Telling a Brand Story Through Photography

Zahra  

All right, well, welcome to another episode of The Brand Collaborative. I am so excited to have our guests today. Gabe Garcia. This one has been a long time in the making I have been chasing you Gabe for so long.

Gabriel  

Sorry. 

Zahra  

No, you are creating, you're creating demand. Yeah, I have been since the first time that I seen your work since the first time you know that I've had a chance to talk to your clients. I was just blown away because a lot of times, you know, in creative industries, it's kind of hard to zero in on like, method, but you legit have a method down. And that's what allows you to consistently deliver results for your clients and the work that you've put out is just phenomenal. And I think that sometimes we tend to take for granted the amount of thought and work and framing that goes into some things that we can do on our own with a phone and we get that, you know, and we see it all the time, like, Oh, I've got Canva I'll do my own logo. But really, but just to kind of show you like their, you know, just that you you can see the difference between what you put out and what are very, very good, like DIY attempts, but still, you know. And just kind of like the way you think about it in terms of photography, not just in a vacuum, but how it relates and how it becomes an asset for your brand, I think it's just incredible. So but I'm already like way far ahead.. But I do want to introduce you for anybody you know who who doesn't know you and how's it worked with you? So, Gabe, you're married, you have a wife and daughter? 

Gabriel  

I guess so.  Yes. 

Zahra  

How old is your daughter?

Gabriel  

My daughter is 10, she's about to turn 11 next week, she looks like she looks like she's 16 and I'm getting a little scared, she's going too fast.

Zahra  

Oh, definitely the way that you were born in San Antonio, but you're raised in South Carolina. And you actually came from a background in construction, you were doing construction for like 12 years before you moved into being a full time photographer. And now you run a creative agency called Summit Creative Group. And I'll just repeat that for those of you guys who spaced out for a second, your agency is called Summit Creative Group, we'll get into how to find you at the end that. Basically, your agency focuses on content creation brand strategy for different businesses, organizations, and individuals who need to be seen on social or on the web. And you know, what I do love is that you do create a lot of community space for creatives because we need that as artists. 

Gabriel  

Yeah, I need that.

Zahra  

And so you actually created a group, right, you're the director of SA Creatives, which brings the community together through culture, and art, and you host creative meetups and events. So tell me a little bit about sa creatives like when do we meet? How did you get there? 

Gabriel  

Yeah so picture, you know, we've been to a lot of networking events, you know, in business, of course, so picture that, but nothing but creatives. Obviously, we do invite some small business owners to come as well to kind of check us out, maybe get connected with a creative to help you with your project. But essentially, we want to create a space where they can meet each other creatives and also collaborate but network and we do want them to connect and we want them to connect outside of our meetups. So a typical meetup can look like this, we have a ton of photographers, you know, that's my forte, I guess that's what I started in the creative space doing. And then we have some models that come out professional and some, you know, that are just starting out. Same with photographers and then we also have a lot of videographers that come out. And every once awhile we'll have performers, the dancer that do our chalk art canvas, and they'll also come out. We even have people that do like fire breathing, which is really cool, especially if you're a photographer to capture that. And we also just want to create a safe place for them to let them know that you know their family and you know, one of our big things that we do promote is safety, we really, really try to make sure that everybody's safe and make sure that there's not people going way too far off in the dark and things like that. And we keep them you know, all kinds of together, we give them a guideline of the venue and places like that. But yeah, we just want to, we want to do that and our larger goal is to really create a space for all of San Antonio and creatives to be able to go to a place and just get their start, if they're a little confused on what to do, how to navigate this creative thing, especially if they've left like the corporate world can be very overwhelming. And so I guess, I guess I'll just announce it here, we actually were pivoting as the creators become a nonprofit, a 501c3, nonprofit. So heard it first here and part of that reasoning is, we our business model really is already like a nonprofits business model. We don't really charge for anything, we try to give more than we take. We make some profit, but not much but in the long run, we want to create funding, even for creatives to have have that to start a business and kind of similar to what they do here at Geekdom. Like a community fund, you pitch your idea, if we see fit, you get the funding, and we just help you get your start in this creative world. So we want to create more opportunities than we thought by converting to a nonprofit, we can create those opportunities for the creatives here in San Antonio. Oh, that's awesome. I gotta ask you, because, I mean, I think I know the answer to kind of just give a voice to it. Why is it that creatives kind of need a space separate from like, Amazon entrepreneurs or CPA entrepreneurs, what is it, do you think that? Yeah, no, I think when you when you realize that you are creative or if you're so kind of figured out if you are or what that is, I think you get this curiosity about you and you're like, Okay, I see what I'm doing. But does it make sense and so I think being a community or being around other creatives, helps you kind of figure out navigate your own journey, to see what your style is, or how other people are doing what you're doing. And if anything, you get inspiration, like for me, starting out, I really tried to tap into as many photographers that I could follow Instagrams, I would stalk them on Instagram, you know, and be like, how did they get the shot? And lo and behold, I would just ask them, and they were, they freely told me, Well, I did this, I use that and then the editing process, I did this, and I was like, Okay, there's a lot more to this photography thing that I thought, and it gave me more of an insight on how much work these photographers would put into their final product. And so I think creatives need that communication, that one on one, sometimes with with other creatives to just give them inspiration, or give them that encouragement to keep on going and don't give up on your journey. So that's what that's what I think they needed, we need each other, we need to see each other on a regular basis.

