Boss Your Business - The Podcast

[00:00:00] Yvonne Heimann: Hey. Hey everybody and welcome back to Boss Your Business. Today I am bringing you Brandon Fortino, one of my local San Diego guys that we actually just worked together on an event.

[00:00:15] Brandon Fortino: We just did. Yes, we just did.

[00:00:17] Yvonne Heimann: And I, and I just got the deliveries too last night. So you guys better be paying attention over on Instagram and all the things because you get to see Brandon's magic.

[00:00:30] Brandon, tell the audience, who the hell are you and why am I so excited to have you on?

[00:00:36] Brandon Fortino: Yeah. Thanks for, uh, thanks for inviting me through this show here, Yvi. It's been been a pleasure working with, uh, with you in the little events that we've doing and, uh, you know, it's been amazing, but yeah, just to keep it short, my name is Brandon.

[00:00:47] Uh, I'm a CEO and founder of Short Form Pros. Uh, originally I was actually born in Jakarta, originally from Indonesia. Moved to United States. So an immigrant, an immigrant was raised in an immigrant [00:01:00] family. Uh, grew up up in Bakersfield, so it's middle of California. It's, there's nothing in there I wouldn't recommend visiting.

[00:01:06] Oh my God.

[00:01:07] Yvonne Heimann: Yeah. There. That's why I, there is nothing up there.

[00:01:09] Brandon Fortino: There's nothing in there. It's just farms and oil rigs. So, decided to go down into sunny San Diego where we met. Yes. Uh, in a beautiful. And, uh, you know, I went to San Diego State, so go Aztec. I just pure San Diego heart right there. And, uh, been working in marketing for about two years and then recently, or not recently, start, had my video production company, uh, for about two years.

[00:01:33] And recently I had a short form video agency where I help people, uh, strategize, edit, also plan and schedule their content. So, uh, call it entrepreneur, call it a passion like, creative, passion, creative, how hard. But that's why I am .

[00:01:51] Yvonne Heimann: You are, you are definitely creative. Which funnels into why, why I ask for help.

[00:01:57] Um, guys, if you didn't see [00:02:00] on Instagram, I did a watch networking party. As of this show last week, few, few weeks ago, whatever it was.

[00:02:10] Brandon Fortino: It was not even a week yet. It's like it is gonna be a week tomorrow.

[00:02:17] Yvonne Heimann: It feels like so much has happened since then because we had, we had the Level Up Lounge on Tuesday.

[00:02:26] I went into the ClickUp office and had conversations with the team on Thursday. Completely crashed on Saturday, guys. I swear to God, it's like I'm an introvert-extrovert after all of those people laying, I just took a day off. But we digress. So you went to SD, you were in marketing and then started your own company.

[00:02:49] Tell me about this. How, how did this come about? How did you do this jump from, I assume you were employed before?

[00:02:59] Brandon Fortino: I was, [00:03:00] yes, I was.

[00:03:00] Yvonne Heimann: You going full-time to your business because that's often a question that comes up where it's like, yeah, I have the site business, but it's not making enough money. And when do I do this job?

[00:03:11] When do I go full-time into my own business? How, how did you make that decision?

[00:03:17] Brandon Fortino: Yeah, so for me it was kind of out of necessity. So for background, I used to work in digital marketing. Uh, I was a part of a nationwide digital marketing agency that does Amazon and paid ads. So I was their Amazon team. Was working there actually during my time in college for my last two years.

[00:03:35] And at the time I was, uh, you know, I came from a very low income family, low income immigrant family. So I had to pay for college on my own. I had to rely on a lot of FAFSA and student kind of student loans by the government to, to get through college basically cuz San Diego's not cheap.

[00:03:50] Yvonne Heimann: School is not cheap in the States in general.

[00:03:54] Brandon Fortino: It's not, right?

[00:03:55] So, uh, so my last year I actually. Had one of those [00:04:00] situations where I wasn't gonna receive the grant that I was supposed to receive. So, uh, in that case, like, okay, I need to either go full-time into work and, uh, you know, neglect my school just to live here, or I find something else to do. And, you know, at the time, uh, I was freaking that out, but that's not my optional route.

