Stitches & Picks S1:Ep 1 - Getting to Know Stitches & Picks
Watch the YouTube video version above or listen to the podcast below!
Episode 1: Getting to Know Stitches & Picks Video/Podcast Transcription
[This transcript has been lightly edited to ensure readability]
- [Intro]
Dave Dougherty:
Welcome. I'm Dave.
Kristen Juve:
I'm Kristen.
Dave Dougherty:
So the idea for this show is that we both graduate into the great recession with the wrong degrees, and we've had to build our way to where we are now yet, given the COVID crisis, and the two years of lockdown, reevaluating what's important, and wanting to share our journey and invite you on a journey with us in starting our own side stuff, and building that out.
Because you listen to the various podcasts or watch all the different YouTube videos, and a lot of times it's the people that have already completed a lot of the journey or they're so far down that it's hard to see yourself, as, you know, with them. So we want to invite you on with us and help define what success is and use our experiences as an example to build either a side business for some financial freedom, or actually build your own organization while you are still doing that nine to five.
And then how do you transition into your own thing? So...
Kristen Juve:
Yeah. Come along on the journey with us as we do the same.
Dave Dougherty:
Mm-hmm. So this is just going to be sort of a loose conversation. I think with this first episode, we're going to re-introduce ourselves, let you know who we are, what we're about, whether or not this type of show is for you, or if you can learn from all the other marketers that are out there. But you know, we'll kick off with Kristin and why don't you tell everybody about the journey to where you are now and why you're doing what you do?
Kristen’s Introduction to Marketing and Starting Projects
Kristen Juve:
Oh, God, yeah. So as you said, we both graduated the great recession. And I've been thinking a lot lately about the stuff that our generation has been through. And I don't think it's necessarily just our generation, obviously, all the other generations are right along with us. But like, the coming of age that we had when we saw 9/11. And then when we had social media become a force in our lives, and then it became this marketing tool, not just this place to just hang out with friends.
And now we're doing parents in a pandemic and we've seen a second great recession, the Great Resign. We're seeing all these crazy things in our lives and it's really affecting us in how we're looking at what our work looks like. What our life looks like. What it actually looks like, this is what where I've been coming from.
I have felt like our...Yeah.
Dave Dougherty:
- Sorry. MPR on... I was running errands over lunch today and MPR had a thing on one of the podcasts about how for millennials, every major life stage has had something blow up.
Kristen Juve:
Yes. Civil unrest. Like ridiculous stuff that's like, not that civil unrest is ridiculous, but like we've just had really important cultural moments in our lives and it's not been without its own stress. And it's like, I think it's just like, it's unprecedented.
No one else knows how to handle this. So I think, and everybody that I talk to, I know we're all looking at our own jobs, our nine to fives and going: How does this fit into what I want? Is this...Yeah, there are great benefits. Yeah, either this or that, or like, I like this aspect and I don't like this aspect. And it's like, where can you feel fulfilled?
And does that mean in our capitalistic society doesn't mean building a side business, or does it mean just having a hobby? Like, there are so many ways to look at it. And I've thought about this from like, the moment of graduating because when I graduated college, I had these awesome internships. So I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a degree in Photography.
Like, I love photography, and I thought I was going to be like a National Geographic photographer and travel the world, whatever. So I ended up starting my own photography business and I use air quotes because I minimize it. I failed. I felt like I personally in my definition of success for that business, I failed.
I learned a ton. I learned a ton. I also got a job as a medical receptionist and knew that I needed to pay my bills. Like, I had my bachelor's degree and I needed to pay for all of those student loans that I had. And learning like what it's like to be an employee versus, and have this entrepreneurial spirit, and then try and also have your thing on the side, and like balancing that, that's still something I very much deal with today, working my nine to five and wanting to do my own side thing and potentially building up something to be maybe on my own, or whatever that looks like.