Zahra  

I agree, I love that, I think that there's a lot of unsure, you know, because it's art, we really struggle more than a lot of people as far as pricing and value. And, you know, it's different than like, I got a burger, it exactly cost me $1 to make it. So that's a framework for okay you know, and so sometimes as creatives that can be a bit tricky to navigate, as far as you know, certain things or certain nuances to a creative entrepreneur. And so it's nice to be able to have other people who've been there who've gone through it and give you kind of, well, this is how I do it. That's really cool so speaking of your journey, do you work construction worker, is that kind of how you got into it, just kind of testing the water and learning from people, where did you transition from construction to photography,

Gabriel  

That's a funny story. So, construction, I kind of gotten to that by default, my dad has a business and so that was the easiest job. I didn't go to college, I was supposed to I took two years off out of high school, and realize I don't think I'm ever gonna go to college. And so my dad was like, eell, you have to figure something out and so I started working with him. And at first, you know, I was like, this is hard work but then I started to really see the beauty in construction from the blueprints to actually building it. And then you know, putting that final touch of paint, I then I realized, wait, I'm creating something bigger and something that I can't understand it's going to last who knows how long and that's kind of where I think my creative juices started flowing. Because in high school, I didn't really do photography or yearbook and everything like that I did sports. And so honestly, one Black Friday, I bought a point shoot camera, it was a Nikon Coolpix. And it was a deal, I posted it on Facebook, got this cool camera and this was like in 2010 or 11 and the pastor at my church said, Hey, I saw you got a fancy new camera, can you come take pictures for our website this Sunday? And I was like, no, I don't know, I'm not a photographer. I don't know what I'm doing and he said, you know, you got a new camera, just come out and try it out and so I did that. And the camera had this cool feature called panoramic mode and I was like, what is this, you just take a stitch of different photos and put them all together and I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I'm a professional. I'm a photographer, that's it, I made it. I love it and he put that he put that picture on the cover photo, cover photos, I think just started off Facebook, on Facebook and people were like, Oh, my goodness, this photo, so amazing, who took this and he started tagging me. And then he started, you know, just letting people know, like, he's a photographer and so at that point, I was like, I'm not, but thank you for the compliments. And so I kept going back and I went back and went back and then so that next tax season, I got a better camera. And I started taking more pictures at church and then people were like, Hey, I saw you took these pictures at church, do you do like, graduation poses? I'm like, sure wo that's where it all started, you know, friends, family, and then I started getting inquiries from people I didn't know, there were friends who tagged me on Facebook. And then I was like, I don't know what to do like, I can't do this for free, everybody. And I really like what I'm doing and so I remember going to my pastor, I said, this is your fault, what do I do? You give me the answers. He's like, what do you like what you're doing? I'm like, yeah, I love it. He said okay, well, that's what you're gonna do, you're gonna go to the courthouse, you're gonna get this thing called a DBA and then you start charging people, you open up a bank account, and you start making money doing what you love. And I said, Hmm, that's interesting so I did it. And then I was doing full time construction and full time photography for about six years. Yeah, so I would literally work my day job at construction Monday through Friday, sometimes Saturdays, Saturdays and Sundays I was doing photoshoots and then in the evenings, I was editing for about six years. Yeah so I did that.

Zahra  

So I love that your first business coach was your pastor, I just think that's amazing, talk about having a business blessed.

Gabriel  

For sure, I mean, yeah, I guess so. I mean, looking back at it now, like, yeah, for sure but yeah, it was definitely. It was a it was a, I guess, a hard journey, navigating both, but I really loved photography but I wasn't making enough. So I had to have my full time job but I handle it somehow, someway, I made it.

Zahra  

Yeah, I think that's really cool because, you know, I remember my very first experience with a business coach, and I had just started and that was like, my back was up against the wall, right. And I was like, I had to make this much money in this amount of time, and I don't have any money for marketing. And I don't have an audience and I don't have you know, anything and he says, well, that just quit, pack it up and go home. I was like, wait, what and he says, well, if you don't have what it takes to get it done, then why waste your energy on something, you know, is doomed to fail. I was like, because I really want to do this and he says, alright, then let's make a list of what you do have and let's figure it out. And I did and you know, and my goal with three weeks with all even despite not having any things like none on the facts change. I didn't suddenly triple my audience. I didn't sound like nobody just magically gave me like a $30,000 check to here grow, you know, same exact instance. But in my mind, you know, just your perspective shift and I think that's really cool because which what you're saying is, you know, you you built that for yourself, you really I was really important part of your story is so many people like, well, I've got a family, I've got a kid, I'm not a nine to five, I don't have the money to start up. I don't have you know, I can't afford my first camera, you know, but like, somehow you just kind of.

Gabriel  

You just kind of do it. You just kind of do it. You know, and there's I don't think there's a secret like recipe or an equation to it. I just think when you put your mind to something, you have two choices, you either do it or you don't you know, and I think Nike said it best. You just do it.

Zahra  

Just do it, you got to figure it out.

Gabriel  

And I think to what's important, I think what I mean, what I want somebody to take away like, of this conversation is, you really will never figure it out 100% I have mentors in my life that are in their 80s and they're constantly telling me something new that they've learned in life and I'm like, you've been alive almost a decade, what else can you learn? And so hearing from them gives me hope to know that I don't have to have it all together all the time. And so I think that's something that I think we all should take and apply to our life. And maybe the thing that you haven't figured out yet, won't keep you up at night anymore. You just keep on going and you'll figure it out as you go.

