Hello, and welcome to design and business
conversations for creatives. I'm Cheyney and today I'm chatting
with Pippa from Shout & Co. P: hi.
C: Pippa and I met years ago at markets back in my
Camille Co days, when I had soaps and candles and Pippa
had ceramics and we've kind of grown together over the years and we've
actually worked together on projects. You did some styled photography for
Camille Co, Designed by Cheyney, also my head shots
which I was very happy with because I'm not you know,
photos of myself, I'm not like loving them, but you did a great job and
more recently for the book, you did some styled mood shots,
and I'm absolutely obsessed with your style. P: oh thank you
C: I think you're a creative genius, like I mean it,
creative genius. This isn't a weird thing to say, I want your eyeballs in my head.
P: Oh you can have them, they don't work very well. C You're just like, that's creepy. It's so creepy but I'm just - P: Contacts!
C: -in absolute awe of everything you produce, everything that I see on socials
I'm just like ohh. Nailed it, every single time. So I wanted to
have you on and I wanted to pick your brain a little bit about
yourself, your business, and your process. P: Yeah, so I am
30-something, I've got two kids, a hubby,
we've been married for about eight years, yeah so it's-
C: Shout out to Bevan P: Yes C: Shout out to Bevan, he's great.
P: We live on the North Shore in Auckland, and we have our business,
Shout & Co, and that's what we do and it's a family thing. Our kids get involved in
all of our photo shoots, it's just, it's really fun.
C: What do you offer as a business?
P: We're all about digital marketing.
We're called Shout & Co because our ultimate thing is to help people shout
about their businesses and not in a noisy kind of way but
really in like, look at this amazing stuff that, you know, we want
you to, we want you to really love what you're doing and put it out there and
help everyone else love what you're doing.
So we do digital marketing, we do photography, product
and food, we do videos and headshots and basically all of your digital content
that we then roll up and present beautifully on social media.
C: Awesome. My first question for you is why did you start your biz?
P: It came about because I had left the warehouse because
I was going to have my second kid,
and I just didn't want to go back, I just, it
felt like it was a perfect opportunity for me to start
something for myself and so I wanted to bring my passion together
and I wanted to do something that was virtual, digital, that I didn't have to
actually sit in someone's office to do. And so that coupled with the fact
that it really is a very small business focused
idea, that's basically why I wanted to start it and why I wanted to do it.
C: Cool I can totally relate to that, having flexibility and creative freedom outside
of, kind of, the confine of being employed
is just magical and I think most people here who are watching if they're
creative entrepreneurs will understand that but also
not want to go back
P: not at all
C: Cool, okay, so my next question for you is, what has been your favorite project?
P: This one might be a bit controversial,
but one of our favorite clients is a funeral home, and it's been my
favorite because, I mean I've got loads of favorite
clients, you obviously being one of them, and I'll get to it, as to why we love
working with a specific type of client, but my favorite client has been this
funeral home because they get to take us into a world
that you would never get access to if you
weren't there supporting them with their digital
marketing, you know, and so because we get to see some crazy things.
We've actually been invited to do days with them where we get a backstage
pass to funerals and all the stuff that happens
behind the scenes. C: Wow! P: It's been really amazing, to be in this
position where we get to support businesses who are
doing some amazing things, in industries we would never have even
considered finding out more about. C: Yeah that would be interesting.
P: But we work with some amazing, and we've seen all
sorts of things, from having worked with so many
different types of businesses, so it's one of my favorite things about the job.
C: That's cool. Who would be your dream client?
P: Our dream client, it's probably not one specific person or business but it's more around
how we work with that client that makes them - C: I completely understand!
P: You know, it's the type of client that says
I've, and it's not necessarily about budget, like oh it's an,
it's an endless budget, because it's not about that, but it's about,
here's some product or here is what we do, we want you to photograph it or
capture it or work with us with no brief. It's sort of like, and you
do that all the time which is amazing, you give us your product and you trust
us implicitly- C: Absolutely. P: - and that's why it's not really about a person, it's
about different types of people who just say
to us, here is our stuff, there's no brief attached, we trust you.
