In this episode, we dive deep with Leah De Leon on the art of storytelling in business and what it’s like to build a business with your life partner. Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to create a more relatable brand or navigating a business with your significant other, this conversation is packed with insights you won’t want to miss!
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0:30: Enjoy this new episode.
0:34: Welcome back to another episode of the Fully Expressed podcast.
0:38: Today, we have such an exciting guest.
0:40: I’m so happy to introduce Leah De Leon.
0:44: She is a documentary filmmaker and business owner based in San Diego.
0:48: She runs a video production company named Sundocs Studios with her husband, where they specialize in helping brands stand out through authentic, unscripted videos that feel like documentaries.
1:00: Welcome.
1:01: Thank you so much for having me.
1:03: What I love about today is that we’re going to talk about so much about what it really means to tell your story, but also get to know a little bit about your story when it comes to entrepreneurship, and as well as like what it looks like to be doing business with your partner.
1:17: And so we maybe we can kick it off there, like, just getting to know you a little bit, like you said, I think I’m pretty sure you’ve mentioned that you’ve always been an entrepreneur.
1:26: Is that fair?
1:26: Yeah, honestly, I’ll share a quick little story.
1:29: My first business concept was a concept called some more good news, and this is maybe when I was 12 or something like this, but I actually went to this entrepreneurship camp.
1:39: I forget what it was called, but it was like this conference, honestly, with a bunch of adults.
1:44: And I had business cards made and the whole concept was that I wanted to tell positive news stories, and I just felt like the news was so negative.
1:54: Like you turn on the TV and there’s somebody that there’s a fire or there’s a natural disaster or there’s crime.
2:01: And I was like, man, if only we had more good news to spread, people would feel better.
2:07: There’d be more kindness, there’d be things like that.
2:09: So that was an initial business concept.
2:11: I didn’t end up like creating anything out of it, but definitely at a young age, I always saw myself as doing business.
2:20: Or doing, doing a creative concept myself.
2:24: I was going to ask you that question if you always knew you were going to be an entrepreneur.
2:26: I did.
2:27: I didn’t think I would do it this early, I guess.
2:29: I, my husband, I have to thank for having the business idea to say on our one year anniversary, hey, do you want to start a business together?
2:38: To be honest, I was very apprehensive.
2:40: I was like, wow, really?
2:42: Like, I don’t know, mixing business and relationship.
2:45: I think maybe if we didn’t meet, I might have kind of gone up the corporate ladder a little bit first and then make the jump to do something myself.
2:54: So I think I, I knew that I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
2:58: It was just a matter of when.
2:59: So, and that’s one year of dating, right?
3:01: Yeah, one year of dating one year of dating.
3:04: Yeah.
3:05: Yeah.
3:05: What were your circumstances at the time?
3:08: I’m just so curious because I think a lot of people either, I’ve heard a lot of stories where they do core the corporate ladder.
3:14: They have some kind of financial savings, some kind of backing, they feel really comfortable to take the leap.
3:19: Did you have that going into entrepreneurship, or did you really start from the ground zero and up?
3:25: It was very much from ground zero.
3:27: And at that point, I think I was a sophomore.
3:30: I was studying news and documentary production at Chapman University in Orange County.
3:36: And my boyfriend at the time, now husband, he was Studying to become a high school or middle school science teacher at Cal Poly Slow.
3:46: And so we were having a long distance relationship.
3:49: I like, we fell like madly in love, like we loved each other, like we fell in love first, and we both kind of separately got into filmmaking, photos, videos, just capturing memories.
4:01: And we’re also very future oriented.
4:03: So it was on our one year anniversary.
4:05: We’re just like, oh, like, what could the future look like?
4:07: What is our dream job?
4:08: I’m not sure.
4:09: And then we both kind of came up with the same concept of like, oh, it’d be really cool to just like do photos and videos all the time and like make money from that.
4:17: And he was like, Well, why don’t we just join forces?
4:20: Like, why, why do two separate things?
4:23: And at that point, it was, I mean, we were just, I, I had no money.
4:27: It was just, I was going to school, he was going to school as well.
4:30: And I was like, well, whatever.
4:32: Like, I’ll, I’ll try it, I guess.
4:34: You know, and if, if I, if it doesn’t go well, I can always pivot.
4:38: I’m so young at this point.
4:40: And I guess the scariest part for me was that I really felt like he was going to be my person.
4:44: I wasn’t sure about the business part, but I always felt like, oh, we’d figure it out.
4:49: Like if it, if it really isn’t meant to be, I could go get a job somewhere the next day.
4:54: And that was always what I was telling myself was like, whatever, I’ll try it.
4:58: I’ll try it first.
4:59: I’ll try hard and then I can get a job.
5:01: I have skills that I could, I could still be very valuable to to a different company when the time comes, if, if that time comes.
5:08: Yeah, there’s really nothing to lose.
5:10: Yeah.
5:10: Yeah.
5:11: Damn, he started as a sophomore?
5:13: Yeah, I, I, it’s, it’s bizarre.
5:15: I don’t get it.
5:16: I don’t get it.
5:17: I mean we, we, you were doing it’s amazing.
5:20: So how did you guys get started?
5:22: What did that look like?
5:23: We basically our original name, we’ve gone through many names, but our original name was called S’more Media, literally because of Smore good news.
5:31: Like, what should we call it?
5:32: What should we call it?
5:33: And I was like, oh well, when I was young, I had this business concept and we’re like, why don’t we just call it some more media?
5:39: And at that point it was social media management.
5:41: So it was sort of like, you know, you want some more, like that was kind of our like punny thing.
5:46: Yeah, it was very like cutesy.
5:49: Yeah, it was very cutesy, I’d say.
5:51: So my aunt.
5:52: Yeah.
5:53: Yeah, my aunt was a graphic designer.
5:54: I I asked her for help, and we just set up a website ourselves like on Wix, and we just started asking people if they wanted us to run their social media.
6:05: And Matt actually had a job at this deli shop called Gus’s Grocery in San Luis Obispo.
6:11: He was working there as a sandwich artist, OK.
6:14: And someone, someone else, someone else was doing their social media at that point, but like maybe paying them like $500 a month or something.
6:22: And he approached the owner and was like, hey, like, are you really paying someone for this?
6:25: Like, I think I could do better.
6:27: And she was like, OK, go ahead, try it out.
6:29: So that was our first client.
6:31: And so, they’re no longer a client of ours today, because our services have changed a lot, but we worked with them for years, and we would take photos and videos of all their different sandwiches and post them on social.
6:42: And that it just started with family and friends, really.
6:45: That’s amazing.
6:46: That’s so cool.
6:47: Yeah.
6:48: So what was the transition like then to move into more what you’re doing now, and can you share, I know we know what you do now, but can you share a little more about How it became what it is.
6:58: Yes.
6:58: So, 2019, I was just getting ready to graduate.
7:02: Again, I always studied documentary production, so I was always interested in storytelling.
7:06: I come from more of like a journalism background.
7:08: But at that point, we had maybe like 4 clients or something like that.
7:13: We had retainers, so we were making money.
7:15: And I was like, OK, is it something that I want to go all out on?
7:20: Like, do I want to take this business now that I’m not balancing school as well?
7:23: Do I want to go all out on business?
7:25: Or do I potentially, I was looking at a job at like a documentary production company to be like an executive assistant, that there was an opening.
7:33: And it was hard.
7:34: I was like, oh, like, I don’t know which one to choose.
7:37: And then I was talking it out with my husband.
7:39: We’re like, like the social media marketing thing isn’t quite like lighting our soul on fire.
7:44: Like it’s fun.
7:45: I loved that phase of life and it gave us a ton of experience, but there wasn’t something that was totally resonating at that point.
7:52: It was like, it’s like close, but So far.
7:54: And we’re like, oh, like we love documentaries.
7:57: Like, I was making films in school.
7:59: Matt started making a documentary about his friend too.
8:03: We’re just like, wow, like, we’re looking at the landscape of, of the entertainment space too, and we’re like, wow, like, Tiger King was just coming out, like, the Last Dance is coming out.
8:12: There was a lot of hype around documentaries because, I mean, 10 years ago, documentaries weren’t that cool.
8:17: To be honest, like people, people weren’t interested in them.
8:20: They thought that they were all historic.
8:23: or that they’re boring, or it’s just nature, you know, very like one dimensional.
8:29: And I felt like at that point, there was a lot of interest in documentaries.
8:33: And I saw a gap in how corporate companies were telling their own stories.
8:39: They’re extremely boring.
8:41: No one watches them.
8:42: And I saw the rise of videos just going to increase.
8:44: So we’re like, and I, I had another company that had this kind of like proof of concept.
8:49: They’re called Breakwater Studios.
8:51: And they’re in Los Angeles, and they, they’ve won the Oscar the last 2, the last two short documentaries.
8:57: I actually got to interview him on my podcast, Ben Proudfoot.
9:01: And that was like proof to me.
9:03: I was like, wow, like, Ben is doing this with his company.
9:06: It was inspiring to me.
9:08: And I was like, Matt, like, we should just like go all in on documentaries.
9:11: Like, what if we rebranded our company?
9:13: What if we just did our original documentaries, right, our original concepts of things that we’re passionate about, but in order to Make money as well.
9:21: We make those types of stories for for clients, you know, we, we hit up nonprofits, corporations, and we help them tell their story in a more entertaining way.
9:32: So it was, it was right around the time of graduation.
9:35: It was just a couple of conversations and I remember it just clicking.
9:39: And then I was like, oh, like, I’m ready to send it.
9:41: Like it was, it was a much, I was, I felt better about going all in on it because we changed our focus.
9:48: What does that inner knowing feel like?
9:49: Like excitement.
9:50: Like, like I’m like buckling and I’m like ready to go.
9:53: But so you just knew.
9:55: So I think something that like you were talking to like how you saw something in the industry.
9:58: You’re like, I see a gap, you’re talking through it and you’re like, this is something that we have to send it.
10:03: And then you took the opportunity or the energy to move towards that.
10:07: And I think sometimes we can talk ourselves out of the fact that this isn’t something that maybe someone doesn’t want this, or is the industry even ready for this?
