Keeping up is the biggest challenge for successful entrepreneurs

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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hi, I'm Phil Bliss. Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:09] SPEAKER_02: Coming to you from Toronto.
[00:11] SPEAKER_02: Today we're going to meet Alex Coons,
[00:14] SPEAKER_02: who's been working in the media industry for the past 12 years.
[00:18] SPEAKER_02: She's worn many hats, editor, videographer, photographer,
[00:22] SPEAKER_02: for several different companies.
[00:24] SPEAKER_02: One of Alex's biggest successes and passions has been teaching
[00:27] SPEAKER_02: at Moor, where she started at a young age of 22,
[00:32] SPEAKER_02: and has 11 years experience as a professor.
[00:35] SPEAKER_02: Recently, Alex discovered the world of marketing
[00:38] SPEAKER_02: and advertising for real estate.
[00:41] SPEAKER_02: She launched Northern Spruce Media in 2018,
[00:45] SPEAKER_02: and has put her every ounce of strength and effort
[00:47] SPEAKER_02: to make this business into something huge.
[00:51] SPEAKER_02: So Alex, you know, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:54] SPEAKER_02: I mean, watch my signs and this and that,
[00:56] SPEAKER_02: because you're a video expert.
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: So, so, so, but why, you know,
[01:03] SPEAKER_02: we've been chatting for a little while.
[01:04] SPEAKER_02: Why don't you tell people, you know,
[01:07] SPEAKER_02: a little bit about yourself, you know, what you do,
[01:10] SPEAKER_02: and you got here, basically.
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh.
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: So, in five minutes, five minutes.
[01:18] SPEAKER_00: Okay. So basically, I went to school
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: for broadcasting and animation and also always in the arts.
[01:25] SPEAKER_00: From there, I basically got the opportunity to start teaching
[01:30] SPEAKER_00: as a professor at Moor hot college here.
[01:33] SPEAKER_00: I fell in love with it, to be honest with you.
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: I did it part time for 11 years.
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: I was teaching video editing, photo editing, graphic design.
[01:45] SPEAKER_00: Gosh, camera basics, photo basics.
[01:50] SPEAKER_00: Everything that has to do with the camera in your hand or the,
[01:53] SPEAKER_00: whether it's a pre-production or post-production,
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: I was teaching it.
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: I love the fact that I was educating like,
[02:04] SPEAKER_00: our growing youth, the people that were going to be hiring.
[02:07] SPEAKER_00: So, I really, I took a lot of pride in that.
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: And then while I was doing that, I started my own business.
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: And that business is what I'm still doing now.
[02:16] SPEAKER_00: And that is doing real estate marketing and advertising, I would say.
[02:22] SPEAKER_00: So basically, North-Earns-Pers Media,
[02:25] SPEAKER_00: Inc. is the business.
[02:28] SPEAKER_00: And I've been doing it for five years now.
[02:32] SPEAKER_00: I did it by myself for two.
[02:34] SPEAKER_00: Started to hustle and hustle and hustle and hustle.
[02:39] SPEAKER_00: I started to be the hire more people.
[02:41] SPEAKER_00: Now we are a team of 10 full timers.
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: And I believe four part timers.
[02:48] SPEAKER_00: And we're still growing.
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: We just got a larger office space because I was like,
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: I need to fill it with people.
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: So that's where I'm at with that.
[02:59] SPEAKER_00: So the one good thing that I loved was when I was teaching
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: and also running my business,
[03:05] SPEAKER_00: I would, I would grab all the students that were really good at what they were doing
[03:10] SPEAKER_00: and give them their first job.
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: So I basically hired them right out of school,
[03:15] SPEAKER_00: which was great.
[03:17] SPEAKER_00: And I can honestly say,
[03:19] SPEAKER_00: probably about 90% of my staff is ex-MailHawk College students.
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: And obviously, I know the program, I know their skill,
[03:28] SPEAKER_00: I know their knowledge because I get to go to college to them.
[03:31] SPEAKER_00: And I trained them for two years before they started in the industry.
