00:01.87 bizzyweb All right I know that when ah we we had pete on ah that I got the intro wrong. But I think I got it right? this time and I'm really super excited Dave yeah yep, yep! So um. 00:08.57 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well I hope so trig me this is a big deal I go. 00:15.36 bizzyweb Our guest today wanted a long line of young women chosen by fate to battle evil forces. She has been given a mystical calling which grants her powers that dramatically increases both her physical strength her endurance her agility. 00:22.66 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, oh yes. 00:31.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Or. 00:34.90 bizzyweb Accelerated healing intuition and to a certain extent limited a degree of precognition she is She is a reluctant hero who just wants to live a normal life but she is embracing her destiny as a vampire there. 00:40.36 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I'm not sure we got it right? and. 00:47.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well I know that ones go oh well? No no, you got that wrong. Mr Olson so our our Buffy Buffy Blezy is the founder and Ceo. 00:55.10 bizzyweb Is it there. What do I have the wrong buffy. Oh hang. Any. 01:05.60 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Of rock what she got. She's a longtime friend of busyweb and of mine and she is a social enterprise entrepreneur. So if we're looking for a mystical creature killer she does kill jobs and kills the. Need for additional business like to she's she's just a crusher and every time that I work with or talk to Buffy. She's an amazing talent and has unqualified amounts of energy and so I think you're going to love. Our Buffy Buffy Bleezy of rock what you got much more than any vampire slayers. 01:47.52 bizzyweb I was all set to add I had a whole set of questions about what it was like to work with the bad guy from Ted Lasso but I'm just going to page chart hi Buffy welcome. 01:57.53 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, you. 01:59.70 Buffie Blesi My best intro ever. Nobody ever introduces me like that nobody ever you know, confuses me for Buffy The Vampire Slayer but ah everybody asks if I am. 02:14.55 bizzyweb Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 02:14.78 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, a M no. 02:15.58 Buffie Blesi Little known fact for all the old people on this podcast. Um I'm actually named after another fictional character from another tv show from the sixty s called family affair and little girl buffy and Jody her brother and sister. 02:23.40 bizzyweb Um, really. 02:28.50 bizzyweb Before. 02:29.85 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, who. 02:34.88 Buffie Blesi and Uncle Bill and Mr French so that is ah but you have to be a certain age to have any idea what that's about. 02:38.90 bizzyweb I my yeah, my ah what when we wanted to name our son not Dave's and my son dies. That's we Dave and I have a whole different side family that would make we't talk about that. Ah, but um. 02:42.21 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So I. 02:49.86 Buffie Blesi I Don't want to know about that. 02:54.14 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, for the will like. 02:56.90 bizzyweb We wanted to have a unique name but 1 that everybody could spell and pronounce. So my son's name is Linus and ah we get asked all the tower. Yeah yeah, yeah, is you Nick where's your blanket does he nate no, it's not that. Not we just like the name. Oh. 03:09.68 Buffie Blesi I'm sure he gets it to. It's used at some point in time. He just kind of roll with it because people want to say something they really do I can tell when they want to and they just won't and and then sometimes they just blurt it right out and I was like yeah. 03:12.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 03:17.48 bizzyweb Yeah. 03:21.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You guys both have the good names my my name there were 5 Dave Myers in my high school. Yes, it's my myer is the German Johnson so but yeah, there's there's everything. Well let's get down to business because. 03:29.34 Buffie Blesi What that's crazy I don't know another 1 03:33.73 bizzyweb Is it really. 03:37.59 Buffie Blesi Yes. 03:41.82 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Buffy is just one of those people that if you don't know her you soon will because she's a master networker and she always has new and and and interesting irons in the fire. So buff you why don't you tell us about your favorite things that you're working on right now I know rock what you got. 03:50.44 bizzyweb Very true. 03:58.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And all of the video and audio production things that you're doing right now but tell tell us a little bit about you. 04:04.50 Buffie Blesi Yeah, so let's start with rockwood you got ah you know sometimes when you started. My business is fifteen years old this year and I used to have a name for this company that nobody knew because I owned a franchise and when we changed it to rockwood you got. Ah. It happened over Bottomless Mumosas so um you know the old name nobody really knows and so just last year we changed it officially to rock what you got. It's been around and yeah, we work on a couple of different things we leverage stage. 04:24.70 bizzyweb 4 boy. 04:41.27 Buffie Blesi Which I'll talk about and story which I'll talk about to drive gender equity and what we're working on right now on the stage is some projects that will put women on a stage comedy music theater spoken word those things kind of. 04:42.86 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, who. 05:00.76 Buffie Blesi Go under a moniker. We call the pay gap. So we have these pay Gap shows and it's not just about pay. But we we do something called edutainment and so whatever you like you come and have fun and while you're there. 05:06.69 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, with for her. 05:17.37 Buffie Blesi We'll talk to you a little bit about the crazy things that are still out there related to gender equity issues. So that's our stage work and we do that under our nonprofit rock what you got fund and we also have a brand called rockstoria studios and Rockstur Studios is a film production company and we. Do full service ah video production commercial work little clips social um social clips and some other stuff. Podcast audiobooks that kind of stuff and rocktery studios. Also a very beautiful studio and so we let other. Creative types and community members come in and use the space and that's kind of a fun fun time and we're officially one year old like that's sort of funny. The rextery studios opened yesterday a year ago and so we've been out ah 1 year 06:02.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I Want to check it? yeah. 06:04.98 bizzyweb Um I want to help. 06:11.51 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Wow I have a tour. It's it's so gorgeous and especially the big studio lighting setup and our listeners can't see this but Buffy is actually in the podcast egg which is so neat and it's. 06:15.32 Buffie Blesi Of a new studio. We. 06:29.88 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb She has way better audio than we do if you if you it's built. It's built purpose built for this. Why. 06:30.61 Buffie Blesi Tried it. We can fix that for you? yeah. 06:31.80 bizzyweb A. Well, you know that you built my audio system right? It's yeah you you you one who picked on all my equipment. Yeah. 06:40.38 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um I didn't build your basement. That's true. That's true. 06:45.69 Buffie Blesi Well, you have those really lovely soft lounge chairs behind you that helps with the sound a little bit well less bouncy. 