10:15: Like I’ve seen this just happen so often where Like you’re kind of juggling with like, are people going to really cop on board the train that I believe that we need to go.
10:24: And so there seems like you just knew, and I’m curious, did anything else come up in that process when you were like, I’m going to send it, I’m going to be head of the market.
10:33: I’m going to essentially create a new way for documentary documentaries, get it for documentaries.
10:40: It also isn’t like a crazy new concept because like branded branded content, and this is like, it’s a learning experience.
10:47: too, but at that time, I felt like, oh, like, I’m inventing this new thing.
10:51: Like, it kind of feels that way and then you realize, no, like, storytelling has been around forever, that it’s had so many different iterations.
10:58: But I feel like, to answer your question, like, it was also, you have to stay true to your vision.
11:04: There are people that aren’t going to get it.
11:06: There’s still people today that don’t get it.
11:08: I, I’m able to more freely talk now and people understand maybe like the first or second time around.
11:14: But when we first told Our social media clients that we were doing documentary work, there were some crickets, like there were, there were some like, I don’t get it, you know, like, like what’s the point?
11:26: Right.
11:26: Well, we had their eyes, right.
11:27: Or they’re just like, oh, well, I’m a business, like, I don’t need a documentary.
11:31: Like what, like what value does that provide to me?
11:35: And I feel like it’s all about positioning.
11:37: And so that’s why recently too, I’ve been saying like, you know, it’s unscripted videos that feel like documentaries.
11:43: But, but truly, I mean, I mean we had to stick to our vision.
11:46: It wasn’t, people didn’t get it at first.
11:49: And in the beginning, when we had our social media clients, the way that we got people to say yes was, hey, we’re gonna, I think they were paying us $3000 a month at that point to do like Instagram management.
11:59: We said, hey, still pay us same price, $3000.
12:02: We’ll do the Instagram management.
12:04: I’ll still take your photos, I’ll still post it.
12:06: But you’re also going to allow us to do these documentary style videos.
12:11: And we kicked it off with a road trip.
12:13: Can all around the United States.
12:15: So we went to all 48 contiguous United States, everywhere except for Hawaii and Alaska.
12:21: We actually also went to Canada, but we were able to pitch one of our like health and wellness clients to do these stories on their top sales people.
12:29: And so we did like 55 videos across like maybe 4 different states.
12:34: And that was our proof of concept, because like we needed to be able to prove to someone that it worked.
12:39: And so we just needed someone to say, yes, you can try it with a Real brands.
12:43: Like I wanted someone that would actually use our service.
12:46: So once we did that, it made it a lot easier to pitch to other people that said, hey, look, like they invested with us, they don’t know the backstory, right?
12:55: But they invested with us.
12:56: Why don’t we do that for your company?
12:58: And it made it a lot easier to pitch after them.
13:01: You bridged the gap.
13:02: Yeah, like in that, you bridged, you basically brought the client along the journey and you’re like, I’ll continue delivering what you’ve got.
13:09: And I have this new thing that I think you should try.
13:11: Try it and then you use that to build the business that you really wanted.
13:15: Yeah, we had to make them in that you saw.
13:17: We had to make them an offer that like they would feel really stupid saying no to, you know.
13:21: I think people too doc like, like as you were saying, view documentaries as nature or like very basic things, but at the root of it, it is storytelling.
13:29: So you can call it storytelling, documentary and documentary making.
13:34: Why can’t we say this word perfect example, yeah.
13:40: But in in saying that, it’s really like you’re humanizing, you’re bringing, you’re helping people to understand like what is behind the intention of these companies, I’m assuming is like, that’s what usually documentary making really is.
13:53: Yeah, I was gonna say I want to learn what that is like the storytelling, the humanizing, what does that mean?
13:58: Because I mean we’re talking about, yeah, creating a different feel to documentaries, but what does that mean in your perspective?
14:04: Yeah, we always like to say that we humanize the people and passion behind a brand.
14:09: And what I mean by that is, it’s so easy for people, whatever, whether it’s a product or a service to try and push forward the features, the benefits, like why it’s better, why it’s unique, like buy it now, you know.
14:24: And instead, it’s like, why did you create this?
14:28: What is that story?
14:29: Why are you the right person?
14:32: To do this.
14:33: Like, there, every single business has a story.
14:36: Someone had to think of the gap, right?
14:39: How are they going to fill it?
14:41: And that person has a personal journey too as to why they’re drawn to it.
14:44: And to me, humans are wired that way.
14:47: It’s how we’ve been to the beginning of time, the connection you’re speaking to, like the storytelling, it’s how we learn.
14:54: It’s how we learn.
14:55: Like if you, if you think back on, you know, the latest times that you’ve hung out with friends, like you, you’ll probably remember the stories or like family stories.
15:03: I mean, it’s all storytelling is just at the heart of what it means to be a human in my opinion, like, because that’s, that’s how we relate to one another.
15:10: Like it’s not, you’re not just a business, you’re actually a person.
15:14: Like people hire other people.
15:18: Thank you.
15:19: Thank you.
15:19: That’s what we need to hear.
15:21: So true.
15:22: And I think people are starting to, I think just from because we have listeners too that are like on the verge of starting their businesses or wanting to adapt or changing their marketing and you just talk to the like the importance of storytelling, the importance of why.
15:35: created your business, and because someone else can relate to that.
15:39: You know, I was in a workshop earlier this week, literally talking about authenticity, and she uses the word authenticity and hers is humanizing and like being authentic to your storytelling.
15:48: And she just says, like, you know, people do push a product, like they’ll say, buy this supplement.
15:53: But what’s really going to hit is like, why did you create that supplement?
15:56: I created that supplement because I was dealing with gut issues.
16:00: I wasn’t waking up with energy and I needed to make a change.
16:03: Someone that hears that is going to be like, Oh, that’s me.
16:07: I have gut issues.
16:08: I am waking up exhausted.
16:10: I want to work with you because you get it.
16:12: You understand why I’m taking this supplement, not just take my supplement because it’s going to help my gut issues, like, right, you actually get what I’m living with and like, I love that you said the word also that that’s how human, how humans learn.
16:24: Yeah, through relatability relatability, relatability.
16:28: Yes, yes, so cool.
16:30: So let’s take it back just a little bit for a moment because I do want to ask it because we want to talk about what it’s like to be in business with your partner, and I want to know because you did it so early on, what were some of the fears or the blocks that popped up, and then what is it like now and how has it evolved and are there still challenges that you guys face together, which I’m sure there is because they’re always they’re always, yeah, yeah, it’s definitely, I mean, I think back to, I mean, that initial conversation of when it was his idea to do the business, like I had a ton of fears.
17:02: I was like, what if this doesn’t work out?
17:04: What if, what if it gets really big and we get a divorce even?
17:07: Like, I don’t know, like, even like crazy things like that.
17:10: What if, yeah, just like mixing the business and personal, at least on, maybe.
17:15: Now there are more narratives of couples that work together, but you just, you hear like, oh, like, don’t mix those like don’t mix those, don’t mix those.
17:23: So I feel like society too.
17:25: And also we were just new to each other.
17:28: So I was like, well, I feel like I’m just still getting to know you.
17:31: Like, I don’t even know how you work.
17:33: You don’t, we’re also still really young.
17:35: So we have so much, we don’t have much experience.
17:38: So I think those were kind of the fears in the beginning.
17:41: And then they, they transformed.
17:43: I mean, we’ve gone through, we’ve grown a lot as business people, I think, and kind of fast forward to today.
17:49: I’ll just share some learnings that we’ve had, which is one, like, you need space from each other, which seems like really obvious, but also I love spending time with him, you know, and so sometimes there’s also a level of like codependency that you can create where even like I’m sending an email and I’m like, can you like, can you check it?
18:10: Can you do this, whatever.
18:11: And we’ve recently had to be like, OK, like, what are our roles?
18:15: And we’ve, we’ve always adapted them too.
18:17: Like that’s that’s another thing that is one of our values is adaptability as a company.
18:22: Like we, we don’t judge ourselves for not figuring it out in the beginning, but we continue to like narrow down, narrow down what our roles are.
18:30: And so we know like what our lanes are.
18:32: You know, like I recently am like, we talked about like, I really am the CEO like I am the person that is like the operation.
18:39: The vision of the company, like where it’s going.
18:41: And he is like our chief people officer, which is like, he’s making sure because we’re a human centered business, like it’s very important that our crew members, our characters, anyone that we interview, you know, on screen and our clients are all really happy.
18:56: So how do we, how do we think of, how do we humanize our own company?
19:00: This is an aha that we had recently, like, how do we make every person like feel seen and heard in this process?
19:07: Because for us, for our End product.
19:09: Our end product is something that makes you feel like you know them.
19:12: And how do you get that humanizing?
19:14: How do, it’s kind of an intangible thing, but it’s, it’s keeping that in mind.
19:18: Like, it’s a whole experience, right?
19:20: Like if we film with someone, if you, if they’re getting interviewed, they, they might be a little bit nervous, right?
19:25: So how can you welcome them in, like the exercise that we did this morning of just like shaking off the energy, like small stuff like that can go really far.
19:33: So, now I’m kind of going on a tangent on that, but Other things like keeping space, also just like having fun with each other, like, I can be kind of the serious one, and he can be the fun one.
19:45: So like, we kind of like balance each other out.
19:47: It’s always it’s, it’s learning, it’s learning every single day and not judging yourself too.
19:54: , it’s always, it’s always a learning experience.
19:57: I’m curious to like peel that back a little bit, something that could happen in business because I, how do I say this?
20:03: I spend so much time with my partner.
20:06: So much time.
20:06: I love him.
20:07: I could spend all day with him.
20:09: He’s like my favorite person in the entire world.
20:11: And I do realize that when I spend away from a weekend, it makes me miss him more.
20:15: Like, or there’s this like energetic of like, I missed you.
20:18: I missed you.
20:18: Like, do you get that?
20:20: Like how much space do you create to still keep the relationship dynamic romantic, the chemistry going, or the connection?
20:28: Like, what does that look like?
20:29: And have you seen it where you guys have had to intentionally work on that at all?
20:33: Especially because you guys spend so much Time together.