So I don't know. It's been a really interesting journey.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, and it's interesting with the normal employment piece, because on the one hand, it really depends on the managers you have. Because like, luckily, I've had supportive ones where I'll just tell them, like, "Hey, I'm doing this thing on the side. It's my own sandbox because y'all aren't letting me implement half the ideas that I come up with, so I'm going to test them out, see if they can work for me."
Just to make sure in my own head that I'm actually recommending things that work, right? Because especially in corporate things move so slow, you have enough time to overthink things and start thinking that you don't know what you know.
Dave's College Experience and the Impacts of External Events on Our Outlook of What Working Life is
Dave Dougherty:
But similar to you, I was doing a double degree in music composition and music production…so that was one degree. The other one is creative writing. And I did not have a good experience in the composition department because of, I mean, they were doing like avant-garde compositions and I'm like, "No, I want to actually have a career."
So I wrapped up, you know, missing out, like a couple of courses on the music thing, but you can see the guitar, you know, you can see this side, whatever. It's all backwards, right? I still have a studio, I still have albums.
In 2009, I could write and I could play guitar and that's the skill set that I knew that I could do. So I took a job in the school district because all my family is teachers.
Kristen Juve:
Same.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, you know...
Kristen Juve:
That's also a really interesting aspect about both of us is, our families were never in corporate America. So it wasn't something that we knew. It wasn't like a generational thing that just like got passed on to us. We had to figure out our way, how to break into corporate, and then what this culture was like too. So that was, that's an interesting aspect.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah. Like, my aunt had her own graphic design business. But, yeah. The immediate family was definitely the, you know, you have your nice little career, and then you have your hobbies, you know, in the afternoon and it might not be awesome every day, but you just keep doing it, because that's what you do, right?
Kristen Juve:
Yeah. Well, that was that generation too. It was like, you graduate college, you get your job, you work there for 20, 30 years, and then you retire. And like you just take status quo, and like, our generation is just not on that level.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, and I think that may be one of the reasons for this podcast, right, is us seeing that given the '90s when all of the big layoffs started happening and corporate scandals of, you know, okay, you don't have the 30 years guaranteed, the leaders aren't necessarily nice people.
And then, yeah, having the recession hit where it's the go to school, get it now, get a job. Well, okay, it's, you know, limbers unemployment or whatever it is local for you. Yeah, those jobs don't exist anymore.
That's just, you know, it stopped, right? And with the music industry is really interesting because, you know, '99 Napster came out, there was like a $14 billion industry. The music production, CDs, all that kind of stuff. By 2006 I think, I'd have to like triple-check the figures. I'm going off the memory. It was cut in half, it was like $7 billion left.
Right. And so, I mean, all those jobs that got cut were the, you know, the middle-class music engineer, right? Where you just go from record to record, and you're producing it, and making it sound good, and then you also have the technology piece there too, where the technology got so good that home recording can sound pretty professional, that you no longer need to book out a studio for $1,200 a day or more depending on what studio you're going to.
So, yeah, I mean, there've been all the change, and then now with how easy it is to automate everything. The type of question that I think we're looking to answer and explore is are you cool with the jobber life?
Or are you going to be at the point where you have something of your own where you can take advantage of the automation instead of the automation taking advantage of you and making your career null.
Coming to Your Business Idea Through Your Hobbies
Kristen Juve:
Yeah. And it's a constant ebb and flow of...like I see the benefits in keeping the 9 to 5, and then other times I'm like, "But I want to build my own thing." And it's not ever a static, like, "Oh, I'm just, I'm doing..." And I think that some people do they're like... My sister, one time, she's like, "I'm doing this. I love this. I want to do this."
And she ran after it. And kudos to her. And I think that's one of the topics that we'll jump into eventually too is the fear of jumping into this, what does that look like? Of jumping into your own business, being an entrepreneur, full fledged, like putting it all on the line. But for like, right now, for both of us, our journey is that 9 to 5 and then the side gig, the side thing that we're building on our own.
And both of ours, I think what's interesting about our two side gigs is not only are we at slightly different stages, but we're technically both building off of hobbies. So the like how I came to my business is I have a ton of hobbies, and I've always jumped from hobby to hobby to hobby.