Zahra  

Yeah, you know, it's funny that you say that, because you never, you never know, we take for granted. Last year, I went on a trip to Peru, and one of the other entrepreneurs there was super excited, he was just about to make his you know, eight or nine figure exit from his company. And he was about to purchase, you know, another company and so we, you know, kept in touch slightly over, you know, social media and such. And then I see a post maybe about two months ago, where he says, Oh, my god, I almost lost it all. I thought it was gonna be and this is a guy who like, he's made it Yeah, your company, eight, nine figures, what could go wrong, you obviously you know, everything about business. And, it was a beautiful post, where you kind of walk through the journey, you know, the different stages and where he was at, and how he was able to pull himself out of it, and how he's back on track for success. But you see, even at, bigger level bigger devil, like, even no matter what you learn, there's always going to be that thing that you got to learn next, if you want to get to what's next, it's really, really cool.

Gabriel  

Yeah, I'm a big believer and history and looking back history and it can teach us a lot about, you know, how how we've overcome. And basically we apply that and it repeats itself and so, you know, I don't know, a lot of people know, but I mean, 1929. I mean, everybody lost their business, for the most part, small or large. But somehow we're here business goes on, everything goes on. And, you know, we just kind of like we just get through, we get through it somehow, someway like you say.

Zahra  

Figure it out as we go, building the plane as you fly and it'll be fine. Okay, so I have a question for you, what did you know because so you, you kind of did the side hustle and the main hustle for a while? What gave you that thought that says, Okay, it's time to drop the construction, this is gonna be my thing.

Gabriel  

So early on, I also so weird, I didn't go to college. But I read a lot, I learned a lot and I feel like I got a college education without actually going to college. Of course, maybe I didn't get my degree or things like that, I'm sure there was a lot of other things I probably should have learned. But I was a I was a nerd, basically growing up and I really saw the importance of data. And I started to realize, okay, what data can I apply to my construction and my photography, so I can quit construction and it was simple numbers. You know, it was simple numbers, what are my bills? What am I making right now and what do I need to make in photography. So I basically took my paycheck, when I make and told myself, if I can make this in photography, I was surviving on this before if photography was even a thing, so I can continue to survive on photography, if I can make the same amount. Now, I didn't quite make the same amount in photography. But what I did was I figured out if I cut some things out, then it all evens itself out and so that's what I did. So yeah, we ate ramen for a few years, after quitting construction full time and so basically, the numbers told me when to quit. I think I was making maybe 75% of what I was making the construction and photography. But within one year, I think I made up that 25%. And so I was making what I was making construction and you know, I'm not gonna lie, there was a few, there was a few years where I had to kind of go back and do some construction to supplement the income. But it was great that I actually took the time that I didn't do construction to learn that skill and it was always a backup plan for me. That was my that was my college construction and so that was that's my degree that I have, and I can always go back to it. I still have my tool, my tool belt, I'll still put it on to do stuff around the house. So I'm even saving money in that even now because of the time and effort that I put in doing construction for them in the years. So I guess it did pay off in the long run but basically the numbers the numbers told me when to quit, and how I can sustain myself and my family with photography.

Zahra  

That's really cool because I think sometimes, you know, we make emotional, obviously, we're all humans, right? We all make decisions that we have that one interaction, you're probably even more so because you're working with families. One blowout moment or that one and then it's emotion based, but I liked that you use the numbers. And what I also like, is when you made that pivot financially, you also did it emotionally like from now on, construction was a side hustle. That was the supplement, you didn't say when things got tough, okay, I'm dropping the photography. And then all the way back to construction it was okay, so the what hasn't changed, but the house is gonna have a flexible, that's a really cool way to look at it. Because your mindset just shifted along with it. That's really cool nuggets, I hope that people like to hear that and just take that from, you know, from what, what you had to say. 

Gabriel  

For sure, me too. 

Zahra  

Okay, so I love your story but I know that people want to know some really important things about photography. So we're visual people internet's blowing up, you know, there's so much stuff, you know, you can't just post words anymore, you just can't. I mean, you gotta have a video, you gotta have a photo, you gotta have something. And photography is such a big part of any business, any brand, even if you're not product base, even if you're not, you know, doing product images. It's such a huge part of that so can we pick your brain a little bit about photography itself? Okay so let's get into this, I'm so excited to talk about this right. So if you're launching a brand, what are the core pieces of photography that you need to have, what are like, don't forget to think about these types of pictures in these types of pictures.