[00:04:18] I do want it to finish my degree at the time, so, I lean back to something that I've always known, uh, ever since I was little. I've been in love with, uh, videography and photography. So, uh, that was using my side hustles, taking pictures of people's, like portraits, people engagements and uh, all that sorts, like high school formals, all that stuff.

[00:04:38] Yeah. So I was like, hey, I'm gonna give this a try and, uh, see for itself it works down here in San Diego. So started doing that with my 20, 25 hours a week job plus like full-time school. So I had a full load of like units during my last semester. So everything was so occupied and once I started kinda just telling people through social media, through just friends and [00:05:00] referrals and seeing that proof of concept came along and like I was like, okay, I can actually do this.

[00:05:06] And it actually ended up making me more money than if I were to work 40 hours a week, um, in my W2 job. And I made that jump literally when I had this one time. I still remember this one week where, uh, it was just, uh, I was booked with meetings in, in, in my, uh, in my job at the time.

[00:05:26] Yvonne Heimann: Oh God. And the meeting that could have been, I had, could have just been an email mm-hmm.

[00:05:31] Brandon Fortino: Right? It's like all those meetings and, and you know, all these different stuff. And then I was also wanted to be booked for shoots. And then I was like, well, now it be, it gets to the point where my side hustle is limited by my, uh, this, my, my co corporate job. Yeah. I was like, well, why not just take the leap?

[00:05:48] And, uh, soon I, I gave a two week notice, and then two weeks after I, I, I left the job for good. Didn't burn any bridges. They all, it, it was all great. The team was amazing. It was just, you know, had to do it for sake of paying rent. [00:06:00] So, uh, you know, that's what I did. And, uh, everything else is history. I've met more people and just keep learning and keep networking and, yeah.

[00:06:09] Yvonne Heimann: Which, which brings up a good piece.

[00:06:11] It's like you don't have to burn bridges. You are just, no matter if you are switching jobs or if you are going out for yourself, you don't have to burn bridges. It's just like, okay, my focus is changing. I wanna do something else. You never know what's gonna happen in the future. Potentially you align in a project, you can.

[00:06:31] I, I've seen a lot of people go back into corporate through COVID, because don't get me wrong, entrepreneurship is not always the easiest thing to do.

[00:06:41] Brandon Fortino: Not at all.

[00:06:43] Yvonne Heimann: I love that you brought up that you didn't burn bridges, because again, you don't have to. Even if you weren't happy in the job, no matter if you were happy in the job or not, it's literally just, hey, my focus has changed.

[00:06:55] I'm doing something else now. Bye guys. That's all you need to do. [00:07:00]

[00:07:00] Brandon Fortino: And a lot of supervisors, and a lot of coworkers will be understood of that. They're like, okay. Like it's just, you know, the job is not fitting anymore and you have another passions and other things that you want to pursue. And a lot of times they respect that as long as, you know, uh, they kind of like tell 'em like very respectfully and all that.

[00:07:14] Yeah. So, uh, yeah, totally agree. Yeah. Didn't have to burn any bridges.

[00:07:18] Yvonne Heimann: So how does life look now? And guys, I will be diving into his journey because Brandon is also checking his journey on his Reels. So no worries. We'll get to all of this, but how does, how does life look now, because you, out of school, you graduated, you have your own business.

[00:07:39] What is life like right now?

[00:07:41] Brandon Fortino: Yeah, I mean, you know, I feel like, like any other entrepreneur that would say, you kind of make your own schedule. So that's kinda what I, what I've been doing. Uh, in my personal opinion, I, I love it more than if I were to work my W2 job because I like having that control over my destiny over what, what it [00:08:00] is that I need to do.

[00:08:03] Yvonne Heimann: Just working from New York.

[00:08:06] Brandon Fortino: Yeah, I could, like, I, I work remotely, so I could go everywhere really? As long as they have a good internet connection. Um, I think it's nice in the sense of, uh, being able to have that full control of just everything within your career, whether you wanted to grow, you wanted to work with different people with different industries or whatever.