06:53.28 bizzyweb I do it's it's it's what I want. It's what my right wife refers to as my talk show set I want to I the the kind one of the interesting words that you use is 1 is one that I use a lot in how I talk about how i. 07:00.69 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Rests. Yes. 07:01.21 Buffie Blesi Yeah, ah yeah. 07:10.97 bizzyweb When people hire me as a speaker as a trainer is the concept of eddutainment and I think what's so interesting about ah the the rock What you got work that you do is that we're in a culture right now where um, there is a backlash to indie. Any sort of equity work that that there are there is a group of people who think that that you can't do any of that if you make anybody else feel bad for for who they are as a person which. 07:28.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb For who. 07:39.40 Buffie Blesi He. 07:44.59 bizzyweb In a bell jar. Okay sure that has some respectable qualities but on the other hand. No it really doesn't so can you know. 07:52.96 Buffie Blesi Something interesting about words that we choose a long time. Um, alone time ago when we first started this work four years ago the word equality was what we were using and there's a there's a really big difference between equality and equity. And when we moved to equity we kind of found a rhythm with it equity really just implies the the same opportunity right? to to achieve at these same levels. Not that we are ah ever going to be like equals because opportunity. 08:08.46 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, and. 08:10.73 bizzyweb Yeah, yeah. 08:16.47 bizzyweb Yeah. 08:26.80 Buffie Blesi Is something people capitalize on and you know when we're agitaining people we meet them where they are. We put you in an environment that's comfortable for you. You come and you're just there to have fun and while you're there when we say to you things like hey did you know. 08:28.51 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, will. 08:38.40 bizzyweb Yeah. 08:45.87 Buffie Blesi That women couldn't get a credit in their own name for their business until 88 I think is the date like I I had already graduated from high school right? So when we hear those things we can say oh wow I just didn't know or even now. What's still happening one of my favorite It's not my favorite story because it's a kind of a terrible story but it it really helps people understand what the issues are we work with a very well-known comedian on Tv shows. And we had her interviewed once and she said I still my manager gets me headlining gigs around the country and every single time she is working on some stuff they find out that. 09:29.63 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well. 09:38.56 Buffie Blesi They can't get in to a club because they just had a female headliner two months ago in so yeah and they will not put all women on stage at the same time and they you know there's still these things even on radio stations. Um about can you put. 09:42.98 bizzyweb Or Mckinney. 09:44.97 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, what that's nuts. Yeah, oh. 09:57.64 Buffie Blesi 2 female songs together and we think we're joke about those things but at the same time they're all stuff we can understand I put it in your brain for a second and you start paying attention when you hear 2 or 3 things happen in a row you're like ah change. 10:01.77 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, really think yeah. 10:14.65 Buffie Blesi But the interesting thing is is almost all our shows that we produce are female lead and driven and people say oh So Only women come that isn't the point nobody asks me if I go to a all male um show why I would. Dear to go to all male shit. That's silly. They never ask us that and so our goal is just to kind of help people say hey you know if I meet you where you are right now. Maybe you will make a choice the next time in your business to hire diversity to pay equally. Like you would if the guy showed up that day or to even if you see we we have women we ask him? What do you want to get paid and they're always under representing themselves and we say that's great, but we're going to pay you this instead and so we need more people to kind of say just because we. Have seen that the whole time that doesn't mean it has to be like that So doesn't have to be adversarial. Basically it can really just be little teeny things that. 11:14.20 bizzyweb I yeah and that's what that's what's so so bewildering about the the whole backlash to me is that it's that the it's not It's not a 0 sum game. One. Group doesn't have to be have have something taken away for another group to to to to be equal like the thing you talked about about like and Dave and I both were a little and credulous. 11:37.16 Buffie Blesi That. 11:45.46 bizzyweb Who on earth keeps track of 2 of the the the gender of the singer on the radio. Why that's why what? What? Ah what a waste of time. 11:51.59 Buffie Blesi Program managers. Yeah, it seems like it is and but you know the thing is is that news media. Um, Radio stations. They still get feedback and comments from people. There's you know, Um, before we started trigby and I were talking about microphones right? So The microphone is one of the most interesting things. It has not changed in since it was designed. It is not designed for a female Voice. So the tinning you hear over the radio where women. So. 12:14.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, look. 12:25.80 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh well. 12:28.78 Buffie Blesi People will say women's voices grate on them on the air and and part of that isn't them. It is the microphones that are being used and how they capture the tone and the tonal value sound is sort of interesting because it bounces and it comes back to people and a microphone is. 12:32.82 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, you who. 12:45.97 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, well yeah. 12:48.19 Buffie Blesi Built to take this range and that range is for the male voice and so ah, you know that's part of why you'll hear some of that stuff that you know women's voices sound different to people than men's and there's a comfort level in that doesn't make right. 13:02.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 13:07.80 Buffie Blesi Just means we need more engineers to design more things microphones and other equipment for us and they don't. 13:10.64 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? right? That's just fascinating and yeah for for all of the media attention. That's especially gender equity and all of the. Different things that are that are happening kind of in our society right now with the backlash that I think trigv pointed out. You know we're very lucky to be in a very progressive state we're in Minnesota where we're recording. Um, it's it's not the same story everywhere and so. 13:34.86 Buffie Blesi This. 13:40.91 Buffie Blesi Now. 13:43.95 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Especially on edutainment and as you're as you're speaking with folks and and having that through the nonprofit through rock What you got how how do you handle the folks that are getting more and more vocal with their side of the story. 