20:35: I’ll share in the last like 3 months, we decided to get a co-working space, and that was a big decision because we have a home office, but that has actually allowed us and they’re, they’re letting us split the membership.
20:48: And so it’s actually their rule that we cannot be at the office the same time Monday through Friday because we’re technically one membership.
20:55: And then we realized, wow, that’s actually like really beautiful.
20:57: Like we, and we’re still available on a phone call or whatever, but the physical space, like one of you is there and One of these at home, yeah, because what’s happened when we are together in our office, what happens is exactly that, which is like, hey, like, look at this funny video, or look at this email, or you want to interrupt each other like the whole time.
21:18: And when we can actually get into deep focused work, that’s how we are going to move the business forward.
21:26: And so that’s been a huge aha of like, OK, like, I’m not gonna, I’m gonna hold my questions until lunch.
21:32: And then we try and unplug for lunch or unplug for dinner.
21:36: And that is something that I’m constantly working on, honestly, I feel like I can be a workaholic.
21:41: I’m a Capricorn.
21:42: I’m very like, I want to do everything in my to do list, and he is kind of more, he’s kind of more like an artist a little bit.
21:50: He likes to wake up, he likes to have his little coffee.
21:53: He’s like, he’s a cancer.
21:55: Like he’s very opposite, yeah, we’re opposites and so we’ve definitely like constantly trying to adopt.
22:01: our schedules.
22:02: Like, I can’t put him in a certain box.
22:04: Like, I’m like, I want to wake up at this time and do this.
22:07: And he’s just like, I wanna wake up and like edit.
22:10: Like, I like, leave me alone, like I’ll pet the dog.
22:13: My husband’s a cancer too, you know, just like that.
22:16: And, and I have, I have to like respect that and that’s for me, like I can be sometimes like too controlling, and I have to like, I have to like relax.
22:24: I have to be like, that’s not gonna, he’s not gonna yield the best, he’s not gonna be the best version of himself.
22:30: He’s not going to actually have the greatest output.
22:33: And neither am I if like we’re not supporting each other in the way that we’re meant to work and live.
22:39: Yeah.
22:39: Yeah.
22:40: So it’s hard.
22:41: This is good for anyone that’s in partnership.
22:43: Yeah, any kind of business partnership in general.
22:45: Yeah.
22:46: I feel like that’s even been supportive for us to know because I’m a projector in human design and she’s a manager and like, her energy is kind of like doing all the things and I’m also the projector, but I also have to manage myself in a certain way.
22:58: So like, I’m Very much like, these are the slots I’m working.
23:01: These are not the slots that I’m working.
23:03: And, you know, I can always see that I’m like trying to sometimes I’m like, Sam, do you really have the capacity for that?
23:09: And she really does, but I’m projecting onto her because I don’t.
23:13: And I’m like, Oh, can you really take on more?
23:16: And then what I’ve realized it was a projection of my own, which is what you’re talking about the projection of like, this is how I think we should do things and you’re like, no, like the way that he excels is the way that he flows in his day.
23:27: And that takes A lot of trust in business partnership, especially when something’s really important to you, yeah, which is what you’re talking to.
23:34: And so I’m so curious, how is that how is that transformed, yeah.
23:39: I just laugh cause my husband’s so, cause I just know that personality type, like they’re so chill, they’re just move slower.
23:45: I’ll be like, OK, we got, you know, like, let’s speed it up here, and he’s just like, we’ll get there.
23:50: Yeah, yeah, or even I don’t know if he’s like a slow driver, but he always drives, he’s very safe.
23:55: I’m just like, OK, like.
23:57: We could just maybe we got like 75, yeah, it’s like patience, patience is something I’m constantly working on.
24:05: I think it’s something that I, in work, in life, in business, I am working on patience for sure.
24:11: How do you, let’s talk about the trust thing a little bit.
24:14: Yeah.
24:14: Yeah, if you guys created one, self trust for yourselves, but also trust within yourselves to trust that the other person is going to execute when this is so important to you.
24:25: What does that look like?
24:26: Trust, trust, trust.
24:27: Yeah.
24:27: , it’s hard because it’s all I’ve ever known too.
24:29: It’s like, I think the, I’m trying to think of this trust.
24:33: Take your time.
24:33: Well, I would say things that have helped us stay anchored.
24:37: There are a couple of things, like one, for example, we have a credo, which I took this from a book called The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle, and it’s all about like, how do you build a great culture?
24:49: Like, how, how do companies survive for 100 years, right?
24:52: Like how does it change leadership, like it’s still around, like, how does that happen?
24:56: And one of the things I think Johnson and Johnson did was before, I forget what it was, but like before the CEO like stepped down on someone else’s.
25:03: took over, he wrote like this, this credo, and it’s just a belief system.
25:08: It’s really internally, but you can, you can look online and see it as well.
25:13: And it lists out the priorities, like, our first priority is to our, I think it’s like mothers and fathers around the world.
25:20: And so like that always anchors them in the right decisions.
25:23: And I was really inspired by that.
25:25: So I worked with my husband to create a credo ourselves.
25:29: And, you know, we, I’m trying to like recite it.
25:32: I’m like, oh my gosh, I need to like see it in my, in my head.
25:35: But, you know, it made us actually think about who’s the most important in our business.
25:39: And we said, our first priority is to our crew.
25:42: And I think that that’s kind of different than other production companies, they want to put the client first.
25:48: But we say, you know, we have to have space for mental and physical well-being.
25:52: We have to have space that’s safe and inclusive and fun.
25:55: And, and we wrote down, we took the time to really think about what was important.
25:59: So we said, our crew comes first, then our characters, then our community, then our clients.
26:05: And that’s not something I necessarily share to our clients, but it’s how we work.
26:09: So it’s, it’s trust because I, I, he’s my life partner, and also there’s evidence of like us working together over time.
26:16: So trust builds over time as well.
26:18: But then we do have certain things that can keep us very grounded, that we can come back to.
26:22: Even when we feel like a little rocky or a little shaky, it’s like, oh, like, what are our priorities?
26:28: Like, oh, like, our priorities are to our crew members.
26:30: OK, which crew members have we not talked to in a little bit?
26:32: Like, what do they need?
26:33: How can I help them?
26:35: And that usually helps.
26:37: There’s, there’s a level of trust because we have the shared agreement of what is important to us in the business.
26:43: It’s so important too.
26:44: I worked, I think I’ve shared with you off, off of the podcast, but I worked in film for 7 years and There’s such a huge difference to, you know, in the, in the, it’s a little different, I know in like documentary or commercials, but in the film film world, the the AD really is the one that kind of runs the crew and the sets where the AD was just like the priority was the crew and making people happy.
27:06: Everyone wanted to be there.
27:08: Everyone didn’t care that they’re working 20 hours.
27:10: It was such a different vibe than when you had someone who was very like, you know, and intense and made it about the client or made it about the Oh, we’re spending all this money and all this stuff, and no one was happy.
27:19: Everyone complained, no one wanted to be there.
27:21: Like it really does make such a huge difference.
27:24: And I think that’s even like regardless of whether in film or anything, companies neglect their employees.
27:30: That’s so common because they are focusing on the client or on the money or on instead of being like, are my employees happy, which is why like you’ll hear if you cut out the low employees that don’t want to be there, like the company skyrockets when you Create a culture that people want to be a part of.
27:46: Yeah, the other thing that I’ll add there is like, what I think about is like by you focusing on the crew, like the energy that you build in within your business is the energy that your clients will feel.
27:57: Yeah you’re bringing back to the humanizing, right?
27:59: And like, what is so important to your overall values.
28:01: And what I love hearing about is it just how many people aren’t in your company?
28:05: Full time, just the two of us.
28:07: And honestly, we plan on staying as lean as possible, maybe.
28:10: We grow to maybe like 5 employees total, but I personally feel like, especially where the industry is going to like small lean teams are really great, and we can always crew up for certain projects.
28:22: But as of right now, it’s just the two of us full time.
28:25: OK.
28:25: And I think about that because I’m like, sometimes people can take like a company of 1 or a company of two not as seriously as a company of 10, or a company of 50, or a company of 100.
28:36: And what I love that you you’re doing within your business is like you’re treating it as it is a professional company, like you’re operating at 100%, because at the end of the day, the foundation between you two is a foundation that will either grow or scale you.
28:50: Right?
28:50: If you don’t think that you’re the CEO of a million dollar company, you’re not going to become CEO of a million dollar company.
28:57: It’s not gonna work out that way.
28:59: You have to show up.
29:00: You have to, you have to make space for that, and you have to believe it because it starts.
29:04: It starts in your mind.
29:05: Otherwise you’re never, you’re never going to do it.
29:07: Did you guys hear that?
29:08: I just received that.
29:09: I mean, I have my own company, my jewelry company, and it’s hard sometimes to keep maintain that mindset, but I appreciate that feedback.
29:16: That’s so true.
29:17: I need that Capricorn energy.
29:19: Yeah, you need to think highly, you need to think highly of yourself.
29:22: No, I really do.
29:23: And like that kind of like intention, like something that you that you talked about, like, one of the biggest things for like our podcast party, for example, the first time that I did the podcast.
29:31: Party, I was, I mean, you felt the aliveness in the room, but I was rushing.
29:35: And like when they were coming in to say hello, I wasn’t present with them.
29:39: And then like this next time we did the podcast party, I was like, we’re going to be so on time that I can connect with every single person as they come in.
29:46: And because I want people to feel a certain way, I want them to feel me, not just experience like a good experience, but like truly drop in.
29:54: It takes that level of intentionality, which is what we’re talking about.
29:58: It’s like What is the kind of company or the kind of business that we really want to create?
30:02: What is the environment?
30:03: What are the rooms feel like?
30:04: And I think for even for us, like we’re still working through that.
30:08: I think what’s interesting is like as we work through that, we’re also trying to keep up with all of the tasks and demands of us, because outside of this, like this isn’t our only job.
30:19: We have the podcast, I have my speaking.
30:21: I’m also still incorporate, she has her jewelry business.
30:24: She still does Pilates.
30:26: And she does the podcast.
30:27: There’s a lot.
30:28: If you want to do a lot of things, yeah, yeah, we were talking about, yeah, like maybe you’re a manifesting generator too.
