Lights, Camera, Action! with Jesse Schewchuk

Lights, Camera, Action! with Jesse Schewchuk

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 38 of the Business Development Podcast, and if you've ever wondered about potentially doing your own video in business and just didn't know where to start, we have an amazing episode for you. On today's expert interview, we have Jesse Schewchuk, Founder and CEO of Modern Muse Media right here in Edmonton, and she is going to talk to you about why you might want to do your own video.

Stay tuned.

Jesse Schewchuk: The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the Business Development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In broadcasting to the world, you'll get expert business development advice, tip tips and experiences, and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs, and business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business, brought to you by Capital Business Development Capitalbd.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the The Business Development Podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello. Welcome to episode 38 of the Business Development Podcast. Wow. We are really, really coming in on 40 soon.

We're we're actually just shortly after we're, we're just past our four month marks. We've really made some progress here in, in a very short period of time. And today I have an amazing guest interview for you, little bit of a local legend Jesse Schewchuk, multi award-winning television producer Jesse Schewchuk is the founder and CEO of a thriving video training agency called Modern Muse Media.

With over two decades of television experience, Jesse is now focused on helping industry professionals build their brand with intention and capitalize on tangible impact of video as the premier medium for business promotion and marketing. Her achievements led to a cover feature in Avenue Magazine's Top 40 under 40, and a nominee of Canadian Screen Award for best dramatic TV series.

This is the Emmy of Canada folks. Jessie is currently the president of the Edmonton Business Association and is a past vice president of Woman in Film and Television, Alberta. W I F T A. Her passion is to educate, empower, and elevate people through the power of story and video every single day. Jessie, it's a pleasure to have you on the Business Development podcast.

How are you today?

Jesse Schewchuk: I am amazing and thank you so much for having me. What a great opportunity.

Kelly Kennedy: What a rockstar intro. Let me just start there. I say it a lot on these shows, but my gosh, the level of of experience and professionals we got on this show never ceases to amaze me. When I started this show, I never really knew what I was getting my butt into.

I just figured I'm gonna create this podcast on business development, educate some people, help them grow their business, and yeah, just to get people like you, Jesse, on this show is next level. Thank you so much for coming.

Jesse Schewchuk: Well, thank you for what you're doing because it's through the power of story and sharing that we gain the value, truly believe that.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally. Totally. And I know from like our initial interview, something I really picked out about you was just your energy and your authenticness. I really like both those things about you. I think you bring a ton of energy, so I'm really excited. I think the only person who maybe rivals you a little bit is Tash Jeffries, one of my previous guests.

But you have some awesome energy and you bring a lot of experience with you, you know, like that's unbelievable. Your background in television and film is next level. Talk to me, bring me back to the beginning. You know, what inspired you to start Modern Muse Media back in the day? Like we're talking 2016, this is before the world even recognized that it needed video and socials, like companies weren't even thinking about this yet.

Take me back to the beginning.

Jesse Schewchuk: Well, if I may, I'd like to take you back even a little bit further, which would be 34 years ago when I was 10 years old with my grandma and grandpa's VHS camcorder. That was so big I could barely hold it on my shoulder. And I absolutely fell in love with the power of video and capturing performance and memories.

And yeah, fast forward, fast forward 34 years, and now I'm empowering folks to do just that. But the truth is, is that Modern Muse Media was forged from an ugly cry on my kitchen floor. After a very powerful, successful, amazing career in film and television. And I found myself needing to start over again and provide for my little girl.

And really it came from a place of desperation because I couldn't get hired by any companies. I had started in the industry when I was 19 years old after gonna school at 17, and I didn't have a university degree and I had the power of experience in film and tv, but that wasn't enough to get a job.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. It's a little bit hard to believe.

Jesse Schewchuk: Yeah, here's somebody that's nominated for the Emmy of Canada and I can't get a call back. And but it was a real, real thing because of course, resumes and such screened by automated systems and I just didn't check the boxes. And so I had all of this, these transferable skills and this wealth of knowledge and an amazing, beautiful human who believed in me and her name was Susan Faddema Leonard.

And she was moving in to become the president of WIFTA Women and Film and Television, Alberta. And I was on the board and I had called her and I said, you know, I'm not in the industry anymore. I shouldn't even be a part of this. I was in a dark place and I was. Literally on my kitchen floor crying.

And she reached through the phone that day and she said, I believe in you. I see you. You can help emerging female producers get into the industry. You, you, you can guide them through this experience. You're gonna start a company. We're gonna be your first client and you're gonna be Vice President of Women Film in Film and Television of Alberta.

And, and I was just like,

1. Wow. Ok. And it was just day by day one put in front of the other.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. You know, we talked about this and, you know, so many entrepreneurial stories start in this place. And, and there's two aspects that you actually hit on that I find in a lot of entrepreneurial stories. And that's somebody reaching out for help, kind of hitting, hitting rock bottom in some ways with their careers or whatever it is they're doing, and, and having these great ideas and just no idea of what to do with them.

And then the other aspect is having, you know, in, in my case it was, it was a mentor. It was an old boss who, who held a handout to me and said, you know what? You have a great idea. You're amazing at what you do. I will be your first client, do this. And, you know, you kind of had the exact same thing happen to you.

And I think for so many entrepreneurs, that is the leg up that we need. And you don't always know where that's coming from, but it does seem to come, doesn't it?

Jesse Schewchuk: It does. And you just, like, my whole body is covered in goosebumps. Cause I didn't know that about you, Kelly. And like I'm, I can feel the emotion is just right in my throat.

Like, what? I don't even know what my life would've looked like without, without her, you know, without this person that said, I believe in you. And and I don't, I didn't have that a lot in my life, and I still don't to this day. I lost my mom at a very young age and my dad remarried and moved away. And so mentors have been significant in my world.

Yes. So huge.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, no, absolutely. The importance of mentors is very understated. I haven't really touched on it too much in the podcast, mainly because I'm not really sure how to tell that story yet. You know how it is, you know, you're, you're in storytelling. Sometimes you have to wait for the right moment to tell that story, and that story's not ready yet.