And I've spent hundreds of dollars. Even when I had no money, I still found the money to buy things for my hobbies. So I've done like silversmithing. And I can't even think of the majority of the things I've done. But knitting was always something I did, and I always keep coming back to it. And it was much like yoga for me in a sense where I'd always come back to it. Like I'd go away from it for long and then come back to it.
And I never saw how I could make knitting a business. And I thought that it was always this small scale, really ridiculous thing. And I suddenly started to see it just in the last couple of years. And it became very, very clear to me. So I started playing out different ideas with revenue streams. And I have, like, I'm looking at a whiteboard right now and there's like 26 yellow Post-it notes that have potential revenue streams.
Like I was just brainstorming. Side note, I love brainstorming, and if you ever feel it's like a waste of time, you need to like Google brainstorming activities, and there's a ton of really good ones out there, and they're just so entertaining. And you just like, it's this like fueling energy bubble. I feel like even if you don't even necessarily need to brainstorm, if you try it out and just apply one of your problems to it, it fills you up to keep going, at least that's how I...
Dave Dougherty:
Well, I think if you're innately creative, right? Because I have said out loud that I enjoy like five-hour workshops. Like, I like going off-site and doing these like crazy marathon workshop things, and people are like, "God, you're a sadist." Like, no, you're wrong, you're thinking of it wrong. You know, but I mean, I was smiling as you were talking because when we met at the organization where we did, I remember you were talking about, "I'm going to do a coffee blog where I'm going to test all the different coffee beans from everywhere and the brew methods, and the yada, yada, yada."
And you outlined everything, and then you were talking about Norwegian Viking earrings that, you know.
Kristen Juve:
Yeah, that was my silversmithing stuff.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah. And so it has taken a number of iterations for you to find,...
Kristen Juve:
Oh my God, I have stopped and started... Like my husband, like will joke with me and be like, "Hey, don't start another blog." Because I like, I buy websites, I like pick out themes, I get everything set up on the back end, and then I do nothing. I do all the research. I do the keyword research, and then I do nothing with it.
And I think what I've learned is there's definitely particular aspects where I get roadblocked, and now that I'm sitting here at this point, one of my major roadblocks, and I'm probably just coming to this right now, this is like a little therapy session right now. I am going to that, like, writing full out blogs for me is intimidating. I've done it.
Have I published them? No. But it's intimidating. But my current...the way that I'm setting up my business, my knitting business, blog posts are not going to be one of my main things. They will definitely be a piece of the puzzle, because with content marketing, and a content business, that obviously has to be a piece. But there's a way now, especially at how far we've gotten with technology, I feel like to your point of either adapt automation or automation will adapt to you and you will get kicked out.
Like we've even talked about with these recordings how you can get transcripts that turns into essentially a blog post, and that is what search engines can build filter through.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an Important Marketing Lens for Both of Us
Kristen Juve:
I think we need to jump back a little bit and talk about how we met and like a little bit of our background, because I think some of these pieces of conversation will start to fit in place. So both of us, and Dave's way more of a guru than I am, but both of us have a lot of passion and knowledge around SEO.
And that's how we came to be. So I started working for a nonprofit. That actually, after I got fired, PS we should totally talk about that in a different future episode. I worked for a nonprofit and I was their first digital marketer. So I was doing their SEO, I was doing their analytics, I was their data analyst, their SEO specialist, their photographer, their video editor, like you name it, if it had to deal with anything digital, I was doing it.
And I loved SEO. And I loved the analytics part of it as well. And I ended up getting a job in corporate where Dave was working as an SEO. And so like my whole job was built around just running keyword researches. And we were very limited on not being able to totally doing tech implementations because of how large the corporation was.
But it was funny, because I remember meeting you and being like... So Dave had this long ponytail and was wearing all this heavy metal jewelry and I was so intimidated by you at first.
Dave Dougherty:
I used to be worth looking at, and then this happened. I used to be worth looking at, and then this happened, you know.
