Packaged Light Media: Recent Episodes
RA Hawthorne
An honest and sincere talk through the startup of a business. No bull, no asking for money, just real talk and real struggle and real joy.
The tough thing about trying to start a business while working a full time job and raising a family is that sometimes you run out of hours in the day. I have to prioritize everything else above the business at this point because I don’t want to sacrifice my family nor do I want to miss out on income.
Launch Your Dream: A 30-Day Plan For Turning Your Passion Into Your Profession by Dale Partridge. Get your copy today.
I read an article today by Tim Elmore. Elmore really has his finger on the pulse of this generation. He constantly provides insight and information that is helpful. Today’s article is titled How One Parent Developed a Mentally Tough Kid. He points out the epidemic of mentally shallow students. By that he is talking about students who are unable to deal with tough situations.
The illustration he uses is great. Paper Dolls vs. Rusty Kettles. Paper dolls fold under pressure but rusty kettles withstand the pressure. You can read his article for the full picture. But this got me to thinking about starting something. As creative people we sometimes allow the hardship of what others think to keep us from moving forward.
In fact many creatives give up before they start because of the fear of what people think. If we allow the hardship of peoples opinions to tear us down then we probably shouldn’t be a creative in the first place.
I encourage you to read this article. Consider areas where you have given up because of perceived hardship. Then maybe take some new steps while trying to walk through the hardship.
Fight the good fight.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
Today we talk about working in and building community as a form of accountability to overcome fear. Don’t let fear keep you from realizing your dream.
In day one of Launch Your Dream we talk about what it means to have passion for something. What are you willing to suffer for in order to succeed?
One of the most frustrating things as a fan is to go to a social platform like Instagram and find that person has no music on their profile. No singing. No dancing. Not even any humming.
In this podcast I talk about Dale Partridge's book Launch Your Dream as well as some other software that I am trying out.
If you dream of starting a business then you should read "Lunch Your Dream: A 30-Day Plan For Turning Your Passion Into Your Profession. In fact, if you are reading this the liklihood that you desire to start your own business is very high. Dale says, " Tens of millions of people, from college students to retirees, are choosing to work for themselves rather than donating their loyalty to another j-o-b."
So many Americans are fed up with their work that they want out. And starting a business seems like a good option to many. But so many just don't know where to start. That may be you. You want to start a business but you have no idea what to do or how to do it. Enter Dale Partridge and "Launch Your Dream." Find a copy and read it today. Here are three reasons you should.
First, the book is written in a very doable way. I have read a lot of books on starting a business. Many of those books are difficult to read and are not helpful to a person who has never started a business before. The actions they share are just not doable.
That is not true with this book. Dale writes "Launch Your Dream" in a simple, straight-forward way. The book is divided into 30 days and each day a topic is covered that is foundational to starting a business. At the end of each chapter he leaves you with four tasks for the day. REMEMBER, ASK, BELIEVE, DO. Each of these tasks takes you a step closer to starting your business.
Just to clarify, when I say simple I don't mean easy. The chapters and tasks are challenging. It takes work and effort to complete each day. Yoy have to provide the time and the effort to make it happen.
Second, Day 7 "A Business Doesn't Happen By Accident" makes the book for me. This chapter covers the writing of the business plan. I have read through and worked through a lot of business plans in my life. So many are filled with fluff and unnecessary information. Honestly, I stressed everytime I worked on writing a business plan. Stressed until I found this book.
Dale removes the fluff and has you clarify exactly what your business will do. Why it will do it. And how your business will be successful.
Dale says, "My typical business plan is about five to ten pages, and yours will be on the low end of that scale. Set aside ninety minutes or so to create the first draft of your plan. Block out interruptions, and if possible do it with someone you trust rather than alone." Ninety minutes may seem fast to you. And it really is. But you will have done a lot of the necessary work leading up to this day.
The point is too many people take weeks or months to write a business plan that they never use and that has information that is not necessary. Dale pushes you to make a real plan that you can follow for the execution of stating your business. That is why I say this chapter is worth the price of the book. It helps you clarify your purpose for starting a business.