13:51.55 bizzyweb Perhaps here. 13:59.75 Buffie Blesi Yeah, it. It's sort of interesting I mean we haven't had a lot of pushback on the work. We do maybe all those years of hyper focusing your Target Market has has been helpful. 14:09.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, sure yeah and. 14:16.23 Buffie Blesi Ah, people who come to our events even if they're not all the way there. They're not progressively active in gender equity issues. They they typically tend to be a little more in tune with the things that are there but we talk about it all the time as much so one of our. 14:22.23 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Perfect. 14:28.74 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb With. 14:35.66 Buffie Blesi You know here we do work on stage that that can be very much a blend of of women and men but behind the scenes the people who do stage work sound as engineer lighting design. Um the stage management piece almost entirely men. We are a full female crew. 14:49.58 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, who. 14:54.59 Buffie Blesi Same thing on our rock story brand of video production. We're claiming it. Nobody's claimed it we're going to claim it. We're the first all femalemale crew in Minnesota and if somebody else has 1 they can come and talk to us. We're happy to to share in their their joy too because it's very unusual. 14:56.72 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Who. 15:14.50 Buffie Blesi I'm sure you guys have been behind the camera in interviews before it is almost entirely men and so some of this is really about being able to show what it looks like and so and so the hard part is if there already isn't a whole lot of women in it. 15:17.99 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, yeah. 15:27.38 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are will they right? are. 15:33.18 Buffie Blesi There likely isn't a diverse set of women in it either. So so back to your question about you know what do you do about that. We Also our Roxoria brand we have to do more and better to get our information out in front of. A broader diverse group of women to show them hey you know you could be in this and we would love to have you be a part of that and so in rock what you got um in the record you got fun. We have a whole educational component. That we're working on with different colleges um like century college to get in front of more women and show them that it's there and that means working harder to attract and ah engage and and welcome a bigger diverse population of women. So. 16:14.84 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well. 16:26.22 Buffie Blesi That'll help us be able to stand out and and push back more too because at the end of the day we're currently more all white on our team and that isn't we that isn't our place either to to push back. We we're here to be allies and and advocates. 16:28.24 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are on. 16:41.12 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb There? Yeah, right? Well and and it's about diverse voices and it we we actually had a had a podcast about gender equality and diversity. Um, recently trigv who was our. Our guest I'm completely blanking on her name. This is this is Sylvia Thank you goodness. We we almost had to cut that because that that would have been dumb for me to to bring that up and then not remember um but well yeah, we would have we would have edited over the top of it right? But I think. 17:01.91 bizzyweb Um, about Jane oh Sylvia. 17:10.83 Buffie Blesi Well, you would elect it up and cut it up. 17:19.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb The the coolest part is inside of gender equity and inclusion and diversity The thing that we're doing isn't necessarily or only helping people of. That gender or that ethnic background. We're helping all of us because anytime a voice isn't able to be Heard. You're missing out on that Perspective. You're missing out on that Experience. You're missing out on all of the talents that. 17:56.17 Buffie Blesi Right? And there. 17:56.83 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You're just missing and just like you said before with the microphones. There should be a broader range of audio available and it's dumb that you can only hear big men male voices. 18:08.20 Buffie Blesi Um, yeah I you know. 18:09.68 bizzyweb I Think part of that is is is ah is a maturation effect too I think one of the things you see especially with social media algorithms right now is there's this continued silo effect that if if you. 18:14.41 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 18:19.98 Buffie Blesi Um. 18:25.42 bizzyweb Don't look at the world around you you end up only seeing the things that you want to see and. 18:30.42 Buffie Blesi Yeah, and in our subconscious I mean ah clearly I'm not a psychologist but you know our brains are really good at compartmentalizing things to make us comfortable as humans and and when we're in our comfort zone. It. 18:39.23 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are a. 18:45.33 Buffie Blesi It's easy for us to check our boxes to check things off our list to get things done as soon as we mix in something that makes us uncomfortable and we don't know what to do? We basically run away from it and what we're asking everybody to do right now is to embrace that a little bit and say yeah i. I'm uncomfortable because I spent my 55 years being indoctrinated in my own world right? and I got to untrain that and that process is going to make me feel weird and that is okay, um, we've asked other people to feel uncomfortable for. For hundreds and hundreds of years and it's okay, if we are to you know and even more so than that. 19:29.10 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I Love that I love that and the the important one. 19:31.56 bizzyweb This is not your first career. 19:34.80 Buffie Blesi No no, it's not even my first career as a business owner. It's it's sort of a crazy thing I I've was at an event last night we were talking a little bit about this to how how you know 50 even 40 19:39.29 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, yeah. 19:53.70 Buffie Blesi years ago. Thirty years ago it was it was still okay or still maybe the word is expected that you would pick a career get into it still stay at that place for at least a while 1020 years I even stayed at the bank I was a banker I tell people. Recovering banker I worked in the financial services industry in brokerage firms in wall street firms and I also consulted to them. Um that I mean back a little you know gender equity thing I was almost always the only woman in all of all of those rooms. 