Kristen Juve:
I think it's better bald than the ponytail, but that's just me, just me. I remember being so intimidated because you would just like come in with this confidence, and you definitely knew what you're talking about. So that didn't help with being not intimidated, but at the same time, you weren't afraid to ask for feedback and have hard conversations, which I was like, "This is a legit human being. Like I need to keep talking to this legit human being."
And without having you as one of my people, I don't know if I would have survived.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, and this is a weird trip to get from the, you know, guitarist piece to corporate suit, right?
Kristen Juve:
Yeah.
Dave Dougherty:
You know, and so that was, there were just a lot of weird planets aligning kind of thing, you know, in retrospect, right? Like I got out of college, like I said, in 2009. Well, that was around the same time that WordPress first launched and became a thing. And then there happened to be a paraprofessional at the school I was working at who was building his own nonprofit and was building his own websites.
And I would give him an hour-long break and sit in his study hall for a little bit. And so there were days where we would sit and he would show me WordPress and how it worked. And that was my introduction to SEO and writing. And, you know, I was in the middle of...
Kristen Juve:
Well, you already had an affinity for writing with your creative writing background.
Dave Dougherty:
What was that?
Kristen Juve:
You already had an affinity for writing with your creative writing background.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, I mean, it was an obvious thing, right? Because I...yeah. The whole writing piece is a natural kind of home for me that I've always been the nerdy kid that, you know, would pull out the old typewriter when I was in like third grade, and just, you know, pound away. And I remember that I loved the "Animorphs" series when I was in elementary school, and I was like, "I'm totally writing a series like this," you know, in third grade.
And so I sat down with this old typewriter my dad had, and I, you know, came up with my own version of it, and I got like two chapters into it before, you know, whatever it was, N64 or something at the time. So yeah, I mean, writing has always been a thing for me. And, you know, like I said, I could write and play guitar.
So I was releasing my second record or working on my second record, because I did my first one when I was 16 in high school. And recorded that in Nashville, and hand-pressed them myself, sold 500 copies, sitting around the dinner table putting the stickers on the burnable CDs and all that.
Kristen Juve:
I did that, but it was more of like mixtapes type situation.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah. But so that introduction to SEO and then just realizing like, okay, yeah, I can't, this bureaucratic set up of the school district, I do not work in that environment. And so, but I mean, it took me a while to figure that out.
But, you know, I was like, "Okay, what am I going to do with my life?" And I was watching Netflix, and there was a documentary called "Art & Copy" that's all about the behind the scenes stuff on the most famous advertising campaigns, like the 1960s Beetle, VW Beetle campaign, the Nike Just Do It, Got Milk? Wendy's got beef, like all that kind of stuff.
Kristen Juve:
Was the I Heart New York on there?
Dave Dougherty:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and so it's...
Kristen Juve:
I had a project on that my freshman year of college, and I think that's probably what got me like really going on marketing, even though it was all subconscious because I like told myself I couldn't do marketing for some reason or advertising. But I loved Milton Glaser and I love that style, and was obsessed with this history aspect of it.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah. And like I always loved the behind the music kind of studio documentaries from the favorite artists that I have. So that is like a perfect wheelhouse for me, that documentary on creative stuff. I was sitting there watching, I'm like, "Oh, my God, people get paid to do that."
Like that's their job, is to come up... Yeah, I'm going to go do that. I want to try to do that. What do you do? You know, and being the son of teachers, school is the answer to everything, right?
Kristen Juve:
Oh, yes.
Dave Dougherty:
So went and did the MBA and...
Kristen Juve:
Yeah, your story is you went and got the MBA, right? I also geared up to get the MBA, but didn't end up doing it. So I think this is what's super interesting about the just different paths that we chose based on what was happening in our lives. So...
Dave Dougherty:
Right. And there's not a right way or wrong way, there's just, you know, whatever way you choose, right? I mean, that's going to be probably a central theme for us with this and anybody still listening at this point. Yeah, I think for me because it was the artist piece, right? Nobody was going to hand me anything, right? Nobody was hiring people who had the degrees at the time.
