTJU, I have press credentials at Sunday. And so I volunteer and I have press credentials. So I'm on the media line, on the red carpet, meeting people. And then doing it that way,

I was able to get 20% of my films from the Indie Short Film Festival came from Sundance. People who I met at Sundance came in to the festival. You got to be part of something. Learn, listen, network.

That's how you network. You can't network to yourself. If you pick up the camera and you're doing everything on your set, who do you have to network with? You're not building any relationships. For me, relationships is the most important part of business. Relationships, being able to lean

on someone, being able to call someone, being able to talk with people, being able to lean on someone, being able to call someone, being able to talk with people, being able to just kind of be in the room. 100%. Being in the room is important. I totally, totally agree with that. I'm always, and that's why I do the show. I want the relationships. I'm trying to network.

I'm trying to meet new people. I'm trying to do things and bring on and share the stories. And so, Ty, I really appreciate you coming on the show, man. Where, where can people find you at? Oh man, I'm everywhere. And I'm easy to get in contact with. You can go to my website, lifeviewmarketingandvisuals.com. That's lifeviewmarketingandvisuals.com. Yes. It's a pretty long line name, but I'm all about the branding. Right. So you just got to put the extra effort and type more letters. But

LifeViewMarketingandBranding.com But also I'm on social media. So I'm on you can find me on Instagram at Ty CreativeVisuals dot com. That's T-Y CreativeVisuals dot com.

I mean, not dotcom, but you know, tycreativevisuals, sorry. And then also on Facebook too, you know, Ty Cooper. Just Ty Cooper on Facebook. Guys, awesome, awesome, awesome. Like go onto his website. He's got some pretty cool videos on there. It's very sleek. It's very nicely designed. The pictures on there are sweet. I mean man this is nice thank you man I designed it but I had to put I have so many new things that need to go in there but it's man

it's constantly updating I need an assistant sometime this year I am looking I got a lot going on but that's my goal is to get an assistant in some capacity because an assistant can't do everything I need, so I just have to kind of, like, figure out exactly what I want them to do exactly.

Yeah, and that's the key if you're hiring is lay out everything else, how you want it done. But, hey, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Guys, thanks for joining the show today. Ty Cooper, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Guys, thanks for joining the show today. Ty Cooper, I appreciate him coming in. Shared a lot of knowledge and wisdom, and I love the story, and I love what you're doing. Thank you.

Everything you've got going on. Appreciate it. Hey, thanks, guys, and I'll see you next week. Thank you.