SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:00]

[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Hello, folks. Welcome to Social Media News Live. I’m Jeff Sieh, and you’re not.

[00:00:04] Katie Fawkes: And this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the world of social media and more.

[00:00:10] Jeff Sieh: Have you ever found yourself pondering how to truly elevate your brand? Maybe you’re intrigued by the secrets behind…

Successful branding and design, or maybe you’re looking to transform your passion into a distinctive and admired brand. If those questions strike a chord with you today, then you’re in for a special treat, because today we are beyond excited to host a guest who has successfully navigated this path. He’s a maestro of branding and design who turned his journey from insurance sales to a million dollar freelance design business into a source of inspiration for many.

Marshall’s going to be sharing his journey, his insights, and his hot top tips for successful branding and design. So grab a cup of coffee, settle in and gear up for an episode brimming with insights and inspiration. So let’s dive right in Marshall. How are

[00:00:56] Marshall Fox: you doing today? I am [00:01:00] phenomenal. I’m phenomenal.

This came up from sunny Florida to Maryland, but it’s hot up here too. So it’s kind of giving Florida vibes at least this week.

[00:01:09] Jeff Sieh: I was telling them before, if you guys hear my noise gate, like if you listen to the podcast, I have like two, two air conditioners and a fan going on me because it is hot here in Texas.

We’re gonna power for through because we have power. That’s all that matters. So, yes anyway I’m talking to Marshall today, but I want to let you guys know that he is gonna be speaking at Creator camp and we’re gonna be talking about that later on today kind of towards the end I’m going to show you guys a commercial But if you want to know more about this, you can go to Ecamm.

tv forward slash creator camp Marshall is going to be one of He’s going to be training there. I’m one of the camp counselors. It’s October 11th through 13th. If you want to find out more, once again, go to ecamm. tv forward slash creator camp. I am so excited for this. I have always wanted to do a camp like this.

Katie has put it together. There’s so much fun stuff. Katie, just tell a little [00:02:00] bit about what’s going on

[00:02:01] Marshall Fox: in Creator Camp.

[00:02:02] Katie Fawkes: Oh my gosh. So we have five hands on workshops that are camp cabins are going to be working their way through on a circuit. So if you want to really get to know other creators, other entrepreneurs and video professionals, this is the experience for you.

We’re keeping it really small, really intentional. And it’s just going to be a lot of fun where we forced Jeff to be a camp counselor. So, which has been tricky because we have a bunch of camp counselors and they’re like, well, what do you need us to do? We’re here to teach. And I’m like, nope. We’re you’re here to mentor.

You’re going to bring your cabin from one session to the to the next. And it’s just going to be really hands on. The hope is that everyone will leave this experience not only with a set of skills, but also with the contacts and the people that you can ask questions to and build your own community long after camp is over.

So I’m really excited about it.

[00:02:56] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. And Marshall, why don’t you give a little, I mean, I’m going to go to a session because [00:03:00] I’m a Marshall Fox fan. And I mean, I’m so excited. And then there’s a lot of Marshall Fox fans here in the audience as well. But what do you give a little tease about what you’re going to be training people on at

[00:03:10] Marshall Fox: Creator Camp?

Well, honestly, this episode is going to be talking about my, my lane of brilliance, which is branding. So that we’re going to be doing you know, creating a live show branding that From scratch, but you’ll leave there with some assets that you can use and you can put into action right away. So, yeah, I’m excited and I’m teaming up with Ana and Fulgens.

So we’re going to tag team our workshop. And they’re going to be talking about equipment and how to use certain equipment. So, I’m, I’m, I’m excited about it. And if you haven’t registered, you need to. And a little secret, I think it may be sold out y’all, but you may, you may have a sliver, a sliver, a tiny.

Chance to register quickly to join us. So [00:04:00] yeah, you gotta get in there. You gotta be in the building. Yeah, and even if you,

[00:04:03] Jeff Sieh: if it’s sold out, you can be on the wait list. Because, I mean, people are excited about this. And we even got Mr. Paul Duncan saying, I’m really excited about Crater Camp. Can’t wait to meet everyone.

Paul, I think it’ll be the first time I get to meet you in real life. That will be a pleasure. So I’m looking forward to that. So I know Marshall doesn’t want to, he teased a little bit, but let me, if you don’t know who Marshall is, let me introduce you to him. If he. You know, because you don’t like to talk about yourself a lot, but he’s a graphic designer, content creator, and CEO of 120 Design Studio, a boutique design form, design firm, which specializes in helping seven figure professional speakers in two areas where they consistently need, they tend to fall short, and they need branding and online presence, and his keen sense of design and attention to detail helps his clients increase brand awareness, credibility, and sales.

And he recently surpassed the 1 million revenue milestone and he has shifted into coaching other freelance designers in the areas of [00:05:00] mindset, productivity, and business through his private community, signature program, YouTube channel, and podcast. So he is also a proud Ecamm ambassador, and when he isn’t sipping coffee and obsessing over color palettes, he could probably be found in line somewhere at Universal Studios, which we chatted about earlier today.

Once again, so excited. Marshall’s here. So let’s just dump it. Dive right into this because I know a lot of people have questions. I want to pick your brain. That’s what I love about the show. So we’re going to talk about like right off the beginning. Marshall, your kind of journey to success. Can you kind of share with us your journey from selling insurance door to door to becoming like a successful graphic designer and business coach?

[00:05:39] Marshall Fox: Yeah, absolutely. So the stage is, is 2016, the summer of 2016. I will never forget it. Y’all I’m selling insurance. I sell final expense insurance to seniors. So we talking small policies so they can pretty much have something for their families to be able to, to have a funeral with. To be honest, so it wasn’t the most [00:06:00] glamorous career, but I honestly had, had, had a lot of fun doing it because I was a young, fresh face, you know, knocking on doors and, you know, sitting there with seniors and, you know, they’re telling me their stories and things of that nature, but I had a couple of great months and then I fell flat on my face financially I won’t get into the details, but you have to buy leads.

So people that see the commercial and call and say, Hey, I want some more information. Yeah. The more information is me. I show up to your door. I kind of unexpectedly was like, Hey, you request some information. I’m here to give it to you. So I bought a batch of leads. It’s kind of expensive. And I just could, for some reason, this batch, I just couldn’t get a return on investment.

No one let me in to sell him a policy. So I bought more leads and kind of dug myself into a bit of a hole. And this is the first time and I came up middle class, you know, never missed a meal. We weren’t rich by any means, but yeah. Never really saw a financial struggle, but this is just the first time in my adult life where I’m like, okay, this is getting [00:07:00] real.