Kristen Juve:
Right. Why would they take you seriously if you just have like an art degree?
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, creative writing and guitarist. What?
Kristen Juve:
That's how I felt.
Dave Dougherty:
So I knew I needed something to legitimize the experience, right? Because I had started a record company and artist management company with a friend in college. And it was mostly his thing, but I helped it along and did what I could and that was really good experience, and what does it take to actually write a business plan and that kind of stuff?
Like sitting in the college student union and all of that, hashing that out. So, yeah, and it just took whatever jobs I could, right? Like still working on the music, trying to get gigs with the friends of mine who were making a go of it as musicians.
And doing freelance writing, like I did ghostwriting for plastic surgeons, and, I mean, that was a weird trip writing about that stuff, and decided, you know, I hate the vanity of the products that I'm selling here, so I'm not going to do this anymore. And luckily once I finished my MBA, I got a job at an agency.
And then that was a great role because it allowed me to test what industries I would be interested in.
Kristen Juve:
That's a really smart way to think about it.
Dave Dougherty:
Well, I was also, I mean, going back on, okay, where are the creative people in business, in marketing? Well, okay, that's the agency side, right? But then I got a job in the b2b side. And most people don't think b2b is interesting, but now I love the b2b side. That's where most of the money is.
That's where a lot of interesting products are.
Kristen Juve:
I think it's more challenging in some really interesting ways. Like, not that consumer isn't like, b2c being like, business to consumer, that stuff's interesting. Especially we can do like direct e-commerce. Like that's stuff's interesting for sure because you can see results and you can tie things, but you end up with a whole different set of challenges.
We are probably going down a path of corporate-speak, we should probably turn back.
Dave Dougherty:
Well yeah. And I guess this is a good opportunity to say, hey, anybody that if we say something that you don't know or you have questions please drop a comment, hit us up on the website, hit us up on socials. We'll be more than happy to answer things and clarify. Or if it's like, good God, shut up, well, we don't want to hear from you. So yeah, trolls can stay home.
Side Projects and Side Hustles as Personal Sandboxes, and Discovering What You’re Into
Dave Dougherty:
So yeah, I think then the SEO, content development, all that stuff, that is definitely my wheelhouse. I'm more and more interested in what actually makes a business tick, right?
And what are the operations behind that. And that's definitely one of the reasons for the side piece because I don't, in the normal day-to-day with the given org structure that I'm under right now, that I just don't get access to that, and I'd have to wait 15 years in order to get it. And, you know, why wait?
Kristen Juve:
I can get what you said earlier about this being like your personal sandbox, I feel the exact same way. I get to have control over things and try things out, and fail or not fail, or reap the benefits or not reap, that's all part of it. And like, it is scary in some sense, but it's also really cool and freeing, and it's another outlet.
It's another way for my brain to, like for me, I started off in marketing way back when. Now, it feels like way back when. In real life it was probably like seven years ago, six years ago, I don't know. And now I'm in project management and Scrum mastering. And so my brain on the daily is more about how to organize work and make the work life easier for people, and track to goals, and make sure that we're producing according to expectations.
And that's completely different from my side stuff, where I'm like thinking about how do I want to run a social media overarching strategy in line with my business mission, you know? Like that's a whole different way of thinking about things.
And to your point of you have these specialties of creative writing and SEO, I was doing photography, and not that I do photography that much anymore in the same sense, but I jumped into being a social media specialist. I was actually a paid social media specialist for corporate America, where I learned from the get-go how to use Facebook Ads Manager and all that stuff.
And with either large budgets, and then I played on the side with my sister's business, or with my business, whatever, doing small stuff, and to see the vastly different, and I'm sure you saw this and ad agencies, like the very vastly different tactics that you could utilize to line up with your strategies. So it's like that creative aspect it just is a really cool way that is involved, and that I can implement that same type of thinking to something very different.