But 100%. I am going to, at some point in the show, talk about mentorship and the importance of it, especially for inspiring and, and helping new entrepreneurs. Like the goal with the Business Development Podcast really is to help help individuals, help new entrepreneurs, help existing business owners get that leg up, get that little bit of support and inspiration and great business development advice to just help them elevate their business to the next level.

Because sometimes we just need that kick in the ass, and I really hope that I can be that little kick in the ass that just helps someone take it to the next level. And I think that's what you're trying to do as well. Yeah. You betcha. You betcha. So, Talk to me about Modern Muse Media. Let's let's tell the world a little bit about what its.

Jesse Schewchuk: Well, Modern Muse Media is your premier video training agency, the Onlys Guide in North America.

How is that?

Kelly Kennedy: I might need you to be my commercial person.

Jesse Schewchuk: I actually do voiceover work. Shocker.

Kelly Kennedy: No, I, I think it's very interesting. You know, believe it or not, I've actually been following you for a while, so I, I'm pretty aware of what you do. I've seen you at the Edmonton Chamber. We're both members, we both kind of, you know, have our parts to play in that place.

But Modern Muse Media is different. Okay. It's not, so I've had, let's say, Jorgenson on this show who's an, he's got all in productions here in the city, does amazing corporate video production, super talented. He is super talented, amazing, kind like I, I loved having him on the show. I love chatting with, let's say, he's just such an awesome person.

But yours is different, and I haven't actually seen anything like yours, Jesse. There's nobody around here offering anything like your offering, which is you are going to help entrepreneurs, business owners, create their own professional video to up their social media game, to up their corporate video game.

You know, you were ahead of your time. Like, the reality is, like I said, in 2016, you know, I, I was in operations at that time doing operations business development. Our, our, our heads were not in social media for business yet. We hadn't, we weren't forward thinking that far at that point, and I don't think I'm behind.

I think like we were using LinkedIn, but we didn't know how to use LinkedIn yet. Like nobody really understood how to use socials for business. You know, you're groundbreaking Jesse. Like you really are. You are, you are pioneering the field. You were a pioneer in the field and now, you know, like I said, as far as I'm concerned, you're the only person around really doing this work.

Talk to me about that aspect of it. What inspired you to teach individuals to do their own video instead of hiring a professional company?

Jesse Schewchuk: Another mentor. So this could end up being your mentor podcast episode. No, but for real. So Modern Muse Media looked very differently in the beginning. I was executive producing and consulting for emerging female producers.

I had an all female production team, and it was to provide opportunities for women in the industry to touch the tools to produce their own content. So trailblazing on that front as well. Because in the eight years, five seasons of television that I was co-executive producer of, I saw maybe three women in the, the camera department and the grip department and so on and so forth.

Now, one fateful day Dan Kern entered my office, another mentor who is like a brother to me now, and he said, I tried this 10 years ago. It was way ahead of its time. It didn't work. What would you think about doing this? The world is gonna need video. Have you heard of this guy named Gary Vaynerchuk?

If not, check him out. So I listened. I got the CDs for my car, which yeah, wasn't that long ago, but you could still be listening to CDs in your car. And and studied Gary and listened to Dan and, and really took a look at this model that Gary projected that. In the next 10 to 15 years, every business would be a production company, a content creator, as well as their niche as well as what they do, because there would be a craving for content that was genuine, authentic, and captured from within the team meetings, meeting the lunches, the birthdays, the, you know, the whiteboarding situations, things that you want to capture that you're not going to outsource a videographer to come in and do on a regular basis.

It becomes cost prohibitive. It becomes complicated for scheduling. You can capture this content from within and share your authentic story. And I was game. So what we did is we started to walk the talk. So we created a podcast. It was a video. It was. A video series called Life of a Producer, which was basically me who knew no one coming from film and television.

I may as well have been from Jupiter interviewing women entrepreneurs about their stories. And it was a way for me to build my business, to connect with people, to share their story and to walk the talk. So we did this series, and I think we did over a hundred episodes. This is be, this was six years ago before people were coming out with podcasts and things like that.

And it was wonderful. I got to meet people, I got to share story, and then that was when things really started to evolve. But the, the light bulb still wasn't going on. The resistance was still there prior to pandemic. And I mean that I was still going into places of business and convincing them that.

Doing TikTok, doing Instagrams, putting videos on LinkedIn about their day-to-day business, about them, about what they do rather than these polished 15 minute pieces that sat on their website for 15 years. It doesn't exist anymore, right? Yeah. Then the pandemic hit, okay. So what ended up happening is I was on a skyscraper screaming, everybody needs video, and when the pandemic I hit, I repelled down to ground zero, where a lot of the work we were doing is setting up home Zoom studios and screens and green screens and, and people were buying all this equipment but had no idea how to use it.

And you saw these big powerful mics, but you could hear them every tap on their desk and yeah. See the blasting of sunshine coming in. And so suddenly the, the switch went off and, and people were like, oh my gosh. In order to be visible, We're gonna need to get into video.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, no, I, you kind of hit a nail on head and that was that, you know, you were talking about, about Gary Vaynerchuk and kind of making that prediction that and, and you know what I mean, I've made that prediction early on as well.

And it was so funny cuz, you know, I, I talked with Fatima Zaidi the President and CEO of Quill Inc. You know, big podcasting platform here in Canada, really the biggest in Canada. And we were chatting back and forth and I was just saying like, you know, I genuinely think that if, if a business within the next five years does not have a podcast, you know, an an online web-based presence, some type of way for, for the, the leadership or the executives to speak to the world, they're not gonna have a business.

Like you really need a way to connect with your customers. And customers now want to connect. They wanna know like, what does this company believe in? Who is the president? Who is this person? Do I even like this person? You need to be able to showcase your skills, not just in business, but also your ability to communicate with, with the world and a podcast, you know, video production, things like that allow you to connect on an emotional level, which I talk about in business development all the time.

We're always trying to create relationships, emotional connection with our customers. And really that's what it allows you to do it. Like you, it doesn't, it feels weird because when you host a podcast, or I'm sure if you're taking video of yourself, it can feel very lonely, can't it? But the reality is, is that you are creating an emotional connection, a real connection with your audience, which in a lot of cases, if you're a business, is your customers.

