Shelby Dash & Kristina Clifford – Take 2 Content

Intro / Outro: Are you a work at home rock star, or do you dream of becoming one? Then you found the right podcast. Your hosts, Tim Melanson talks with successful work at home rock stars to learn their secrets and help you in your journey. Are you ready to rock

Shelby Dash: here’s

Tim Melanson: Tim? Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work-at-home rockstar.

Excited. I have two guests today. We’re talking to the co-founders of take to content and what they do is they help brands drive more sales through engaging social media ads. Very excited to be rocking out with both of you today. We’ve got Shelby dash and Christina Clifford. Hey, you guys ready?

Kristina Clifford: Rocking it rocking

Tim Melanson: and rolling.

You’re in the sound studio. So you’re ready to go. Awesome. So let’s start off on a good note. Tell me a story of success in your business or your life that you can share with us that it’s going to be inspiring.

Um,

Kristina Clifford: well, what comes to mind with this question? And I love this question because it doesn’t sound like this would be a success, but how we started our business in the first place is because of the pandemic.

Um, and we, in the past, we done a lot of comedy videos just for ourselves and we would post it on Instagram and we really kind of honed our craft with that. And so when the pandemic hit and we both lost our jobs, we kind of. Headfirst into making a business for, um, making ads for brands and businesses with our comedy edge and, you know, looking back, I’m like, wow, it isn’t a success.

Cause I see all these milestones that we hit, but it’s interesting because during the time it was definitely like a very scary place. Um, and I know they always say like when a door closes. There is a window that opens and there was a lot of windows that opened with not only this business, but we also do script writing as well.

So, yeah, so a lot of things just started sprouting up because of it.

Shelby Dash: Yeah. You don’t realize like, what is distracting you from your goals until you kind of don’t have another choice, but to focus. Um, so yeah, even though, like she said, even though it might sound like something. Not a, when it ended up kind of, we ended up using it to our advantage.

Also, it’s worth saying that during the pandemic, since everything was online, uh, people were really looking to video. So it was kind of a great time for us to, you know, really start our business and start, uh, making.

Kristina Clifford: And I think we had been like tiptoeing towards that door for a long time, because there’s just not enough time to do everything.

So when we took something out, then it just, you know, it all fell into place quite, quite nicely,

Shelby Dash: like Indiana Jones. I think I heard this from a, uh, uh, a Netflix show about like a. Sociopath, but he was talking about that Indiana Jones scene when he looks down off the cliff and it looks like a steep, steep, steep drop, but as soon as he trusts and steps out, a bridge appears.

So that came to mind, even though it was a sociopath that did, uh, say that quote on a Netflix documentary. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah, I know. It’s, it’s definitely true. I mean, it tends to be that thing. Work out when you’re moving in the right direction, when you’re moving with passion and you definitely pick the right a good field to be, especially whenever they went home.

Right. I mean, I build websites too. That’s my business. So when the pandemic happen for me, it was similar situation where all of a sudden everybody wanted to go online. So, you know, I think that’s kind of like the big lesson there is that when there’s a downturn, there’s always opportunity there somewhere.

You just gotta find it, right? Yeah. It tends to be when you are unwilling to change and accept that maybe your path is ending. That’s when you get in trouble, right. Instead of jumping to the bridge and go the other side.

Shelby Dash: Definitely. And even just thinking what you said, just made me think about, um, social media, because we do a lot of, you know, YouTube ads, social ads, stuff like that.

And social media is always pivoting. You know, Instagram has been the hot thing for so long and then Tik TOK came and it’s like, I think there’s always that resistance to jump on the new bandwagon and really the best thing. It’s just jumped early rather than hanging back and saying, man, I don’t want to waste my time.

I don’t know if it’s going to be a big deal because those early adapters really rise quickly to the top. So it’s almost like you’re missing an opportunity if you don’t pivot quickly in that sense. Also, I don’t

Kristina Clifford: think people necessarily. Want to take the time to like, learn or learn something new and, um, really that’s where you reap all the benefits like that when you do jump

Tim Melanson: in.

Yeah. You’ve got to keep on reinventing yourself over and over again. And until you kind of realize that. Yeah. I mean, you’re, cause I can see the, the scary part, which is like, maybe this thing won’t take off, you know, so you sort of have to hedge that bet, but, um, you’re definitely not. Keep going in the same path forever.

Eventually you’re going to have to pivot somewhere. Every business does, right. Cause the.