30:33: I don’t know, we have to figure it out or a generator.
30:36: I mean, yeah, yeah, she’s one of those for sure, yeah, you got your design.
30:41: But anyways, and I think some people are in the mix of that too, like, how do I show up as the million dollar CEO when I am still trying to bridge my life in that way, which is kind of like, I think there is this common denominator of like, keep what you have and then also continue to move forward and bring the rest on.
31:00: And I think it’s just a really beautiful invitation to be like, how do I want people to feel, which I really think comes down to your own values and how you show up and But how you execute because someone else feels that.
31:11: Is that fair?
31:12: Yeah.
31:12: But I’ll, I’ll add one other thing that I feel like is sort of on the same tangent a little bit.
31:16: And this was technically my mantra for 2024, but I feel like a life mantra that’s really helped me is do less better.
31:27: And what I mean by that is just like, it’s so tempting to do a million things, and I’m still learning this myself, like I, I probably have too many projects going on as well.
31:35: But The more you tell yourself that, the more that you will narrow down what you are actually like meant for.
31:44: And then you can feel fully expressed, you know, doing that one thing, because the worst feeling is like feeling like you’re, you have so many things and yet you’re not actually creating momentum.
31:56: And so if you can, it’s a long process.
31:58: I’m still in the process of whittling down.
32:00: You have to say no to things, you have to say yes to the right things.
32:02: I think It’s a, a lifelong learning experience.
32:06: And I think when you realize, because I speak about this and overcoming burnout and preventing burnout is like you only have a certain amount of energy.
32:13: Yeah, you know, and I think the problem is that people want to show up at 110%.
32:18: Like 7 leagues all the time and, you know, I think one of the things that I talked about so much is the flexibility and the ability to be adaptable depending on the season that you’re in.
32:27: So like, for example, right now, I get to focus on the podcast.
32:30: all day today.
32:32: Like how cool does that feel?
32:33: versus like before I could have sprinkled in interviews all week, made it a whole thing, and so I think it’s also getting really clear on how you want to use your energy depending on the season that you’re in, even within your business.
32:44: Yeah.
32:45: Because there’s like sales mode, there’s there’s just different things.
32:48: I mean, you have probably experienced the seasonalities of business and you really have to kind of ride the waves and have the adaptability, but realize that being spread too thin is actually to be less supportive at the end of the day.
33:00: Yep, yep.
33:01: I think you’re doing what I realized too.
33:03: It sounds like it’s like you’re finding veins within your business of what you already have to explore other things, which I think is the key to not getting burnt out, because even though I have like the podcast and, I mean, I don’t teach that much Pilates anymore, but I, yeah, but I feel like with my jewelry, I waited a really long time to make that my business.
33:24: I let it.
33:25: grow naturally, but now I try to find veins within either the podcast or jewelry that give me that feeling of doing something new, but I’m not like going off to some whole new thing to learn it, cause that’s where I think we like over, like you said, we spread ourselves too thin and we can’t grow anything.
33:42: So it’s, I mean, it sounds like you’re doing exactly what you want to be doing.
33:46: Every day is different and every, I mean, also everyone struggles too.
33:50: So like you never like Even though I have this like vision, like I still struggle, I still question it.
33:56: I still have like days where I don’t feel like getting out of bed.
34:00: Like, it’s just a matter of how do you, how do you sustain yourself?
34:04: How do you, if this is your vision, or even if your vision changes, like, how do you just take care of you?
34:09: How do you exercise?
34:10: How do you feel great?
34:11: That’s something that we always prioritize too is like, we need to like weight lift, we need to, and those are things that we really don’t budge on.
34:19: And I think That’s also what helps us like stay in the long term game is because we also prioritize our physical health too.
34:27: Yeah, it’s so important.
34:29: All right.
34:29: So at this point in the podcast, we want to know a little bit more about you.
34:33: We ask all of our guests the same question.
34:36: Where in your life are you craving to be more fully expressed?
34:40: I think that I am craving to be more fully expressed, honestly, in how I show up like fashion wise, makeup wise, like, I feel like I, as a little girl, I loved dressing up.
34:54: I loved, like I have little pretty princess parties and stuff.
34:58: And I feel like the pandemic and also the fact that I work from home, I don’t have coworkers.
35:03: I have definitely fell into a rhythm of being in my sweatpants and being in my leggings and, and also feeling like I can’t invest into myself.
35:12: Like, I’d rather spend You know, money on a new microphone rather than a new pair of jeans, for example, like, whatever it is, like, I always try and put the business first, and I feel like I have just been craving to like feel more like me.
35:27: And when I feel my best is when I look my best when I actually dress the way I want.
35:32: And so that’s something, a new area that I feel like for the for the new year, I want to, yeah, show up more.
35:39: Stylish and more, like, put together, cause I feel like, I don’t know, being married to you get like, like, I don’t need to look pretty for anyone.
35:46: I’m like, no, like, I actually like getting dressed, I like being fashionable, and I feel like maybe for the past like 4 years, I haven’t really, I’ve made excuses as to like why I can’t do that.
35:57: So, is there a specific fashion that’s calling you?
36:00: Oh gosh, I don’t know, just like, again, like that million.
36:03: Dollar CEO energy.
36:04: Like that’s like, that’s the energy that I need to embody.
36:08: And I feel like I haven’t been showing up that way, like in the way that I dress all the time.
36:12: Like today I, I feel good.
36:14: But thank you.
36:15: But not, not necessarily every day.
36:17: And so, how can I, you know, show up for myself, invest into the time it takes?
36:22: Like I’d be like, oh, it takes too long.
36:24: Like, I don’t no one’s gonna look at me like, who cares?
36:26: It’s like, no, I actually have a different like energetic feeling when I am looking my best too.
36:32: So yeah, million dollars CEO energy is what I’m going for.
36:36: I love it.
36:37: You’re giving it today.
36:38: And I love that you said that because you can definitely express yourself through clothing.
36:41: Yeah, and I think we forget about that, you know, I think it can get like you said, it can be so easy to be like, I’m going to fall into comfort.
36:47: Yeah, I really want people to feel about me, you know, and How do I want to feel, which is like, you can do that through clothing.
36:54: And I think it’s such a beautiful invitation that when you finally like own that and you’re like, I’m going to be the boss, babe, or the energy that I want to feel in my company, whatever that feels like for you.
37:05: There’s a woman on TikTok I follow who I’m obsessed with, and that’s one thing.
37:08: I just she just made a video saying that, and she wears the most stunning dresses, like her life looks like a dream, but she’s always like, I dress up for myself because we live on a rock floating in space.
37:19: And like, I want to wear this to the grocery store, and she’s wearing this like elaborate dress gown.
37:25: She looks stunning, but I, but I love that.
37:27: I don’t know if I’m gonna do that.
37:29: I need to wear a ball gown, but I’m just, but more the point of, you know, she dresses up for herself and it’s funny because she has 4 boys, like no girls.
37:36: So it’s all her, you know, like dressing the girlies girl, but I, it’s so inspiring cause I can totally relate to that, just wearing, I wear a lot of workout clothes, so yeah, I love that for you.
37:47: I I also have stepped into this a little bit myself, like, I love dressing up.
37:51: The part that I struggle with is, I don’t want to just use it once.
37:55: So I go back and forth between like doing like a rental clothing thing, like a like yeah, I love the.
38:02: Or like, I’m really trying to hone in on pieces that are like multi versatile, yeah, a pair of pants.
38:09: I’m like, oh, the top changed the whole vibe with that pair of yeah, yeah.
38:13: So trying to find that balance as well, and I think there there’s Little art that goes into that, but I just love that you gave yourself permission to be like, I’m buying the fucking jeans because I want the jeans.
38:22: Yeah, you know, I’m getting the top because it’s cute and I want to wear it, you know, and we live in an abundant universe.
38:28: You could buy the microphone and the top.
38:29: There you go.
38:30: I like this.
38:32: All right, so thank you so much for coming on today.
38:35: It was so sweet and I also, like you came yesterday to our Express community walk and it was like, I think the perfect touch.
38:42: I’m so glad that you listened to your intuition.
38:44: that because it has given us the opportunity to feel your energy before being here.
38:48: And now I feel like you’re like a friend, you know, you’re like a sister, you’re like, you’re like one of us, you know, so.
38:53: Thank you so much for coming on.
38:55: Where can people find you if they want to know what you’re working on, what you’re up to, give us all your, all the deeds.
39:01: Yeah, so, on Instagram, I would say you could follow my personal account, which is Stories by Lea, L E A H, and then if you want to follow us on pretty much any platform actually on Anything.
39:13: Sunoc Studios, SUN DOC studios.
39:17: You’ll find me there.
39:19: Thank you for having me.
39:20: Thank you so much.
39:22: Thank you so much for tuning in.
39:23: We really appreciate you being here.
39:25: If you enjoyed this episode, we’d be grateful if you could leave us a review and share it with a friend.
39:31: Also, we would love to hear from you.
39:33: Reach out to us on Instagram and let us know where you feel inspired to express yourself as you embrace this next era.
39:40: We are here to support you and encourage you.
39:43: See you on the next one.
0:03: We are your hosts, Samantha and Karenna.
0:06: This is a show where we invite you into your fullest expressed self and life, relationships, and business.
0:11: We believe that if you crave more, you are meant for more.
0:14: There is room for all of us to be fully expressed.
0:17: Along with the show, we’ve created a virtual community to connect you with fellow listeners.
0:22: Make sure to check out the fully expressed community membership.
0:25: You’ll find the link to join in the show notes and on our website.
0:28: So excited to see you there.
0:30: Enjoy this new episode.
0:34: Welcome back to another episode of the Fully Expressed podcast.
0:38: Today, we have such an exciting guest.
0:40: I’m so happy to introduce Leah De Leon.
0:44: She is a documentary filmmaker and business owner based in San Diego.
0:48: She runs a video production company named Sundocs Studios with her husband, where they specialize in helping brands stand out through authentic, unscripted videos that feel like documentaries.
1:00: Welcome.
1:01: Thank you so much for having me.