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: So it kind of really worked out really well for me.
[03:37] SPEAKER_00: And then, yeah, so basically here we are,
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: Nolenskir's Media, five years down.
[03:44] SPEAKER_00: And, oh,
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: oh, there you go.
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: So you disappear for some reason.
[03:55] SPEAKER_00: So yeah, for growing, we're trying to change our business side of things
[04:01] SPEAKER_00: a little bit here and there.
[04:03] SPEAKER_00: And yeah, just rolling with the punches every single day
[04:06] SPEAKER_00: and this hustle, crazy, busy, real estate market world.
[04:10] SPEAKER_02: So, you know,
[04:12] SPEAKER_02: it sounds like the world that you grew up with,
[04:17] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've been an entrepreneur pretty much from the get-go.
[04:21] SPEAKER_02: Is that fair to say?
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think like,
[04:25] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I definitely had businesses before this.
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would call them practice businesses.
[04:32] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, you, those are the ones that you make a lot of mistakes in.
[04:37] SPEAKER_00: You realize, hey, this doesn't work.
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: This doesn't make sense.
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: And you learn and grow from it until you actually nail it down pat.
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I probably own two businesses before I nailed this one.
[04:49] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[04:50] SPEAKER_02: Well, what,
[04:51] SPEAKER_02: what drove you to make the choice of becoming an entrepreneur?
[04:59] SPEAKER_02: You know,
[05:00] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[05:01] SPEAKER_02: playing a role in the studio,
[05:03] SPEAKER_02: the studio manager,
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: that kind of thing.
[05:07] SPEAKER_02: You know, why, why, why go off and build your,
[05:10] SPEAKER_02: really your own marketing slash production company kind of thing?
[05:15] SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: So I also,
[05:18] SPEAKER_00: I work as an editor for a large corporation, Bell Media,
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: I'm Toronto.
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like it just wasn't for me.
[05:27] SPEAKER_00: I didn't have control over anything.
[05:29] SPEAKER_00: No, everything, everything creative was taken from me.
[05:33] SPEAKER_00: And I really struggled with that.
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: I became like really unhappy.
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: And I decided that I just needed to take matters to my own hands.
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: Because I know I'm like, I'm a natural leader.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: Like I know that.
[05:44] SPEAKER_00: I love growing.
[05:45] SPEAKER_00: I love success.
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: I love strength.
[05:47] SPEAKER_00: I love seeing other people grow as well.
[05:52] SPEAKER_00: Like I love having an employee day one.
[05:56] SPEAKER_00: And then seeing them year later,
[05:58] SPEAKER_00: just being like somebody completely different,
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: something somebody also super powerful and strong.
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: I love that.
[06:03] SPEAKER_00: So I think like for me,
[06:05] SPEAKER_00: the number one thing is like, I love being a leader.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: Number two, I love having creative freedom.
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: Number three, I just, I love being my own boss.
[06:13] SPEAKER_00: And I love being somebody who creates a really great work environment
[06:19] SPEAKER_00: for my employees.
[06:20] SPEAKER_00: Like that is probably one of the biggest things.
[06:23] SPEAKER_00: Like I want everyone to come into work with a smile on their face.
[06:27] SPEAKER_00: And I'm pretty sure I do that.
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: I see everyone smiling and laughing every time they're here.
[06:32] SPEAKER_00: So it's a good, it's a good vibe.
[06:35] SPEAKER_00: And it's a good feeling for me to know that I'm providing like a great work environment for everybody,
[06:40] SPEAKER_00: but also creating a good work environment for me.
[06:42] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, what are you most excited about in the business,
[06:46] SPEAKER_02: the other moment?
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: In my business or like,
[06:52] SPEAKER_02: in your business,
[06:53] Speaker UNKNOWN: in your business,
[06:54] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[06:54] Speaker UNKNOWN: in the business climate,
[06:55] SPEAKER_02: whatever,
[06:56] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're, you know,
[06:57] SPEAKER_02: you're pretty attached to the real estate side of a video.