[00:08:24] Uh, I'm all about, you know, bringing value to people. So wherever people can find my value. And I, I always feel like too, I don't know if this is like, maybe just the phrase I worked at, but I feel a lot, it feels a lot more fulfilling doing work like as an entrepreneur because, uh, I think when you do work as an entrepreneur, you kind of get that direct feedback whether you're doing something good or something needs to be improved.

[00:08:47] And that way you get the, that this self-fulfilling kind of, hey, like I've, I've grown or I've gone better, or, or they find it a lot valuable. So you kinda get that direct response, if that makes sense.

[00:08:58] Yvonne Heimann: And yeah, totally. [00:09:00] Because it's like your business is gonna tell you right away if something works or doesn't.

[00:09:05] Um, and when you're working for corporate, you have, you don't, you don't get that same feedback and you are at the mercy of other people, right? If things don't align, if a coworker doesn't deliver on the promise, you, you are in that, and with our own business, the buck stops with you. If clients don't come in the door, I screwed something up. Yeah. If the delivery are not being done. But also, on the other hand, if a client is happy, heck, I'm like, I'm still celebrating a testimonial that I did not expect to get from a client where they were like, girl, you saved my team 40% of their work time. And I'm like, holy moly, that's awesome.

[00:09:53] Thank you. Right. Yeah. She's like, it's, it's all real. Though I do also [00:10:00] understand the draw. Often I'm like, especially through Covid, a lot of us have experienced it where it's like, oh my God, I wish I would just have a paycheck. Mm-hmm. . But it's like, it's, it's, it's that balance of, okay, what's more important to you?

[00:10:14] And honestly, impact is more important to me and, and seeing the impact I'm having directly and I think you on that same boat?

[00:10:23] Brandon Fortino: A hundred percent. I think it's about what everybody values, right? Like some people value stability. Some people also value control, uh, over their destiny. Some people value in making the impact within their communities or the people that are around them.

[00:10:34] So I think like it's about finding out, figuring out who you are as a person and then just acting up upon that, whether it's whatever it is that you value. So, yeah.

[00:10:45] Yvonne Heimann: So I know, I don't know if guys, I'm totally calling him out here because I don't know if he actually would use the language like this, but I know you've been on a journey to stabilize your life yourself.

[00:10:57] You know your passion. You know what you're going [00:11:00] for. You know what you wanna do with that. And to me, I'm using this language right now. You've been on a journey to stabilize all of that. So how, how have you grown the business? How have you scaled the business? What have you done to take this from, Yep, I'm done with my corporate job. I'm doing this full-time and get the business to a level where you were just traveling with your girlfriend last February, going to New York and being there. I'm like, guys, I swear. Follow the Reels and the Stories. It's fun watching where you have gone to a point in your business where it's like, yeah, cool.

[00:11:39] I'm going a week to New York and I'm doing this. Where I think a lot of the audience is either way getting, getting close to, or really working on having that freedom of doing what you wanna do with your private life. Supported by your business and not the other way around. So that was a long-winded question of [00:12:00] what have you done to grow your business, to get those clients in the door to, to be able to be this flexible?

[00:12:07] Brandon Fortino: Right. Um, that, that's a great question. I feel like flexibility, a lot of people really want it, and that's something that I really value as well. So I think there's a couple of things. One is the actual product, right? Like what is the product that we're offering to the, the, the, uh, our audience or our customers, right?

[00:12:22] Um, is that, is that product, can it be delivered online? Can it be delivered? Does it have to be delivered in person? Um, what does it deliverables look like? What does that process look like? So when you have the, a really good product that allows you to be, uh, flexible, Then it'll, it'll, it'll make it flexible.

[00:12:37] So a lot of, for example, for my own, uh, what we do is our, all of our deliverables are digital assets. So it's digital videos, so I don't have to fulfill that myself. So that's one. Two is having a really great team. I think, you know, I give my, my team really great credit on just being amazing. Uh, right now we are in a team of [00:13:00] three.

[00:13:00] We're actually growing right now we're looking for two more people. So we're building that, but having a really solid team that knows the process of how to fulfill the, yeah, the service. Cause it is for, for my specific business, basically service business. So how do we fulfill that at highest level quality in the time efficient manner?