Gabriel  

Yeah, I think, you know, I hope that if you're launching a brand, or an idea that you've thought about your mission statement, or your values and your business. And so literally those I would say, that's your roadmap to the kinds of visuals that you want people to see. And so basically, what I think every business or brand should know, is no matter if they know it or not, they're telling a story, from the conception to you know, being full blown, getting clients and everything that comes to that. So I think, looking at your your core values and looking at your mission, whether it be you know, to grow a community or to be the fastest burger chain in America, or whatever. So you look at those things okay, what kind of visuals will encompass that and so community, okay, we're trying to build a community, what community are we trying to build San Antonio. So maybe we should focus on San Antonio, the people maybe we focus on culture. And so if you feel that your mission is to build the community, then let's go to fiesta and get as many photos as we can. The great thing about that is everybody's dressed up, everybody has their makeup done. So you don't have to hire a makeup artist or designer, you can literally go out the front door and take a picture. And they will encompass the culture of San Antonio. San Antonio, as everyone knows, that lives here, we are very event and market driven and so just going based on that community example, we have plenty of opportunities to do that. And that's something that if you I know, that's a later question, but if you don't have the money to put into photography, you can do this yourself. And that's, you know, depending on like I said, what you're building, of course, if you want to get more into it the the architecture here, of course, we have the Alamo, we have Tower of Americas, things like that. And so I say, always go back to your core values, go back to your mission statement, and build your visuals based off of that, or the story you're trying to tell. And once you do that, you have your brand everything's going and you're like, you know what, I want to launch a different campaign. Okay, what's the mission for that campaign, and you do it all over again, and you can't really get it wrong. The only way you can get it wrong is if you are selling to the wrong audience and you missed that mark. But other than that, you just do the best you can at telling your story, and then you base your visuals off of that.

Zahra  

I think that that is very sage advice. You know, when we work with photographers, and we build a shot list with them, we always make sure they have that guideline that has like vision or persona, you know, all that kind of stuff because that really does help you know to move whether it's you're moving someone through a wireframe of a website where you move them through a funnel, you've got to have that kind of like beginning middle end and I think that's really cool. So this is a random question that we're not anywhere. But as you were talking, it sparked, and I knew it was because, you know, you have so much gold and what you have to say. So you were you had talked about and I guess maybe, you know, we'll skip down to that question to what kind of photography you can DIY versus when did you really see a professional about? And then like, I guess, like, the one big question to that is, what are your thoughts about stock photography? When is it okay, is it ever okay? How do you do it? Because there's and even AI, like a lot of those avatar kind of photos or the, like very mid journey, crazy AI imagery. What are your thoughts and kind of rule, best practice rules on how to integrate all of that. 

Gabriel  

For sure, so I think something that you can DIY is people that are di wires themselves and so you have your makers are just talking about the markets here in San Antonio. There, we have so many people that make beautiful things from from their hands. You can see it here at Legacy Park, we have the last chance market, you know, we have First Friday, second Saturdays, people are doing art or doing jewelry, all of those things. Now, I know just starting out, you don't have a big budget for any kind of marketing, maybe the budget you have is to print out some files, right which is great and they work print, so works, I believe. But you can't hire somebody to do this extensive shoot at different locations and that's understandable. So I think doing a nice DIY, photography setup at home could be done with a cell phone and now of course, you know me as a photographer, I would love to do it with my camera, bring all these lights. But I understand that that's not always an option but if you have you know, some beautiful jewelry, literally put your jewelry on a wooden table by open window, let the sun hit it at just the right time, add a little succulent from Dollar Tree, get your phone, if you feel like you're too shaky, they sell these little tripods, for phones on Amazon for like 20 bucks, do that, take a few shots post it on Instagram and there you go, that's your DIY for that product. Now, when you maybe get a brick and mortar, and you're doing these large, large orders, and you need to do campaigns, because now you have different themed jewelry, for different seasons, yeah, if you're making some money, you've got some money leftover, hire a photographer, it frees up your time and then also, you're gonna get maybe a different perspective than what you're used to. And the quality is gonna be better, especially if you want to blow it up larger, you can't blow up a picture from a phone, you know, in a large print. So you need a better camera and maybe you don't have that, but you didn't hire somebody. So I think that's when you kind of start to scale up and do those kinds of things and then going based on the second part to that the AI, right, and all of these crazy things that are coming out. So this is where I see that it's a tool, I think it's a tool that can be used for good and for bad. So the way that I've kind of explained it to people, other photographers that have shared their frustrations with me, I tell them look at one point portraits, they were done by by paint, you know, an artist would paint your portrait you would sit there for who knows how long, they would paint it. Well then came along this new technology called the photograph, you know, the camera, and it was taken a picture and a matter of a second or two. And these painters probably throw fit, Oh my goodness, what is this thing? They're taking our jobs away? What do we do? Like, we're, our jobs are over our lives are over. And these photographers were just like, Well, I used to be artists, you know. And look, it wasn't paying the bills I was taking for hours now I could do it and four seconds. And so now I'll maximize what I can do and look at us now there are still artists that paint beautiful, beautiful portraits. In fact, it costs more to get a painting by a portrait artists and the cost for me to take your portrait with my camera. So what it's done is created a I guess the quality has gone up but it's created this thing where not everybody does, you know portrait painting. So when you find somebody it's expensive and so I feel that it's a tool, it can be used, like I said, for really good. Now, the bad part is this, a lot of people just getting into photography can use it, and they know nothing about photography. So this AI can create a terrible composition and since you know nothing about composition yet, it's a terrible photo. And once you put it next to professional photographers photos, you're gonna see my photos not doing as well, because AI is dumb. It's only as smart as the human using it and so I think that's when you can kind of, I guess get a little blurred is when you start to use it not knowing anything about what you're using it for. So something that I've seen is, I think AI is going to make smarter people smarter and dumb people dumber. And so I hope that that we use it in a smart way we use it for I don't know, if, if you want to go back on our SA creatives, Instagram, we have some graphics that we made for our summer series. And a lot of that was used make doing AI and most of it, the reason being to is we just we want to use it, we want to say we use it. But there's a lot of good and a lot of bad things come out of it but I think there's going to be more good. We just have to trust the process and use it as a tool.