[07:01] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[07:02] SPEAKER_00: So I mean like,
[07:03] SPEAKER_00: the real estate is definitely the bread and butter of the whole company.
[07:06] SPEAKER_00: It's what we have down pat.
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: It's what we've been doing for five years.
[07:10] SPEAKER_00: But now,
[07:12] SPEAKER_00: since media changes so frequently,
[07:15] SPEAKER_00: whether it's Instagram, Facebook, YouTube,
[07:17] SPEAKER_00: everything changes so much,
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: we have to change and shift with it immediately.
[07:21] SPEAKER_00: If we don't, we're going to fall behind.
[07:23] SPEAKER_00: So the thing that I get super excited about and the things that I'm like super into right now
[07:28] SPEAKER_00: is creating more opportunities for my employees.
[07:31] SPEAKER_00: So it's like,
[07:31] SPEAKER_00: we want to tap into the food and drink industry
[07:33] SPEAKER_00: and shoot super creative content for other large companies.
[07:38] SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I love seeing happening right now is everything is getting directed
[07:42] SPEAKER_00: to like Instagram and TikTok.
[07:45] SPEAKER_00: And since it's getting directed there,
[07:46] SPEAKER_00: we have to shift our game plan and the way we shoot things to satisfy the way social media is taking over the world.
[07:55] SPEAKER_00: So right now,
[07:56] SPEAKER_00: the one big shift is three years ago,
[08:00] SPEAKER_00: everything was horizontal.
[08:02] SPEAKER_00: Now everything now,
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: three years later,
[08:04] SPEAKER_00: is vertical.
[08:05] SPEAKER_00: So we have to shoot things completely different, flip our cameras over just to adjust to the way the algorithms work on social media.
[08:14] SPEAKER_00: And that's the way of content creation has been going.
[08:18] SPEAKER_00: We are booking like crazy,
[08:21] SPEAKER_00: just content shoots, people doing podcast shoots,
[08:25] SPEAKER_00: people just wanting to talk on camera and being vulnerable,
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: which is something that was never happening three years ago.
[08:31] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's true.
[08:34] SPEAKER_02: You know,
[08:35] SPEAKER_02: you sort of touched in a little bit,
[08:38] SPEAKER_02: but where are you going to be in another five years?
[08:41] SPEAKER_02: Still in Dandas or you're going to be in another level or what the heck, you know.
[08:47] SPEAKER_00: I know.
[08:48] SPEAKER_00: Huge goal.
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: And this is definitely five year goal is to be expanded not only in like everywhere on TV,
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: but we'd love to be at West.
[08:58] SPEAKER_00: We have been tapping into like tiny home industry a little bit.
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: So we kind of want to create a little niche in that little market as well,
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: where we shoot things completely uniquely for tiny houses or air beef bees.
[09:11] SPEAKER_00: But definitely going out West and just creating more opportunities for myself and other people,
[09:17] SPEAKER_00: my staff, just to also travel and like do those fun things that people want to do
[09:21] SPEAKER_00: and they go to work like,
[09:22] SPEAKER_00: and going to BC this week to shoot a mansion, you know,
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: like that's the kind of stuff I want to provide or I'm going to shoot in the mountains today.
[09:30] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[09:31] SPEAKER_00: So that is something that I've been wanting to do.
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: And I said it since day one five years ago is I want to expand out West.
[09:41] SPEAKER_00: Obviously going, we shot a few houses in Florida this year.
[09:45] SPEAKER_00: It was this year, yeah.
[09:46] SPEAKER_00: So we shot a few air beef bees and houses in Florida where a client shipped us out there
[09:50] SPEAKER_00: to shoot a bunch of stuff and it was amazing.
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: And I want to create more opportunities like that as well.
[09:56] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[09:58] SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
[09:59] SPEAKER_02: So you've been five years at it basically.
[10:03] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[10:04] SPEAKER_02: Grown it.
[10:05] SPEAKER_02: What's the greatest challenge you've faced today in this sort of grown business?
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: I'm keeping up.
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: I would say keeping up is the biggest challenge.