I will say that it is quite doable. I have used Dale's process to write two different business plans. Both in the start-up phase right now. So give it a shot. You will not be sorry.
Third, Dale is honest and down to earth. If you are like me you are tired of all the "Get Rich Quick" business people out there. They sell their ideas for huge profits but in the end the ideas are untested and often not useful. Been there, done that. This book leaves the hype behind for a down to earth, straight forward approach to getting your business up and running.
Therefore, because of these three points I recommend "Launch Your Dream" to you. You have been given the dream. Stop waiting for a better time or a better place in life. Pick up this book. Follow the plan and launch your dream this month.
It really is doable. What are you waiting for?
In podcast two I talk about the new and first client I gained today as well as the idea I had for social media strategy.
[00:02] Here it is, January 21, 2019 and for some reason I've decided this is the year to get started building the dream or working on the dream. And so the what I am going to do is document a every night just as a way of keeping track. I'm document through a audio recording where I talk through the day and talk about what happened. Just trying to be honest and sincere and straightforward with everything that's going on with starting the business package. Light media. Uh, so if you think today got up early, I woke up and wrote a blog post as a second blog post on the website so I was able to get that done. Uh, and I wrote that about being real or being authentic. So many people out there, um, so many people on the web, on the interwebs, I'm trying to lie, to try to tell you that you can make this much money by doing this strategy.
[00:59] But in return you have to pay them a generally a large sum of money for that. And I just find, I know there's places to make money. There's a reason to make money. And there's teaching elements that happen, um, but so often the seems as those people are, are teaching something that they've never done themselves. I've never tried for themselves, they've ever put in the effort to get those things done. And so, um, I wrote that blog post kind of in response to that or my feelings towards that. And then just talking about how I'm going to respond by being authentic. I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm just trying to do it step by step day by day and try to take some people along with me for the journey, you know, maybe you guys have some insights that I don't know, maybe some thoughts that I don't know.
[01:44] Um, maybe some ideas that I don't know or I've never had before. And so that's really the goal with recording. Um, and you know, uh, read and follow a lot of Gary Vaynerchuk stuff when he says document everything. So I'm just documenting, keeping track if not for anyone else, for myself. So I can look back and kind of see, oh, this is what I was doing. Then this is what happened, this is what worked. And I don't know how I will ever be able to go through all the content. Um, so maybe someone will have to do that for me. I don't know, but just the way to keep track of it. I guess one idea that we can invent is a vocal indexing database. It would actually index everything and you could go back and search by voice for what was recorded orally or through audio.
[02:32] That'd be awesome. So if anybody out there listening, get that invented and we'll get started with, with that, that'd be cool for sure. Um, so today blog posts written, then I did a few social media posts and that's all I really had time for before I had to go to the day job. So I'm on the night shift right now. It's about 9:30 central time where I'm at. And so getting started for a few hours in the night shift, I actually have a meeting tomorrow, a phone call with a first potential client. Um, so that's exciting and I'm going to work on some things tonight that I'm on to present to him, uh, that I think would help his brand move forward. So just being real with you here tonight. I'm like, I want to be in branding and marketing and business startups but have no experience there and so I'm just learning as I go, fail forward is what they say, right? So I'm just going to keep trying, keep moving forward, keep, keep trying to get some stuff done until something hits and takes off. So maybe I'm just an old guy with an old dream or maybe I'm just an old guy with a real dream and willing to put in the effort. We'll see what happens.