1:03: What I love about today is that we’re going to talk about so much about what it really means to tell your story, but also get to know a little bit about your story when it comes to entrepreneurship, and as well as like what it looks like to be doing business with your partner.
1:17: And so we maybe we can kick it off there, like, just getting to know you a little bit, like you said, I think I’m pretty sure you’ve mentioned that you’ve always been an entrepreneur.
1:26: Is that fair?
1:26: Yeah, honestly, I’ll share a quick little story.
1:29: My first business concept was a concept called some more good news, and this is maybe when I was 12 or something like this, but I actually went to this entrepreneurship camp.
1:39: I forget what it was called, but it was like this conference, honestly, with a bunch of adults.
1:44: And I had business cards made and the whole concept was that I wanted to tell positive news stories, and I just felt like the news was so negative.
1:54: Like you turn on the TV and there’s somebody that there’s a fire or there’s a natural disaster or there’s crime.
2:01: And I was like, man, if only we had more good news to spread, people would feel better.
2:07: There’d be more kindness, there’d be things like that.
2:09: So that was an initial business concept.
2:11: I didn’t end up like creating anything out of it, but definitely at a young age, I always saw myself as doing business.
2:20: Or doing, doing a creative concept myself.
2:24: I was going to ask you that question if you always knew you were going to be an entrepreneur.
2:26: I did.
2:27: I didn’t think I would do it this early, I guess.
2:29: I, my husband, I have to thank for having the business idea to say on our one year anniversary, hey, do you want to start a business together?
2:38: To be honest, I was very apprehensive.
2:40: I was like, wow, really?
2:42: Like, I don’t know, mixing business and relationship.
2:45: I think maybe if we didn’t meet, I might have kind of gone up the corporate ladder a little bit first and then make the jump to do something myself.
2:54: So I think I, I knew that I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
2:58: It was just a matter of when.
2:59: So, and that’s one year of dating, right?
3:01: Yeah, one year of dating one year of dating.
3:04: Yeah.
3:05: Yeah.
3:05: What were your circumstances at the time?
3:08: I’m just so curious because I think a lot of people either, I’ve heard a lot of stories where they do core the corporate ladder.
3:14: They have some kind of financial savings, some kind of backing, they feel really comfortable to take the leap.
3:19: Did you have that going into entrepreneurship, or did you really start from the ground zero and up?
3:25: It was very much from ground zero.
3:27: And at that point, I think I was a sophomore.
3:30: I was studying news and documentary production at Chapman University in Orange County.
3:36: And my boyfriend at the time, now husband, he was Studying to become a high school or middle school science teacher at Cal Poly Slow.
3:46: And so we were having a long distance relationship.
3:49: I like, we fell like madly in love, like we loved each other, like we fell in love first, and we both kind of separately got into filmmaking, photos, videos, just capturing memories.
4:01: And we’re also very future oriented.
4:03: So it was on our one year anniversary.
4:05: We’re just like, oh, like, what could the future look like?
4:07: What is our dream job?
4:08: I’m not sure.
4:09: And then we both kind of came up with the same concept of like, oh, it’d be really cool to just like do photos and videos all the time and like make money from that.
4:17: And he was like, Well, why don’t we just join forces?
4:20: Like, why, why do two separate things?
4:23: And at that point, it was, I mean, we were just, I, I had no money.
4:27: It was just, I was going to school, he was going to school as well.
4:30: And I was like, well, whatever.
4:32: Like, I’ll, I’ll try it, I guess.
4:34: You know, and if, if I, if it doesn’t go well, I can always pivot.
4:38: I’m so young at this point.
4:40: And I guess the scariest part for me was that I really felt like he was going to be my person.
4:44: I wasn’t sure about the business part, but I always felt like, oh, we’d figure it out.
4:49: Like if it, if it really isn’t meant to be, I could go get a job somewhere the next day.
4:54: And that was always what I was telling myself was like, whatever, I’ll try it.
4:58: I’ll try it first.
4:59: I’ll try hard and then I can get a job.
5:01: I have skills that I could, I could still be very valuable to to a different company when the time comes, if, if that time comes.
5:08: Yeah, there’s really nothing to lose.
5:10: Yeah.
5:10: Yeah.
5:11: Damn, he started as a sophomore?
5:13: Yeah, I, I, it’s, it’s bizarre.
5:15: I don’t get it.
5:16: I don’t get it.
5:17: I mean we, we, you were doing it’s amazing.
5:20: So how did you guys get started?
5:22: What did that look like?
5:23: We basically our original name, we’ve gone through many names, but our original name was called S’more Media, literally because of Smore good news.
5:31: Like, what should we call it?
5:32: What should we call it?
5:33: And I was like, oh well, when I was young, I had this business concept and we’re like, why don’t we just call it some more media?
5:39: And at that point it was social media management.
5:41: So it was sort of like, you know, you want some more, like that was kind of our like punny thing.
5:46: Yeah, it was very like cutesy.
5:49: Yeah, it was very cutesy, I’d say.
5:51: So my aunt.
5:52: Yeah.
5:53: Yeah, my aunt was a graphic designer.
5:54: I I asked her for help, and we just set up a website ourselves like on Wix, and we just started asking people if they wanted us to run their social media.
6:05: And Matt actually had a job at this deli shop called Gus’s Grocery in San Luis Obispo.
6:11: He was working there as a sandwich artist, OK.
6:14: And someone, someone else, someone else was doing their social media at that point, but like maybe paying them like $500 a month or something.
6:22: And he approached the owner and was like, hey, like, are you really paying someone for this?
6:25: Like, I think I could do better.
6:27: And she was like, OK, go ahead, try it out.
6:29: So that was our first client.
6:31: And so, they’re no longer a client of ours today, because our services have changed a lot, but we worked with them for years, and we would take photos and videos of all their different sandwiches and post them on social.
6:42: And that it just started with family and friends, really.
6:45: That’s amazing.
6:46: That’s so cool.
6:47: Yeah.
6:48: So what was the transition like then to move into more what you’re doing now, and can you share, I know we know what you do now, but can you share a little more about How it became what it is.
6:58: Yes.
6:58: So, 2019, I was just getting ready to graduate.
7:02: Again, I always studied documentary production, so I was always interested in storytelling.
7:06: I come from more of like a journalism background.
7:08: But at that point, we had maybe like 4 clients or something like that.
7:13: We had retainers, so we were making money.
7:15: And I was like, OK, is it something that I want to go all out on?
7:20: Like, do I want to take this business now that I’m not balancing school as well?
7:23: Do I want to go all out on business?
7:25: Or do I potentially, I was looking at a job at like a documentary production company to be like an executive assistant, that there was an opening.
7:33: And it was hard.
7:34: I was like, oh, like, I don’t know which one to choose.
7:37: And then I was talking it out with my husband.
7:39: We’re like, like the social media marketing thing isn’t quite like lighting our soul on fire.
7:44: Like it’s fun.
7:45: I loved that phase of life and it gave us a ton of experience, but there wasn’t something that was totally resonating at that point.
7:52: It was like, it’s like close, but So far.
7:54: And we’re like, oh, like we love documentaries.
7:57: Like, I was making films in school.
7:59: Matt started making a documentary about his friend too.
8:03: We’re just like, wow, like, we’re looking at the landscape of, of the entertainment space too, and we’re like, wow, like, Tiger King was just coming out, like, the Last Dance is coming out.
8:12: There was a lot of hype around documentaries because, I mean, 10 years ago, documentaries weren’t that cool.
8:17: To be honest, like people, people weren’t interested in them.
8:20: They thought that they were all historic.
8:23: or that they’re boring, or it’s just nature, you know, very like one dimensional.
8:29: And I felt like at that point, there was a lot of interest in documentaries.
8:33: And I saw a gap in how corporate companies were telling their own stories.
8:39: They’re extremely boring.
8:41: No one watches them.
8:42: And I saw the rise of videos just going to increase.
8:44: So we’re like, and I, I had another company that had this kind of like proof of concept.
8:49: They’re called Breakwater Studios.
8:51: And they’re in Los Angeles, and they, they’ve won the Oscar the last 2, the last two short documentaries.
8:57: I actually got to interview him on my podcast, Ben Proudfoot.
9:01: And that was like proof to me.
9:03: I was like, wow, like, Ben is doing this with his company.
9:06: It was inspiring to me.
9:08: And I was like, Matt, like, we should just like go all in on documentaries.
9:11: Like, what if we rebranded our company?
9:13: What if we just did our original documentaries, right, our original concepts of things that we’re passionate about, but in order to Make money as well.
9:21: We make those types of stories for for clients, you know, we, we hit up nonprofits, corporations, and we help them tell their story in a more entertaining way.
9:32: So it was, it was right around the time of graduation.
9:35: It was just a couple of conversations and I remember it just clicking.
9:39: And then I was like, oh, like, I’m ready to send it.
9:41: Like it was, it was a much, I was, I felt better about going all in on it because we changed our focus.
9:48: What does that inner knowing feel like?
9:49: Like excitement.
9:50: Like, like I’m like buckling and I’m like ready to go.
9:53: But so you just knew.
9:55: So I think something that like you were talking to like how you saw something in the industry.
9:58: You’re like, I see a gap, you’re talking through it and you’re like, this is something that we have to send it.
10:03: And then you took the opportunity or the energy to move towards that.
10:07: And I think sometimes we can talk ourselves out of the fact that this isn’t something that maybe someone doesn’t want this, or is the industry even ready for this?
10:15: Like I’ve seen this just happen so often where Like you’re kind of juggling with like, are people going to really cop on board the train that I believe that we need to go.
10:24: And so there seems like you just knew, and I’m curious, did anything else come up in that process when you were like, I’m going to send it, I’m going to be head of the market.
10:33: I’m going to essentially create a new way for documentary documentaries, get it for documentaries.
10:40: It also isn’t like a crazy new concept because like branded branded content, and this is like, it’s a learning experience.
10:47: too, but at that time, I felt like, oh, like, I’m inventing this new thing.
10:51: Like, it kind of feels that way and then you realize, no, like, storytelling has been around forever, that it’s had so many different iterations.
10:58: But I feel like, to answer your question, like, it was also, you have to stay true to your vision.
11:04: There are people that aren’t going to get it.