Like they’re calling to try to repossess the car and bills are falling behind. My credit’s getting torn to shreds and I was at a crossroads. Like, do I keep going or do I make a pivot? So my wife first, she said, you know, I’ll go back to work and help out because she, she was a stay at home mom at the time we had two kids.

I said, no, I can’t have you do that. You know, I’m more of a traditional husband. I’m like, I want my, my wife does not have to work out, you know, bring home the bacon, right? So, and she’s actually the one that say, Hey, why don’t you try graphic design? You know, you, you, you’ve done some marketing materials for your insurance business.

Why don’t you do that for clients? You seem to have an eye for it. And I gave her every excuse in the book. I said, you know, I didn’t go to school for it. I don’t have any experience. I haven’t seen anybody like me in this space. I’m like. What’s the average salary? I googled that. It was like 45k a year. I’m like, I can’t feed my family with that.

I had million dollar dreams, y’all. Like to, to, to build a massive insurance agency with my father who had been in the industry [00:08:00] for a while. So I just didn’t see a way forward in graphic design for me, at least not in a way that could feed my family. But I didn’t have anything to lose. So I said, you know what?

I’ll go for it. So I actually approached someone on Facebook in a community and I said, hey man, it looks like your logo could use some work for your business. You mind if I, Work on a couple of designs for you. You know, I’m trying to build my portfolio that would be completely pro bono. I just ask that, you know, if you, if you like what I do for you, that you just share it with some folks and let them know, you know, just send them my way, right?

Give me a good testimonial too, of course, if, if you like what I do. So I did a couple of concepts for him and he didn’t like two of them, but he really gravitated towards one of them. So we refined that and when he shared that within the community that we’re both a part of and on LinkedIn All the flame emojis you can imagine.

Oh, that’s fire. I want, you know, I need, I need, I need a logo. And then somebody said, I need a book, a book cover. So I, you know, I got a couple clients that way. And then those [00:09:00] clients referred me to other clients. Next thing you know, I was doing a website. So everything I was doing was really the first time I was doing it.

So I was feeling forward. I was just using the tools that I had. I didn’t even have the Adobe suite at the time. I was using, using the Affinity suite, which I still use to this day and I love. But I do use the Adobe suite now. But I looked back three months later after I started and I had made about almost 20 grand.

So I’m like, okay, this is something. I don’t know what it is, but I think, you know, if this continues, this trend continues throughout, you know, for a full 12 months, it could be an actual career. So that’s kind of how I got started. But fast forward six, almost seven years later, you know, done over 1. 2 million in the space.

And it’s just me and, you know, my wife helps with the business and I have my right hand man, his name is Joe. He’s pivotal. He’s, he’s critical to my business. You know, he does a lot of the dirty work if you will, but it’s just us man. So it’s been, it’s been a true blessing to my family. And [00:10:00] I, like, like you mentioned earlier, I’ve been I don’t want to say pivoting, but I’ve, I’ve been doing a lot more coaching as well because I see a lot of designers who are way more talented than I am.

They’re struggling. They’re struggling financially. And they, they had, they, it’s like they’re starving artists. They’re not able to feed their families. And I’m like, you have, you’re making certain mistakes, you know, I won’t get into all the mistakes right now, but things that you can do to clean up your business to, to be able to do this full time at a high level sustainably.

So, I don’t know, it was a lot, but that’s kind of how I got into this space. Well, that’s,

[00:10:33] Jeff Sieh: that’s awesome. Wow. In perseverance, I mean, what you, I mean, you had to, you know, a lot of people just throw up their hands and go, eh, I don’t, you know, I’ll just go. To the nine to five or whatever, but you you said no, I’ll give it a shot.

So that’s really really cool So you had some question

[00:10:52] Marshall Fox: Katie?

[00:10:53] Katie Fawkes: Yeah. I mean, I’m sure that there were a ton of challenges as you were kind of making that transition over from insurance into design. [00:11:00] What, what were a couple of them and how did you overcome them?

[00:11:04] Marshall Fox: Yeah, absolutely. So a big one, to be honest, I had a lot of guilt because I had joined, got my insurance license and I joined my father on this, on this insurance journey.

And I, I feel like I kind of left him high and dry when I, when I made the pivot, but he was like, man, go forward, do your thing. You know, I, I, I’m I’m blessed with very supportive parents. So they just want to see me win, right? And they just want to want me to be able to to provide for my family. So it doesn’t fall on them.

Like that’s what any parents want. Any parent wants, right? So, so, you know, but in, in also in a transition, me not knowing what the next step is, what it should be, what it looks like. So, I did a lot of failing, you know, I took on way more than I should have early on. But on the flip side I was able to get 10, 000 hours into, put 10, 000 hours into my craft in about three and a half years and I was able to [00:12:00] learn from a lot of those mistakes so I can make adjustments going forward.

I had one project I worked on for about two years because of scope creep and I didn’t define expectations and set have a set amount of revisions and. You know, when I should expect to hear back from the client with their feedback, so they would go like two or three months without me hearing from them.

They would show back up like, Hey, let’s do this. All right. So I learned from all of those all of those things so I can change the way I do business going forward. And even, you know, a lot of designers right now, they overpromise and under deliver, right? I fell into that trap before taking on way more, not wanting to say no.

But now it’s like I know exactly what to do and what not to do and a lot of those clients They gave me grace early on when they could have given me something less than five stars, but they still gave me five stars So I really appreciate their patience, but I was always honest with my clients letting them know Look, I don’t have a ton of experience doing this.

So you really taking a risk? This is a gamble working with me, but I want to [00:13:00] make sure you’re 120% satisfied When you leave here with me, you know, that’s where the 120 comes from. The one I was going to say is that where the name comes from? Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to Eric Thomas. As you know, he’s a motivational speaker.

He has the whole 120 philosophy just given 120%. It’s going above and beyond that extra mile. So that’s kind of where that stems from. But yeah, learned, learned a lot. Failed, failed, a lot of failing early on. But, you know, just learning from those adjustments and not letting it defeat me, looking at them as lessons.

So one of the

[00:13:30] Jeff Sieh: things you said was you fell forward, which I really like, or you fell forward. And I think that’s one of the things that like, yeah, you’re going to, if you’re doing this journey, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to make significant mistakes. Things will not go right. You will do stupid things financially.

You’ll say stupid things to clients. And, but saying like, and what I get from you is the grace and the understanding, like, listen, man, I, I know I screwed up. And being that transparency will go a long way with like forgiveness with during those times that you mess [00:14:00] up. So one of the things I want to dive into because it’s when you read it, you’re like, what?

And you, so that 1 million in revenue as a freelance designer, I know a lot of freelance designers. They hear that number and like, what, what did he do? Did he get like IBM or like, how did this happen? What strategies did you employ to, I mean, you just didn’t land a 1 million client. There was a lead up to that.

So what strategies did you use to get to that level?