[03:40] Since this is the first audio recording I've done, we'll talk a little bit about the vision behind package, like media and in why I want to do package slight media. Um, I've been in student ministry for 10 years now, working with students, sharing the gospel of Jesus with them. And what dawned on me about seven, six or seven years ago, I guess, um, the students wanted to have conversations they wouldn't hang out. That's cool. Um, but their conversation is always centered around cultural things. Um, cultural stories like film, Netflix, video games, music, nonfiction or sorry, fictional books, some fantasy fiction was really popular at that time. Maybe still is. And that's what the conversation is really centered around. And I realized one night that, you know, I don't have influence in their life, I don't have the influence that I would like to have in their life, uh, I don't have that ability at. And maybe I don't communicate in the way that they receive information. So the Lord really laid on my heart at that time, the desire to, um, do some type of media. I mean, I know what that was. I had no clue. So like somehow be in the media production industry, whether that's writing books or writing films or social media. I didn't know. So I just say generally media package, like media. Uh, but then
[05:02] in that, um, several, maybe a year or so later, we were at a conference in Houston with some students and the folks that were leading the conference brought some speakers in who talked about, um, using ministry or missions as a business as a way to
[05:27] business as a way to minister or do missions, I mean reach people. And so the two thoughts connected in my mind, the thought of, Oh, I was supposed to be operating in this media business industry somehow along with using that for good, meaning if there's any income that can be donated or given or pledged towards a gospel cause whatever that looks like or whatever that is. Maybe I'm at the time. I'd been to Ethiopia several times and drilling water wells. So it was like, okay, we can build some wells, you need the Ethiopia from any income that comes from that. So just thoughts like that, things like that that I had thought through in those two thoughts intersected or collided at that time. And I was like, this is something that I wanted to do. Well then, you know, I don't know if you're like me, but when you know there's something you're supposed to do and when the Lord shows you there's something you're supposed to do, there's always the enemy who comes in and sits fear like you don't really want to do that.
[06:26] You have no experience in that area. You're not any good in that. You'll never be good at any of those lines. Begin to compound. And so I've been listening to those lies for six years now off and on. I've tried a few things here and there. I've tried to start things, but for the most part, the lies have compounded year over year, over year. And I believe that even to the point where I was pretty depressed at a certain points of the last two years to the point where I thought, man, I just can't go on. Um, but it's because I believed the lies and not the truth. And so that's what I want to really be authentic with you. I want you to, I want you to believe the truth and not the lies I would never tell you. You could be a millionaire or billionaire, that's not the point of this, uh, the point is that you can, um, achieve a dream or a goal, God given dream or goal, um, through his blessing in your effort and those things combined.
[07:19] Can lead you in that direction? And I hope to encourage you in that way and I think we can have some maximum impact in the world. I'm in the era that we live in not only meeting needs of humans, but I'm also taking the gospel around the world. And so that's really one of the goals that I have with this. Not just that students would hear the good news of Jesus through media, but that, um, people around the world, we're here that, uh, and then on top of that is this idea of branding. You know, I grew up in a little town in Oklahoma and you talk about branding. You're talking about a hot iron on the cattle on a cow or a heifer branding that animal saying that's mine. And so I, I think about that and I think about what branding is today.
[08:06] I think it's the same thing that a farmer or rancher owns cattle, that's his property. So he marks them. It says these are mine. I'm proud of them. He doesn't brand a calf that he's not proud of who, uh, isn't going to be strong, isn't going to produce well, he doesn't take that as ownership. B, sells those and get passes them on. Um, but he brands those things that he's proud of and that's really kind of the strategy that I want to take in branding was so with package like media that we help individuals put their name on the things that they're proud of. Um, that doesn't mean being dishonest or inauthentic. That means there are things in the world that are tough and hard that we all go through. And Yeah, put my brand on that because I went through it and I learned from it.
[08:54] And you can learn from that too. And so that's really the goal with a package like media and the way we brand. People also want to create some businesses in that. So as we walk along, you know, I'll be talking about visiting with this man tomorrow about his brand, but then there's also one that I wanted to launch as well. It's going gonna, it's kind of a silly one, but I just want to test out an idea. I'll go ahead and tell you it's called peanut butter pie guy that we sell peanut butter pies online and wholesale in our local market and just a use media to promote the idea of this just a pie and want to test out some ideas that I have to see if it works, uh, in kind of a micro area and really niche area, peanut butter pie and then expand on that to the macro and scale out and see if the same principles apply in other ways to other areas.