Understanding and Being OK With What Stage of the Journey You're in and Knowing the Ins and Outs of What You're Into
Kristen Juve:
You also said something earlier about like for creative people, and while I do believe there are creative people, I also believe there are non-creative people that can learn to be creative if they want to. So like, I totally believe if there are people out there that want to be entrepreneurs but feel like they're not creative enough or they're being told that they're not creative enough, blow people out of water, prove them wrong.
Just learn. Do something and learn. And I hope us going on this journey, and people whether they're creative or not coming along with it gives them ideas and how to set this up and tackle things, and look at their mindset, and look at actual specific tactics and how to like orchestrate things can really open up new ideas for them.
Dave Dougherty:
One, I think that I was talking to a friend yesterday who I've known him since we were both three, and he's gone off and done a lot of really random things, you know, had to find himself, and went from industry to industry and job to job for a while before he finally was like, "You know what? I want to be a cop." And everyone was like, "What? All right, cool."
Like nobody ever saw that coming from him, right? But, you know, good for him, he found it. You know, but he, upon reflecting on it, he'd said that it took the time to actually go through and be self-reflective enough to figure out like, "Okay, this sucks right now, but I need to figure out what it is I'm about, what it is I want to do."
And if you're at that stage, that's the most important thing that you can do is to just try things, figure things out. Once you get past that stage and you understand, you know, this is kind of the inkling of what I want to do, right? Then let's go, right? And I think when we first met you were kind of at that point where it's that I think I know I want to do this, but I don't know what products, what channels I want to do, right?
And that's the same thing for me. Like it was, I've had this idea for this guitar site, right, beginningguitaronline.com. And I had the idea since like 2014. I bought the domain. I secured all the social media stuff, and I'm just like, "I'll figure it out, right?"
Because I was teaching guitar lessons, the whole time I was doing freelance writing, the whole time I was going to school, you know? It was just like I've always had just these collections of revenue streams to try to make something work, right? You know, you do what you have to do while you while you're building. And, you know, one of my students, I got halfway through, and I was like, "You're not looking at the sheets that I hand you? Why"?
Then he admitted that he was dyslexic, and it was hard for him. And I'm like, "Dude, why didn't you not tell me? I would have adapted. I would," you know. And so once we had that conversation, it was like, man, this would just be so much easier if I recorded everything because then he can go back and view this stuff.
Kristen Juve:
Accessible content.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah. And so, of course, I didn't end up doing it, but he was still the inspiration for a lot of it because it was... One of the other problems too with the guitar teaching thing is that you are totally at the whim of everybody's calendar schedule, right? You have school start stops, you have when most people go up north, you know, Memorial Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas, to New Years, all of that, nobody's going to lessons, right?
So those are the weeks that you can write off...
Kristen Juve:
And that's all pre-pandemic too, right? And that's all in person. So that's a whole other level.
Dave Dougherty:
And so it'd be one of those things where it's like, "Okay, if you pay me and I don't get paid for unless you come to the lessons, right?" I would hate to just give up a week of progress, so why don't you pay me the monthly fee, here's the access to the records of the charts and whatever, so that you can go do the lessons, right?
Kristen Juve:
Right.
Dave Dougherty:
I mean, it's easy to have that idea, but then once you actually start going, "Okay, what does that actually look like? What's the work that goes into it?" It's like, "Okay, this is why nobody is really doing it." Because it is a lot of work, but it's worth it once you do it. But, you know, long story long, the reason I did the guitar thing was this is what I do anyway.
I'm going to be playing, I want an excuse to explore the techniques that I haven't necessarily sat down and looked at yet. You know, one of the biggest aspects of guitar playing is figuring out what kind of guitar player are you, right?
Kristen Juve:
Yeah. That's a thread that's similar in knitting too. Yeah. Well, and when you first thought about this idea, how so? Oh, knitters...
Dave Dougherty:
I know nothing about knitting. So...