[00:14:30] Marshall Fox: Yeah, there, there’s so many strategies, but a big one, and I know it sounds cliche and people don’t like to hear it, but it’s niching down, right. It’s niching down. I served a particular niche or niche very early on. So I, like, like you see right now, I serve seven, eight figure speakers, coaches, consultants.

But earlier, earlier on, they weren’t necessarily at that level, but they were still in that space. So there was, there was still the speaker, author, coaches and consultants. So I had a [00:15:00] good stronghold, had a, I had a, it’s almost like a stranglehold on, on that niche. So like, for example, on facebook, you know, sometimes you’ll see people that say, hey, tag a graphic designer.

I need Whatever, right? And 40 people will be tagged, right? But I will be tagged by a couple people. And if you go on to my site, if you click onto my site, you would say they would say, Hey, I serve speakers. I’m a graphic designer who serve speakers. So whether you need a book cover, business cards, table cover with retractable banner, website booking site, I’m your guy.

So because I spoke to a particular target market, a particular audience. I got a long hard look above everybody else because they were serving everybody. So it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a ton of experience. It didn’t matter that I didn’t have a ton of followers and it still doesn’t to this day.

I got a long hard look because I spoke to them. So I spoke directly to who they are and their pain points and challenges. So I met them where they are. And you [00:16:00] know, just by having a niche, I come across as an expert, whether I, whether I am or I’m not. It remains to be seen, right, but I showed up like I’m an expert.

So that really helped early on. So I kind of, I got a lot of clients and mind you, they’re not spending a ton of money, right? And also, this is another strategy. I came in a little higher than the average designer. I think when I started, logos were about between 250 and 350. You know, so, you know, other designs would charge maybe 50, 100 just getting started.

But I came in a little higher. So and the thing is, and I tell I tell people this all the time, I was at a bit of an advantage revenue wise, business wise, because I had specific goals to provide for my family with this. It’s not like, oh, I’m just a. I just love designing and I, I do enjoy it, but it’s not like I was just sitting around designing for no money.

I have very specific goals. So [00:17:00] that put me at an advantage over the designers who are scared to charge what they’re worth just because they just love to do it and they would do it for free. Right. So, but now that I charge what I’m worth, I’m able to do those passion projects and take on, you know, the family favors and just do it for fun because.

The revenue, that’s not an issue, you know, so, you know, as far as me, my family’s well taken care of, so I can do what I want in terms of the free stuff and the passion project. So, but yeah, I hope that answers the question.

[00:17:29] Jeff Sieh: Just real quick, Katie, and then I’ll jump to you. Yeah. I want to ask, like, how did you just, did, did you have a client just out of the grab bag of I’m going to do design that was a speaker and then you decided to go down that road?

Or was it very specific that you went? I’m going to do speakers from the very beginning. Do you see what I mean? Because a lot of times people really don’t know what they should niche or niche down to. And it sounds like you found out really quickly. So I’m interested in that process.

[00:17:56] Marshall Fox: Well, what happened was, and I, and I, when I coach designers, I shared this with [00:18:00] them as well.

You need to have a large enough data sample to figure it out, figure out who you enjoy working with the most. Who truly values what you do. Like they let you do your job, no handholding and micromanaging. And who has the means to pay you what you’re worth and you think you’re worth. So those are the, the, that’s the trifecta that you need to have.

So I had about a hundred clients early on, you know, within the first, you know, several months and I had a large enough data sample to kind of sift through, okay, a couple real estate agents, couple. businesses, a couple of hair salons, a few speakers out of that group. I like working with the speakers the most, you know, they give me, you know, they don’t give me a hassle when it comes to the payment.

I actually enjoy working with them. They let me do my job. So I decided to go down that, that road. So that’s when I kind of, I don’t want to say rebranded, but I tailored my copy and my marketing message to that audience. And then it just became a. You know, a snowball because they have friends and then they have friends, [00:19:00] you know, colleagues that, that they, that they are associated with and they would just all send them my way.

So, being niched down, it really helped to, to grow the business a lot more rapidly than if I was just serving everybody for a long time.

[00:19:16] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. That’s, that’s really, I think, interesting that that data set thing, because a lot of people just pick something. Yeah. And I’m like, ah, that didn’t work. Now I got to start over.

So getting that data set, I think is important. Okay. Yeah. Can

[00:19:28] Katie Fawkes: you can you tell us can you tell us about a significant turning point in your

[00:19:32] Marshall Fox: career? So when I think about a turning point, so I’m thinking about 2019 I had been making six figures for a couple years, but it was a little stagnant, to be honest, probably around the 130, 140 range.

But I felt like at the end of the year, I was just working way too hard for that money. Way too hard. So I said, I want to work with less [00:20:00] clients, but charge more. So how do I do that? I said, you know what? I need to elevate within this niche. I know they’re higher level speakers in this space with bigger budgets.

So what I did was, and I call it the Fox freelance formula, and I did it when I first started. So you already have a preview. I found someone who I admired. I knew that they were a heavy hitter in the speaking, the speaking space. They knew of me. And I could tell that they were well liked and respected amongst their peers, amongst their, their followers.

They didn’t have a ton of followers at the time either. I was maybe about 10 to 12 K, but I’m like, this person is the real deal. People are really engaged in their content. Like, you know, you can go to some people’s page. They may have thousands, hundreds of thousands of followers, but they only, they don’t have that many likes and that many comments.

But this person didn’t have that many followers, but they had tons and tons of comments and likes and people commenting. So, I reached out to them and did the same thing I did with the gentleman at the [00:21:00] beginning of my career and I said, Hey, would you be open to a complete rebrand, a brand new website?

We’re gonna flip all of your marketing materials, your designs And you know, we can even do a strategy session if you come to my place and we can film it, it would be awesome. Completely pro bono at that, at that time it was worth about 15 grand. Like that’s what I would have charged for something like that.

And. Of course you say yes, of course, right? So, by doing that you know, we did her project. She actually came up, we filmed, you know, we did like a little whiteboard session. So it’s still on the website to this day, on my website, 120designstudio. com. And she sat there and kind of gave a phenomenal testimonial before we even did any work.

Why? Because of the law of reciprocity. Not that I had like, sinister motives or anything like that, but I was very Intentional about wanting to have her in my portfolio because I knew she was the type of [00:22:00] client that I would want to attract More of so yeah, this is the end of 2019 This is the holiday season very busy because all of my clients they’re ready They’re trying to rebrand and they want everything to be fresh for the new year So I really didn’t have the time to do anything for free, right?

I didn’t, but we knocked it out. Anyway, we pushed through and then, you know, we launched it at the top of 2020 and what happens at the top of 2020, the pandemic, right? So while most graphic designers businesses were shriveling up. Mine was exploding because I had her in my portfolio and there are a lot of new course creators a lot of new coaches and speakers at that time that whose businesses were also exploding.