11:06: There’s still people today that don’t get it.
11:08: I, I’m able to more freely talk now and people understand maybe like the first or second time around.
11:14: But when we first told Our social media clients that we were doing documentary work, there were some crickets, like there were, there were some like, I don’t get it, you know, like, like what’s the point?
11:26: Right.
11:26: Well, we had their eyes, right.
11:27: Or they’re just like, oh, well, I’m a business, like, I don’t need a documentary.
11:31: Like what, like what value does that provide to me?
11:35: And I feel like it’s all about positioning.
11:37: And so that’s why recently too, I’ve been saying like, you know, it’s unscripted videos that feel like documentaries.
11:43: But, but truly, I mean, I mean we had to stick to our vision.
11:46: It wasn’t, people didn’t get it at first.
11:49: And in the beginning, when we had our social media clients, the way that we got people to say yes was, hey, we’re gonna, I think they were paying us $3000 a month at that point to do like Instagram management.
11:59: We said, hey, still pay us same price, $3000.
12:02: We’ll do the Instagram management.
12:04: I’ll still take your photos, I’ll still post it.
12:06: But you’re also going to allow us to do these documentary style videos.
12:11: And we kicked it off with a road trip.
12:13: Can all around the United States.
12:15: So we went to all 48 contiguous United States, everywhere except for Hawaii and Alaska.
12:21: We actually also went to Canada, but we were able to pitch one of our like health and wellness clients to do these stories on their top sales people.
12:29: And so we did like 55 videos across like maybe 4 different states.
12:34: And that was our proof of concept, because like we needed to be able to prove to someone that it worked.
12:39: And so we just needed someone to say, yes, you can try it with a Real brands.
12:43: Like I wanted someone that would actually use our service.
12:46: So once we did that, it made it a lot easier to pitch to other people that said, hey, look, like they invested with us, they don’t know the backstory, right?
12:55: But they invested with us.
12:56: Why don’t we do that for your company?
12:58: And it made it a lot easier to pitch after them.
13:01: You bridged the gap.
13:02: Yeah, like in that, you bridged, you basically brought the client along the journey and you’re like, I’ll continue delivering what you’ve got.
13:09: And I have this new thing that I think you should try.
13:11: Try it and then you use that to build the business that you really wanted.
13:15: Yeah, we had to make them in that you saw.
13:17: We had to make them an offer that like they would feel really stupid saying no to, you know.
13:21: I think people too doc like, like as you were saying, view documentaries as nature or like very basic things, but at the root of it, it is storytelling.
13:29: So you can call it storytelling, documentary and documentary making.
13:34: Why can’t we say this word perfect example, yeah.
13:40: But in in saying that, it’s really like you’re humanizing, you’re bringing, you’re helping people to understand like what is behind the intention of these companies, I’m assuming is like, that’s what usually documentary making really is.
13:53: Yeah, I was gonna say I want to learn what that is like the storytelling, the humanizing, what does that mean?
13:58: Because I mean we’re talking about, yeah, creating a different feel to documentaries, but what does that mean in your perspective?
14:04: Yeah, we always like to say that we humanize the people and passion behind a brand.
14:09: And what I mean by that is, it’s so easy for people, whatever, whether it’s a product or a service to try and push forward the features, the benefits, like why it’s better, why it’s unique, like buy it now, you know.
14:24: And instead, it’s like, why did you create this?
14:28: What is that story?
14:29: Why are you the right person?
14:32: To do this.
14:33: Like, there, every single business has a story.
14:36: Someone had to think of the gap, right?
14:39: How are they going to fill it?
14:41: And that person has a personal journey too as to why they’re drawn to it.
14:44: And to me, humans are wired that way.
14:47: It’s how we’ve been to the beginning of time, the connection you’re speaking to, like the storytelling, it’s how we learn.
14:54: It’s how we learn.
14:55: Like if you, if you think back on, you know, the latest times that you’ve hung out with friends, like you, you’ll probably remember the stories or like family stories.
15:03: I mean, it’s all storytelling is just at the heart of what it means to be a human in my opinion, like, because that’s, that’s how we relate to one another.
15:10: Like it’s not, you’re not just a business, you’re actually a person.
15:14: Like people hire other people.
15:18: Thank you.
15:19: Thank you.
15:19: That’s what we need to hear.
15:21: So true.
15:22: And I think people are starting to, I think just from because we have listeners too that are like on the verge of starting their businesses or wanting to adapt or changing their marketing and you just talk to the like the importance of storytelling, the importance of why.
15:35: created your business, and because someone else can relate to that.
15:39: You know, I was in a workshop earlier this week, literally talking about authenticity, and she uses the word authenticity and hers is humanizing and like being authentic to your storytelling.
15:48: And she just says, like, you know, people do push a product, like they’ll say, buy this supplement.
15:53: But what’s really going to hit is like, why did you create that supplement?
15:56: I created that supplement because I was dealing with gut issues.
16:00: I wasn’t waking up with energy and I needed to make a change.
16:03: Someone that hears that is going to be like, Oh, that’s me.
16:07: I have gut issues.
16:08: I am waking up exhausted.
16:10: I want to work with you because you get it.
16:12: You understand why I’m taking this supplement, not just take my supplement because it’s going to help my gut issues, like, right, you actually get what I’m living with and like, I love that you said the word also that that’s how human, how humans learn.
16:24: Yeah, through relatability relatability, relatability.
16:28: Yes, yes, so cool.
16:30: So let’s take it back just a little bit for a moment because I do want to ask it because we want to talk about what it’s like to be in business with your partner, and I want to know because you did it so early on, what were some of the fears or the blocks that popped up, and then what is it like now and how has it evolved and are there still challenges that you guys face together, which I’m sure there is because they’re always they’re always, yeah, yeah, it’s definitely, I mean, I think back to, I mean, that initial conversation of when it was his idea to do the business, like I had a ton of fears.
17:02: I was like, what if this doesn’t work out?
17:04: What if, what if it gets really big and we get a divorce even?
17:07: Like, I don’t know, like, even like crazy things like that.
17:10: What if, yeah, just like mixing the business and personal, at least on, maybe.
17:15: Now there are more narratives of couples that work together, but you just, you hear like, oh, like, don’t mix those like don’t mix those, don’t mix those.
17:23: So I feel like society too.
17:25: And also we were just new to each other.
17:28: So I was like, well, I feel like I’m just still getting to know you.
17:31: Like, I don’t even know how you work.
17:33: You don’t, we’re also still really young.
17:35: So we have so much, we don’t have much experience.
17:38: So I think those were kind of the fears in the beginning.
17:41: And then they, they transformed.
17:43: I mean, we’ve gone through, we’ve grown a lot as business people, I think, and kind of fast forward to today.
17:49: I’ll just share some learnings that we’ve had, which is one, like, you need space from each other, which seems like really obvious, but also I love spending time with him, you know, and so sometimes there’s also a level of like codependency that you can create where even like I’m sending an email and I’m like, can you like, can you check it?
18:10: Can you do this, whatever.
18:11: And we’ve recently had to be like, OK, like, what are our roles?
18:15: And we’ve, we’ve always adapted them too.
18:17: Like that’s that’s another thing that is one of our values is adaptability as a company.
18:22: Like we, we don’t judge ourselves for not figuring it out in the beginning, but we continue to like narrow down, narrow down what our roles are.
18:30: And so we know like what our lanes are.
18:32: You know, like I recently am like, we talked about like, I really am the CEO like I am the person that is like the operation.
18:39: The vision of the company, like where it’s going.
18:41: And he is like our chief people officer, which is like, he’s making sure because we’re a human centered business, like it’s very important that our crew members, our characters, anyone that we interview, you know, on screen and our clients are all really happy.
18:56: So how do we, how do we think of, how do we humanize our own company?
19:00: This is an aha that we had recently, like, how do we make every person like feel seen and heard in this process?
19:07: Because for us, for our End product.
19:09: Our end product is something that makes you feel like you know them.
19:12: And how do you get that humanizing?
19:14: How do, it’s kind of an intangible thing, but it’s, it’s keeping that in mind.
19:18: Like, it’s a whole experience, right?
19:20: Like if we film with someone, if you, if they’re getting interviewed, they, they might be a little bit nervous, right?
19:25: So how can you welcome them in, like the exercise that we did this morning of just like shaking off the energy, like small stuff like that can go really far.
19:33: So, now I’m kind of going on a tangent on that, but Other things like keeping space, also just like having fun with each other, like, I can be kind of the serious one, and he can be the fun one.
19:45: So like, we kind of like balance each other out.
19:47: It’s always it’s, it’s learning, it’s learning every single day and not judging yourself too.
19:54: , it’s always, it’s always a learning experience.
19:57: I’m curious to like peel that back a little bit, something that could happen in business because I, how do I say this?
20:03: I spend so much time with my partner.
20:06: So much time.
20:06: I love him.
20:07: I could spend all day with him.
20:09: He’s like my favorite person in the entire world.
20:11: And I do realize that when I spend away from a weekend, it makes me miss him more.
20:15: Like, or there’s this like energetic of like, I missed you.
20:18: I missed you.
20:18: Like, do you get that?
20:20: Like how much space do you create to still keep the relationship dynamic romantic, the chemistry going, or the connection?
20:28: Like, what does that look like?
20:29: And have you seen it where you guys have had to intentionally work on that at all?
20:33: Especially because you guys spend so much Time together.
20:35: I’ll share in the last like 3 months, we decided to get a co-working space, and that was a big decision because we have a home office, but that has actually allowed us and they’re, they’re letting us split the membership.
20:48: And so it’s actually their rule that we cannot be at the office the same time Monday through Friday because we’re technically one membership.
20:55: And then we realized, wow, that’s actually like really beautiful.
20:57: Like we, and we’re still available on a phone call or whatever, but the physical space, like one of you is there and One of these at home, yeah, because what’s happened when we are together in our office, what happens is exactly that, which is like, hey, like, look at this funny video, or look at this email, or you want to interrupt each other like the whole time.
21:18: And when we can actually get into deep focused work, that’s how we are going to move the business forward.
21:26: And so that’s been a huge aha of like, OK, like, I’m not gonna, I’m gonna hold my questions until lunch.