Kristina Clifford: Exactly and I mean, that’s why it’s so nice to have such a solid partner because you can doing it by yourself as one thing you’re just in your head. But if you have a solid partner to, to have that feedback, that bounce that, what is the, what am I trying to say?

The good bounce, the sounding board.

Tim Melanson: I say, get a room girls, but

right now it’s not all sunshine and roses. I mean, you know, things do sometimes not go as planned. So tell me something that didn’t work out as planned for you guys and how maybe we can avoid it or whatever.

Shelby Dash: You know, Tim, I’ve got a story for you. Um, so when we were first starting out, we were before we did the LLC.

Yes. This is pre we started LLC. We were just starting to look into like getting more video jobs. And we were, you know, we were popping on Craigslist, which isn’t always bad. We found some great clients through Craigslist, but in this particular sense, we interviewed multiple times at what seems like.

Startup that had a decent amount of money, but our gut was just telling us this place is some exhaust. This place is unorganized. Like they don’t understand what we do. They just want us to like, basically start making videos without any kind of contract or any kind of negotiations. But what they

Kristina Clifford: were offering was very, very, very, very low

Shelby Dash: money for a lot of work.

And we were tempted to take it. We almost did take, we actually did try to take,

Kristina Clifford: yeah. I remember like walking out of the office and. This full wall of handwritten, um, products that they were going to have. And there was like so many. I was like, how are they going to do all of that?

Shelby Dash: Yes, it was a train heading off the tracks.

That’s for sure. And, um, it was funny because it all came to a head when we sent our contract over because we were starting to get cold feet and. It’s a very standard contract that we send to everybody we’ve sent it to many clients since no one has had an issue with it. This guy was like, I don’t like your contract.

I’m not signing. Blah, blah, blah. We ended up in the money was

Kristina Clifford: very, very low too, but the money was

Shelby Dash: super low. And then we found out the day that we quit, the guy that we were supposed to work with, who was supposed to be our go-to there had quit the day before, because it was so bad. So.

Kristina Clifford: So, I guess the lesson here is listen to your gut.

And I think obviously when you’re first starting out and you want to make an impression, yes, you will do a lot of work for free and we have, um, but just pick and choose those things wisely. Like if it’s not going to help you learn or, um, if, if. If you just have a weird feeling in your gut, I feel like it’s always good to trust

Shelby Dash: that.

Yes, it wouldn’t know your worth. It would be much better to put that time and energy into making your own content that you’re passionate about rather than making someone else’s content for pennies and stress. Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Making someone else’s content is going to be harder too, because you need to be them, right.

That takes time, right? Yeah. No, I, I, I, and also the other thing that you mentioned is the contract, which I think a lot of people worry about contracts, but even if you have something kind of in writing, like, look at what happened, right. You sent it off to somebody and they were a little bit dodgy and they’re like, hell no, that was great.

That was great for you guys. Yeah. If you hadn’t had a contract and you had just started working on it, you might’ve lost quite a bit of time, right?

Shelby Dash: Absolutely. Gosh, that would have been a nightmare. It also just helps. I think. I think it helps you look more professional when you’re going to new clients.

They’re like, oh, this person has, you know, a production agreement. They, they must work with a lot of people. They must be experienced. Whereas when you’re starting out, sometimes you feel annoying sending stuff like that, but it’s only gonna benefit you. And, you know, we’ve had situations where we felt a little nervous, like, oh, are we going to get this payment?

And because we have that contract, it’s kind of like a safety net.

Kristina Clifford: The pricing. We, we did struggle in the very beginning because, because our, um, cause we have a service and based on a particular clients, it’s gonna range like pricing is gonna range dramatically because we don’t know exactly the scope of the project.

So, but I do think in that same respect when you have. Uh, a decent price that you’re offering for your service. People are going to look at that with respect, and if you’re doing the opposite and you were like, oh, we’ll do it for whatever your budget is. You don’t, you don’t have the professionalism that

Shelby Dash: right.

They think, oh, they must not be that good, which is not true. We’re fire. Okay.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and I’ve heard that before, actually, it’s been mentioned a few times where customers will tend to judge you based on what the price you have about. So, if you have a low price, they just judge that you were new or that you don’t know what you’re doing.

And if it’s a really high price, they’re like, okay, they must know what they’re doing. You might not get the contract. Uh, but you’ll at least raise, raise an eyebrow and have them kind of. You know, maybe you’ll end up paying a bigger conversation or maybe you’ll push them away. And I think that’s kind of the key really is that you want the people that you want and you don’t want people you don’t want.