[09:50] And so that's really a couple of things I'll be working on. Um, if you listen to this, thank you so much. I'd love your feedback and input and insight. Love to hear from you. I'm gonna. Try to put this up every night. Maybe a few minutes, maybe 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes. This one is actually 20 minutes long, so far, no 10 minutes long. So, um, if you're still listening, thanks for hanging. Leave a comment below. Share it with somebody, whatever, uh, you know, they're just wanting to engage with you. I want to be real with you. Only need to be real with me. No fakers allowed. Hashtag be real. All about authenticity. So, um, what else, what else is going on today? I'm fixing to make a few visuals for the man I'm meeting with tomorrow with his brand. Just kind of talk through some things that I like to do for him.
[10:40] Um, and I found some websites today that help with that. I've always used canva as a source for producing visuals, but I found two other sites that are a little more automated. There's one that I found called Sawa saw a, um, it came out of an incubator in Cincinnati called ocean or an accelerator in Cincinnati called ocean film that several months ago, but it's just not affordable, is $200 a month or $250 a month to use it. It's that kind of a plug and play for your brand and for different things. It really awesome, but just not in my range where I can afford right now. Um, so found another one that's affordable. It's called relay relay that I believe, and you can plug your brand information in there as far as far as your color schemes, your fonts, a everything you want, your logo and then it will take all the information that you plug in, like a title and what you want to say and pictures and then put those in different formats for you.
[11:42] And then you just download those and use them. So I'm going to work on that tonight. And then adobe spark is another one that I found. Um, the one thing I like about adobe spark is it allows creation of video. I'm a little segmented videos and we wouldn't do a lot of video with this one client I'm going to be visiting with. So, um, I liked that one is kind of for the video format and the templates they provide. So to, um, kind of little thing, little some research I've done today that we talk about, relay that and adobe spark to help with your design and your graphics for social media and social sharing it when you're trying to do something quick like I am. Um, what else today? That's about all I know for today. I'm gonna get to work on those things and work for a few hours tonight. Be Back up early in the morning. Uh, don't know about a blog post tomorrow, but I am going to write a book review for Wednesday. Um, we've been reading Dale Partridge is launch your dream. If you haven't read that, pick that up. I'll tell you why on Wednesday. Uh, it's a step by step detailed guide to starting a little business and he does a great job of breaking it down and putting the important things in there and leaving out the fluff. So I recommended it to you.
[12:55] Sorry I had to get a drink there. So I'll get that and we'll look through those things. Um, one last thing and kind of close out with this thought that we've got this whole thing started once I realized the influence that pictures and images and media had over the culture, specifically youth culture, a sort of looking for some books to read and I found culture making, um, if you've never read culture making by Andy Crouch, pick that up as well. Read that. Take a few days, take a few weeks to read through that and digest it. Um, he uses a definition there that upon further research I found that he actually got from Ken Myers, can mire sort of book called all God's children and blue suede shoes, Christians and popular culture. Um, pick that up as well. It's a shorter read. Well, it's a shorter book but it's a very in depth read.
[13:50] So I found it to be challenging me. Um, other reviews, I found that book didn't seem to think it was challenging, but, uh, it was challenging for me as I thought through some of the content that he talked about. But, uh, Andy says in his book, culture making that he got from Ken Myers and believes that culture is what we make of the world. And so, um, this is a real simple definition of culture and you can see how that operates around the world in different ways. Meaning if you go to Ethiopia and you wanted to build a home, then you have eucalyptus trees there to take and turn into your home so they use the trees and things that are given and they make homes that are satisfactory, keep the elements away from them in that region based upon what they've been provided you come to the states were provided hardware stores and lumber yards with an infinite supply of materials to build homes in a much different way.