And so, yeah, it's becoming more and more important and it kind of is becoming a new way to generate a relationship, unlike any other way. We've been able to do it before.

Jesse Schewchuk: So you talk about know, like trust. Let's go back to 2007 when Facebook launched, you know, and even just fast forward five years from there, there was so much pushback.

People were absolutely adverse to the idea that social media was going to be used for business. Facebook is for friends and family, and LinkedIn is, you're on the download, you're selfie because you're looking for a job and you don't want anybody else to know. And you take these platforms now in 2023 and video content is what we are consuming and business is all over.

And it's so interesting, Kelly, what we deal with in training and educating and working people to conquer their fears. What we work with on a daily basis is video has now become the number one fear topping public speaking and death. So it is, It is one of the hardest layers to crack through is that people are terrified about capturing theirselves.

They don't like to see themselves on camera. They don't like to hear their voice, and I believe you are absolutely right. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. Yeah. That is where we are at. And when you talk about that, know, like, and trust factor, video is going to be able to do that in a way that pictures and posts won't, because you have tone, you have voice, you have energy, you have mannerisms, and you're able to do something that we talk about all the time, which is transcend the lens.

That's the power of video. You, it's the closest thing to cloning yourself these days. So let's lean in, lean on and utilize this hugely powerful tool to be able to get your message out there in the way that you would by speaking on a stage and a way that you would by sitting across from someone having coffee.

And this is your chance to get to people, get people to know, like, and trust you with a far greater reach. It's really, that's really amazing.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I, I totally get what you're saying. And I also understand that fear, you know, before I started this podcast, like really, I have no background at all in video production, podcasting, anything, radio, like zip.

I'm a business development person through and through. That's literally, I live and breathe it. I love it. I love business development. I think it comes through on the show, how much I care about it. But when I started the podcast, same thing. I remember being like, what, you know, what, right? Do I have to get up behind this mic and start preaching to the world about business development?

Not to mention, can I even do this? Like, I'm literally talking to a wall.

It took, it took a little bit of practice to kind of get through it, and I, I actually made a joke in my last episode where I was like, you know, listen to episode two and then listen to this episode. They are two completely different episodes. Like it's a growing experience. But I think the takeaway that I wanna give out to listeners right now is that if you're on the fence about, you know, videoing yourself, you know, doing a podcast of your own, Just jump, just jump.

You know what, your fear is worse than the reality of the challenge. Like, it's not as hard as you think talking to a microphone, talking, you know, to a video camera. It's not as hard as you think you are blowing it up bigger in your mind than it really is. And you're gonna get better every single time.

And in a world where it's gonna become critical, it's gonna become important for business, it's gonna become important to your brand. And that's something I want to get in with you later. Cause I know that you, you talk about social brand a lot, but it's go, it's going to be critical. So, If, if you have to learn something new, today's the day it really is.

It's better to learn it right now than to be in dire need in five years and having to figure it out then.

Jesse Schewchuk: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know what is on the other side of that fear is nothing but possibility. I came from a broadcast era, which is basically Mad Men started in the fifties, commercial bought time, billboards, everything was super expensive, and now you're able to directly broadcast to your audience without any middleman whatsoever.

How incredible is that? Right. You've taken out the middle, right?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Like, you know, speak to us a little bit about that. Speak to us, you know, about the broadcast industry, which you spent an absolute ton of time in. What do you think, you know, is there, is there still a gigantic difference between, you know, what a company could do on their own versus what you know, a production company might be able to do for them?

You know What is the future of, you know, of a broadcast industry or of like, anything along those lines? Do you think that it's, it's gonna be wiped out? What do you think's gonna happen there?

Jesse Schewchuk: Oh goodness. Well, I mean, I've, I've been actually a part of the broadcast era crumbling and on a lot of us from the old schools, you know, access television and city TVs and so on and so forth.

Were there when first and second and third round of layoffs were occurring where robotics came into the newsrooms and jobs were being taken over and such. You know, the power of being able to hold that phone in your hand and to be able to capture your own content in your own way and, and to be able to put it together is you can't compete with that.

But I love what you said about first episode to now episode because if you even look at an award warning television producer who was starting her own business, check out episode one of life of a producer as compared to episode 52. Yeah, I mean, I didn't know what I was doing myself either. We really needed to figure it out.

I was on a cast and crew. I ran 500 people, you know, like between actors and the different departments. So there was a role for everyone. And then there was me just trying to figure it out and creating habits. So when Dan walked into my office, well, you're gonna need to start. You're gonna need to start taking video of everywhere you go and what you do and in the car and have the GoPro set up.

And I was like, you have got to be kidding me. I do not have time for that. And that is the second thing. So first is discomfort with getting onto camera. I don't have time to do video. So that's one of the second big pain points that comes up. So we have time to brush our teeth, we have time to change habits.

Sitting around our health. I'm now drinking, you know, two glasses of lemon water before I have my coffee. That was a shift. What I needed to do is integrate, love the book, atomic Habits into my life and attach it to something else I'm already doing. When I get into the gar car and I push start and I'm about to park before I get out of the car, my phone is on a little magnetic, I put it on self record and I say, Hey, I'm here at the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce event.

I'm about to go in and check out this amazing breakfast chamber at the coffee. Come along and follow me. And it takes literally the 15 seconds to do that. But it's the habit that I created in the documenting of my process that allows me to create content and to have this amazing brand.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, no, totally.

You're, you're absolutely right. It, you know, once you understand the thing is what, what you guys are selling is the ability to understand how and when to do those things. You know, how to create essentially a video that doesn't look like just some goofball taking a video of himself that doesn't what he's doing like myself.

But yeah, like, you're totally right. Once you understand, it's like, it's like any skill. Once you know how, you know how there's no taking that from you and you can implement that skill anywhere. It's like, you know, I don't even know the level of skills that I'm learning from doing this podcast, which is.

It's funny to think about because it's like, I've been doing this for a while now. I, I feel like I've actually improved quite a bit. I've gotten pretty good at talking to this, this silly microphone, but the reality is, it was all the skills that I learned in business development and in my life of doing executive meetings and stuff.