20:28.76 bizzyweb Ah, yeah I would imagine so. 20:30.60 Buffie Blesi Because I didn't work at a branch so you'll know at Banks they're They're very distinguishing between do you work at a branch and do retail work or do you work in corporate and I always worked in corporate and that was a little different. Um, So yeah, I've had a lot of different careers. But I think telling people that it's okay to. Sort of pick something and try it for a while and and get really good at it maybe and and be okay with starting over. Um, that's that's really hard and it takes a little bit of risk tolerance to do that and and back to our brains. Um, we like to be comfortable risk tolerance requires you to to step outside and be. 20:50.35 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 21:08.77 Buffie Blesi And be a novice again instead of an expert and we kind of like to be experts. It's people. So. 21:14.21 bizzyweb To talk a little bit more about the risk tolerance because I think that a lot of people have think that their their skill set only allows them to do 1 or 2 things. 21:17.80 Buffie Blesi Oh yes. 21:27.46 Buffie Blesi 1 thing. Yeah, so when it and I used to be I used to have a very low risk tellerance. So what? that basically means is you know? Ah, how much risk are you willing to take in decision making to make something happen for you right. So our first shot at I mean that first but it's something we a lot of us understand is going to college. Do you choose to go to someplace close to your home or do you choose to go someplace across the country or maybe even into another country right? that's. Where your risk tolerance lies is really about your comfort in making and choosing something that might not turn out the way you need you have to sacrifice more to get more on it and we do that in our careers too. We we choose something. Um I'll pick on my accounting friends. We. We choose accounting because literally one of the most safest jobs you will always get another job if you go into the accounting field without without um and I kind of went that direction too. So if you're out there and you're thinking about. 22:28.87 bizzyweb True. 22:39.97 Buffie Blesi Doing something different taking a risk on a new product or service are mine right now I am in the most uncomfortable stage of my business career of all the things I've ever done this even though I've been in business fifteen years the pandemic really required you know. 22:51.12 bizzyweb Um U why. 22:58.14 Buffie Blesi I just got done talking about all the stage work we did but we couldn't do any of it my large three quarters of our revenue died in March Twenty Twenty and it has not come back. 23:06.69 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh Wow of course. 23:08.73 bizzyweb 3 4 23:12.24 Buffie Blesi At all. It was a big festival that I owned and I still own I just haven't done it because it takes more than a year to plan and a lot of money to do you know was called the twin cities women's Expo I bought it into this is how I got into this crazy stage business to begin with. 23:17.67 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, right. 23:19.29 bizzyweb Um, what was that what was the fact you don't know Grand old. Ah. 23:28.80 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, yeah, ever. 23:30.25 Buffie Blesi Um I was doing some event management for a nonprofit and and ended up purchasing this and revamping it. This is sort of my journey of really loving women and finding more ways for them to gain access to things for their very multifaceted multidimensional lives as opposed to hey. Yeah, I'm just a shopper I like you know, sort of the stereotypical things. So Yeah I. 23:51.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Who who. 23:53.48 bizzyweb I once I once ah I gave ah a talk about email marketing and and all women's conference. So it was me and 350 women and I kind of I remember my opening opening joke for my my talk which was a good one which is. 24:03.85 Buffie Blesi Um, yeah, awesome right. 24:10.62 bizzyweb You know this is a unique experience for me and I'm really excited to learn and and just listen more than I talk but I do want to talk a little bit and I want to thank the women who sat at my table for lunch who you know Thank you for letting me know that the salad was lunch. And it was not the the first course. So Thank you for that. So I'm gonna add up. 24:35.80 Buffie Blesi Yeah I have I have I have feelings about lunches at big events since I'm a event planner to ah, never ever leave them starving even if they're women so no salads give them something good. 24:40.40 bizzyweb When he. 24:50.54 Buffie Blesi And. 24:51.67 bizzyweb I Agree the worst thing in the world is having a heavy launch at ah at an event because then you just want to and it drives me notes when I get booked right after lunch and at a like a conference or something because everybody's gonna be sleeping and checking their email. 25:04.78 Buffie Blesi Yeah, it's not it. It's not a great time slat for sure. 25:10.24 bizzyweb Faith. 25:44.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yes, yes, well Buffy One of the things that I think we've been hitting and in kind of tap dancing around is one of your career specialties and that's the art of pivoting. So. 25:54.82 Buffie Blesi It takes a great deal of ah I'll say self-confidence I don't know that I mean that trusting yourself is what I can say I mean sometimes I make decisions. 26:03.17 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You've you've gone through a number of big changes in your career and one of the things that we just talked about was having the ability to be okay when things are a little uncertain. How do you foster that in yourself in your team. 26:09.55 Buffie Blesi And I know they might seem absolutely off the wall to some people whether it's you know, taking on as a business owner. Maybe it's taking on debt. Maybe it's completely shifting or getting off of a product or service that you used to do. 26:21.11 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And you know for our audience. How can they be better at just kind of going to where the puck is going to be instead of just sitting there and waiting for the world to pass them by. 26:27.57 Buffie Blesi And you and can still feed you and or it's hiring your first people or that person who's who's more expensive than anybody yourself and you add them to your team or you have to make payroll and you will do absolutely anything to get that. 26:41.22 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, sure. 26:45.30 Buffie Blesi To happen and that requires you to be very sure that you have the ability to get to where you really want to get in the in the future and that isn't easy. Obviously we all secondguess ourselves and none. Ah none of this. Supersedes the fact that you make the wrong decisions along the way I've made plenty of those but I always and I still say this even though times of like even we're 1 year into our new business model and I feel like a startup and I absolutely hate it. I. 27:04.47 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Will. 27:15.29 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb For who. 27:19.13 Buffie Blesi And you know when you start something up. It's typically just you I have a team of 5 people that I am feeding every day and you know so that that male and managing my wris tolerance with this really surety that the work that we're doing is is is important. That we can make a living at it and that we're confident along the way even in those little things even when the team can recognize this stress of that I have to balance their need for stability. 