21:32: And then we try and unplug for lunch or unplug for dinner.
21:36: And that is something that I’m constantly working on, honestly, I feel like I can be a workaholic.
21:41: I’m a Capricorn.
21:42: I’m very like, I want to do everything in my to do list, and he is kind of more, he’s kind of more like an artist a little bit.
21:50: He likes to wake up, he likes to have his little coffee.
21:53: He’s like, he’s a cancer.
21:55: Like he’s very opposite, yeah, we’re opposites and so we’ve definitely like constantly trying to adopt.
22:01: our schedules.
22:02: Like, I can’t put him in a certain box.
22:04: Like, I’m like, I want to wake up at this time and do this.
22:07: And he’s just like, I wanna wake up and like edit.
22:10: Like, I like, leave me alone, like I’ll pet the dog.
22:13: My husband’s a cancer too, you know, just like that.
22:16: And, and I have, I have to like respect that and that’s for me, like I can be sometimes like too controlling, and I have to like, I have to like relax.
22:24: I have to be like, that’s not gonna, he’s not gonna yield the best, he’s not gonna be the best version of himself.
22:30: He’s not going to actually have the greatest output.
22:33: And neither am I if like we’re not supporting each other in the way that we’re meant to work and live.
22:39: Yeah.
22:39: Yeah.
22:40: So it’s hard.
22:41: This is good for anyone that’s in partnership.
22:43: Yeah, any kind of business partnership in general.
22:45: Yeah.
22:46: I feel like that’s even been supportive for us to know because I’m a projector in human design and she’s a manager and like, her energy is kind of like doing all the things and I’m also the projector, but I also have to manage myself in a certain way.
22:58: So like, I’m Very much like, these are the slots I’m working.
23:01: These are not the slots that I’m working.
23:03: And, you know, I can always see that I’m like trying to sometimes I’m like, Sam, do you really have the capacity for that?
23:09: And she really does, but I’m projecting onto her because I don’t.
23:13: And I’m like, Oh, can you really take on more?
23:16: And then what I’ve realized it was a projection of my own, which is what you’re talking about the projection of like, this is how I think we should do things and you’re like, no, like the way that he excels is the way that he flows in his day.
23:27: And that takes A lot of trust in business partnership, especially when something’s really important to you, yeah, which is what you’re talking to.
23:34: And so I’m so curious, how is that how is that transformed, yeah.
23:39: I just laugh cause my husband’s so, cause I just know that personality type, like they’re so chill, they’re just move slower.
23:45: I’ll be like, OK, we got, you know, like, let’s speed it up here, and he’s just like, we’ll get there.
23:50: Yeah, yeah, or even I don’t know if he’s like a slow driver, but he always drives, he’s very safe.
23:55: I’m just like, OK, like.
23:57: We could just maybe we got like 75, yeah, it’s like patience, patience is something I’m constantly working on.
24:05: I think it’s something that I, in work, in life, in business, I am working on patience for sure.
24:11: How do you, let’s talk about the trust thing a little bit.
24:14: Yeah.
24:14: Yeah, if you guys created one, self trust for yourselves, but also trust within yourselves to trust that the other person is going to execute when this is so important to you.
24:25: What does that look like?
24:26: Trust, trust, trust.
24:27: Yeah.
24:27: , it’s hard because it’s all I’ve ever known too.
24:29: It’s like, I think the, I’m trying to think of this trust.
24:33: Take your time.
24:33: Well, I would say things that have helped us stay anchored.
24:37: There are a couple of things, like one, for example, we have a credo, which I took this from a book called The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle, and it’s all about like, how do you build a great culture?
24:49: Like, how, how do companies survive for 100 years, right?
24:52: Like how does it change leadership, like it’s still around, like, how does that happen?
24:56: And one of the things I think Johnson and Johnson did was before, I forget what it was, but like before the CEO like stepped down on someone else’s.
25:03: took over, he wrote like this, this credo, and it’s just a belief system.
25:08: It’s really internally, but you can, you can look online and see it as well.
25:13: And it lists out the priorities, like, our first priority is to our, I think it’s like mothers and fathers around the world.
25:20: And so like that always anchors them in the right decisions.
25:23: And I was really inspired by that.
25:25: So I worked with my husband to create a credo ourselves.
25:29: And, you know, we, I’m trying to like recite it.
25:32: I’m like, oh my gosh, I need to like see it in my, in my head.
25:35: But, you know, it made us actually think about who’s the most important in our business.
25:39: And we said, our first priority is to our crew.
25:42: And I think that that’s kind of different than other production companies, they want to put the client first.
25:48: But we say, you know, we have to have space for mental and physical well-being.
25:52: We have to have space that’s safe and inclusive and fun.
25:55: And, and we wrote down, we took the time to really think about what was important.
25:59: So we said, our crew comes first, then our characters, then our community, then our clients.
26:05: And that’s not something I necessarily share to our clients, but it’s how we work.
26:09: So it’s, it’s trust because I, I, he’s my life partner, and also there’s evidence of like us working together over time.
26:16: So trust builds over time as well.
26:18: But then we do have certain things that can keep us very grounded, that we can come back to.
26:22: Even when we feel like a little rocky or a little shaky, it’s like, oh, like, what are our priorities?
26:28: Like, oh, like, our priorities are to our crew members.
26:30: OK, which crew members have we not talked to in a little bit?
26:32: Like, what do they need?
26:33: How can I help them?
26:35: And that usually helps.
26:37: There’s, there’s a level of trust because we have the shared agreement of what is important to us in the business.
26:43: It’s so important too.
26:44: I worked, I think I’ve shared with you off, off of the podcast, but I worked in film for 7 years and There’s such a huge difference to, you know, in the, in the, it’s a little different, I know in like documentary or commercials, but in the film film world, the the AD really is the one that kind of runs the crew and the sets where the AD was just like the priority was the crew and making people happy.
27:06: Everyone wanted to be there.
27:08: Everyone didn’t care that they’re working 20 hours.
27:10: It was such a different vibe than when you had someone who was very like, you know, and intense and made it about the client or made it about the Oh, we’re spending all this money and all this stuff, and no one was happy.
27:19: Everyone complained, no one wanted to be there.
27:21: Like it really does make such a huge difference.
27:24: And I think that’s even like regardless of whether in film or anything, companies neglect their employees.
27:30: That’s so common because they are focusing on the client or on the money or on instead of being like, are my employees happy, which is why like you’ll hear if you cut out the low employees that don’t want to be there, like the company skyrockets when you Create a culture that people want to be a part of.
27:46: Yeah, the other thing that I’ll add there is like, what I think about is like by you focusing on the crew, like the energy that you build in within your business is the energy that your clients will feel.
27:57: Yeah you’re bringing back to the humanizing, right?
27:59: And like, what is so important to your overall values.
28:01: And what I love hearing about is it just how many people aren’t in your company?
28:05: Full time, just the two of us.
28:07: And honestly, we plan on staying as lean as possible, maybe.
28:10: We grow to maybe like 5 employees total, but I personally feel like, especially where the industry is going to like small lean teams are really great, and we can always crew up for certain projects.
28:22: But as of right now, it’s just the two of us full time.
28:25: OK.
28:25: And I think about that because I’m like, sometimes people can take like a company of 1 or a company of two not as seriously as a company of 10, or a company of 50, or a company of 100.
28:36: And what I love that you you’re doing within your business is like you’re treating it as it is a professional company, like you’re operating at 100%, because at the end of the day, the foundation between you two is a foundation that will either grow or scale you.
28:50: Right?
28:50: If you don’t think that you’re the CEO of a million dollar company, you’re not going to become CEO of a million dollar company.
28:57: It’s not gonna work out that way.
28:59: You have to show up.
29:00: You have to, you have to make space for that, and you have to believe it because it starts.
29:04: It starts in your mind.
29:05: Otherwise you’re never, you’re never going to do it.
29:07: Did you guys hear that?
29:08: I just received that.
29:09: I mean, I have my own company, my jewelry company, and it’s hard sometimes to keep maintain that mindset, but I appreciate that feedback.
29:16: That’s so true.
29:17: I need that Capricorn energy.
29:19: Yeah, you need to think highly, you need to think highly of yourself.
29:22: No, I really do.
29:23: And like that kind of like intention, like something that you that you talked about, like, one of the biggest things for like our podcast party, for example, the first time that I did the podcast.
29:31: Party, I was, I mean, you felt the aliveness in the room, but I was rushing.
29:35: And like when they were coming in to say hello, I wasn’t present with them.
29:39: And then like this next time we did the podcast party, I was like, we’re going to be so on time that I can connect with every single person as they come in.
29:46: And because I want people to feel a certain way, I want them to feel me, not just experience like a good experience, but like truly drop in.
29:54: It takes that level of intentionality, which is what we’re talking about.
29:58: It’s like What is the kind of company or the kind of business that we really want to create?
30:02: What is the environment?
30:03: What are the rooms feel like?
30:04: And I think for even for us, like we’re still working through that.
30:08: I think what’s interesting is like as we work through that, we’re also trying to keep up with all of the tasks and demands of us, because outside of this, like this isn’t our only job.
30:19: We have the podcast, I have my speaking.
30:21: I’m also still incorporate, she has her jewelry business.
30:24: She still does Pilates.
30:26: And she does the podcast.
30:27: There’s a lot.
30:28: If you want to do a lot of things, yeah, yeah, we were talking about, yeah, like maybe you’re a manifesting generator too.
30:33: I don’t know, we have to figure it out or a generator.
30:36: I mean, yeah, yeah, she’s one of those for sure, yeah, you got your design.
30:41: But anyways, and I think some people are in the mix of that too, like, how do I show up as the million dollar CEO when I am still trying to bridge my life in that way, which is kind of like, I think there is this common denominator of like, keep what you have and then also continue to move forward and bring the rest on.
31:00: And I think it’s just a really beautiful invitation to be like, how do I want people to feel, which I really think comes down to your own values and how you show up and But how you execute because someone else feels that.
31:11: Is that fair?
31:12: Yeah.
31:12: But I’ll, I’ll add one other thing that I feel like is sort of on the same tangent a little bit.