Kristen Juve:
I mean, you've learned a little bit in the time that we've talked about it, but that's fair. Unless you don't remember any of it, which I guess I don't blame you. And this is like as you, it probably takes years for the average person who's a hobbyist to get there. But like, as you knit more and more, you start to realize there's certain techniques you like to do and certain things you absolutely hate to do.
I love the look of lace knitting. I for the life of me cannot do it. Like I can do it, but like it is not enjoyable for me. The process of creating the garment, or the scarf, or the whatever in lace is like not enjoyable for me. However, doing like fair isle technique, give me that any day. I love that stuff.
I'll like breeze through it. I love it. So that's kind of like... Fair isle is actually Nordic. And, I mean, there are actually a ton of different cultures that have done fair isle. But it's, you think of like Norwegian sweaters is the easiest thing I can grab for my brain right now of what the example is. So it's usually two colors or sometimes it can be more than that.
Dave Dougherty:
Oh, yeah, there was like a blue and white kind of stereotypic.
Kristen Juve:
And there's like the Norwegian stars and stuff, and like...
Dave Dougherty:
Right, okay.
Kristen Juve:
Yeah. Yeah. And laces obviously...
Dave Dougherty:
I don't own any of that, but yes, I know what you're talking about.
Aren’t Other People or Other Companies Already Doing This?
Kristen Juve:
Okay, well. When you first started talking about, like in my world, in knitting, I can see all the differences, right? And you can tell the differences in your world. And I think the hardest part that we as a challenge of running a side business is if that is part of or integral to your business, how do you get the consumer to understand, or who is your audience?
So I think we'll jump into that in a different podcast too. But when you originally told me about BGO, I was like, doesn't this already exist? Like don't people already do this? Or aren't there large guitar companies already doing this? Because wouldn't that behoove them to like set up people to buy their product? And when you started telling me about the research that you were doing, I was actually really astonished that there weren't a lot of companies doing what you're actually going after.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, and that's one of the things, I mean, we'll definitely hit up on upcoming podcasts. And one of the first ones is what Joe Pulizzi calls finding your till, right? So what's the thing that makes you different than everybody else in a crowded thing?
Because, you know, just like musicians, right? Just because there's somebody that already plays guitar in a band doesn't mean you shouldn't have your own band, right?
Kristen Juve:
That reminds me I need to tell you I came up with mine. I haven't even told you yet. I'm not going to tell you right now. Future episode.
Dave Dougherty:
Cool. Yeah, a little cliffhanger. You know, because I think with the stuff that we've talked about, right? There's the having ownership of your own future, there's being willing to have your own opinion and being willing to state that, right?
And no one is going to be able to have your perspective on same things, because everybody is going to look at the same problem differently. We've experienced that the last six years. And the biggest thing for me coming to a corporate Fortune 100, whatever.
It was like, "Wow, okay, all these people that are super smart." And they are super smart, but they get in their own way. And so then that becomes the superpower of being willing to do things, and put yourself out there.
Kristen Juve:
Yeah, it's human nature to get in our own way. So like us learning from other people that are getting in their own way, like what does that look like? And then how do we apply not doing that in our own lives? And I think one of the things you and I talk a lot about too is the power of saying no. So that's one thing that I know that we'll definitely be talking about too in the future because that is really hard.
And especially we as parents and with little kids, we each have our own little kid, like that's time. Like saying yes to something means you're spending time on something that you're not spending time on with your kid, or with your own thing, or with your spouse, or whatever. And that's all.
Dave Dougherty:
Well, and that's one of my favorite quotes. I forget who said it. But, you know, if you're in the game long enough, you'll hear it at every conference. Is that, you know, marketing strategy or business strategy is about saying no. It's not about the projects you say yes to, it's what you say, "No, this isn't important right now." And that is absolutely a skill set. And that the ability to ruthlessly prioritize and not hold on to something just because you have some feelings for it.
Kristen Juve:
Yeah. And you have to grieve it too if you have feelings for it, but then you have to say no to it, because you prioritize other things for potentially more important reasons. Like prioritization. I think we should have, we haven't even talked about this, but I think we need to have a whole episode on prioritization. That's literally my job is like, my 9 to 5 is I talk to people every day about prioritizing work, because if we don't know whether in a large corporation or in our side business what is actually a priority, it does not give us the confidence to say no.