Yeah.

Kristina Clifford: It’s a struggle to, to sift through and figure that out though, as a, as a new

Shelby Dash: company. Yes. You said it.

Tim Melanson: Amen. And contracts like a, you know, whatever kind of like agreement you have that you’ve put in paper. Is, you know, maybe you might not depending on what the, your services and how much money is involved here, it might even be worth going after it in a, in a court, like if they don’t pay.

Right. I mean, but that’s not the reason why you’re doing it. I don’t think the reason why you’re doing it is to get that commitment from the client and make sure that everybody’s agreeing on what they’re getting. And then if something happens and they leave a terrible review, you can go, well, here’s the contract and this is what I put out there.

Right. Rather than them pretending. Yeah, they, you guys agree to a whole bunch more that you didn’t agree to. Right.

Kristina Clifford: And it’s beneficial for them as well.

Shelby Dash: Two-sided and then also you said something that made me think, um, which is interesting. Like, I feel like it’s probably similar for you with web design, but for us doing video, especially when we get to the edit, a lot of times we say two rounds of notes, that’s kind of our standard thing, but a lot of times people might want an additional tweak or two, or if it’s a big company, you know, maybe they’re not communicating first and then giving us the note.

So we just want to make sure that, you know, our price is. Based on these factors and if you want extra, that’s going to be extra. So it kind of pushes people to be organized on their end, um, which is helpful. And I’m sure that’s very similar for

Tim Melanson: you. Yeah, it is. And, and another way that I look at it sometimes is that in those cases you can make a decision to over-deliver.

By adding that extra round of notes, because as you’ve said, right, you can say, okay, fine. Well, we can do another round, you know? And now you’re giving them a favor rather than it just being what they expect. Right.

You’re always, yeah. You’re always in a better position if you’re giving the favors. Right. Um, so now what about practice makes perfect their practice makes progress. How do you get good at what you guys do?

Kristina Clifford: Well, I think before we even knew that we would ever start this business, um, like I said earlier, we were very passionate about comedy and about making comedy videos and because we, and we’re also actresses and we spent so much time honing and learning the craft of acting and breaking down scripts and producing our own content that.

We kind of were teaching ourselves all along the way. And so all that work and effort, even at the time, we were like, what are we doing? We only got 500 views on this video. It’s now kind of paying off. And now we have all this experience,

Shelby Dash: a hundred percent and most people that do this, um, you know, have gone to film school, et cetera.

Um, You know, we both have degrees, but we’re completely, you know, we’ve learned from experience like we haven’t or self-taught editors. Um, you know, we’ve learned about camera gear just by the practice of doing, and I think it’s worth noting. Because we started out creating content for ourselves. We wanted it to be good for us.

So we put that extra time and attention in, and now we’re able to take those skills and, um, pass onto our clients. And, you know, there are some projects that if it requires like a certain level of skill set, we now have a big network of subcontractors that we work with. You know, whether that’s a DP who’s experienced with a certain camera or, you know, an editor who can do broadcast color, um, All those different things.

Don’t

Kristina Clifford: let this closet fully. He thought this was only audio today. Um, and this is a voiceover closets,

Tim Melanson: Surprise

Right on.

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Well, uh, yeah. And, and also your audience grows with your experience as well. So, you know, in the beginning, I think everybody has to recognize that they’re not going to be awesome when you first get started, but that’s okay because your audience isn’t going to be huge either.

So as you start to get better, your audience starts to get bigger and it just kind of grows proportionately,

Shelby Dash: right?

Kristina Clifford: Yes, absolutely. I mean, we we’ve learned so much from failing, but boy did we fail,

but that’s, I mean, that’s how you learn,

Tim Melanson: speaking of learning. So, uh, we’ve got a topic called learning from the best, which is, you know, who do you, where did you learn? What, you know, and do you have coaches, do you participate in any type of, uh, masterminds? You know, are you learning.

Kristina Clifford: Oh, my gosh. Um, we,

Shelby Dash: I, I been, I was studying

Kristina Clifford: at an acting studio, uh, called Leslie con for the last 10 years.

And she’s a genius when it comes to comedy and she not only, um, teaches you how to actually teaches you how to break down the script and, and really teach yourself how to interpret. Uh, text. So there’s that, but we also have had coaches in terms of, um, script writing and, um, honestly just people we idol, um, uh, uh, Harmon brothers.