That got me to a point where I felt like, okay, I'm gonna wing it. I'm gonna try this. And then I figured out, Hey, this actually isn't so bad. You can do a podcast. You can, you know, if you could be a, a busy professional and you can make time to do a podcast and you might even love it. Like, the reality is, it's a lot of fun.

Doing a podcast is probably one of the funnest things I've ever done. It's a lot of, there's a little bit of backend work. Absolutely. You know, you have to dedicate some time. And I'm sure with video production, it's the same thing. There's some, there's some backend work that has to be done to make a, a polished, finished product.

But as long as you enjoy what you're talking about, as long as you can find joy or find a way to smile while you're doing it, my gosh, it makes it really worth it, doesn't it, Jesse?

Jesse Schewchuk: It does. And I think that you find joy in something when bec when it becomes less frustrating. So tell me this, Kelly, now that you've done, you said we're on 38 episodes.

Have you gotten, have you gotten more efficient at it? Are you fast? Oh yeah. More confident. Do you know what you're doing? No question. You've got this.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, there's still days that I feel like, I don't know if I got this, but yeah, I, I got this.

Jesse Schewchuk: Right that's the thing about breaking through some of those barriers and fears around video is that it's gonna take you a little bit longer at first, just like anything that you're learning, you know, but you know, when you started to walk and it was getting a little bit difficult and you fell down, did you just go, well, you know what, that's not for me.

I'm just not gonna learn that. Right? No, you got up again and you kept walking, and then you kept walking and then you kept walking and it got easier. Right? And that's, yeah. Th this is the same thing with video. It will get faster. Some of the things we teach is batch producing content quick editing so that you're able to turn out content in a faster manner.

Repurposing of content. So there's a lot of folks out there have a lot of photos and things that they could be utilizing and they just don't know how or what to do with it. We, I think, are the queens of Don't Know What You don't know. Right, because we're just like flipping on those switches where people are like, oh, I never thought of that.

Oh my gosh, I didn't, you know, you just, you just dunno what you dunno. And this is a technical skill.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, yes. And, you know, you kind of hit the nail on the head. Like, there's a thousand things that I don't know, like, you know, I feel like, I feel like any expert you ha you know, has the realization that like, you know, maybe I am an expert in what I do, but I was only an expert until yesterday.

Today is a whole new day with all new technology. Like, my gosh, even with the business development world, you know, like the way that AI is just come in in different ways and being implemented in ways that I could have never fathomed. You have to, you have to have, you know, your eyes open. You have to have your eyes open.

You know, don't get into a place where you know everything. You know exactly how this needs to be done. And you got no room for growth. Believe me. If I, you know, after 15 years plus of sales and business development, if I have room for growth on a daily basis, believe me, you do too. The reality is technology is changing so quickly, and I'm sure we'll get into this a little bit later, Jesse, about how it's changing even the video side of things now, but it's the, the landscape is changing so quickly in 2023 that if you're not eyes wide open, looking at different ways to make what you're doing, more efficient, different ways to connect with your audiences, different ways to promote your products in a way that that makes sense or in a way that's more efficient, you're gonna get left behind.

You really have to keep your eyes open and I think that's where what you're selling Jesse, makes a lot of sense because if companies aren't forward thinking and trying to find ways to connect with their audiences through video, you know, in my case, through a podcast, finding ways to connect outside of just your day-to-day business.

I think they're gonna get left behind. I really don't think that, you know, in, in 2023 going up to 2030, like the reality is things are gonna be changing exponentially year over year. And you don't wanna get left too far behind because at some point, I think the barrier to entry to catch up will just get too, too high.

Jesse Schewchuk: Yeah. It's kinda like how I tell my 13 year old, you know, to do her homework and then another day goes by and she hasn't done her homework, and another day goes by and like, you know, the stack just continues to pile. Yes. And rather than dealing with it in increments and jumping in and just getting that done, 10 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day.

That it now looks like it's insurmountable. And who wants to try and tackle something that looks like it's insurmountable? I mean, as humans, we wanna achieve, we wanna succeed. And so that's where it becomes really, really overwhelming when one understands that the power of video comes from taking that first step and just doing it and knowing that it's progress over perfection.

You're going to be able to do this step-by-step just a little bit each day, and you'll get better and better.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. So, okay. Let's you know, we have a lot of, you know, new entrepreneurs or, you know, existing business owners that are listening to this show and trying to get a little bit of tidbit information.

Hopefully we're delivering, but I feel like I, I, I can almost hear the question. The question is, Jesse, we're not doing anything in video. Where the heck do we start? Like, where do we start? We're this big corporation and Yeah, sure. We paid for, you know, like a guy to come in and shoot a video for us, but like, we're not doing any internal videos.

I don't even know what I'm doing. Where, where do we start with this, Jesse?

Jesse Schewchuk: I mean, this is gonna be a totally shameless plug or shameful, however you look at it, but that's, that's when you call us. So you just identified our ideal client, right? It's those that know that they need to get into this. They're super over overwhelmed and fearful, and that's what we do.

It's, and like you said, we're the only people of our kind so far, and and that's pretty impactful. But that we, we meet with folks and talk about what those first steps are. We customize and develop training programs and curriculum to get them started in this process. But now let's kind go outside the direct sell and where do I even start.

Again, with the atomic habits, you're going to, you're going to be more successful at setting a goal that you're able to achieve. So what if you're setting a goal of doing one video a week? And that one video a week may be just the team meeting. So, you know, typically businesses will have one video a week of team meetings, ideation, things like that.

You know, set, set achievable goals. And what we always love to talk about too is focus on one platform. And so when we're talking about businesses, obviously LinkedIn will likely be the place to go. Although Facebook is still the number one, even though people think it's phasing out , and yet the youngsters are like, that's just for old, old folks.

Statistically it is still the number one. But you have your Instagram and you have your TikTok and, and that again, I think is part of the problem. When people are coming in, they're like all of the platforms, all of the videos, all of the time, and it's like, no, no. Just one platform, maybe one video a week.