[00:13:16] Uh, you know, we have meeting calls every week. We have one-on-ones with every single, I have one-on-ones with them. Every single you. every other week actually, so I can help them and figure out new ways. So, uh, that's too kind of like having a great team. And I think lastly, and probably like more importantly, just putting flexibility of the, at the top of your priority, right?

[00:13:36] So I feel like I'm, I'm a huge believer that if you put something in your, in your mind that you want to achieve, like you'll find a way to do it. It's one, like one of those things, like for example, like for me, at the time I needed to pay rent. I need to find a way to, to make that happen, and I'll find that happen.

[00:13:51] Uh, I made that happen. So, uh, if you put flexibility in your top of your priority list, you'll definitely gonna be able to find that, find a way [00:14:00] for you to make your business shift in that sense, and adapt in, in, in, uh, in a way that'll make you more flexible.

[00:14:07] Yvonne Heimann: And you also live what you preach. So you are not just creating short form content, short form video for your clients.

[00:14:17] I'm like, I've been watching your journey on your Reels, right? So you are living this hey, we are creating business to short from video.

[00:14:28] Brandon Fortino: Right. Yeah. It's, I think I'm a huge believer in like, you gotta, what is it? Like you gotta preach, you gotta do what you preach. Is that what, is that what it's called?

[00:14:36] Like the, the saying here? Yeah. Say something like that. Yeah. . Yeah. Same goes like how you do things with, with ClickUp. Like you only like these people with like how to automate those process because, uh, you've done it yourself. And I think that there's, there's a lot of value in that. Like if I'm able to do it, I'm gonna replicate the same process for you because I know you're gonna be able to do it as well.

[00:14:55] It's like you walk the walk and not just talk the talk, you know what I mean?

[00:14:58] Yvonne Heimann: Coaches [00:15:00] that coach how to coach? Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. We see enough of that out there. It's like watching you. Yeah. I'm like, you literally took two Reels in your short form video to tell the story of, hey, here's my business goals, here's what I wanna accomplish, and we can literally just walk alongside you in your Reels, in your short form video.

[00:15:25] Brandon Fortino: Right. Just, uh, getting to know someone through just 20 seconds every day. Yeah. Of like 20 seconds of exposure. That's kinda, I think the power of video. What's amazing is, you know, back with written, it's cool because it's accessible to everybody. Everybody can read it. With audio, you can actually gain like somewhat of a connection of hearing them, their voice.

[00:15:46] But when you combine all that with an image, I think that's when it's like most powerful because you, you can see the face's, what we're doing right now. You can hear them and you can also, you know, just gain so much valuable content and make that deeper connection. That's why I love video. Like it's, it's amazing [00:16:00]

[00:16:00] Yvonne Heimann: And it's, it's perfect for repurposing.

[00:16:02] I'm like, anybody that has been following me along, you guys know. We do all three of them. We do the video, we do the audio, and we do the written. Because of that, it's, I know I have, um, people in the audience that are hearing, I have a really dear member of mine, um, who got sick and she can just use audio for like an hour or two a a day, or her head is literally gonna explode in huge headaches, so, mm-hmm.

[00:16:31] There's the blog version of it. Then I have people who are blind. They're not going to be able to watch the video, but they still can use the audio or we had a lot of just busy and running around. Wanting to be able to listen to the podcast. So guys, I'm like, I completely agree. No matter if a short form or long form video make it that's accessible, it's, you have it available to you.

[00:16:55] Brandon Fortino: I, I think it's all about like, uh, what people I think don't really talk about when it comes to [00:17:00] these is leverage, right? Mm-hmm. Um, when you're doing video, you're kinda leveraging a lot of different things, like what you said with the repurposing. Uh, same goes. Why you should use social media cuz it's leverage, right?

[00:17:10] Like when people, even when you get like 200 views, if you think about it, right? That's 200 people. That's like 200 eyeballs. It's like watching your video. If you can convert 10% of those to people that would do business with you, what, how, what, what can that do for your business, right? So when people are like, I want to get viral, get millions of views, but like for me, like do you really want millions of views?

[00:17:31] Do you really?

[00:17:32] Yvonne Heimann: So I love, I love that you brought this up. I love that you brought it up because don't get me wrong guys. I am a numbers guilty, and believe me, there is ego included in numbers where I'm like, I wanna hit a certain subscriber account. I wanna hit a certain view count. Right? Guilty of it.