27:43.70 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I. 27:52.94 Buffie Blesi And their risk tolerance with mine which is much higher than theirs. But I'm also the one taking on one ah hundred percent of the financial risk and I would say to people that might be the 1 place where most of us falter when we're thinking about how are we going to live if something happens to us whether we're laid off or. 27:57.66 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, ah for home. 28:12.87 Buffie Blesi We choose this leap to entrepreneurship and we're asking people to support us that is you know that weighing that risk is really important and you have to trust that you have the ability to. 28:18.83 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 28:29.39 Buffie Blesi To Do whatever it takes to make that happen and I think the second piece of that is you got to have a ah good crew of people outside your business who understand what it is you do and that means another entrepreneur or 2 or 3 or 10 or a hundred. Because nobody I mean both of you guys have been entrepreneurs and are Entrepreneurs. You understand this nobody your friends like their eyes glaze over like what do you talk but I don't understand it. They're like oh that sounds really hard and then they're onto something else I have have it. 28:50.37 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, room. 29:07.15 Buffie Blesi Especially 1 person in my life who is absolutely stellar in talking me off the the wall you know and and putting things into perspective and telling me honestly like. Maybe there's some shifts here but also saying you got this and you can do it just keep pushing right through and that's um, there is no plan b for me I would tell everybody if this is an advice column here. Do not have a plan b if you have a plant b just do plan b because that's really a. 29:30.44 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um I. 29:35.60 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Is life. 29:39.16 Buffie Blesi And I've never had a plan B but I've shifted my business significantly from being a business coach which is where I started to running a a film studio a video production company I do not do video like that's not my. 29:54.88 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, if the. 29:55.24 Buffie Blesi And talk about risk tolerance that I hired for that I it we tripped into it because of the pandemic that big pivot not doing stage work to having to to come up with ways to to reach an audience and to make a living it required me to really go out on the ledge and hire in. 30:12.93 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb He. 30:15.19 Buffie Blesi Incredibly talented people who are very expensive and taking that risk to do it and so I mean at the end of the day I'm confident that we are on the right track that we're doing the right work that my team is phenomenal. 30:24.77 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 30:31.14 Buffie Blesi But I also every day I wake up and I'm like oh my gosh. How am I going to do it and um, if we need to do another slate pivot we will. We'll do it because I'm my my this isn't my story. It's not the end of the story. You know. 30:31.15 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 30:58.84 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 31:07.96 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Who. 31:08.81 Buffie Blesi So yeah, what? what are you telling me but but I well here's what I was say um, my planning you know, even with all my financial background I've kind of a little bit of a savant with the numbers I I think about things in my brain first. 31:13.99 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 31:24.84 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Way I'm I'm assuming and I and I don't want to assume so I want to I want to ask? Um, when you when you make big changes and when you're pivoting like this. You're not just going by the hip and saying oh yeah, well I guess I'm going to get into video production now that sounds like fun. 31:26.70 Buffie Blesi But I like to begin with the end in mind I don't I don't I don't have big long big giant budgets even when I was a business coach I did coach people to do it I did it for them. But I don't um I I am very pliable with things I am very much a let a b. 31:42.43 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You do the homework and you have a plan before you go in right? So mitigating risk one of your talents. 31:45.94 Buffie Blesi Testing kind of gal like if I want to test a couple things I want to test it that's uncomfortable for people though. So we might test some pricing we might test some products but but if you spend too much time developing all that stuff and it's not right? You've wasted it So I kind of have this mix of. 31:51.13 bizzyweb But a 3 3 or 2 far in. 32:00.50 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 32:05.70 Buffie Blesi Really looking at how I might purchase something and use it and trying to in my years I've coached more than 300 businesses so some of this's anecdotal. So the answer Dave is unfortunately I'm not a big huge but I don't have a big project plan. That's that's got this whole thing laid out. 32:14.20 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 32:25.18 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, and. 32:25.40 Buffie Blesi Um I have big buckets and Ruckstory Studios has another. You know, very traditional commercial video production but we have ah another little product called love letters films and it's it's live streaming to the funeral home industry and. And we've done some research on it but we don't have this big plan. What we know is everybody dies and what we also know is there's not enough care and feeding of the people who are responsible for capturing those moments of somebody who is really important to you and we don't. 32:48.52 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, is it. 32:59.34 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well. 33:03.36 Buffie Blesi Um, have enough infrastructure to capture that so we we do it I could call it live streaming. We don't That's not really what it is but when somebody passes their life means something and we want to make sure that in the moment we can be there to get those elements for them. So that product. 33:05.94 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 33:22.65 Buffie Blesi I I have big dreams for it. It could be National. We can do this from our studio which is what I'm going to do today later and um and then we can package it in a way that makes sense for the families later and and so I you know I don't know. I Maybe most people would want me to have a bigger plan but I I I don't know that product doesn't exist right now if you want to live stream or capture a funeral you got to hire a crew which you can do bos and we have to get a bunch of stuff together and go there in an element. We don't have. 33:52.41 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, right. 33:57.52 Buffie Blesi Any idea about we don't know the lighting. We don't know the sound We don't know anything and it's not. It's expensive because we have to overdo it to get something. So yeah I know. 34:08.11 bizzyweb I have I have a couple of questions based on some of the things you said Buffy I think to start with ah you used a really technical term that is used in production and I'm well familiar with it. But I want it for the lister sake I want to. Have you explained what is a b testing. Oh yeah, no into I and that's not me being funny I genuinely know what it is but I think for those people who aren't a little more an what? What is a b testing. 