Zahra  

I agree. We we use AI you know, and I'm the least techie person you'll ever meet. Just does not agree with me but I think that, you know, it is a good tool but it doesn't replace the human, it never does. So I think I think it's like my favorite analogy so far this year. The painter and the photographer because it's true, these things have been happening you know, in centuries later, we still have human artists that I do with a paintbrush all the things. 

Gabriel  

And they're sought after. 

Zahra  

Yeah, 100%. And I think that, you know what you said also like, it just kind of wanted to reiterate that I think it was so important is that the tricky part about these new flashy tools, you know, the same with Canva, you can use any font, any colors, check out these cool gradients, but if it's not on brand, if it's not, you know, it can be more detrimental than it can be helpful because people no longer have the rulebook, they don't have the little, you know, stay in the box that you've made to be clear. And it's the same thing, like we've seen some beautiful AI and then we've seen some, even if it's beautiful, it's so distracting from the point, which is to sell the product that the product gets lost in all this stuff, because it's just more more and let's add a sunset in the background and that's... 

Gabriel  

Add sad candy canes and whatever, crazy craziness.

Zahra  

You see this tiny little thing over here that yeah, notice anymore? That's my product.

Gabriel  

And then what's up with the hands? Have you seen the hands like if they just looks like an alien or something.

Zahra  

Yeah, yeah. That and like always, there's something in the, because I was just actually just reading about that and they were talking about how there's good places to use, you know, AI and advertising. And there's places where it's detrimental and so many people are using it in a way when they're making like community like trying to build community like social posting. And yeah, this view and people can't see themselves in that because it's either, you know, we say it all the time when it was stock photography too stock if you're building community stock use the ugly because it's real.

Gabriel  

Oh, yeah, I don't think I touched on that so stock photography, I think you can still use we use it, we use talk video as well, a lot of times because we can't go to Iceland and get a shot of Iceland in the afternoon. And so, or we need a shot of a busy city, San Antonio is busy, but it's not as busy as like, you know, New York or Hong Kong, places like that. So if whatever we're creating needs, that there's not a budget to take a trip for, you know, across the world to get one shot. So yes, all day long, we're gonna use stock video, we're gonna use it and these photographers and videographers are doing that for people like us that aren't there and can't be there and so yeah, we use it. 100% and I think it's, you know, really, really cool that you said that like knowing when to use it and when not to use this and leverage what you've got, and then knowing where okay, now it's having that intelligence, you know, to know when and how to use it, it's really cool. Okay, so for those entrepreneurs who are just starting out, so I know like for our industry, whenever one of our clients is rolling out with a new product or a third product launch, things can kind of get delayed on the production end. So you kind of run into this chicken in the egg right? You need the photography to put on the packaging, but you don't have the first round of product. So how do you put the photography of the packaging that doesn't exist yet. And so I'm we have to use, you know, work around tools like mock ups and things like that to kind of, you know, turning prototypes and making them look like that final product so that, you know, it works. So what do you do in photography, so let's just say that you're opening your first business or a new business, and you don't have any clients yet, or you don't have the product in hand yet. Or don't have your restaurants on open yet so you don't have, you know, the front of the house, the restaurant design anything to photograph yet. But you know, you need to start that marketing process, like what kind of photography hacks can you use to kind of get around that.

For sure, well, I think 100% I mean, your cell phone is your first line of defense, I think in that offense. There's a photographer who said, what's the best camera you have is the one on you. And so we're blessed enough to have a camera on us all the time, wherever we go, some better than others, but most of them are pretty on plain like they're really good. You know, there's this, there is a university you can go to anytime it's called YouTube University and there are videos on how to take photos of anything with your cell phone, you can literally look up jewelry, you can look up food, you can look up ice cream, specific kinds of foods, and you're probably finding at least one video on that. Now, I think that's a good start and maybe you don't want to stay there. But also, there's communities like SA Creatives, where, you know, you can come to our meetups, and we say this all the time, bring your product, if it's a product that you can actually bring, there's photographers there that will just love to take a few photos for you, and then give them to you at no charge. Sometimes you can trade work, I traded work starting out, oh my gosh, I can't even say how many times I tried to work. But sometimes I'd go into a new ice cream shop Mom and Pop and be like, hey, you know, I saw your Instagram, you don't have any photos or any videos, could I just kind of create something for you and they'd be like, yeah, sure, we'll give you some ice cream or whatever on the house. I'm like, let's do it and so it would take maybe 30 minutes of my time, you know, maybe an hour with editing and I give them a photo or two, I get ice cream. They'd build their business and I had content to put on my page. There's another another organization out there called the Hannah's and Media, which Olivia, she's on our team SA Creatives has created and she's gotten a lot inspiration from being with educators. And she wants to create this organization that pairs women creative with women business owners and it's a beautiful, beautiful concept because it goes back to what you're saying, what do you do? How do you start this and so basically show team up creatives that need work, they need content. And then businesses that need photos for their Instagram and some have a little meetup, and they have coffee and do fun stuff. And then the business gets some content and the creator gets content to post as well and what I love about it, it's all women and so I'm a huge supporter of women, and they're doing awesome things. Sometimes they're doing way awesome or things and men, and people just don't see it. So I love that she's highlighting that and saying that there's a lot of talent here in San Antonio, when it comes to our female co workers. And so I support her 100% and anything she's doing, and they're doing really great for doing really good. So organizations like that also can be an option for businesses, small businesses to get some content.