You know, everybody’s home. They’re learning more. They’re on YouTube more. So, a lot of new millionaires and who’s there to say, hey, I serve you. Me. I was, I was there. I was, I was there and I was prepared to serve those clients. So with all these [00:23:00] new millionaires and all these new coaches that, that wanted a specialist, somebody who works with them, who they could trust when, when I tell you this client, she was my number one ambassador because she just got this new rebrand, which she was excited about, you know, I’m getting booked and things are exploding.

She was more than willing to share me with her audience. So that was a clear turning point in my career. And I was able to use that lesson and, you know, you can take that rinse and repeat. So just to tie a bow on it. What you want to do is, you know, do something for free or discounted, but for a specific person, you have to strategically reach out to them, not vice versa, because the client that says, Hey, do this for me for free for exposure that usually never works out.

No, never. But if you’re intentional about selecting who you would like to work with to get in your portfolio, primarily, that usually will work out. So do something for free or discounted. In return, you’re looking for a dope portfolio piece. That’s number one, a phenomenal review. Testimonial if it’s on [00:24:00] video, that’s awesome because you know, videos is king these days and queen.

So you want a dope portfolio piece, a phenomenal review or testimonial. You want referrals and you also want to turn that free client into a paid client. You know, at some point, you know, if they want to come back to you, it’s like, look, it’s not going to be free going forward, of course. But, you know, you know, usually you would have some sort of relationship at that point.

But when they have further design needs, they’ll come back to you. So you’re able to rinse and repeat. And you do that as many times as you need in order to build your portfolio and build your business. So don’t just get stuck doing things for free all the time But I was very intentional about what I wanted out of that.

So it was like scratch my back. I scratch yours So that was a clear turning point because then we kind of stratosphere then we went to the 200 250k a year range from that point and I was working a lot less for a double, you know So that was the turning point so I think that’s interesting

[00:24:50] Jeff Sieh: because you didn’t have to really scale like that’s one of the things that always scares people is that Instead of scaling, you increase your prices.

So you were making more money. And not doing as much work [00:25:00] that you didn’t want to do. So that’s very, very cool. Right. Yeah. It’s, it’s funny you mention that. Cause I, the, the way that you gave stuff away to get, cause that’s what, how I got kind of started as well. And this is, we have a, a drinking game here.

Whenever I mention Google Plus, Chris Stone always takes a drink. But on Google Plus, I was doing a lot of free videos for people. That’s, and, and like for big names, like they would do something, I would take their quotes and put them together in a cool thing and send it to them. And that’s how it elevated.

Got to me to what, where I could start doing some really good business. MacGyver says this is some really great growth strategies. Leveraging existing networks is a, is very, very smart. I

[00:25:39] Katie Fawkes: totally agree. But you made, I think what’s really cool about this example, and I think one thing that People forget it in this process because I think a lot of people do something similar, but Marshall, you’re fantastic at and I felt this way from the moment we started working together with the Ecamm projects.

You, you come into that making that person feel special because you’ve [00:26:00] You, you want to work with them. And so, you know, it’s like not, it’s not just like, Hey, I want to do this for free with you because I, you know, I really need to grow my portfolio. It’s like, I want to work with you. I’m going to over deliver and make this entire experience feel awesome.

And like, so on the other side, like, you know. I mean, and I think I’ve told you this before, but even on the Ecamm side, like within some reason, but you could, you could charge us just about anything and we’d be like, yeah, absolutely, because we know that the work that you create is exactly what we expect and want and is awesome and suits our customers.

We feel like you get us and you like us and you want to work with us. Like you’ve, you’ve gone above and beyond to make us feel special. And I think that. Part is something that people often miss in that free ask. It’s like, you know, I have lots of people that come and offer to do free, you know, free content for Ecamm, but it’s, they don’t necessarily know what they want to get out of it.

And they don’t really know how to kind of [00:27:00] deliver that overall experience. Like if you’re going to sacrifice that and, you know, not get paid for that, then yeah, you want to, you want to make it. So that you will get paid next time and you will get, you know, you will get those relationships and those future clients out of it.

[00:27:13] Marshall Fox: So,

[00:27:14] Jeff Sieh: yeah. It’s almost like Steve Martin said, Steve Martin said like, be so good you can’t be ignored or something to that effect. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so Marshall, you can have this recording after because she did what she

[00:27:24] Marshall Fox: said there. You can, you know, charge anything. I was already thinking about it.

Yeah. I was like, that’s it right there. That’s a lesson for any, any service provider, graphic designer or what have you. Is one you have to, of course, be a person of integrity at all times, and you have to deliver at a high level consistently, right? And don’t just look at your client as a check, look at them as a partner, you know, you’re entering into a relationship.

And with me. nine times out of 10 when clients work with me, it’s the most money they’ve spent on a particular thing, right? Just like someone who walked into a Ferrari dealership for the first time and [00:28:00] gets a Ferrari. Not to say I’m a Ferrari, but it’s probably their first time unless they’re collected.

But at some point there’s a first time, right? So I want to make sure that They feel like by the end of the engagement that they got to steal, you know, as opposed to like, they go into a thing, Oh, this is kind of expensive, but by the end of it, they’re like, Oh, we actually got to steal. So that’s, that’s what I’m always thinking about.

So you want to deliver at such a high level that. The testimony or the review will come organically, naturally, just like Katie just just did for me. I’m like, oh, I’m gonna cut that up and put it on the website. And I didn’t ask her for that. She just said it naturally. So, Katie, thank you for that. Of course,

[00:28:38] Katie Fawkes: anytime.

No, I just like it. I work with a lot of influencers. And I really think like the more you and I were together, Marshall, the more I realized that It is that, that piece of it is that kind of like over delivering, really understanding your customer and really being like very clear and intentional. So if you’re, if you’re watching and listening, [00:29:00] I really think that that’s, that’s the magic.

And I didn’t even know that that’s what it was. And you know, and until we’ve worked together longer, but it, it does, it makes a huge difference and it stands out.

[00:29:10] Marshall Fox: So it’s, it’s important. Very true. Really quickly, I know we got other questions to get to, but something that has helped me a lot, and you know, as a creative, I’m in my head a lot, I probably overthink way more than I should, but I’m always thinking, you can get replaced, Marshall, today’s the day, you can get replaced.

Right? So it’s like, what do I do to avoid that? Because I’m a provider, I’m a husband, I’m a father, we have four kids, we have two residences, I can’t afford that. So I have to operate at a certain level where I’m not, I don’t get like, dazical, I don’t get comfortable. I make myself uncomfortable, even if just in my head was like, bro, you can get replaced, we have A.