[14:47] So culture is what we make of the world. And for too long, Christians have interacted with culture in ways that are not helpful. I'm not saying that there's not place a place for these interactions with culture. And Andy actually lays this out in the book culture making. He talks about how Christians condemned the world or we just joined the world. Or, um, we, what are the other ones I should look them up before I got on here, but in other ways we act, but he says we spend a lot of time condemning, um, but we don't ever go into the world and create something beautiful. And that fascinated me, that idea that we are created by God, the creator of the earth, this ball of dirt that we stand on everyday. He created all of this. He created us a, as detailed as we are as human beings.
[15:36] Um, and yet somehow as Christians, we discredit his ability to guide us and creating some awesome things for our culture. And so that's what's really inspiring to me. Inspiring me to do some, some things creatively in media, but also help others be inspired to create some really cool things. Like there are some awesome creative people out there that have something to offer the world, have something to offer, not just the Christmas Christian segment of the world, but they have something to offer the world. Um, then make it better and make it awesome and to share the gospel and share truth and shared light. And all those things. So that's really what inspires me and motivates me as we go forward. And so I hope to keep kind of working in that direction. Um, as we go forward. Let's all have for the night. So that's kind of the update for January 20, first 2019. Hope to have more for you tomorrow evening. I'm. Hey, thanks for listening. If you're listening, I would love your feedback. Uh, maybe you can keep, do some updates on what you're doing every day in your neck of the woods with your business or your startup or your creative endeavors or whatever it is you're trying to start on. Want to hear about it when you interact with. Other than that, God bless you. Have a good night. January 20, first 2019 out of here. Be Real.
No matter where you look on the internet you will find someone who is willing to tell you how to make money using their system to starting a business. From “Follow my system to make and extra $1000.00 per month.” to “Buy this plan and become a billionaire.” Everybody is trying to sell you some strategy on how to start the next big internet business. I am sure that there are many authentic people out there who really have started a business and who really want to help you start a business of your own.
So often it seems that some of these folks have started a business to tell you how to start a business having never operated a business before. That is fine I guess except for the fact that many of these individuals have to “put on” like they are successful when they really aren’t. By “put on” I mean they have to act in a way that is inauthentic and dishonest with who they are and where they are at in their journey. I am not even talking about the people who rent all the expensive houses, cars, clothes, and jewelry to make themselves look rich when they are in fact not. It is easy enough to see through this charade over time. The ones I am more concerned about are the people who make statements on their website and in social media about some success that they hope for but have never had.
One example would be “You can be like me and make $1000.00 extra this weekend.” This may in fact be doable but if the person making this statement has never made $1000.00 extra over a weekend then this statement is not true. Therefore it is inauthentic and better known as a lie. This may seem nitpicky to some but I am just fed up with the lies on the web. A web of lies I guess it would be. There are in reality many people who come to these websites hoping to make some extra money because they truly need the income only to be taken advantage of by misleading and untrue statements.
I want my company to be different. I do believe that there are many opportunities to make a living through the internet. From starting a business to freelancing, the web has opened and expanded opportunities that were not there ever in the history of humanity. So I want to start Packaged Light Media and be completely authentic with all of my attempts to start this business. I want to take you behind the scenes and show you how hard it really is. The difficulties of self motivation and the pain of failure. I also want to take you along for the excitement of success. The pleasure of helping a client achieve their goals. The struggle to manage time effectively. The balance between work and family. The hopelessness of needing to hire some help but not having the cash to do it. This list could go on and on.
What I hope to do is take you with me through blog posts, video, and audio posts as I work through starting PLM. I just want to be real with you. I want to connect with you. I want to build a community of people who are doers and not dreamers. It won’t be easy. If it was easy I would have already done this five years ago.
So here is my goal. I will report daily on the progress of Packaged Light Media in a real and authentic way to anyone who wants to take a look at it. I will report on the best days and I will report on the worst days. No hiding the reality of starting a business.
I have been a dreamer for way to long. What about you? Have you dreamed of starting something but never got it off of the ground? Let’s start together. Let’s make something happen. Let’s get to work. Let’s be real together. What do you say?
Several weeks ago my wife and I went to Nashville for our 16 year anniversary. This had been a longtime dream of mine to go and check out Music City. I was not disappointed. I loved the city, the people, the music, and the atmosphere. It is such a great place to visit.