[10:20] SPEAKER_00: Finding a balance between,
[10:22] SPEAKER_00: and it's not only my balance, but it's like finding a balance for my employees of being like,
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: okay, you just worked eight hours and now people are wanting more work from us.
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: It's finding that balance of like making sure my employees are super happy all the time,
[10:39] SPEAKER_00: which is never, it's never going to happen.
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: People are going to be upset sometimes.
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: But at the other day, it's like, I want to create a great work environment for them.
[10:47] SPEAKER_00: Make sure I'm giving them opportunities, making sure I'm not overworking everybody.
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: And like, when there is a time where we need to hire more people,
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: I got to take that step in that risk.
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: So I think it's just like, it's like rolling with the punches.
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: If someone leaves for another job opportunity, I got to like,
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: I got to get on that right away, which is, that's been a challenge for me.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[11:12] SPEAKER_00: It's honestly being an entrepreneur is like,
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: you wake up super early to make sure you're always keeping up.
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: You work later to make sure you're always keeping up and eventually want to take yourself out of that and watch,
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: watch it happen.
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: So I think like, I want to get to that point.
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely not there yet, but that's going to be a huge challenge for me in the future,
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: is doing that big step.
[11:37] SPEAKER_02: So through this last five years, you've hit some goals.
[11:42] SPEAKER_02: Have you sort of developed a process for, you know, handling those challenges,
[11:49] SPEAKER_02: getting over, getting around the wall kind of thing?
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: I feel like every challenge is a little different.
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: A recent one that we had was we lost an employee to, so she could just go explore on like,
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: live her life, she's super young.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, yeah, you go like, that's so super amazing.
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: The challenge to fail that spot with someone who was a rock star has been hard.
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: And for that, just I just got to be patient and wait for that next awesome rock star.
[12:23] SPEAKER_00: I can't just grab someone and say, hey, you're going to fit the part.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: I got to be patient, make sure they fit with me, they fit with the team, they fit with the clients,
[12:30] SPEAKER_00: and then they also have a good work ethic.
[12:34] SPEAKER_00: I find a lot of like Gen Zers, Gen Z, they're different.
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's like learning a whole different species, the Gen Z generation.
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm a millennial.
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: So it's like, I'm sure we were hard to understand.
[12:52] SPEAKER_00: And now I'm like, oh my god, I have to understand a Gen Z and how they work.
[12:56] SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: So just finding a super challenging thing is just finding like well rounded workers right now.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: That's, that's a challenge.
[13:06] SPEAKER_00: And all I do is I interview them, I interview them.
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: And that's the process I've been rolling with.
[13:13] SPEAKER_02: So what advice would, you know, would you give an entrepreneur could be in your business, could be in some other business?
[13:22] SPEAKER_02: Looking to start a business.
[13:25] SPEAKER_02: So they're like, you were say seven years ago kind of thing.
[13:30] SPEAKER_02: Just think back to that.
[13:32] SPEAKER_02: This is something that, oh, if I'd known that, then I could have gotten here and here and here in half the time kind of thing.
[13:42] SPEAKER_00: I would say finding a mentor right away is key.
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: I, I started myself with really good people, really smart people.
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: People who are entrepreneurs, people who want to lead me in the right direction and help me succeed.
[13:58] SPEAKER_00: I surrounded myself with those kind of people.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: And it helped me tremendously.
[14:05] SPEAKER_00: I have like a handful of people that I can just say thank you to you right now who helped me on this journey.
[14:11] SPEAKER_00: So I say number one, finding a mentor.
[14:14] SPEAKER_00: Someone who's going to help you grow and wants to see you succeed is probably the best thing to do.
[14:19] SPEAKER_00: The next thing I would say is, you know, owning your own business is just a risky thing in general.
[14:25] SPEAKER_00: But if you want to take the big steps, those big steps are usually the biggest risks.
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: And every risk that I've taken has paid off, thankfully not come wood.
[14:37] SPEAKER_00: But don't be scared to take risks.
[14:39] SPEAKER_00: If you need advice, get the advice from your mentor and just go for it.