When you set yourself up to succeed, then you're more likely to enjoy it. And it's that joy. It's that fun. I mean, oh my goodness. It was really frustrating and difficult at first to learn how to kinda do this all on my own. Doing the business development, I'm that person, the ceo, the visionary. I'm out there and I'm having fun with it. And it's a super great tool to meet people because when you're going around and getting video and things like that, you're like, Hey, do you wanna be in a video? I'll tag you. You get their business card, you tag them in the post, and suddenly you made a connection and you're doing video like for them that they can share.

There's relationship development happening there.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally, totally. And it's fun. Yes. Yeah. Let's get into that a little bit. Since you are on the Business Development podcast, what have been some of the more successful techniques you've been able to use to grow Modern Muse Media ? Since you're incorporation, what have you found to be truly really effective?

Jesse Schewchuk: That is, that is such a great question. So, I mean, obviously we believe in the power, like I said, of walking the talk. And so we have tips and tricks and, and lots of video. Really, really building a brand, not only for Modern Muse Media , we, but, but for Jesse as the visionary. And so we talk about something called swim lanes which I'm sure you've referenced before.

And so Modern Muse Media has its own platforms, has its own brand voice, has, you know, it's very much education and tips and tricks and value add and follow us. And we're just gonna give, give, given, pour into you until you say, yes, we wanna work with those folks. Cause they're fun, core value, they're educating core value.

You know, they're empowering core value, right? Yes. Jessie is a brand of her own as the visionary and CEO of Modern Muse Media . I'm the face, I'm out there networking. I joined a couple of organizations that have been very, very significant in the business development, but the power of video is now after seven years.

And it's a build, folks, it's a build. But now when I walk in a room, almost, I would say over 90% of the time, people come up to me and they're like, there you are, or you are everywhere, Jessie, you're everywhere. And I say, no, I'm not everywhere. That's the power of video. It just looks like I am, I'm documenting my journey.

I love to say, and this is kinda trickling into the branding and such but that's what it is. Good branding is that when you walk into a room, would you rather have someone say, who are you? Or, there you are.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty easy, pretty easy answer, right, Jesse? Okay. So we've talked a lot about the benefits of video, how video going forward for business is gonna be critical, ways that they can implement it and start implementing it.

You know, we've talked a little bit about Modern Muse Media and what, what you guys can do. We're gonna get more into that cause I definitely wanna touch a little more on what your packages and stuff are later, cuz I know I have lots of business owners listening to this right now who are gonna wanna reach out to you after this show.

But I do wanna talk a little bit about the dangers of social media and, and potentially video. Are there any that you can identify that companies might wanna be very careful with? Because I do think that's a flip side. It's like on the one side, yes, you can build this great image, but it only takes one bad video or one bad message to mess it all up.

Doesn't it help us out a little bit with that?

Jesse Schewchuk: It is incredibly important for anybody that is handling your social handles to be able to follow a brand guide. And so that's actually through our training and curriculum. One of the first things that we ensure is that you have a brand guide and a brand voice.

So examples of things, how, how things would be written, examples of what you would say. You're using the right color schemes, you have the logo on things. It's so there's consistency with that. And we even fell into that trap. We even made those mistakes. So when I started out and I, I still have contractors, quite a bit of contractors and we're shifting into the employee realm now, but I would have someone come in and be handling that and then I would have somebody else come in and be handling that.

And you would see that the variation and the change. And finally in this last year I worked with someone and we really established an what we teach, right? Which is a very strong brand. It's on this, it's on the banner stands, it's on the business card, it's on the Instagram grid. And when you see the imagery with the logo, with the background, with the color scheme and the people, The consistency with the people you really know, who Mo, who the team is at Modern, Modern Muse Media .

You, you get it. The other precaution that I would take is also being really mindful of your personal handles as well. So I do deal with a lot of expression of concern, especially with CEOs and young families and children and things like that, that we definitely wanna protect. Mm-hmm. And so I actually dealt with this before I even started the company.

So I was co-executive producer of Blackstone an award-winning television series. If you wanna check it out. It's on Amazon Prime, Netflix, CBC and APTN, and pretty incredible groundbreaking show. With a lot of controversy and a lot of fans and a lot of opinions. And I had a, my personal Facebook page was my professional Facebook page, and I started to have quite a few issues with people reaching out, expressing opinions.

This show provoked a lot of emotion and thought within First Nations communities, we were hitting the head on like really controversial issues, very gritty, very raw. And I was a new mom. So, you know, for me this was, this was a no-brainer. I now still do have a, a personal Facebook page that has very few people.

Yeah, it is just for friends and family. It is for pictures of, you know, my daughter's first day of school, all of that. It's, it's pretty locked up. Pretty private. And then I have my, My professional page. And, you know, there was also a plus of that because we were promoting the show and I was putting out stuff, and so my family and friends were just constantly bombarded by my career stuff.

And so it was really nice to kind of draw a line there. Yeah, that was, that was a smart move. I, I do not regret that decision.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. I actually did the same thing. So my, my Facebook yeah, for anyone listening, I, I, my Facebook is for my, my close friends and family. That's it. That's just, that's my space to just have my personal space.

My, my out outside world is my LinkedIn, so if you guys want to connect with me LinkedIn, shoot me an invite, shoot me messages. I'll always respond on there, but I, I'm with you, Jesse, like the, if you're a, you know, a high performance professional, you know, you got a, for an outward face or a public face, you do have to separate those out a little bit.

And I'm right with you. I did the same thing and I don't regret it at all either. I think it just, it has to be that way. It really does.

Jesse Schewchuk: Yeah. And I love what you did in regards to that separation. LinkedIn wasn't a thing back then. Oh, way back then.

Kelly Kennedy: It was, it just wasn't very good.

Jesse Schewchuk: Yes, correct.

Correct. So I love the distinction and it has my wheels turning because one of the things that I do deal with on a regular basis is people tagging the wrong profile and, and so on and so forth. Mm-hmm. So I try to do a pretty good job of like a personal, like family picture and then a professional headshot on the other one.