I. s running rampant, I know we’ll get into that, but what will happen? What’s your plan B going to be if you do get replaced? So I have to make sure I’m not going to get replaced, right? So, part of that is trying to make the alternative irrelevant. Yeah, you [00:30:00] would

[00:30:00] Jeff Sieh: be so good that it would hurt more to replace you.

you know, then it would, you know, continue to pay your, your services, yeah. So, Mr. Cameron, so he, so he, thank you for giving me the, the correct quote, be so good, they can’t ignore you, Steve Martin, thank you for that, but that, that is so, so true. So, let’s jump into some design things. So, I want to talk about designing your brand.

For someone who’s just starting out, because if you look at Marshall’s stuff, you’re like, whoa, this is clean, this is great, this is the Ferrari of design like he was talking about earlier. So, So, what are some essential design skills, like if people are just starting into design or they want to take it to the next level, can you recommend any resources or platforms where people can go, because it sounds like, I mean, you were doing insurance and you may have dabbled with design a little bit, but then you kind of jumped all in, and I’m sure you have a bunch of resources that you could tell people in the same kind of space.

[00:30:51] Marshall Fox: Yeah, absolutely. So, one, and people don’t like to admit this, or, I don’t know, these days it seems like people, they just walk on eggshells, but you have to have an [00:31:00] eye for design. First and foremost that’s my personal opinion, at least to do this sustainably over a long period of time and do it at a high level at a way that you can have a tangible impact and you can have your clients feel good about what you did for them and also be able to make an impact.

So, for example, with me, my clients are speakers, so it may be signage, it may be a book that’s going to be in the hands of thousands and thousands of people that are look will look to change their lives. So with that in mind. You have to have an eye for design first of all, because I’ve worked with other designers and I’ve seen folks that I can give them all the feedback in the world and they still can’t get it.

So that’s first and foremost, you have to have a natural eye for design. Not to say you have to be gifted, but you have to know what looks good, what doesn’t look good, simple things like alignment, spacing, you know, you know, having two to three. You know, colors in the logo, not more, not like 17 colors and all the [00:32:00] different kinds of fonts on your website, like consistency, simple things like that.

But as far as resources go, I highly recommend something like Skillshare or I believe it’s called LinkedIn Learning Now Domestika with a K. Those are different services that you can use to learn things like Illustrator. I’m gonna jump right into Adobe Illustrator first and foremost and then Photoshop.

For some reason, a lot of designers that I coach, they create logos, but they do not like to do them in Illustrator. And Illustrator is a vector based design program, and Photoshop is a raster based design program, primarily for photo manipulation. So they will create logos in Photoshop, but then they don’t have the appropriate files, and things just aren’t right.

So, I know Illustrator can be a little intimidating, but it’s a necessity. You know, at least a vector based, you know, a vector based design program like Illustrator. So I would learn that first [00:33:00] because once you learn that, a lot of things become easier. So you just don’t want to cut corners because that’ll only get you so far.

So I highly recommend going to Skillshare, sign up for a free trial, believe it’s 30 days. You can learn what you need, cancel it before the trial is up if you need to. I don’t recommend doing that, but you could absolutely, absolutely do that. Get on Skillshare, learn that. It may be three or four hours, you know, of course, and then you’ll be good to go, but always be learning, improving.

Also, I recommend, I have five graphic design books I recommend. I’ll share one of them with you. It’s called Burn Your Portfolio. Stuff They Don’t Teach In Design School, But Should. It’s by Michael Janda. It’s a phenomenal book. I would get that book. Go to Skillshare, learn Illustrator, Photoshop. And then grab, bring your portfolio stuff.

They don’t teach in design school, but should by Michael Janda. And that’ll be, that’ll give you a really good foundation to, to have a a [00:34:00] sustainable graphic design business. Hmm.

[00:34:03] Jeff Sieh: Very, very cool. So, and we’ve got some great questions and we’re going to get to that in the next section. We’re talking about the actual like some questions about some tools and live video and stuff.

Katie, can you take that next question about the businesses?

[00:34:17] Katie Fawkes: Yeah, so when should a business consider hiring a designer, a professional designer? And what should they look for when they’re hiring one?

[00:34:23] Marshall Fox: Yeah, it really just depends on where you are in your business. And I have a bit of an unconventional answer because I believe a lot of businesses, the majority of businesses when they first start out, you may not need a graphic designer, at least a high level graphic designer.

So I don’t recommend you spend money, a ton of money on graphics and design. before you’ve made money in your business. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Like you have actual startups with funding and they may have raised a million dollars, a couple million dollars. In that case, yeah, they could spend five, ten, twenty grand on design.

But in most cases, you don’t need to do that. Whether [00:35:00] you do it yourself on Canva or, you know, Fiverr. You know, a lot of designers don’t like when I talk about Fiverr and I have a love hate relationship with it myself. But, you know, Fiverr, do it yourself, friends, family, or whatever. You have to go through a, get it out the mud stage, right?

Where you have to see, is this thing viable? Am I even going to be doing this in six months, whatever the business is. Let’s say you just started a clothing brand or something like that. Am I really, is this something I’m really going to do? And so a lot of my clients, at least the ones that I work with now, seven, eight figures.

They got to that point without a professional designer, to be honest with you. They, but once they get to that point, they’re like, okay, now I need to invest. I need to make sure that the level of my branding, my design is at the same level of the products and services that I sell. Cause they’ll get there and things will be out of alignment.

So they have to get in alignment. So that’s when they hire me and then I bring it up to that standard that they’re at in the rest of their business. So yeah, you don’t, you don’t [00:36:00] need to spend a ton of money but you could hire their levels of clients and levels of designers. So you may, may just need to find the designer that’s on your level.

So what should you look for? So let’s say you’re just starting out, spend a few hundred dollars, spend two, two, three, maybe 500 on your branding. You don’t necessarily need to spend five, 10 K on your branding, but you have to realize what you’re signing up, what you’re getting. So it may not be as high of quality.

But it’ll still be something that’ll hold you over. And the thing is, your product or service should do most of the marketing for you. Most of the talking, right? Whatever business is, whatever your business is, if your product or service is good, you will make sales. It is what it is, right? So you already have the stake, and you just need a little sizzle, but the sizzle doesn’t even matter at that point if the stake is really good.

At that level. Okay, so, things that you should ask your graphic designers, just, just let them, you know, ask them how much experience do you have, what tools do you use you know, how do you accept payment, [00:37:00] are you using contracts you know, do you have, you, you know, a client portal, things of that nature, it’s not necessarily important, important at that stage, but yeah, those are the few things that you should ask them, you should just have a good understanding Thank you.