And then you run around like a chicken with your head cut off. And you have all this effort in 80 different areas and nothing's paying off. Yeah. We...[crosstalk] - Yeah, and it's not just that, it's the silos, it's all the political games, right? The pet projects of whatever leader even though they don't fit into reality.
Yeah. You know, the podcast is going to be good for me because since everything's on record, I'm going to have to do, you know, overly positive. Not my normal skill...
Dave Dougherty:
I mean, that might be a skill that you could exercise if you want to.
Kristen Juve:
Yes, speaking, yeah. Personal development...But there is a thing for toxic positivity, so I'm not all for that.
Dave Dougherty:
I'm so anti-toxic positivity. And actually, I think that's going to be one of our unique propositions with this podcast is the fact that we're both Upper Midwest, you know, can-do kind of people. It's not the overly brutal East Coast, it's not the overly positive West Coast, like "All right guys, this is so awesome. We're going to do it."
No, I'm not listening to you for more than two minutes. Like go eat kale and shut up.
Kristen Juve:
Yeah. Hopefully, it's a realistic view on the sh*t that we actually go through, and it's not this toxic positivity, everything's going to be great. Yeah, it's going to be great, but there's going to be crap that you have to wade through first. And it's not going to be easy, but like, I think we have a ton of things to talk about on how we can either make it easier, outline things more clearly, or wrap your head around it.
Like mental health is extremely important. If you're going to do your own... It's extremely important, period. If you're going to do your own business, you're relying on yourself, there's a lot of self-confrontation you're going to need to do and do some work on that whether you like it or not. So, we'll...
Dave Dougherty:
When I used to introduce myself, like, you know, the corporate side, right? You do the round tables of, "Hi, I'm Dave." This is, you know. I'd be like, "Yeah, you know, even self-employed, I hated my boss." And there would be...The people who would laugh at that. I'd be like, all right, we can be friends.
Kristen Juve:
You were like weeding them out. You were like, "You are my people."
Dave Dougherty:
Oh, totally. And then the people that were like, "What are you talking about?" I was like, "I'm going to have some problems with you. All right, I'm going to make sure..."
Kristen Juve:
Pick it up faster, Jen. Pick it up faster.
Dave Dougherty:
I’m going to walk gingerly around you. Yeah, because if you can't have a sense of humor while you're doing the hard work, right? I mean, it is hard work. It's not easy. We're not doing get-rich-quick stuff.
Kristen Juve:
No, that stuff doesn't exist.
Dave Dougherty: Like, we're not talking about, you know, starting an Uber thing. No, this is finding something that you're interested in spending the majority of your time devoted to, and doing that, right? And, you know, what does that look like? How are you setting yourself up for success?
How do you build the support networks that you need?
Kristen Juve:
How do you balance it with... And I hate the word balance because I do feel like that means that you should have like 50% of this and 50... No. Applying the appropriate effort that you need to in order to make your goals. Yeah, all of that. We're going to go over all of that.
- Cool. Well, I think that's a great place to end. Hopefully, this was a good introduction into the way that we at least handle our masterminds with one another. And...
Kristen Juve:
A glimpse into our world.
Dave Dougherty:
Exactly. So, you know, we'll, you know, in future episodes, we'll pick some topics, we'll do some deep dives, and...
Kristen Juve:
If you have topics that you want to hear about, please let us know, we would love to know what you guys are thinking.
Dave Dougherty:
Definitely. And, you know, on your podcast player if you enjoy this please rate it, review it, help us get the episode found.
Kristen Juve:
Subscribe.
Dave Dougherty:
Yeah, if you're on YouTube, subscribe, hit the bell, all that YouTube stuff. And yeah, by all means, drop a comment, let us know. And we will see you with a new episode in two weeks.
Kristen Juve:
In "Nine to Side."
Dave Dougherty:
Take care.