So it would seem obvious, but anyway, it still is worth it. It still is worth protecting that. And then also with the brand guide, protecting your brand, protecting your brand voice, and creating that consistency, which is key. We've heard that.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, consistency is critical. You know, I'll speak to it from the podcast, right?

You know, I, I've started, I started February 6th, 2023, and I've released two episodes per week since that time. I have not missed one date. I recognized very early on that one of the important things with any type of media is that if you pick a cadence, you need to follow it. There's almost nothing more important than that.

Really. The reality is I'm gonna have bad shows. I'm sure you guys have found a few that suck or that you didn't like or whatever. The reality is, not all shows are perfect, but what is important is that you are delivering week, over week, over week, and you're holding yourself to a standard. At least that was my case for podcasting.

How does that translate into video?

Jesse Schewchuk: It, it's exactly what we teach, right? And why? I said set start small. Start in digestible, tangible chunks that are, or achievable chunks, right? Yeah. And so if it's one a month or whatever that looks like, and I mean that's pretty, that's pretty small, like as far as quantity, but you want it, it's more important to set yourself up to win, to be able to meet that consistency.

Because when you amp up, then you want to be able to do that as well. And so you don't wanna put yourself in a place where it's, it's causing, again, those, those pain points, those feelings of frustration and unease and discontent because you're less likely to follow through. Right.

Kelly Kennedy: Okay. Let, let me ask you a question.

Even I've struggled with when you're maybe not feeling the motivation, maybe you've had a really tough week. Like, you know, the reality is all week I run a company too. Like the podcast is over and above my day-to-day life. It's just an extra thing that I do, right? Video, video production, I feel like for a lot of busy entrepreneurs is gonna be the same thing.

How do you keep motivated, Jesse, when you might be struggling with the motivation when you're like, ah, you know, it's Tuesday or whatever, it's time to throw out another episode. I'm just not feeling it at the moment. How do you handle that? Do you choose to just not record that day or do you push through and, and do it anyway?

What do you think?

Jesse Schewchuk: Oh goodness. I mean, it's the human experience. So I guess it just depends on the day, right? Something to go back to is our Google reviews. Reading through some of the stuff about how we're impacting people and, and using that as, I mean, that's really the why, right? Jesse I can't believe we're doing this and know some of the most resistant folks in our training programs where their arms are crossed and they're like, I'm here cause I have to be here, but I'm not gonna be able to do this.

I'm too old to do video and I'm too old for technology. And then they end up being the star of the show, you know, of their own show. That's the win for me. But we're all human. And so something that we do talk about as well is batch production of content. Now what that does is it allows for that pool to be there and having a backup so we all get sick as well.

Things happen. Life happens, right? And so what we actually work with in our programs as well is file organization prepping for content strategies. So it's not just the, the production, but it's everything around it to put you in kind of this bubble of support and success, right? How are you gonna succeed?

Well, if you have, you know, if you're head of content, a head of content by two to three months and you're having an off week, then it's gonna be okay, right? Yeah. So, just making sure we, we do love to promote batch content production. And, and really what that does is it, it gives you that time freedom, right?

Where, you know, you have a shoot date that's twice a month or whatever, and you're going through, you're shooting, you know, 10 or 12 podcasts in one day or whatever that is, or five. But then you have backup, right? For those moments where.

Kelly Kennedy: So, yeah, you're, you're gonna, you're gonna chew me out a little bit.

So I, I struggle a little bit with the batch thing. I, I understand even from a podcast standpoint, I understand. It's like, man, I should really just like record like three episodes in the future. But I, I, you know what, I have not been able to hold myself to that standard yet. But what is ahead is actually these interview episodes.

So these interview episodes, we record them on Fridays, like, we're actually on episode 36. So you're your episode right now. Recording is next Sunday's episode, which I started doing because that made a lot of sense, gave me time to kind of prepare those. And like you said, if something ever happens, there's always one ahead.

But I guess I kind of looked at it as my individual episodes. It's like, that's just on me. I can do that kind of whenever I need to do that, which usually ends up being the Monday night before the Wednesday show is when I do my recording, do my editing and upload on Tuesday, right? Mm-hmm. But Yeah, I, I, I need to do that.

I totally, I totally, I'm not, I'm not hitting, I'm just saying like, I struggle with the whole batch thing and I dunno whether it's just because of the length and the, you know, reality is at least planning a podcast episode takes some time. There's, there's a lot of thought, there's a lot of notes that go into my podcast episodes to make sure that I want to articulate as much as I can in one show.

And so I feel like with the planning to do two episodes in a row, I struggle with that a little bit.

Jesse Schewchuk: Yeah. And so it's funny that you say, I'm going to chew you out, because that's not the case. We're all extremely different. I am adult diagnosed neurodivergent. I work in a very specific way. I only have the attention span to do so much of the same thing at one given time.

So it's going to be different depending on your experience. Kelly, is it working for you?

Kelly Kennedy: It is, yeah, to to date. Although I have had days like, you know, there's, I have obvious episodes where I am sick, where, you know what? I just chose to keep going even though my voice was all messed up. But I struggled through it and you guys got an episode and I hope that it didn't suck horribly.

But that's what I've done. I've, I've essentially, like even on those days where I just wasn't feeling it, I still just came in and did it because for me, I didn't wanna let the world down. I didn't wanna let my listeners down. I wanted to deliver week over week. And what that means is not all podcast episodes are, are amazing cuz some weeks, yeah, I got a cold, or I'm dealing with, you know, bronchitis or God knows what right.

But I try to show up anyway, but that is definitely one of those scenarios where I wish that I was doing batch recording because I definitely would not have worked that day. Right, right.

Jesse Schewchuk: Yeah, it's always good to have a couple in the back pocket, you know? Yes. I think that that's the ideal situation.

So even if you could potentially are looking at starting a podcast or video production or whatever, that's, whatever that looks like. I would say if you have a launch date in mind and you're just starting to create content, maybe look at moving your launch date ahead by a month or two so that you're batch producing, even just off the top, so that you just have something there in your back pocket which which is good, so then you can remain consistent.

But like I said, it, it totally depends on. Each individual and what your work style is and what your, your brain style is and yeah, what works for you.