C: yeah, yeah. P: And it's very difficult to find them. C: And that's,
that's why I come to you, because I trust you and I'm like, I know that you're
going to do far better on this than I would, and I
don't want to put my ideas on to you either because every
time I see your work, I like it because it's your work and it's your eyeballs.
But, yeah, I don't want to
pigeonhole you and I'm the same, I enjoy that with clients as well when
they come to you, and they're trusting your skills and your ability, and they're
just saying I love what you do can you please do this for me.
P: It's a great boost to your confidence because you
think, awesome, they're literally giving me their
hard-earned cash to do this for them, I need to do a great job, and you end up
doing a greater job than you would have considered, you know, possible.
C: Yeah I agree. And one thing that's come through in
the last two interviews that I've done, one was with
Jo, and one was with Anna, so designer and artist, is
they both spoke about the fit, and I think that that's absolutely crucial
in this, kind of, client designer, client artist, kind of pair, is
that the fit is crucial. My fourth question is, do you have a mantra?
P: Yes I do and it's very, it's very non-creative, which is
weird but it's it's prepare, it's "Fail to plan, plan to fail."
C: Hang on, hang on, rewind. Say it again.
P: Fail to plan. C: Fail to plan, yeah. P: Plan to fail. C: Plan to fail. Okay, cool.
P: So it's very non-creative because creatives like to just dive in
and you know, but I like to plan things out, I like to know
exactly how I, where I need to be, when I need to
be there, what I need to be doing, I read briefs like, you know, when we get
a briefing from a client, I read them top to bottom, bottom to top,
side to side, like I just, I want to know that I've got all the
props I need, I've got everything I need, I need to know what I'm doing,
and I just feel like sitting down at the beginning of the day
and planning out the day and the week makes being creative so much easier
C: I'm with you too, I'm with you too. And there's
the, there's the scatter creative and then there's the organized creative.
I'm definitely in the organized like you, as you can tell, probably in my house.
Yeah, no no that's cool. My fifth question is, do you have any advice for a newbie?
P: Yes. It's a couple pieces actually. The first one is,
and this might sound a bit weird, but it's something that I call love your
reasons. So what I mean by that is you
want to, say you want to, become a freelance
graphic designer or you want to become a freelance creative,
you need to love the reasons why you want to do that and
it extends to so many different things. It's like, why do you want to take on
this project, love the reasons that you're taking on
this project or you're saying yes to this client or no to this client because
at the end of the day, just wanting to do it for money is probably not going to be
enough motivation when on those days that you just don't
feel creative, on those days that you just don't feel like
getting out of bed, you just don't feel like working,
your reasons will be the things that will motivate you to keep going.
When you get a tough break, when someone says no, when doors close,
you need to love those reasons to keep going. Some days it can be difficult.
It can be a tough gig. The second thing is that you don't need to say yes
to everything. Saying no sometimes can be so empowering,
and so good for your mental health, and for the health of your business as well.
C: Yes, and I resonate with that as well, I
think that saying no is absolutely empowering but
it also keeps your space open for the clients
that you do fit well with, so if you're taking on every single job, you
might take a job on that isn't a good fit and
you're just leaving someone else who might be a good
fit out the door. Solid advice, thank you. My last question,
and I'll pop the links in below, where can people find you?
P: Yeah so we're everywhere, it's our job to be everywhere but -
C: Shout & Co. P: That's right, we're helping you shout about your business
but it's shoutandco.com and then on
instagram and facebook, very simple, shoutandco. So yeah, that's us.
C: Cool. Alright, thank you Pippa for coming, it's been great to have you here
and thank you for watching, if you like this video give it a thumbs up
or subscribe using the button below and hit the notifications bell
and thank you for watching. We'll see you next time, see ya, bye.
C: Sometimes I just stop and stare out there as well, for like a whole minute. P: I'm looking up the sheep's butt.
C: mm-hmm P: Don't put that on the edit!