I grew up on country music and have always loved the artists in that genre. From Waylon and Willie, to George and Garth, to Carrie and Blake, I love them all. Truthfully, I have always wanted to be involved in the music industry in some way. But I was not blessed with the ability to sing nor am I able to play music. I've owned a guitar for 20 years and can still only play a handful of songs. So I knew early on that I wouldn't be performing on stage.
This realization lead me to ignore this desire, thinking that there was no way for me to be involved with the music that I loved. So I went on down the road and worked at other things. But the desire was always there. I just couldn't put a name to that desire. What was I supposed to do there in that industry if I wasn't a musician? I didn't know.
Then, about five years ago I was serving as a student pastor in east Texas. The students that I worked with liked to have conversations about all kinds of cultural things, music, books, films, video games, and Netflix of course. I began to realize that these media elements had more influence over these students than I did. Also, at that time I began to realize that business was a viable option as a place for a Christian person to minister in.
Very clearly the Lord began to speak to me and show me that I needed to be working in the media industry. Meaning I needed to help these creative people get their stories heard.
That is where Packaged Light Media came into being. A company that influences minds through media. Specifically by coming alongside creatives and assisting them in gaining an audience.
So for the last five years now I have been preparing for the launch. Well, the truth is I tried to launch several times before but fear got in the way (That is another story for another day). Reading, studying, preparing, praying, hoping and dreaming.
To make a long story short, back to present day. While I was in Nashville this idea for Country Rise came to fruition. On several evenings my wife and I visited Broadway where all the country stars have their restaurant and bar. In every single one there was a singer or songwriter or band doing their thing trying to make it big. And it was like that every night we went down there. Over those several nights we never saw the same person or act perform. I realized there are a lot of people trying to "make it" in Nashville.
One evening it dawned on me, Nashville is kind of a bottleneck on the pathway to country music stardom or success (However that is defined). Meaning there is a long line of people who want to sing and perform and get noticed but only a few places that can happen. It is a problem of scarcity really. The resource of platforms to perform on is scarce compared to the number of people who desire to perform on those stages. And beyond that the number of record deals, in today's time, is scarce compared to the number of people that desire a deal.
On the plane ride home I continued to think about this problem. The realization hit me that there are infinite ways to become known outside of Nashville for the aspiring country musician. Skip the bottleneck and blaze your own path. This sounds like a great idea but there are still many that will choose not to take another route.
In my mind there are three reasons why many people will still choose moving to Nashville over blazing their own path.
- Going to Nashville is the "normal" way that things happen. "I want to be a normal musician so I am going to take this path." many believe.
- The path I am suggesting takes a lot of work and effort (Beyond that of even making the move to Music City). Let's be honest, a lot of people have the dream but very few want to put in the work.
- The need to focus on branding and marketing to blaze this path is intense and takes away from the artists creative focus on their music.
Right there, in the midst of considering these three points, is where the idea for Country Rise came into being. What if, a country musician had someone to stand beside them and create the content necessary for them to rise above the crowd and be seen? What would that look like?
Here it is! The vision for Country Rise. We come along side the artist and record content in audio, video, and written form. We then take that content and break it down into micro content for social media distribution.
After we gather all the content and break it down into micro content we plan a distribution schedule complete with all the audio, video, graphics, captions, and tags. This distribution plan is then given to the artist for approval. Once all content is approved for the planned period we release it, according to the schedule, onto the artist's platform. Meaning website, youtube, podcast, and all social media platforms.
From there we monitor the results of those releases and see what needs to happen to help the artist reach their audience in a better way. We want our artists to be engaging their fans in a real and honest way.
And that is the vision. We are the advocate for you the artist. Helping you reach your goal in the country music industry. Whatever that goal may be.
That is the vision for Country Rise at Packaged Light Media. Are you an artist? Would you like to visit about how we can work together? Contact us through our website packagedlightmedia.com. Have a great day!