Oh yeah. Seen their ads. We’re like, oh my gosh, we want to be them. They’re so funny that they do it in such a creative out of the box way. So we kind of always looked up to them. When it comes to our, I’m making a comedy ads. Yeah,

Shelby Dash: definitely. And even when it comes to things like entrepreneurship, technical stuff, like listening to podcasts, like yours has really helped us a lot with, you know, The nuts and bolts of starting a business and knowing that a lot of the things that we are experiencing are normal.

Um, and you know, um, like she said, uh, through that acting school, we learned so much about comedy and now our main focus and I think our bread and butter when we make these ads is comedy. So, um, it all kind of came full circle and we’re still learning. We’re always learning. I mean, I’m on YouTube every day, like how to make an insane transition out of, you know what I mean?

I think. So you

Tim Melanson: guys are still learning, uh, your craft, but you’re also learning business in general, too, right?

Shelby Dash: Yeah,

Kristina Clifford: definitely. That has been a big learning curve for myself.

Shelby Dash: Um,

Kristina Clifford: and you know, I think it has to be a matter of doing in this instance. Um, so like, she’ll be sad. We’ve sought out a lot of different business podcasts and, and that has helped tremendously.

Shelby Dash: Yeah, it’s interesting because things in terms of learning come full circle in ways you didn’t even imagine, like, for example, our acting training has really helped us when we’re pitching a commercial ideas to clients on zoo, because we act the full thing out in a way that they can see it, you know, that the actor would do it on set.

So, um, that has

Kristina Clifford: definitely helped us in the pitching for sure.

Shelby Dash: Definitely. Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: I think, I think sales and acting should be something in. For everybody, right? I mean, it’s, it’s actually ridiculous that it’s not especially sales. Cause I mean, even if you’re working for an employer, you’re still gonna have to, well, if you ever want to get a raise, you’re going to have to make a point.

You’re gonna have to get in there and actually sell yourself. Right. We don’t learn how to do that. Uh, it’s cool that you guys, yeah. Let me learning, learning how to act is going to be great. You’ll be able to prepare and memorize and all that stuff. And it’s even cooler that you like play out scenes that’s.

That’s awesome.

Kristina Clifford: Yeah. Yeah. Cause we kind of, obviously when writing it, we know. We want it to come out or how it sounds in our head. So it’s just beneficial when we’re the ones presenting it and we can do all those technical things that we know work with comedy

Tim Melanson: right on. And so when you first started your business, like, was that something that you sought training for?

Like, did you, or did you just start a business and then figure it out as you go?

Shelby Dash: Well,

Kristina Clifford: It’s kind of funny because speaking of Chrysalis, when we were in the middle of the beginning of the pandemic, I was on there every single day. I was like, oh, what can we do? Like, I was trying to kind of piece it together in my head.

I was like, we can do all these editing jobs. I was like, but what, what is it? And, um, and there something came up and it was. Like an ad agency and Sweden, Sweden, Sweden. And we had a phone meeting with this guy or a video conference with this guy and it ended up paying the bills for a while. He was giving us jobs based on our old comedy videos that we had sent him.

And we just pitched him several ideas. He gave us products, we pitched him several ideas. He was like, these are amazing. These are amazing. So, um, then we started, you know, producing them and we edit them ourselves and we’re like, gosh, why w why don’t we do this for other clients or other ad agencies? And then that’s how it kind of how the seed got planted.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think that’s pretty common. That’s how I got started too. It was just by doing it and then all of a sudden you’re like, oh wait, I should do it for more people. Right. Yeah. That’s awesome. So now, okay. I think this is probably the best topic for you guys to talk about is getting fans. Uh, so we, you know, how do you guys approach that?

W what’s your, what’s your strategy

Kristina Clifford: getting those fans? Um,

Shelby Dash: I mean, I guess it depends if we’re, I’m going to. Take it in terms of like getting fans that could potentially turn into clients. Yeah, the right fans. Um, I think it comes down to, um, something that we’ve discovered, which can be frustrating and that we’ve talked to other people about is you can do so many pitches that never turn into a paid job, but just still giving those ideas and pitches your all and, um, Coming up with the best possible ideas for the client doing the best possible pitch.

So then. A lot of times we’ll have people say like on the zoom, like, oh my gosh, these are great. Whatever. They may not bite. They may not move forward that time. But I think the more you, you show up and give your best every time, the more that person might say, oh, you should talk to these girls. They gave us a great pitch.

We didn’t do it, but like, maybe you should use them. And also just staying in touch with people. Like, she’s really good at this. Like, you know, every few weeks. So like if we have a client we haven’t heard from, she always like, we’ll email them, how’s it going? Just wanted to check in like, hope you guys are doing well.