34:24.60 Buffie Blesi Oh yeah, you guys probably know that more than me and your web development stuff I mean? Yeah, no, Um, yeah I think it's a great Question. You know a B testing is taking 2 things. Primarily and trying it out in in different ways. Whether it's a different group of of in email that's primarily used like a different subject matter or a different group of. List You see whether or not people are excited about something or not they click on it. They do it? Um I'd look at it My a B testing is if I say here's a package here's how it's packaged at the end of the day you pay the same right? like it doesn't matter. But how do people feel about it and you can try it out and sometimes people surprise you something really boring catches her eye or sometimes you just you can get snarky and and clever and that's the thing that catches people eye and you don't know until you test it. 35:29.32 bizzyweb Ah, the the there's the story that I give about that is is is that when I got married we invited a whole bunch of people and a a lot of people we invited because we had to we wanted? No no, let me say that again. We invited a lot of people because we wanted them to be there. And then we invited a lot of people because we knew they wouldn't come and buy really awesome gifts and um, a good portion of the people that we wanted to come didn't come and then a lot of the people who didn't we didn't want to come but send a gif actually did show up and so that's that's the a b testing model is figuring out. You know I have. Good intentions for this group and this group what actually happens and in real life. The the second question I wanted to ask because you you had sort of a jaw drop and a gender neutral might drop moment which was ah about how you're servicing the funeral industry now and. 36:10.74 Buffie Blesi Um, yeah. 36:26.34 bizzyweb Was that one of the things that came out of your pandemic privet because I think that's genius. 36:29.50 Buffie Blesi It It is because all of us experienced some kind of death during that time frame and weren't allowed to participate in the same ways we always had now. The interesting thing is is is years ago I All I have. Always had this idea that funerals were broken and we do them that way. Whatever it is whatever your tradition is whether it's a religious tradition or or something else and we just we just do it that way and there's a speed method to it. How fast. Can we push people through this from out and some of that was is built I mean there are traditions um in the muslim community in the Jewish Community where that speed is part of their religion like how fast can we get you through it and um I think we just. I've always just said I don't understand that not everybody is loved right? But let's assume most of us are and we are on this planet for a certain amount of time and what just makes me crazy is that we will spend more time energy and money on a wedding. That has a 50% chance of not making it and we spend nothing on somebody's life in time energy and finances like we're literally scraping the barrel can we can we? What can we get rid of so we can get this funeral done in this little piece and i. 37:58.54 Buffie Blesi I'm super passionate about this but it just drives me crazy and so we got into this we were already live streaming stuff and we're in then people asked us I went to a few I actually participated in a funeral of a friend who was also in the business. So I was there as just as a crew member. 38:09.97 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Or. 38:15.92 Buffie Blesi To help and realize that we could do this. We could do it affordably. We could do it expeditiously and we could fit the needs back to my gender thing women primarily do most of this heavy lifting. 38:22.82 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 38:33.81 Buffie Blesi Ah, funerals the emotional lifting and the actual planning pieces and could we make it better and easier for them to be able to go back later when they're ready to actually participate in that event that they rush through to begin with. 38:34.60 bizzyweb Era. 38:34.87 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 38:51.35 Buffie Blesi Um, there's also a big tech project in this love letters films that we haven't launched that I that is but it's a documentaries of life project where we could actually go even further and actually create a real documentary with voiceover and interviews for your loved 1 39:02.27 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Will hit. 39:09.78 Buffie Blesi And um and then have this big you know film party you know, um in a movie theater maybe or in your home or whatever else. So anyway I'm super passionate about it. We do not spend at Rock Story Studios and rock would you get? We're not spending enough time on that. Um. 39:10.46 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Hey. 39:29.40 Buffie Blesi We will be in the next year but I will say the funeral home industry moves at the slowest speed of any industry in the entire planet I'm not going to miss any kind of timeframe and it's telling everybody on this podcast. We're doing it isn't going to get a bunch of people to go do it. 39:43.26 bizzyweb Um, oh yeah. 39:47.49 Buffie Blesi Ah, what makes it affordable to us is we can switch. We have a ah broadcast level switching switching is moving cameras around and putting like the newscast does we have Newscast level. Um software We can do it from here anywhere in the world and we install all the equipment. 39:52.84 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb In. 40:06.49 Buffie Blesi In the funeral home so we never have to put things in and out and that's where why why we can make it affordable for people because if I have to send a 3 person crew I need 4 hours and and then um, there's all sorts of things. Go bad as people find out. 40:15.85 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh my? Yeah well as you mentioned we have the type of audience. Yeah. 40:23.92 bizzyweb I Think that's and that's amazing because I Dave and I recently went to a funeral and because you know I'm in I'm in the industry One of the things that I was aweestruck. It was the first time I'd been at a funeral on the. 40:24.56 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 40:24.85 Buffie Blesi So. 40:36.66 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, right? yeah. 40:41.11 bizzyweb At a long long ish time and certainly since the pandemic and what was notable. 1 of the things that was notable to me was that the the av in the room was at a different level than I had experienced before and. 40:51.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb People. 41:00.10 bizzyweb And yeah, okay, it's notable on the 1 hand but on the other hand. What a great gift that these people are giving the bereaved because it's more you you can have a higher level of remembrance and a higher level of nuance and higher level of subtlety. 