Kelly Kennedy: Right? Yeah, no, totally. You, you know, you hit the nail on the head though. There's no question that I would benefit from a batch production. I just haven't been able to do it yet.

It's, I, it's on my list of things to do to get a couple ahead, but we're definitely doing it with these, with these interview episodes, so that's good. At least one side of it is getting completed. Awesome. There you go. Yeah. So Jesse, I wanna talk a little bit about, you know, AI has really started to shake things up in the business development world.

You know, with regards to like, even like things like meeting summaries. We've recently at Capital introduced a meeting summary ai, and what it does is it, it essentially records our business development meetings, you know, whether that be internal, whether that be client facing, Gives us just this amazing key takeaways, notes, everything down really says like, here's the key takeaways for you, you, you, you, here's what we talked about.

Like, it's amazing what it's doing in the business development world for meetings and for like you know, weekly planning, that sort of thing. Obviously chat G P T with regards to like helping you rethink out sentences or, you know, rephrase like, heck, like I use chat G P T to essentially, like, I'll type in something that I would've typed and just said like, Hey, can you just take a look at improving this and see if I could improve the structure a little bit better?

And like, what it kicks out is unbelievable. So there are ways that it's starting to kind of seep its way into the business development world. How is how is AI starting to creep into your personal video production side of things?

Jesse Schewchuk: Immensely. This is. Tender to touch on because for those folks who are already fearful and apprehensive of the video step, thinking about AI can just be incredibly paralyzing.

And I myself experience that. So when the subject of AI comes up, there are days where I feel like I can't get to Mexico fast enough to live on a beach somewhere off the grid. Yeah. And then of course there's the reality, which is one needs to embrace the inevitable, and it's coming in and it's going exponential growth.

It's, that's more and more rapid with each year passes. Yes, of course. We have AI conversations and and discussions in our team meetings on a regular basis. We're incorporating the technology into our curriculum, especially in regards to script ideation and and script development, storyboarding, that kind of thing.

So one of the, one of the big pain points, another continues to. What am I supposed to do video on? What does it even matter? Why is anybody gonna wanna watch? Yeah. And I, and then I send them a link to one of my life of producer episodes, which is just me making my green smoothie that I walk around with all the time.

And it's just, people want to see that, that behind the scenes. So going back to the ai, it's, it's script ideation. It's very, it's a very, very helpful tool and tool also in regards to posts and writeups and descriptions and the strategy and the structure and, and some of that stuff around the social media.

It's gonna really help create efficiencies. And so we're teaching that now as a part of, of production and of content creation because, Even though there's this huge fear in and around it, it actually helps with pain point too, which is video is just gonna take so much time. So much time. Well, you know, now there's AI here to, to help.

We're gonna see a lot more of it in video editing of course as well. And yeah, even the graphic design and the animation realm. My partner and I on the weekend were taking a look at Firefly. It's absolutely unbelievable. Adobe Firefly, what what is possible and we, you know, we were typing in something funny in regards to.

Pink robot eating a banana or something like that, right? And how you're able to create these things. And you know, even in regards to your logo animation or some animation or movement that you may wanna include in your video production, this is going to be much more integrative, right? And you won't have to hire or outsource those, those roles like a graphic designer to create that for you or an animator to even create that for you.

Part of our package and programming is that we will animate your logo because you want this professional polished look. People are gonna be able to do that themselves on their own with some of the technology coming in. I hope at least for as long as we can. That we can start, just integrate it more and more into creating efficiencies and time savers for people doing video.

Yes. Yes. To carry on in my tangent. Just one last thought about AI is that as things increase with ai, there will also be the demand and the craving for the human experience. Yes. And so the counter of video or collaboration of AI and video is that I don't see AI tech technology until we have robots.

Robots in the office and such. I don't see AI tech technology there capturing that human experience. Live. Right? And so that's where the ability to content create is going to be so powerful because you do, however, see a i doing production for beer commercials already, where it's actually all auto, auto-generated.

Wow. And it's not real people. And you have these scenes, you know, with the sports teams or whatever, and they're drinking the beer and, and it's, none of them are actors. None of them are real people. And so, wow, you have that video production being done, but you won't have necessarily that actual real, genuine, authentic capture of what we we're doing as people, and we're gonna need and want that.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. That was actually gonna be my next question. Do you think that it will matter at some point, or it will be so desensitized to like fake people that like heck, they'll be able to do full movies, full TV shows mm-hmm. Without ever putting one real actor into it. Do you think that. You think that that might be where it's going?

Jesse Schewchuk: Well, like I said, I already saw that commercial and that already is where it has gone. I, you know, there's just like this hope for humankind that, that, and I mean, this is pretty intense stuff, right, Kelly? Is, is that we will always need some kind of human touch or Yes. Experience or connection or, or, or, or that brings us back to what it is to be human.

Yes. And so being that I think of myself, just, I'm going, I'm going back the 30 years, 34 years when I was 10 years old. And going this, there was magic in this box that could capture this content that we have of my mom who's gone now, and my grandparents who passed away last year. And, and that will forever live on that way.

In that real captured essence experience that is not false.

Kelly Kennedy: Mm-hmm.

Jesse Schewchuk: So I think mm-hmm. I think the word real is going to be a big part of our vernacular vocabulary day-to day going forward. And we're still, we're gonna want that. I mean, I'm gonna want that.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. No, we are gonna need it. We're gonna need it.

Mm-hmm. I think real human to human interaction, connection is a human need. It truly is. And I think the more we go down this route where there's less human interaction, Less real relationships. We're gonna see mental health suffer. I think that is unfortunately what is going to happen. But you know, the reality is I talk about this a lot on my show in a time, and you know what, like I, it's a bit of a double-edged sword because on the one hand, you do do to keep up with technology because if you do not, you're going to be left behind.

But you need to find a way to incorporate real, authentic relationships, real authentic communication with it. So I'm not advocating, you know, in my show, I talk in a time of AI and robots be a human. That is like one of the things we discuss a lot about on the show because business development, what I'm doing with this show and, and in my business for the most part is I'm going back, I'm going back to the beginning in a time when people want, you know, passive marketing just to work in a time of like social media.