[00:17:49] Guilty of it. But the thing that always brings me back into right now is I don't need to go viral. I don't need to [00:18:00] have how many million views, because chances are when you go viral, you are not going viral just with your target market. You are going viral with the broad audience. Exactly. Now I only need one right person to see that video.

[00:18:17] One person to say, I'm hiring Yvi, and I'm spending the few thousand bucks to go coaching with her. I don't need the viral. So when you guys are struggling with the ego, with the numbers thing, with the follower, with the view count. Simply remember, yeah, going viral is fun. Don't get me wrong. My, yeah, my chat.

[00:18:38] My ChatGPT short form video today broke all the latest records. It is number one right now.

[00:18:50] But it comes down to are you actually converting? Do people call you based on your content, right? If you are just going viral and nobody calls you and hires you, you're still not [00:19:00] gonna be able to pay your bills, right?

[00:19:02] Brandon Fortino: I've seen, I've seen these articles of lot of, like TikTok stars for example, they have millions of followers on TikTok, but when they are invited to go speak in a room or something, they couldn't even fill the room.

[00:19:15] Like, cuz there there's not that connection between, between them and the audience. Yep. So it, I, I think, I think it's, it's good balance between it and I think the only true way for you to gain, um, like real organic followers that would, that would really like root for your brand is just to keep consistently giving good value.

[00:19:33] That's it. And eventually people will share the video and you'll get better as you progress, but you don't need to, you know, any one, one hit wonder type video is that would just make you go crazy. That doesn't make sense. Yeah. So, yeah,

[00:19:46] Yvonne Heimann: It's just, it's, it's fine. I think it has a lot to do also with our personal growth, finding that balance between, okay, yes, we do want to grow our following.

[00:19:56] We do wanna hit certain numbers but what are [00:20:00] those numbers we pay attention to? And we could spend hours and hours on this, and we actually do. However, we wanna keep it nice, short and sweet in the podcast. So let's dive into my, one of my favorite questions, which I, why I ask it in every single episode. What are some of the processes and tools you use to be able to run your business like you do?

[00:20:24] Brandon Fortino: Right.

[00:20:25] Yeah, I use a couple of different things to make sure that everything is efficient. Um, so primarily I use Slack currently to communicate with my clients and my team so that I use that. Um, it's basically like a Discord if you don't know what Slack is. Um, so use that.

[00:20:42] Yvonne Heimann: I love, I love, I love the, I love this right now.

[00:20:46] Why I'm interrupting you right here, because chances are my audience knows Slack better than Discord.

[00:20:52] Oh, interesting. Your audience knows Discord than Slack. Than Slack, exactly. But it comes down, again, [00:21:00] comes down to the environment we live in, the perception we have, the stuff we deal, right? So always remember who, who is your target market?

[00:21:08] Who are you talking?

[00:21:10] Brandon Fortino: That is true.

[00:21:11] Yvonne Heimann: That is, that is actually funny. That was just, that was just a total, that was actually really funny. I love, I love that one. Oh yeah. In case you don't know what Slack is...

[00:21:18] Brandon Fortino: Like, yeah, it, it's so funny.

[00:21:22] Yvonne Heimann: I'm such a fan of perception and living in our circles, and the moment you step out of that circle, people are like, who?

[00:21:30] What? Sorry, I totally sidetracked that here.

[00:21:34] Brandon Fortino: No, you're good. You're good.

[00:21:34] Yvonne Heimann: So you were using Slack for client conversation.

[00:21:37] Brandon Fortino: Yeah, we're using Slack for client conversation. We use Google Drive to transfer all of our data, all of the documents, all of that, um, DocuSign and to, to kind of like sign all the contracts and all that.

[00:21:49] Uh, as far as editing goes, uh, in, in the backend, uh, our editors use, uh, Adobe Premier. I personally, I use Final Cut Pro [00:22:00] when I edit my videos, uh, yeah, so we use both of those. Um, currently for project management, uh, currently we use Asana, but I know we've been in talks that we're gonna, like thinking about switching it.

[00:22:11] There's a couple of stuff that can be better.