31:16: And this was technically my mantra for 2024, but I feel like a life mantra that’s really helped me is do less better.
31:27: And what I mean by that is just like, it’s so tempting to do a million things, and I’m still learning this myself, like I, I probably have too many projects going on as well.
31:35: But The more you tell yourself that, the more that you will narrow down what you are actually like meant for.
31:44: And then you can feel fully expressed, you know, doing that one thing, because the worst feeling is like feeling like you’re, you have so many things and yet you’re not actually creating momentum.
31:56: And so if you can, it’s a long process.
31:58: I’m still in the process of whittling down.
32:00: You have to say no to things, you have to say yes to the right things.
32:02: I think It’s a, a lifelong learning experience.
32:06: And I think when you realize, because I speak about this and overcoming burnout and preventing burnout is like you only have a certain amount of energy.
32:13: Yeah, you know, and I think the problem is that people want to show up at 110%.
32:18: Like 7 leagues all the time and, you know, I think one of the things that I talked about so much is the flexibility and the ability to be adaptable depending on the season that you’re in.
32:27: So like, for example, right now, I get to focus on the podcast.
32:30: all day today.
32:32: Like how cool does that feel?
32:33: versus like before I could have sprinkled in interviews all week, made it a whole thing, and so I think it’s also getting really clear on how you want to use your energy depending on the season that you’re in, even within your business.
32:44: Yeah.
32:45: Because there’s like sales mode, there’s there’s just different things.
32:48: I mean, you have probably experienced the seasonalities of business and you really have to kind of ride the waves and have the adaptability, but realize that being spread too thin is actually to be less supportive at the end of the day.
33:00: Yep, yep.
33:01: I think you’re doing what I realized too.
33:03: It sounds like it’s like you’re finding veins within your business of what you already have to explore other things, which I think is the key to not getting burnt out, because even though I have like the podcast and, I mean, I don’t teach that much Pilates anymore, but I, yeah, but I feel like with my jewelry, I waited a really long time to make that my business.
33:24: I let it.
33:25: grow naturally, but now I try to find veins within either the podcast or jewelry that give me that feeling of doing something new, but I’m not like going off to some whole new thing to learn it, cause that’s where I think we like over, like you said, we spread ourselves too thin and we can’t grow anything.
33:42: So it’s, I mean, it sounds like you’re doing exactly what you want to be doing.
33:46: Every day is different and every, I mean, also everyone struggles too.
33:50: So like you never like Even though I have this like vision, like I still struggle, I still question it.
33:56: I still have like days where I don’t feel like getting out of bed.
34:00: Like, it’s just a matter of how do you, how do you sustain yourself?
34:04: How do you, if this is your vision, or even if your vision changes, like, how do you just take care of you?
34:09: How do you exercise?
34:10: How do you feel great?
34:11: That’s something that we always prioritize too is like, we need to like weight lift, we need to, and those are things that we really don’t budge on.
34:19: And I think That’s also what helps us like stay in the long term game is because we also prioritize our physical health too.
34:27: Yeah, it’s so important.
34:29: All right.
34:29: So at this point in the podcast, we want to know a little bit more about you.
34:33: We ask all of our guests the same question.
34:36: Where in your life are you craving to be more fully expressed?
34:40: I think that I am craving to be more fully expressed, honestly, in how I show up like fashion wise, makeup wise, like, I feel like I, as a little girl, I loved dressing up.
34:54: I loved, like I have little pretty princess parties and stuff.
34:58: And I feel like the pandemic and also the fact that I work from home, I don’t have coworkers.
35:03: I have definitely fell into a rhythm of being in my sweatpants and being in my leggings and, and also feeling like I can’t invest into myself.
35:12: Like, I’d rather spend You know, money on a new microphone rather than a new pair of jeans, for example, like, whatever it is, like, I always try and put the business first, and I feel like I have just been craving to like feel more like me.
35:27: And when I feel my best is when I look my best when I actually dress the way I want.
35:32: And so that’s something, a new area that I feel like for the for the new year, I want to, yeah, show up more.
35:39: Stylish and more, like, put together, cause I feel like, I don’t know, being married to you get like, like, I don’t need to look pretty for anyone.
35:46: I’m like, no, like, I actually like getting dressed, I like being fashionable, and I feel like maybe for the past like 4 years, I haven’t really, I’ve made excuses as to like why I can’t do that.
35:57: So, is there a specific fashion that’s calling you?
36:00: Oh gosh, I don’t know, just like, again, like that million.
36:03: Dollar CEO energy.
36:04: Like that’s like, that’s the energy that I need to embody.
36:08: And I feel like I haven’t been showing up that way, like in the way that I dress all the time.
36:12: Like today I, I feel good.
36:14: But thank you.
36:15: But not, not necessarily every day.
36:17: And so, how can I, you know, show up for myself, invest into the time it takes?
36:22: Like I’d be like, oh, it takes too long.
36:24: Like, I don’t no one’s gonna look at me like, who cares?
36:26: It’s like, no, I actually have a different like energetic feeling when I am looking my best too.
36:32: So yeah, million dollars CEO energy is what I’m going for.
36:36: I love it.
36:37: You’re giving it today.
36:38: And I love that you said that because you can definitely express yourself through clothing.
36:41: Yeah, and I think we forget about that, you know, I think it can get like you said, it can be so easy to be like, I’m going to fall into comfort.
36:47: Yeah, I really want people to feel about me, you know, and How do I want to feel, which is like, you can do that through clothing.
36:54: And I think it’s such a beautiful invitation that when you finally like own that and you’re like, I’m going to be the boss, babe, or the energy that I want to feel in my company, whatever that feels like for you.
37:05: There’s a woman on TikTok I follow who I’m obsessed with, and that’s one thing.
37:08: I just she just made a video saying that, and she wears the most stunning dresses, like her life looks like a dream, but she’s always like, I dress up for myself because we live on a rock floating in space.
37:19: And like, I want to wear this to the grocery store, and she’s wearing this like elaborate dress gown.
37:25: She looks stunning, but I, but I love that.
37:27: I don’t know if I’m gonna do that.
37:29: I need to wear a ball gown, but I’m just, but more the point of, you know, she dresses up for herself and it’s funny because she has 4 boys, like no girls.
37:36: So it’s all her, you know, like dressing the girlies girl, but I, it’s so inspiring cause I can totally relate to that, just wearing, I wear a lot of workout clothes, so yeah, I love that for you.
37:47: I I also have stepped into this a little bit myself, like, I love dressing up.
37:51: The part that I struggle with is, I don’t want to just use it once.
37:55: So I go back and forth between like doing like a rental clothing thing, like a like yeah, I love the.
38:02: Or like, I’m really trying to hone in on pieces that are like multi versatile, yeah, a pair of pants.
38:09: I’m like, oh, the top changed the whole vibe with that pair of yeah, yeah.
38:13: So trying to find that balance as well, and I think there there’s Little art that goes into that, but I just love that you gave yourself permission to be like, I’m buying the fucking jeans because I want the jeans.
38:22: Yeah, you know, I’m getting the top because it’s cute and I want to wear it, you know, and we live in an abundant universe.
38:28: You could buy the microphone and the top.
38:29: There you go.
38:30: I like this.
38:32: All right, so thank you so much for coming on today.
38:35: It was so sweet and I also, like you came yesterday to our Express community walk and it was like, I think the perfect touch.
38:42: I’m so glad that you listened to your intuition.
38:44: that because it has given us the opportunity to feel your energy before being here.
38:48: And now I feel like you’re like a friend, you know, you’re like a sister, you’re like, you’re like one of us, you know, so.
38:53: Thank you so much for coming on.
38:55: Where can people find you if they want to know what you’re working on, what you’re up to, give us all your, all the deeds.
39:01: Yeah, so, on Instagram, I would say you could follow my personal account, which is Stories by Lea, L E A H, and then if you want to follow us on pretty much any platform actually on Anything.
39:13: Sunoc Studios, SUN DOC studios.
39:17: You’ll find me there.
39:19: Thank you for having me.
39:20: Thank you so much.
39:22: Thank you so much for tuning in.
39:23: We really appreciate you being here.
39:25: If you enjoyed this episode, we’d be grateful if you could leave us a review and share it with a friend.
39:31: Also, we would love to hear from you.
39:33: Reach out to us on Instagram and let us know where you feel inspired to express yourself as you embrace this next era.
39:40: We are here to support you and encourage you.
39:43: See you on the next one.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Leah’s entrepreneurial journey—how she started and how her business has evolved
- The power of storytelling in business (and how to use it to grow your brand)
- Why customers crave relatability (and how to create deeper connections with your audience)
- How to humanize your brand so it feels more personal, authentic, and engaging
- What it’s really like to build a business with your life partner (the challenges & rewards)
- How to redefine roles in a partnership (and create a solid foundation for success)
Links & Resources:
Production Company: www.sundocstudios.com
Website: www.storiesbyleah.com
Connect with Leah:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-de-leon-889363a2/
About Leah:
Leah de Leon is an award-winning Filipina-American documentary producer and director based in San Diego, CA.
She is driven by her innate curiosity about people and her love for travel, telling empowering stories that explore culture and identity around the world.
Her recent short documentary, ‘We Are Like Waves’, was released with The Los Angeles Times. Other credits include producing works for The BBC, VICE, PBS, and 60 Second Docs.
She is the Co-Founder of Sundoc Studios, a San Diego based production company, where she creates branded and original documentary films.
Leah holds a B.F.A. in News and Documentary from Chapman University and was a Nikon Storytellers Scholarship recipient.
Leah is a proud member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, A-Doc, and The Documentary Producers Alliance.
When she’s not filming, you can find her hosting her podcast Talk Doc To Me, cooking at home, weightlifting, or planning her next big adventure.
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!
If you’re looking to create a brand that resonates or successfully run a business with your partner, this episode is for you!
Join The Fully Expressed Community, where you can be surrounded by other women who are also on the same path of personal growth, healing, and uncovering their authentic expression. Being in a community surrounded by others can truly be one of the most supporting and healing containers to support your personal invitation.
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The Fully Expressed Podcast with Karenna Website: https://www.instagram.com/thefullyexpressedpodcast/
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Contact Karenna: hello@karennasoto.com