[14:45] SPEAKER_00: If you're got to telling you to do it, just do it.
[14:48] SPEAKER_00: Nike.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: Nike.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[14:52] SPEAKER_02: So I mean, with that Nike thing in mind, and you talk about mentors, you know, what's you've had a fair amount of mentorship, it sounds.
[15:02] SPEAKER_02: But what's the best piece of advice that you've received that you can carry around with you?
[15:08] SPEAKER_02: The one that you, it doesn't go away. It's sort of always a bit, kind of there.
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: Ooh, best piece of advice. Let me see here.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure. I'm going to have to think on that one. Can we go back to it?
[15:27] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll come back to it. That's fine.
[15:29] SPEAKER_00: Okay, sweet.
[15:30] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I get so much of it.
[15:32] SPEAKER_02: Let me come back to it.
[15:36] SPEAKER_02: So you obviously love what you're doing. But if you weren't doing what you're doing now, what is what else do you think you'd be doing?
[15:43] SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I talk about this all the time. So a dream, a dream job for me would be living somewhere hot on the beach, owning like a business cafe, just where entrepreneurs were traveling and doing their own thing can come to my cafe.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: And like, there's going to be mentors there, but they're going to drink a great coffee, have really healthy food, and then there's the ocean in front of you.
[16:11] SPEAKER_00: Just owning some sort of coffee shop in that format, but also helping young people grow is that is something I talk about all the time.
[16:22] SPEAKER_02: That's interesting.
[16:24] SPEAKER_02: So you want to own a coffee shop on a cool beach basically.
[16:30] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's it.
[16:40] SPEAKER_02: I don't get how you, you know, podcast whatever that you would say that is a good thing for people to get to read, listen, whatever.
[16:53] SPEAKER_00: Okay, three podcasts that I really enjoy.
[16:57] SPEAKER_00: I started when I was starting my business, I became like a Brian Baphini listener like crazy. I just listened to his podcast like three times today.
[17:06] SPEAKER_00: I just did not stop.
[17:08] SPEAKER_00: The other one would be I listened to Andy Priscilla. So Brian Baphini is like, he's like a really he's soft and like he the way he talks is it's very calming.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: Very smart business guy into the real estate industry. So it's like, okay, this is driving with me.
[17:27] SPEAKER_00: And then I would listen to you this guy named Andy Priscilla who it owns multiple multiple businesses, but his main stuff is like protein and health stuff.
[17:41] SPEAKER_00: But he talks like really aggressive, aggressively, he just says how it is. So I was like, I like that as well.
[17:47] SPEAKER_00: And then on a creative aspect, there's this creator, his name is Christo and he is basically a graphic designer by trade, but now he just does kinds of podcasts and just gives advice on so many different aspects in my like media industry.
[18:06] SPEAKER_00: So I love that. And then book wise.
[18:11] SPEAKER_00: There's some good ones. The one I really like that really got me started.
[18:20] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this one.
[18:23] SPEAKER_00: You were a badass at making money was a good one for me. It's funny. It's lighthearted, but also has great facts in it.
[18:30] SPEAKER_00: And then one of the recent ones I watched or not watched, but red is from a friend of mine. She is she started as a man, but now she's like she's just crushing it.
[18:43] SPEAKER_00: And she made systems and models for building a successful real estate business, but it's for your admin team. So it's called empire builders.
[18:52] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's well by Valsamone and she is unreal. So with that being said, she also mentions me in the book, which is really cool.
[19:02] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
[19:05] SPEAKER_00: But yeah, just two different kinds of books, one is just how to make really cool decisions and make money in different ways and other ones about helping your admin team like grow and be successful.
[19:18] SPEAKER_00: And helping me understand how they do that.
[19:22] SPEAKER_02: I think I know the answer to this one, which I think said earlier, you were mourning or a night person.
[19:29] SPEAKER_02: Actually, you were both, but when you're most effective.
[19:34] SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, I'm the happiest, most energetic person at like six o'clock in the morning.