Zahra  

And I think that's so cool and I think you know, going back to even what you were talking about in the story, like I know, when we do product launches, and all of that we're running our teaser campaigns in our head campaigns to build excitement. But you know, there's, we tell stories about the process, you know, the journey, so maybe you don't have that finished, but you have photos of the prototypes and the sketches and the long hours in the garage? Maybe you don't have you working with the client, but you can have some really great you know, headshots and I think that's super cool to be able, like you said, it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be end product take out what's in your back pocket. Take a picture when she got, I love that. Okay, so going back to you and your business, I think you and I have talked it as a matter of fact, I feel like we first bonded over your library. I think I was like visiting and I was passing by your office, it was like who was this with the book, they're meant to be best friends.

Gabriel  

Yeah, 100%.

Zahra  

So, you know, what are the things that I've always admired about you is how you will think through big issues like you know, and I think probably towards the end of last year, our industry started to see a lot of shakiness. Because we were worried about the impending recession, a lot of COVID grants were giving financial aid, but only to in house personnel. So companies that were traditionally outsourcing to agencies and freelancers for work, they couldn't do that anymore, because they only now had a budget to hire somebody of their own to do it, because that's where the money that's what federal funding was paid for. And so it left a lot of agencies out in the cold and, and so and then the big AI, bombshell, you know, a lot of big things, for us in creative world that we had to reconcile and figure out, okay, everything just turned upside down, which happens in a lot of industries, and this will just happen to be ours. Our time to feel the pinch and so, you know, we had all this stuff happened with AI, and, you know, the fear of upcoming recession, and federal funding that, you know, wasn't great for, you know, people like us. How have you been able in through that I've seen you thrive and so like, how have you been able to level up without sacrificing the value that people have come to know you for like, how have you been able to stay true to your brand and still make money?

Gabriel  

Honestly, the things that I've done that I think this carry me on and it's probably been one of the hardest things, in hindsight, I guess, is to give more than I take. And so what that means is sometimes I do I still help out small businesses with content, and I don't charge them. Now, does it hurt my bottom line? 100% yeah, it does and so, but what I think I'm doing is I'm filling up something else and that's confidence in myself, but confidence that the client is going to do something with their business, at least they have these photos, a few photos to work with. A lot of them are businesses around here around keep them because it's just who I see often. But the some of them are people through SA Creatives, or people that just message me for pricing, and then I give them the pricing. And they're like, well, we would love to we'd love your work, we want you to be the one that we just can't afford right now and so I help them out, not everybody, but I do help out people that I feel that share the same values as I do. And so not just that, but just giving advice, giving my time, here at Geekdom we have a mentoring program that is, is utilized very well here at Geekdom, you're part of it and I see you all the time, which is amazing. If you guys don't know, behind the scenes, she is working very, very hard to help businesses just figure some things out and I see her almost at every single programming thing we have here. You'll come in and give your time and I hear people after meeting with you, because I do their video pitches and I'm like, how did your mentor session? Oh, my gosh, I had this awesome mentoring session with Zahra and she like helped me with this and with that, and now I have a clearer picture on what I need to do. So yeah, through the mentor program we are able to help people and I think it's important that you do give more than you take. And by default, what's happened is maybe that company knows another company that has the money and ready to hire me and they're like, I know, somebody, this person did this for me, I know that he will take care of you. I know that he'll go above and beyond because he did for me and so it goes back to the best form of marketing, which is word of mouth. And so that's worked for us, I've done little marketing for my business since I started because we've always gotten people to contact us and say we have something, are you interested? Yes, let's figure this out. So I want to say the biggest marketing that I've done is putting myself in different situations where I can actually help somebody. And so that's kind of, I guess, a little secret that I do personally, I wouldn't say it's for everybody, because it does take a lot of your time but I just like to help and give more than I take. That's something that I just have always done and I always wanted to be a part of who I am but also who we are as a business.

Zahra  

I think that's really beautiful. I think in 2018 I went to an event and I heard someone talk about the concept of "be do have" I don't know if you've heard of that. 

Gabriel  

Yes, I have. 

Zahra  

Yeah and that what you just said perfectly sums that up, you know, so often say, well, when I become that multimillion dollar company, I'll give back. I'll donate my time, I'll donate my you know, my money also, you know, do all this stuff. But then you're kind of caught in this trap it talks about how are you ever if you don't do the things that million dollar CEOs do, how will you ever have the money and so you just like, What will change? What will change? And sometimes it's just you and having that spirit of abundance and having that like, I'm not worried about the bottom line, you know, I'm aware of it. I'm not worried. 

Gabriel  

Yeah, of course, of course.

Zahra  

You know, not like just not paying bills but I'm not worried about it and I'm just gonna have faith in the process that, you know, there's more than enough work to go around that, you know, being a help to somebody in creating value for them, is the heart of what I do and I'm going to give like I had the millions to give exactly, you have to be creative. I remember when we first started, we couldn't, we didn't have like, Okay, here's $10,000, you know, to give us a donation, but what we could do is we would do like a pro bono, you know, yeah, we do mentoring sessions, you know, so it's like, okay, well, we charge you 250 an hour for this. But then we give away five sessions, it's equivalent to it so like, even if you don't like the bank, even when you first start your business, even if you don't have the money to give someone, there's always a way to give, more than what you're getting. So often, that just fills your spirit, because it's like, you know what, that's what fuels my purpose like, yeah, look for the people that you want to help.