You know, what their process is like, when should you receive designs back by things like that, you know, you just don’t ever want to be call it WWW, like worry, wonder, I forget what the third W is, but you don’t ever want to be in that space where you’re just sitting around wondering what’s going on with your project, when is it coming, who knows, right?

You just always want to be in the loop. So, yeah, that’s all the things you should add. So,

[00:37:41] Jeff Sieh: this is a, this is gonna be good and hope you don’t say Comic Sans. But what, what are some common design mistakes that businesses make in their branding? Like what do they usually overlook or a common mistake or something like, you know, that’s the first thing I fix

[00:37:56] Marshall Fox: when they become a client.

Yeah, there are a few things. One [00:38:00] is using too many colors. Another is trying to tell an entire story. Through their logo where it doesn’t have to your logo is meant to identify not explain Like you don’t have to tell a whole story like you look at Ecam’s logo. For example, what is it? It’s a E with like a little cool circle around it doesn’t have a streaming thing.

Even though the actual live logo, you know has a Silhouette but the Ecam logo as a whole is a perfect example of something that’s simple memorable Timeless, right you can picture it on the side of a skyscraper for a hundred years without having to change having to change it It’s versatile. You scale it down at the corner of a Fabicon and you know what, you can see what it is very clearly.

And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate to the audience. Because what? It just doesn’t fly over the head. People don’t look at that and say, I wonder what that is? Right? So it hits that criteria. Simple, memorable, versatile, timeless, and appropriate. So, yeah, and yeah, so you don’t have to tell a whole story.

You think about Target’s logo, Walmart’s logo, why is it in the shopping cart? It [00:39:00] doesn’t need to be, right? Nike’s logo. What is it? Who knows? Who cares? It just, you know, hits that criteria and it doesn’t fly over the head of the audience. So, yeah, I had clients that used to come to me with, you know, I want a feather in it because it represents my mom.

And then I want a hat in it because it represents, like, no, you don’t need all of that. You know? Is you don’t want a logo that has all this meaning to you, but then you have to explain it to your audience or it’ll cause them to wonder. So you don’t want to introduce any type of confusion or anything like that when it comes to your audience.

So as long as it just doesn’t fly over their head, usually, you know, you’re fine. Even the 120 logo that I have, it’s just a one, a one, a one, two, and a zero, and a zero is in negative space, right? So, and people even ask me, like, what is 120? Who cares? Who knows? Who cares, right? It’s just something I use to identify my business.

[00:39:49] Jeff Sieh: Gotcha. So I want to, I want to dump into the live video and some design tools. And we had a great question earlier from Jim from Fusion Marketing. And he goes I see a lot of [00:40:00] discussion on Canva versus Adobe. What are your thoughts?

[00:40:05] Marshall Fox: Yeah, so, I don’t really have many thoughts about it. It’s a tool, right?

Canva is a tool. I know designers who use Canva. And my thought process is very unconventional because, for example, I use Wix for my client websites. And there was a taboo at one point about Wix because it’s a do, it’s marketed as a do it yourself builder, right? So, people think of Wix, they think of cheap, right?

But I use Wix and I still charge 20 grand for websites. And I do it confidently, my clients are in the loop, they know what it is. So I kind of flipped that on its head, right? So now by the grace of God, I’ve been able to partner with them. I did an ad for them that has like 4 million views. So it’s been really cool.

So I have the same philosophy with Canva. It’s just a tool because at the end of the day, your clients could care less what tools you use to get the job done. But I will say [00:41:00] this, there are some caveats to Canva for certain things like vector design, even though you can export as SVG now, just so you guys know that I did find that out.

But there may, may be certain files that may be required from printers, for example, or you know, other designers that may not be compatible with, with Canva, but it’s just a tool at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I would recommend still learning the Adobe suite just because there’s a lot more that you can do, but it really just depends on your audience, your, your target market, your clients and what they require, what they need.

Cause you, you, you want to be the designer. Thank you. That your clients are grateful to have you on the team because like I always think about the next designer, right? I don’t I don’t want to design selfishly And say, you know, I don’t care about whoever’s coming after me I’ll be a fool to think I’ll be the only designer that my clients gonna work with going forward and like what if I get Hit by a bus tomorrow not to sound morbid, but they need to be able to pick up the design files and pass [00:42:00] them to the next person, right?

Life goes on and then they need to be able to manipulate it. Not like, Oh, I can’t do anything with these files because they were all, they’re just on Canva and I don’t use Canva, right? So, Adobe is a bit more universal, but Canva is making strides and they’re becoming a lot more widely used and accepted these days.

So I’m for, for whatever gets the job done for your client, whatever you know, is, is easy for them to use and pass on. So you mentioned

[00:42:25] Jeff Sieh: Affinity too. How does that compare in that mix? Because that’s a

[00:42:28] Marshall Fox: great question by David. Yeah, I use Affinity. I love Affinity. I feel like it’s like Photoshop, but a lot more intuitive than Photoshop.

So Affinity Designer is a mix between Illustrator and Photoshop. I use it primarily for pretty much all my design stuff. But I, I am able to export as a Photoshop document out of there and I’m able to export vectors out of there as well. So I’m still able to pass along those files to other designers as needed.

But it’s, it’s like Photoshop, but it’s a lot more intuitive in my opinion. It’s like a lot more easier to use. [00:43:00] It pick up and learn. So, I love affinity products.

[00:43:04] Jeff Sieh: Very cool. So live video and Katie you can jump in anytime because you have a little bit of experience with this, but Marshall, I’d love to know for you because it’s.

You know, a lot of designers don’t do live video. They like to stay away from it. They’re like, they’re focused on the page or focused on Adobe or whatever. But how has live video for you changed the landscape for business and how can maybe another designer or, you know, a business person look at that and go, you know, I could use live video to help, you know, grow mine.

[00:43:35] Marshall Fox: Yeah. A lot of live video is everything y’all, I guess everything these days, I feel like we’re moving away from everything being so polished and scripted to, I feel like. Authenticity, rawness, realness is making a comeback these days, right? Making a comeback. Even I was getting my hair cut my barber was like, do you want any enhancements?

They call it enhancements. So what if he would have filled in my [00:44:00] little light areas and in the sides, like think little patties. I’m like, no, because when I show up live to my community, I don’t, I won’t have those enhancements, right? I want to show up. You know, I show up all the time. So, like, I had a photo shoot yesterday.

So I don’t want to have a picture perfect photo with all these enhancements on my hairline. And then you see me in person, you see me on live and it’s like something’s a little off, right? So there’s an authenticity. There’s a realness, a rawness that people will gravitate towards with live video than they would if, you know, you weren’t doing video at all, right?

So, I highly recommend you jump into the live video game because you’re able to show up. You’re able to, you know, you don’t have to overthink things like you would when it comes to scripted videos. But just show up on video any kind of way. That’s why I love e games because you could do a lot where you can do it recorded.