[19:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I will be in this office like late at seven a.m.
[19:46] SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
[19:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just yeah, I mean, I like I wouldn't say I'm a huge night out by any means, but I mean, I definitely don't go to bed earlier than 10.
[19:59] SPEAKER_00: So long days.
[20:01] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have to pick one word to describe yourself.
[20:05] SPEAKER_02: What would it be and why would you choose that word?
[20:09] SPEAKER_01: Oh, hmm.
[20:14] SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say one word.
[20:17] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[20:19] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say powerful.
[20:21] SPEAKER_00: And I say that because I think everything I do has power behind it, whether it's like my mind power, the power of my heart, whether it's me wanting to give power to my employees.
[20:35] SPEAKER_00: And I actually got to attach you on my finger recently.
[20:38] SPEAKER_00: It's a little, it looks like a lightning bolt, but it means strength and success.
[20:44] SPEAKER_00: So with strength comes power and I would say that.
[20:48] SPEAKER_02: That's interesting. That's that's one I haven't heard you thought that one.
[20:52] SPEAKER_02: You got that one for yourself.
[20:54] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[20:58] SPEAKER_02: What's keeping you up at night?
[21:00] SPEAKER_01: That's keeping me up at night.
[21:04] SPEAKER_00: Right now it's just filling, filling the overflowing gaps that need to be filled with more people.
[21:12] SPEAKER_00: I think that is where I'm like, okay, we have a lot of overflow right now.
[21:17] SPEAKER_00: We need to like find people to help with that overflow.
[21:20] SPEAKER_00: And it's like finding a process to make it happen.
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I would say that would have kept me up that much.
[21:29] SPEAKER_02: So what about that advice question?
[21:32] SPEAKER_00: I would best advice.
[21:38] SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
[21:41] SPEAKER_00: I don't know what by word for word, but there is a guy in Hamilton.
[21:46] SPEAKER_00: He owns mission 35 mortgages.
[21:49] SPEAKER_00: And he is like any time I need advice or I need help, I will just message him and it might be once a year.
[21:56] SPEAKER_00: And he'll sit me down and we'll go through like all my crazy ideas of things that I want to do.
[22:02] SPEAKER_00: But the last time I wrote him, I had like ideas that were just like totally left field.
[22:08] SPEAKER_00: And he sat me down and he just said to start making vision boards so that I can just visualize all these ideas and make them happen.
[22:15] SPEAKER_00: But then realize while I stare at it, which ones are not possible.
[22:23] SPEAKER_00: These ones are great, but like let's visualize the ones that aren't great either and why they're not great.
[22:28] SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, bring me back to ground zero and let's start over.
[22:33] SPEAKER_02: I should say for the audience, by the way, that we're both in Hamilton.
[22:37] SPEAKER_02: So we're yeah.
[22:40] SPEAKER_02: Which yeah, yeah, that's right.
[22:44] SPEAKER_02: My time's up.
[22:46] SPEAKER_01: It is. Oh my god.
[22:47] SPEAKER_02: It just goes so quickly.
[22:50] SPEAKER_02: It's always the never surprises me.
[22:52] SPEAKER_02: It's like, they always surprise me.
[22:54] SPEAKER_02: I should say just like, yeah.
[22:57] SPEAKER_02: Is there anything that I've missed that you would want to get out?
[23:03] SPEAKER_00: No, I just, I'm just going to tell people to keep being creative, just keep being creative.
[23:08] SPEAKER_02: So if someone's listened to this and they want to get a hold of Alex, how can they get a hold of you?
[23:13] SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
[23:14] SPEAKER_00: You can get a hold of me either through my website at northerfirstmedia.com or you can email me directly at Alex at northerinterestmedia.com.
[23:24] SPEAKER_00: Those are probably the two best.
[23:25] SPEAKER_00: I don't have more work from them rise or else I would say that.
[23:29] SPEAKER_02: Alex, thanks very much.
[23:31] SPEAKER_02: It's been really great meeting you.
[23:32] SPEAKER_00: Thank you. It's great meeting you too.