41:00.80 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are out here. 41:13.97 Buffie Blesi Yeah. 41:19.21 bizzyweb To make the celebration unique for the person who you're you're celebrating. It was really it was. It was really something else. 41:22.80 Buffie Blesi Yeah, and the issue the the bigger issue too is that we're we're on this planet we meet thousands of people along the way during that timeframe some of them becomes very very close to us. 41:22.95 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, who. 41:36.19 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Is. 41:41.58 Buffie Blesi And they're not family and our family does not know them in some cases. Those people love us more than our family does and they do not get to participate at the same level and that is what I'm keeping my eye On. Um. You know if you're they don't ask you can you attend if you cannot attend a funeral. We even say the live streaming doesn't matter because if they can't attend. They might not be able to come at that time either. So That's not what's Important. What's really important is the experience that they could have as part of being part of something. So we can bring in speakers we can from all over the world. We can. We can mix it into something Else. We can create an experience for people. Interactive experience. Anyway, it's all it's all just an open way of how we how we participate as humans after the pandemic and. 42:28.31 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, yeah, especially if you if you're in a different world right. 42:36.62 Buffie Blesi And actually this existed before right? like people getting on planes or can't make it or they got to work and not be able to be a part of something has always been real. 42:44.83 bizzyweb I had a cousin that I had fallen out of sorts with and we weren't really close but we we knew each other to to talk and she passed away during the pandemic due to Covid and at the end she didn't want anybody to know because she was terribly embarrassed. 42:45.55 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, right. 42:53.96 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are poor. 43:04.50 bizzyweb That she didn't get the shots and it was she had water regret and I can remember I I sat through the live stream ah of the funeral and I felt a I felt bad for my thing that I had never reconciled with her. But. 43:19.25 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, right? who. 43:21.83 bizzyweb I was so moved by the fact that she had such a community that I didn't I didn't know anything about that. She really was loved and that was a great help and closure for me just because of something as simple as a livestream I'm sorry Dave you had a question. 43:25.97 Buffie Blesi And. 43:32.33 Buffie Blesi Yeah, for sure. 43:57.79 Buffie Blesi Yeah. 44:04.88 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, yeah. 44:15.78 Buffie Blesi Yep. 44:17.55 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb No I I was I was just ah, adding adding on in that this is truly a the the more like virtual our world becomes the more apparent it becomes that this is this is a real service that people really need and. 44:20.24 Buffie Blesi Yeah. 44:26.93 Buffie Blesi Yeah, yeah, yeah, it kind of brings us you know and it kind of brings us to a topic the Diy crowd I mean you guys do professional services I do professional services. There's always a Diy crowd sometimes. 44:35.11 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb People people are doing it kind of already and I had a uncle that passed away in covid not of covid but from cancer and of course we couldn't have a service and it was in California and we were in minnesota and they just did a Facebook live. 44:46.14 Buffie Blesi And there are tech companies doing pretty phenomenal things with video and and you know you get out your camera. The quality is really great. Um, what what they haven't been able to fix is sound as which we started with having really terrific sound. 44:54.64 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Over it where somebody was hanging onto the hanging onto their phone and at one point got dropped and you know you could hear somebody coughing in the background and all that but you know to do a real service to the memory of that person is incredibly important and man with this this just goes right back to Mark. 44:59.69 bizzyweb Help. 45:05.42 Buffie Blesi Come out of your video and match it up with your mouth and being able to sort of correct those qualities that you know create um the difference between something that's professional level done and something that looks like you're you're in your basement doing your stuff. 45:14.39 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Team right of pivoting who who. 45:25.22 Buffie Blesi Matters. Sometimes that's what you want like this very authentic I'm hey I'm hanging out kind of thing. But if you're in business and you're at a certain level Sometimes you really literally have to tell yourself this next phase of our business needs to be and look professional. We can still have fun with it. We can still get that authentic thing. 45:37.15 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A. 45:43.81 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 45:44.44 Buffie Blesi But we must spend some money on it because that comes out in the quality of what other people think about us too and so Ai is a thing and there's there's some really great companies doing this video stuff like hey here's your teleprompter just type your stuff in and and do it. It's it's good, but it's not the same and so. 45:52.33 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, yes, are. 46:04.23 Buffie Blesi There's still places for all of us to to recognize that the work we do and the services we provide are are important. You guys need to get an Ai person on 1 of these podcasts. 46:15.50 bizzyweb We we have we we we we have several robots that that help us in our daily life. We ah um, we hired a ah project manager. 46:20.82 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, ah me. 46:28.88 bizzyweb Who was probably one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life and then he was we took him to meetings and we realized he couldn't take notes to save his life and yeah, he just he just and so um, we we got ah we got one of the first. 46:32.31 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, yeah. 46:43.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? um. 46:47.16 bizzyweb Ai robots to help take notes and transcribe meetings which has been invaluable to our business we and then he quit like a month later but we still have the robot. Yeah. 46:54.67 Buffie Blesi Yeah, yeah, there's there's great. You know helping people decide when it makes sense and we and we'll look where you know we have robotic cameras and we can set them up and you know get and activate them remotely and that helps save us time to. 47:00.49 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 47:14.60 Buffie Blesi And there's there's some really great business benefits to a lot of it I think our next phase of business for those of us that do services for people is to figure out how we can continue to add value and still be profitable. 47:16.74 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, like he didn't know how to type he did not know how to type. 47:33.67 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah. 47:33.88 Buffie Blesi In in subsetting the things that really, we shouldn't We don't need to do it it and nobody wants to do it anyway and and so um and I don't know I don't know what all the answer is but I I think we're we're on this trip to figure it out. 47:46.26 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, for me. 47:52.91 bizzyweb I Think if I can make a gender based comment I think that as we're talking about the the the um your the funeral part of your live streaming business. Ah is I think that's something that has to be delivered with a certain amount of nuance. 