So, but being on video, I feel like it’s a must these days. And that’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to have success in the [00:45:00] coaching space as well. Because I show up like an authority just by hopping on just by. I don’t want to jump ahead, but being intentional about how I show up on

[00:45:09] Jeff Sieh: video. So, speaking of enhancements The Honest Accomplice says, Can Marshall design your beard on his next show?

I

[00:45:15] Katie Fawkes: know. I was, I, that’s a great, that’s a great question, Dan. And actually, I’m going off script for a second here, Jeff. Sure. But Marshall’s been, Marshall’s been doing a series for us on our Ecamm YouTube channel called Marshall Creates. And completely on his own, he, he started, he started doing this.

This series where he basically is just taking feedback from the live comments and building logos and building design and kind of like live designing, which is what Dan is saying in that, in that hilarious comment. But I just, I love stuff like that. And the ability to do that as a designer, I think really speaks again to that whole kind of concept of, of authenticity and rawness and realness.

Like there, those. Live experiences are really special for [00:46:00] our audience who struggle with a lot of this kind of stuff and have, you know, a lot of, a lot of questions about it. So, yeah, I think things like that, where you’re kind of balancing live video with, you know, in the interaction and the engagement in a session like that, I think is really, is really special and is a fun idea.

If you’re looking for, if you want to steal one of Marshall’s ideas, allow me to provide that

[00:46:22] Marshall Fox: one for you. It’s a fun one. It is fun. You’re under the gun. There’s a certain time limit that you have. So it’s like, it’s almost like a challenge, but that’s where you grow the most. Not to sound like a professional self help guru, but you grow the most in uncomfortable situations y’all.

That’s a nugget for anybody. I know times are scary. Times are tough right now, but you still have to always put yourself in a comfortable situation to grow and everything’s won’t be perfect. But you just think. This is just an experiment, even if it’s not, but just think it’s just an experience. Let’s try it out.

Let’s see what happens and have fun. I still make mistakes every week. Oh, Bart’s agreed. I was, [00:47:00] I started the show on mute last week, you know, but you roll with the punches. People like that rawness, that rawness. It’s like, okay. Yeah, he’s not a robot. He’s actually a human being, right? You may hear my son in the background.

He may want to come over, bring me some, some sweet and sour sauce for him to open in the middle of a show, you know, so things happen, right? We’re human beings at the end of the day, so. Yeah,

[00:47:20] Jeff Sieh: I mean every every Friday morning I wake up like why do I do this show? It’s like why it’s so much stress, you know, and then you do it and it’s so much funnier I love being able to talk to people, you know, and and like Uh, the Honest Accomplices.

Marshall knows that I’m one of his biggest fans. I mean, I love being able to talk and bring people’s comments up and interact. That’s one of the, the cool thing. And he goes, starting the show on mute is a copyright infringement on Doc Rock. So, there we go. Very good. So, let’s, let’s dive into this, because I, once again, we’re, we’re you know, I could talk about this all day, but we do have a, a hard stop.

But how can people improve the quality of their live video presentations? And, Give some, some ideas for [00:48:00] like the beginners out there because they can look at your show and what you’re doing over on Ecamm’s YouTube channel and like, my gosh, I don’t even have a background like that. How can I, how can I be at Marshall’s level?

So can you give them some advice on how they can improve the quality of their live video presentations?

[00:48:14] Marshall Fox: Absolutely. Shameless plug. Tune in to March Creates right after this at at noon, because we’re going to be talking about green screens, how you can use green screens. So you don’t have a dope background, get yourself a green screen.

Get yourself a green screen and use that until, you know, you can make some simple improvements to your background. It’s, it’s a little eerie and weird being back in this home office now after like seven, eight months. Even though I did come up here to film the Wix commercial for like two days. I did so much back here.

It almost annoys me. Don’t look at this background and think that this is what yours should be like. I feel like it’s a lot going on, but it’s fine. Right. I did take the sign down behind me. Cause I was, my head was covering it. So it was like, what’s the point. But outside of getting a green screen, you [00:49:00] need the number one thing I would recommend is improve your lighting, get a light whether it’s a bi color or led light, let’s go on Amazon or type in softbox light.

It’s just some type of light, the pump light into your shot. Cause I’ll show you right now. I’ll turn this light off. You know, it’s, it’s a lot darker , right? Of course you will have some sort of light turn the lights off inside of your office. If you go on E cam’s channel and look for, type in E cam lighting, you’ll see the video that I did on lighting.

But light is so important to your shot. You can improve your, your shot a lot just by having enough light showing on you because your camera has to work a lot hard, a lot less hard. Then you know if you have a lot of light in your shot Then it would if you didn’t have enough light in your shot So that can improve your shot a lot just by having having light then for your background.

Just keep it simple You know get a lamp a plant like in my wife’s shot in florida. She has a home office It’s just a nice little picture [00:50:00] a lamp and a chair in the background. It’s real clean really simple and then you can start to slowly improve it or add things to it if you want, if you wish to.

It’s all about what you think your audience would gravitate towards, okay? Just don’t do it for yourself, do it for your audience, right? It’s a great point.

[00:50:17] Katie Fawkes: That’s so important. Yeah. All right. Well, we got to ask you some Ecamm questions because why not? Right? So how do you use, how do you use Ecamm and all of your gear and, and in your studio space to enhance your online presence and more in particular to help with your coaching sessions?

[00:50:33] Marshall Fox: Absolutely. So at full transparency, I signed up for Ecamm at the beginning of 2020 to be able to show up like an authority for coaching, for my coaching clients. It’s crazy because like. So much has happened since then, it’s like, wow. And a lot of it has to do with the fact that I started using Ecamm.

Because when I started using Ecamm, the number one thing I use is the virtual camera. So I wanted to be able to use my DSLR, what was a mirrorless camera, the [00:51:00] Canon M50 at the time. Wanted to be able to use that, just plug it in via USB. Cause that’s how it works, how simply it is to use on, on Ecamm. To be able to use that mirrorless camera as a webcam as opposed to my MacBook or iMac camera So that’s you know, once I started to do that, I’m like, okay, this is cool This looks a lot better Then I got a better lens to kind of blur the background out a bit Then I started to get more intentional about my background.

So as I’m doing this I’m getting more confident and I’m a bit of an introvert So, but when you know, you look good on camera, it gives you a little bit different, a little, a little swagger, you know what I’m saying? A little, a little more confidence and then you know, I’m able to show up more, more of like an authority.

So I, I use Ecamm to of course the virtual camera on zoom calls. And I also, I would start to go live in my, my Facebook group for graphic designers. I’m just giving feedback, right? So I set up a couple of scenes where I have a screen share on one side and I’m [00:52:00] able to pull up the group. And give feedback on different designs and also open up illustrator and kind of tweak their designs and things like that.