We just wanna throw our ads out there and hopefully someone will come. You know, I'm saying, hold on, you know, There's still room, there's still a big, big opportunity here for you to go back to basics, to actually pick up your phone, call your customer, talk to them, ask them how their day is, connect them, go for lunch.

Go for lunch. Be be a human in a time of AI and robots. Be a human. And we advocate for that a lot. And you know, I talk about AI a lot on this show because I think it's changing the world. I think the world that we know, you know, ai, I, I foresee AI being like the advent of the smartphone, if not bigger. We had no idea what the iPhone was going to do to our worlds.

We had no clue. And I, I think it was even years after smartphones came out, we still had no idea what the long-term implications and power of them would be. You know, in your case, literally an entire business because so many people are recording on their smartphones. You know what I mean?

Jesse Schewchuk: I, I do know what you mean.

Kelly Kennedy: I think AI is like that.

Right now we're, we're at, we're at iPhone version one of ai. We can't see 15 years from now when you know when the brand new smartphones are coming out or when, you know, God knows what those new Apple goggles are gonna do, right? Like the reality is that technology is changing so quickly, we have to adapt with it.

But I think it is important that with all adaption, or with all adoption of new technologies, especially in the time of ai, to find a way to still incorporate you into those messages. If you guys are typing emails, if you guys are, you know, you, you're making posts, make sure that when you're running them through the AI, that it's not taking all of you out of it.

Put some of yourself back in there. Put some of yourself back in. Don't use the whole post. Find ways to still be a human in a time of AI and robots, and I think you're gonna be incredibly successful.

Jesse Schewchuk: I would most, most definitely agree. I do believe that there were a lot of good things that came from the pandemic, a lot of awarenesses, and that is this mental health movement and, and a huge awareness piece around that.

So as that evolves, I'm just so happy and grateful that it's on the radar now and prevalent and important, relevant, and talked about because this is really, really, like even when you are talking about it, the emotion that it brings up in me, not because I'm worried about it sinking my business it's gonna be what it's gonna be to be honest it, but I worry about the human condition and the wor and the human experience.

Very much so. So it just, I wanted to touch on that because just even the emotion that I'm feeling in and around this conversation, there is some fear there, there is some real genuine fear there.

Kelly Kennedy: My fear isn't for our generation. My fear is for the next generation. Mm-hmm. Who never understood it the other way.

I think that is the real fear of all future technology is that it's not for the people who lived with both technologies. I feel like we've lived long enough to know both sides and we can safely in some ways. Well, I say safely, I'm quotation. I don't know how safely we can do these things, but I think we can come into it with the experience to know when maybe it's gone too far and maybe take a step back where I feel like, you know, our kids.

Mm-hmm. If that's all they've ever known. Hmm. I think that's where the real danger is for all these new technologies that are really starting to maybe dehumanize a little bit. I think the real risk is to them because they won't understand the other side of it, and yeah, I don't think we know yet what that means for them.

Yeah. Daunting. Yeah, it's one of those big life philosophical questions. What does the future look like? We have no idea. I wish them the best, and I hope that I can at least educate them to say, Hey, you know, if it's starting to feel like too much, it's time to take a step back. I think maybe that might be one of the best things we can do for our kids is to teach them that it's okay to take a step back from social media, take a step back from technology and just breathe, because there's a whole nother world outside of it, which I think can be hard for them to see sometimes.

Oh, yeah. Yep. All right, Jessie, this has been an absolutely amazing show. We've learned so much about video production, about Modern Muse Media , and about you. Thank you so much for coming on and showcasing this amazing show. Talk to my business owners quickly before we before we kind of take a step back and just, you know, if I'm, if you're, if you are a business owner and you are struggling with the video aspect of your business, you don't really know where to start, or heck, maybe you bought a camera, you just don't really know what to do with it.

Jesse, what kind of options can you provide for them? With Modern Muse Media.

Jesse Schewchuk: We have customized choose your own adventure training. So really if you're just wanting, you know, a three hour tutorial on TikTok, or you wanna dive in into one of our 30 hour social media video training programs. We also have online course video training programs.

So figuring out how to build a home set self record create residual income by launching your own video series. We really cover the gamut. Some folks we just do equipment training with and, and so on and so forth. So, We, we really come in with a very customized approach because this is a technical specialized skill.

I like to parallel it with driver driver's ed. So you have somebody who is going to be sitting in the car with you, showing you how to adjust the rear view mirror and you know where to put the key, or maybe if it's a button start, how hard to push the gas, how to shift the gears, all of those things. So, and we can do our, some of our training virtually as well.

You can transcend the lens. I did global workshops actually during the pandemic in regards to some video production training. So we are focused primarily on Alberta. And and in Alberta there are some grants that are available. There is a grant actually that's available to offset some of the costs, but it's kinda like based on the books that I loved when I was a kid and you're like, you know, you get to choose your own adventure because everybody's coming in with different skills.

Some people know how to find the camera on their phone. Some people's never taken a video before and some people are looking for intermediate editing, whatever the case. That's what we do and we, we just absolutely love it. We're super passionate about really helping people conquer some of those spheres, get over and get past those pain points so they can be sharing their story through video on a regular basis.

Kelly Kennedy: That's amazing. Jesse, what's the best way for them to get ahold of you?

Jesse Schewchuk: Yeah, just through our website. Super straightforward. So my company, modern Muse Media, is that we are muses. So we are an all female team. I love to say goddesses that focus on the art form of video. So we're there to empower you to do it on your own so, modernmusemedia.ca.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Awesome, awesome. This has been episode 38 with President and CEO of Modern Muse Media. Jesse Schewchuk. Jesse, it's amazing to have you on the show. Thank you again for coming. If you've enjoyed this show, please follow, like, subscribe on your platform of choice and if you guys are looking for any of your own business development help, we can help you.

Capital business development, www.capitalbd.ca . We can help with any type of b2b or B2B business development that you guys may require. It's been absolutely amazing. Thank you for joining us, and we will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry, and founded his own business development firm in 2020. His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website@ www.capitalbd.ca . See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.