This is what we’ve been up to, et cetera. Um, Yeah.

Kristina Clifford: Yeah. I think, I mean, those personal, personal connections are the most valuable and, you know, after having X amount of clients, then you, you, and if they like you, you get repeat business and then, you know, the classics word of mouth, I think that’s kind of the biggest way.

And. You know, since we had our started Instagram, we did have quite a following for a long time. Um, so I think we actually just did a promo for our business. We haven’t released it yet, but hopefully we can get some of those fans from the past to spread the word.

Shelby Dash: Definitely.

Tim Melanson: I think you guys made a couple of really good points, like.

One is that even though your pitch might not be someone that actually might come board, there’s a couple benefits to that. Number one, you’re practicing. Right. So, you know, every time you deliver that pitch, you get better at it. Right. And then the other thing too, that you said is that yeah, they might not say yes, but if you did a really good job at pitching your business, it just might not be for them at the time.

And they can refer you to somebody. Yeah. Now you have somebody working for you, right?

Shelby Dash: Yeah, exactly. And you know, it’s funny the way you laid it out. I was just thinking, because we are screenwriters also, um, a lot of those same things have happened to us on the, you know, more creative screenwriting side.

Like, you know, maybe a script we wrote three years ago didn’t move forward. But that same person now is interested in what we’ve recently written. Yeah. It’s like, wow. Nothing is in vain really? At the end of the day. Nothing you do is in vain. That’s a hot

Tim Melanson: take. Yeah. It’s always moving it forward.

Absolutely. No matter what, no matter what happens and yeah, it’s, it’s it’s practice and you’re going to need it that, I mean, I, I’d rather, I’d rather practice my pitch and on somebody that isn’t going to buy, so that it’s ready for the person who was. You know, the, the best person for you and then you screw it up, you know, you’re, you’re better off to be ready for.

Shelby Dash: Absolutely good

Kristina Clifford: point. Such a good point.

Shelby Dash: Nailed it, tim.

Tim Melanson: Well, it’s time for your guests solo. So let’s hear it. Exciting.

Uh, you want to kick it off or you want me to kick it out?

Kristina Clifford: Okay. Guess so low, so low, so low. Um, take two. content.com. Check us out. Um, we do social ads for brands and businesses. And if you just want to make more content like lifestyle content, we do that as well. We really don’t discriminate. We, we do all kinds of content, not necessarily comedy, but we are proficient in comedy.

Shelby Dash: Yes. If you have a brand that needs those extra views on YouTube, um, we’ll get ’em for ya. So definitely check us out.

Tim Melanson: That’s great. I have another question though. W w who would be the ideal, uh, person who would get the most from your, from.

Shelby Dash: I would say in terms of, um, I mean, I think we, I could answer this in terms of either the service they provide or the product that they’re trying to sell, but I’m going to say it differently.

I’m going to say the person who’s open to pushing the boundaries just a little bit or risks taking. With their marketing, thinking outside the box a little bit, someone who’s open to kind of let us bring that comedy element in and maybe, um, almost create a whole image around either the service or the product, um, that is going to stick in people’s minds.

I would say that would be the person that would most benefit from, from us. Would you say? Yeah,

Kristina Clifford: definitely. I mean, The ads I watched that have that humor have that like offbeat thing are the ones that stick out in my mind are the ones that I, you almost respect them more for, for taking those risks. I’m like, oh, wow.

They’re really cool. They’re really something.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, it’s true. I mean, I, I think it’s a fantastic idea. I mean, marketing is something that is super important and I mean, all the big companies, they spend loads of money on. Commercials and they, that are really well thought out and sometimes not, but it’s still, uh, why not us?

Right. So now are you like mainly working with like bigger companies or just individuals or like who is your target?

Shelby Dash: We do it all. Um, yeah, we do both. We have, um, a client that sort of a bigger startup company. They actually just got bought. So I guess they’re not a startup anymore, but, um, we also work with, you know, individuals who want to up their social media content.

We also work with, we just did something for, um, uh, like a skincare brand. That’s just starting out. Um, so we kind of like run the gamut in terms of the, we are.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Love it. Well, that sounds awesome. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, girls, this has been a lot of fun.

Shelby Dash: Thank you so fun.

Tim Melanson: Cool.

And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate and comment. We’ll see you next time on the work-at-home rockstar

Intro / Outro: podcast. Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one, head on over to workathomerockstar.com today.