47:56.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 48:09.91 bizzyweb And subtlety and that I don't know that you know a man can necessarily get to because then you get to the immediate. Well, what do you mean? you're trying to profit over over my dad's funeral like no, no, no, it's not what we're talking about. It's making it open and making it. 48:12.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, if you. 48:16.68 Buffie Blesi Yeah. Yeah, we could? Yeah, we can do a whole. 48:25.91 bizzyweb And making it available to everyone which ironically which ironically is part of your overall nonprofit Mission is it's you're not making it equal. You're making you're giving the opportunity to everyone. 48:28.52 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb The cat filter. 48:39.98 Buffie Blesi You know it's we could have a whole podcast just on we did on ours we it So I have a podcast call. We're going to talk about it if anybody wants to go listen to it. It's very fabulous but we had a funeral home Ah people we talked about green burials we talked I mean. 48:48.79 bizzyweb Um, she plugged the mother. 48:56.72 Buffie Blesi Just a very all the changes that are happening in there but ultimately funeral homes are still very paper based they sit down with a family with a folder and they literally go through it and because that personal you know they're sort of meeting people. 49:05.29 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, and and service. Yeah. 49:14.10 Buffie Blesi In this place making it very simple still and you know there are definitely tech companies trying to move them across the line but it's It's very. It's very hard including us as this whole we can't talk any tech. We just say hey at the end of the day. That's just what's gonna happen. 49:26.50 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I Love it. Yes. 49:27.80 bizzyweb I didn't ah I. 49:32.60 bizzyweb Years and years and years ago probably probably thirty some odd years ago I was a teenager and my my my great uncle Carl drove his car into a tree and he was in the hospital was a big giant burly man and he ended up passing away. 49:32.88 Buffie Blesi You'll have this nice little video that we cleaned up for you. 49:45.50 Buffie Blesi Is. 49:51.67 bizzyweb And I can remember my grandmother who was probably in her eighty s at the time took her sister who was Carl's wife to the funeral home and they did the arrangements and there was you know? Okay, well here's a price for the earn and they said wella that's ridiculous. We're not paying that and so the 2 of them got in ah took the bus from Brooklyn center. 50:00.47 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A. 50:11.60 bizzyweb Which is a suburb north of Minneapolis down to downtown Minneapolis and they went to the department store down there and they got a vase and I could put Carl on the vase they took the vase home. Nice beautiful vase that they they got and then they got Carl Carl came home in the box and they poured. Um. 50:29.84 bizzyweb Started pouring it into to the ah the vase and the most important detail I told you at the beginning which was he was a big burly man they ran ah there the vase is not big enough. They still had more coral so instead of getting a second vase what they did is they poured Karl back in the box and then washed the box out. And then took the vase home. So I've always been comforted by the fact that somewhere a very nice home and a very rich part of town is a little bit of my uncle Carl. 50:57.63 Buffie Blesi Yeah, little more of Carl. 51:01.52 bizzyweb So I want to I want to wrap up but this has been a fascinating topic so podcast video ah nonprofit equity and inclusion. Um a 4 time ah reinvention clean what? um. I'll ask you the Bob Seeger question Buffy is ah what what? What do you wish that you didn't know now that you didn't know then. 51:25.56 Buffie Blesi Oh I don't know if we have enough time for all of this stuff I wish I knew that I I know now that I didn't know that I will I will say this I think the biggest The biggest thing is that I wish what I know now is that. 51:31.66 bizzyweb Um, we go to a part 2 That's fine. 51:40.13 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, if the fit great. 51:44.67 Buffie Blesi Risk taking and making shifts when you just don't know what's going to happen um can be life changing in a really good way and that I wish I would have done a little bit more of that earlier as opposed to taking the very straight and narrow path. That I originally took for 20 years so um you know, being an entrepreneur being being in this business but but even shifting my current business faster. So yeah I mean in hindsight there's a lot of stuff I could so and should have done differently. 1 of them was. 52:11.45 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 52:20.91 Buffie Blesi Um, maybe not by a franchise but I I never would have gotten to quote to to coach. You know, almost 300 people and and my last coaching client just sold her business for multiple multiple times what it was when I first started working with her. Forever. Go so I don't know with things happen and we cheat make choices and we just have to live with it. But I tell I pretty make those changes faster. 52:48.13 bizzyweb Buffo But yes buffe We always like to end on giving you as many cheap pop plugs as you want So where can people find you where can people find your podcast. 52:53.69 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Caps. Holy. 52:59.14 Buffie Blesi Yeah, where's the 3 the so the big big buffy stuff the thing rock what you got live.com is our corporate and all of our stuff is on there but hey there's a lot of businesses on here and you need video if you're not doing video. You should. 53:02.59 bizzyweb Where can people find ever the the Buffy Empire 53:03.24 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 53:18.23 Buffie Blesi Contact me at rockstoryiastudios.com and then if you are lucky enough to be in the death industry. You can reach us at Loveletters Filmms Dot Com ultimately buffy at Rockwood you got live. 53:28.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Pivot Fast I love it thank you still. 53:33.58 Buffie Blesi Dot com is my email and anybody can contact me I'm easy to find Google I'm on the first 5 pages Buffy Blazy you can't ah nobody's going to supersede my Google search. There's only 1 53:50.45 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 53:51.51 bizzyweb Oh Cynthia. 53:58.90 bizzyweb I am that's because I it's her name wasn't Silvia was Cynthia so I know that's I didn't want to get that wrong. So I wanted to have it on as part of the file. So when we edited it it all it a lot we can fix that. 54:04.81 Buffie Blesi No. 54:14.38 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Thank you Buffy you. 54:17.35 bizzyweb Is actually. 54:17.46 Buffie Blesi I'll give you guys a little tip to we started doing this on our podcast because we have so many and topics. We actually take our list. 54:26.19 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Thank you. 54:34.66 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Did you did you stop recording mine still says that you're going. 54:45.33 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Ah, she's terrible. 54:55.18 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, I wish this with super fun Buffy. Thank you? yeah.