Gabriel  

100% and I think what what was happened to and like, in our society, we're very money driven. But I don't think people understand that your time is worth more money than the money you have in your bank and that's why people charge so much for their time, when it when it does turn it to money to numbers. And so yeah, my time is very, very valuable so if I can give my time before I can get my money, you're getting way more than any money I can ever give you. So yeah, I like to give my time when I can.

Zahra  

And it's great, I think it's super cool, though, because you become fans of the people that you support, and you work and you mentor, and I've seen this with you too. I've seen like you're the biggest cheerleader, I see like you tag and shout out your clients, your people like you are just invested in their success. And I think that there's something about that, that like, keeps that spirit of community like it affects the quality of even like your work and your product. You can tell when you look at what you're doing, you love these people, like you know, like you love what they're doing. You love what they're about and it's so cool. I was just having a glass of wine with a client who started and when she started, she was side hustling, baked goods out of her mom's house like she was you know, she had a nine to five she was a single mom. Like she was just hardcore hustling and now she's opening up her second location, she's a TV personality on the Food Network and she was like, you know, I never saw this, you saw it. When I met you, you were like, this is where it's gonna go and I was like, really, is it, just holding face and then seeing that and of course she did all the work. It's all her win. Yeah, like I'm her biggest fan because I know where she started you know where she came from and then just to be a part of that, you know, it's just super cool to to be get that front row seat to what she could do in the impact she's now making. Just super fun I think, people miss that like sometimes we forget the rewards not always money can be totally can.

Gabriel  

Of course, money is not money's not bad, though. Don't get me wrong. I mean, money money makes the world go round and so you know not to say that you do so much giving that you put yourself bankrupt or you have to be smart, you know about what you do and how much time you give. But, ya know, I mean, just going back, I mean, yeah, there's nothing wrong with money.

Zahra  

That's awesome. Okay, so I have some fun,rapid fire questions, are you are you down?

Gabriel  

I am down, cheese tacos. Sorrt, with bacon sorry with bacon.

Zahra  

I do my own chorizo, that's good. Dream vacation.

Dream vacation, I love to go to New Zealand. Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings actually filmed it.

Zahra  

What is your favorite Amazon product right now?

Ooh, I want to say I've been getting these drinks there Canada Dry ginger ale but I get the zero sugar. But they sell them into little tiny, the little Chiquita ones. They're like tiny, and I can't find them in stores. Maybe they're a source, I'm just not finding them. But I get it from Amazon and I live off of those. I'm into ginger ale obviously, though. Honestly, I have a big Amazon problem but that's like what I can think about right now that I've been like mostly.

Zahra  

What's your favorite local spot? Here in SA right now.

Um, local spot, you know what, it's also it's not drink but it's food. It's a place called Mr. Teriyaki and it's a Japanese restaurant where they do your traditional like, chicken or beef but they have local romaine and shrimp. It's all for San Pedro for all my photographers, it's right by Camera Exchange off of San Pedro. So literally you just drive down from the mall from North Star mall and it's right there is Mr. Teriyaki on San Pedro is not sponsored.

Zahra  

Not what's happening here, carry on. What entrepreneurs are you inspired by?

Gabriel  

Oh, that's a good one, I love Kevin O'Leary. He made from Shark Tank. I love him. I love his honesty but also he's very sincere when you when you have if you've seen him on TV, or any kind of interview, he's very sincere. And he has a belief in people like no other person of his stature, I guess that I've seen and he's a huge, huge supporter of creatives. There's a few interviews he's done where he's talked about 10 years ago, even five years ago, he would say the industry you need to get into is engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, he said, but now I'm going to tell you, what you need to get into is creative work, storytelling and so he gets it and if he gets it, that's somebody I look up to and so Kevin O'Leary,

Zahra  

I love that. What books are you reading right now?

Gabriel  

Ooh, that's a good one. I'm reading a couple. I'm a big fan of audible. I do like reading but sometimes I like doing two things at once. So if I can actually edit and listen to a book, I'll do that. But one of them are reading, I went to this concert, and he was the emcee at a concert and his name is Carlos Whittaker. And he's a influencer on and on Instagram, but he has a few books but his latest book is called How to Human. It's really great and so it's three ways to, to share life, beyond what distracts divides and disconnects us. So as we were talking earlier, like COVID, you know, the pandemic, really disconnected us from everything. And so I think a lot of us just forgot how to human, you know, in a way, or we're, we're, we're doing it different than we did before and that's okay, too. But I think we've done there's, the pandemic has done a lot more harm than it's done, good. And so in this book, he talks about just how to get back to the basics, and he does a lot of helping. And so the thing he uses he uses is Instagram following. He's got, I don't know, hundreds of 1000s one story that caught the nation's eye and they did stories on this. He was an airport at a layover, there was a guy playing piano and the guy he found out the guy was playing piano there for 20 plus years, older gentleman and he asked him, hey, what's the biggest tip you ever got? He's like, honestly, maybe like 40 bucks and he was like, okay, cool. And so he started sharing more of his story he does, he does kidney dialysis, every day that he goes and plays for hours. So he goes, You know what, I'm gonna go live, is that okay? So he goes, live on his Instagram and he says, this is so and so this is the story and the next whatever, minutes, 30 minutes, let's see how much we can raise for him. Well, before the campaign was over, he raised over $70,000 for this gentleman playing piano that needed it honestly needed it but all he used was his is this, you're gonna follow him. And he just gave back to him and didn't take a penny. And I went to him and so he's told that story at this concert that he was emceeing and it really touched me. I'm like, wow, this is really cool. So a lot of people say that influence are vain. No, you can use it for good. You have to do it. You have to use it for good.