And I also use Ecamm on coaching calls, a virtual camera on, on consultations and discovery calls with design clients, potential design clients. So it’s always an icebreaker when I show up on camera like, Oh, wow, this camera is really clean. What’s going on here? So they have a ton of questions.

They’re excited. One, I’m showing up like an authority and two, it’s an icebreaker. Like we’re starting on that. Like, Oh yeah, thanks. It’s actually a program I use called Ecam and this is what you can do. So then we kind of talk for a couple of minutes and then we kind of get into the meat of the meeting, but it’s not awkward at the beginning because I’ve had this icebreaker, you know, inadvertently because I’m showing up like this, right.

And it also allows me to show up like an authority, not like I just plopped down on my lunch break. And I have to go back to my job at Starbucks, even if that was the case, I don’t look like that. I look like I do this full time and I take this serious, which I do, but [00:53:00] Ecamm will, will allow you. I’m not to say it’s all smoke and mirrors, but it’ll allow you to show up.

Like, you know, you do this professionally, you take it very serious. And what your, the attention to detail you put into your whole setup, you’ll put that into your client’s work as well. So that’s primarily how I use it. The virtual camera. For, you know, coaching calls and also you know, going live in my group go live on my channel from time to time, going live with, with Ecamm on Marshall Creates and pre recording as well.

I record right into Ecamm. I haven’t had a memory card in my camera for about three years. So I don’t need to do that. Just record right into Ecamm. So now, you know, if I do my podcast, I will have those audio tracks recorded separately. So, I’ll use Ecamm for everything. It is. It is

[00:53:47] Jeff Sieh: like the Swiss army knife of video

[00:53:49] Marshall Fox: Yeah, it is.

It really is. And I don’t even use a, you know, a fraction of what it all can do, so. The virtual cam,

[00:53:56] Jeff Sieh: like, going into Zoom now, and they’re like, how do you do that? So I can pull up my lower [00:54:00] third during Zoom. They’re like, how are you doing that? I’m like, it’s Ecamm. So let, last question really quick before we get into, like, where everybody can find you.

I want to know, as a designer, because it’s almost like when Canva first came out. Designers threw a fit when Canva came out. I remember those days. And now it’s the, I see the same thing happen with AI tools for design. So do you see them as a threat or an

[00:54:22] Marshall Fox: opportunity? I see it as an opportunity. Cause, you know, and I gotta give credit to Chris Doe.

He’s a phenomenal just a phenomenal human being, first of all. But he’s one of the GOATs in the graphic design space. Built a multi million dollar agency and now he focuses on training and development for designers through his platform called The Future. And I spoke in Raleigh about a month and a half ago, Raleigh, North Carolina.

He was there as well. And he said something that really changed the way I thought about design. He said, you know, a lot of you guys are at, you know, worried about copyright and this and that. And it’s a lot of fear talk, but it’s not going to be AI that takes your job. It’s going to [00:55:00] be someone using AI who takes your job.

So true. So, right. So he said, get familiar with it. Stop being scared. So I was like, you know what? I’m going all in. So I started to use, I started to be more open and receptive to it. And look at it as a tool rather than a threat. So, you know, I’ve been into it. Shout out to Nikki Saunders. She’s, you know, Ecamm fam.

And Ecamm sponsors the Nikki Moose podcast, which I’ve had the pleasure of being a guest on recently. She’s I would say she’s one of the pioneers in this space in terms of making AI less threatening. To your average Joe. So if you follow her on Instagram this is Nikki S you can see a lot of the tools that she recommends because she does a lot of research on AI.

So follow her cause she’s always got some tools to share. Also Twitter is a good place to follow to find out more about a different AI tools and how you may be able to use it in your, in your business. So I’ve been using it here and there. A big thing I use is generative field and Photoshop [00:56:00] beta.

It’s amazing. Which is cool, because I do flyers and graphics, so, you know, someone may send me a photo of, you know, the top of their head cut off, because that’s the tight angle of the shot. Or their arms cut off. But I may need their arm, the rest of their arms for a flyer. So I’ll use generative fill to create the rest of their bodies.

It’s so amazing. I actually, I have a reel on my, my, my Instagram page. We’ll put that up in a second as far as Instagram. I had a shot of, of someone, it was probably like just his head and it was off to the side, but I just wanted to create more space on the other side so I could center his head into a circle.

But I just kept going and I created the rest of his body and his legs and it was really cool to see how you know, how far AI has come. So quickly, but you know how you can use it to, to, to really make your job easier.

[00:56:52] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. In fact, it’s not there yet because I’m actually a lot thinner and I’m using generator fill.

It’s just adding too much for me [00:57:00] right now. But Marshall, thank you so much. I know we’re at a hard stop, but I want to have a chance right now for you to tell people where they can find you. I mean, so much great information today, you know, where they can connect to you, where they can ask questions, all that stuff.

So, tell people where they can find more about

[00:57:14] Marshall Fox: Marshall Fox. Absolutely. So you find me on Instagram. That is my handle right down there. Marshall Fox. I’m also on Threads. Marshall Fox as well. Shout out to Threads. And also if you’re a designer, you’d like to join my community. I have a free Facebook group called Good2Goat.

It’s G O O D, the number two, and then G O A T. Goat as in greatest of all time. And I also have a membership at Good2Goat. com Good2Goat. com. So I have a monthly membership as well. Going live today doing feedback Friday. So yeah, that’s where you can find Yeah,

[00:57:49] Jeff Sieh: so after this, let’s just go head over to Marshall.

Marshall creates at EKM’s YouTube channel. Katie, where can people find out more about the amazing Katie Fox? Oh my

[00:57:57] Katie Fawkes: goodness. Well, I am, I am hiding [00:58:00] behind all of the EKM channels, so you can find me in our community, which you can head over to at ekm2ms. tv slash community on discord, ekm. tv slash discord.

And then, yeah, I, I have an interesting last name, so I’m pretty easy to find. You can, you

[00:58:18] Marshall Fox: can find me all over the socials. I love how you pronounced her last name and mine the same.

[00:58:22] Katie Fawkes: I know, yeah, exactly. It’s Team Fox today. I know, I always forget that.

[00:58:26] Jeff Sieh: And I’m Jeff C, and you can find me everywhere. It’s I before E, especially in C.

And with that, thank you guys. Don’t forget about Creator Community. It’s amazing. Go and watch Marshall Next over on YouTube. We will see you guys next time. Thank you guys so much. Paul Duncan, Honest Accomplice, Gary Stockton, everybody who showed up today. Appreciate you guys. And with that, we’ll see you guys next time.

Bye everybody. Peace.