Zahra  

I love that story.

Gabriel  

Yeah, it's a great story. Carlos Carlos Whittaker is his name.

Zahra  

Alright, so final question is what one single piece of advice would you give to an entrepreneur right now who's seeing their industry fall to chaos or their business fall to chaos is undergoing something huge, you know, is just really at a tough spot and in their careers in their entrepreneur journey, but one single piece of advice would you give them.

Gabriel  

I would say, to not get tired to not to not give up. So they know I've seen this in my industry and then my business, but something that will for sure do you in is when you give up when you give into that to weirdness. Don't grow weary and so I would say you're probably closer than you think in a breakthrough, you just cannot get tired, or you just want to where you just give up. Now, not saying it's okay to want to give up sometimes that's perfectly fine. You should have those moments but just don't stay there. And just know that if you really believe in your product, really believe in your business, but more importantly believe in yourself. It's going to work, it may not always work the way you want to work, want it to work, but it will work. You just cannot give up, don't give up, push through, ask questions, talk to people network, figure out your next step. Literally, if you need to talk to somebody that has been successful in this business, tell them I don't know what to do help me. Believe it or not, you will get more help than you can think and also, you're not alone. There's other people going through the struggle so that's why it's important to stay in community and network with these people and before you know it, we're all going to rise together. So but you can't give up, we need you to stay in there and stick it through.

Zahra  

That's beautiful and people do help. You're so right that moment in my business and I literally I asked somebody who I'd maybe met two or three times before in my life and it was very cordial but you know, Hey, how are you? How's it go? Like not we weren't tight by any means and I just asked him like, would you grab a cup of coffee with me like as tears are streaming down my face, I think I'm done.

Gabriel  

I know, I get it, I've been there.

Zahra  

And you know what he did and he met me to this date, almost every month we meet, purely give, you know, just purely giving standpoint, let me help you figure this out. And now that I'm past that point, you know, now, and it's what makes me want to do that for others, honestly. It's knowing where you don't know what you don't know and just kind of having someone, their back wrap their arms around, you pull you up, figuratively speaking. 

Gabriel  

Yeah and just know that somebody helped him at one point, at his lowest point and so something that we have to learn is, wisdom does not come cheap. It's very, it costs a lot to have wisdom. And if you learned wisdom from someone else that paid the price, then you should give that to someone else that may need your help. So it's thing called community and I think sometimes we say it a lot but I really don't think sometimes we understand what that really means. And it means taking time to meet somebody in need for coffee once a month, that's it, that's community so. 

Zahra  

We can change everything. Okay, Gabe, thank you so much for everything you've given today of yourself. You know, you're just your mind and your expertise in photography to your journey. Thank you for being so vulnerable, I know it's hard sometimes to talk about, like the not so fun times. And, you know, but I think it's so important for entrepreneurs to hear, they've got to know, that we're not all the Facebook version or I guess the TikTok, the Instagram version, that we go through the same kind of issues, no matter who you are and I think it's important to see that it's normal you know.

Gabriel  

Of course, I'm more than my Pinterest. Okay, guys, I'm more than my Pinterest. Was that movie, Barbie, I'm Ken enough. See the branding works. Branding works. I remember that out of everything for that movie, that's what I remember.

Zahra  

I see so many boys with that T shirts. So how do we get in touch with you if we need either if we want to join SA Creatives or even if we want to go and get some professional photography done holding our brand together.

Gabriel  

Yeah, for sure so if you're more on the business side agency side, it's just SummitCreative.group on web and then SA Creatives. Obviously, we have a website, it's SAcreatives.co but really, Instagram is a great place to find is it's just SA.creatives on Instagram and you can find all the latest and greatest all of our meetups and what's coming up. So we do have a meetup coming up actually, we're going to post a day, which is Tuesday, right? Yeah, Tuesday, the 19th so we're going to post it for next week on the 27th or whatever that is the 27th. And so it's going to be at Wonder Chamber, and it's going to be our end of summer bash and so you have to be there. It's gonna be amazing and it's the grand opening of the new Wonder Chamber and so my cousin owns it so I'm very proud of him because he worked really hard on it. 

Zahra  

So yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so we're going to follow you if you're driving, don't do dangerous things. It's all gonna be in the show notes, just click.

Gabriel  

Click links, don't don't drive and read texts. 

Zahra  

Yes, but we'll get this all out for you. You know, I think that you should definitely check out the website, you're gonna see some amazing photography and just the difference that storytelling and that expertise can make in photography. So we're super excited to show you with the world and then get to know you. Any final thoughts, anything you want to drop? 

Gabriel  

No, I just want to thank you for doing this podcast. Somebody said you'd be doing it for about a year and I know it takes tenacity to do something consistent, and do it good and so thank you for taking your time to create this for others. And I hope that everybody listening continues to support this podcast and supporters are in any way that you can. But yeah, just thank you, thank you for your time as well.

Zahra  

It's been a pleasure. I really love this conversation. I can't wait for our listeners to hear it.

Gabriel  

Yay. Me too.

Zahra  

On that note. I will see you next time.

Gabriel  

All right. Bye, everybody.