[00:22:13] Yvonne Heimann: So we're, we're done recording. You are actually on my to-do lists. I'm like, okay, when are we meeting? I need you guys about Asana. We can't do this, this, this is not okay.

[00:22:21] Brandon Fortino: Yeah, exactly. That's funny. Yeah. But, uh, that's gonna basically the tools that we use, you know, I'm trying to keep it lean and simple so we can move fast.

[00:22:29] I think that's, the stuff that that, that we do.

[00:22:32] Yvonne Heimann: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:33] Especially, um, especially with something like video creation and short form content, it's like you don't, you don't wanna take forever to get things done. Everything is so fast. You wanna be able to just deliver and get things done. Right.

[00:22:50] And guys, I was like, we use AI tools to like ChatGPT, all that.

[00:22:58] ChatGPT. [00:23:00] Yeah. Love, love, love me some ChatGPT. Um, what I loved seeing what fits into all of this is, um, and guys, you can, again, I saw it in one of his Reels on Instagram. I think it was a TikTok. Oh God, I've, yeah. I consume content everywhere.

[00:23:22] When we actually talked the last, and we were talking processes, I love how you literally went home, grabbed a big stack of post-it notes and laid out your production process and looking visually at where there might be issues, where there might be room for, for optimization and all of that stuff. So, it's, it's fun seeing you being deep in processes and the process optimization.

[00:23:55] Brandon Fortino: Right. Yeah. I think that for a lot of entrepreneurs, when they start, they want to get [00:24:00] started. They're, they're like action takers. Mm-hmm. . So they try to, you know, bring in revenue. They try to deliver the product and fulfill it themselves. But at least like for me personally, like now to think about it with the goals that I wanted to achieve this year, like again, my goal is to help 20 businesses do short form videos.

[00:24:15] Yvonne Heimann: Uh, that's a lot.

[00:24:16] Brandon Fortino: You know, I realized, that is a lot. And for the lowest package that we offer, we have to create 30, like 30 videos in a month. So if you just do the math, that's our, you know, a lot of videos. Yeah. So, um, and that's kinda when I started to realize that, okay, I need to slow down, step back. We like check out the process, see how we can improve so that isn't, nothing's gonna fall off the cracks.

[00:24:39] And that just, I think showcase the level of service that I want to give, at least to a lot of my clients. Like, I wanna make sure that quality and it's also speed efficient. And, you know, I think yeah, but because of, because of our conversation, I was just like, okay, let's just do it and just kind of visualize. I'm a visual person myself as well, so yeah.

[00:24:56] It, it makes it easier when we, when I see it in, in a [00:25:00] diagram like that.

[00:25:02] Yvonne Heimann: That's, that's where I'm really excited to be working with you, with the whole um, you already use Google Drive, doing the automation and everything, um, automatic. The, the creation of the assets and the naming convention and all the fun stuff.

[00:25:16] Oh, we're gonna have so much fun.

[00:25:18] Brandon Fortino: It's gonna be fun. I'm excited.

[00:25:21] Yvonne Heimann: Before I ClickUp note out here for another hour, tell the audience where can they find you, to go stalk you and see all the things you're doing.

[00:25:32] Brandon Fortino: Yeah, so my Instagram is @brandon.fortino. That's probably my most commonly used, uh, platforms.

[00:25:43] And you can look me up in LinkedIn and TikTok, Brandon Fortino, they're all there. YouTube channel. Brandon Fortino, same spelling. Uh, so it is my name. So yeah, that's where you can find me.

[00:25:54] Yvonne Heimann: And as always, you're gonna find all the links in the description below. No matter where you're listening, watching, [00:26:00] or reading somewhere around this, you're gonna be able to just click on the link and go follow him.

[00:26:07] Brandon, thanks so much for joining me today. I'm excited to now jump off camera and get you scheduled to move you off of Asana.

[00:26:17] Brandon Fortino: Let's, yeah, let's do it.

[00:26:18] Yvonne Heimann: Let's optimize your technology a little bit.

[00:26:21] Brandon Fortino: Let's, let's scale it. Let's scale it up. That's the goal.

[00:26:26] Yvonne Heimann: Scaling with working less. That's our goal. And with that, I'll send you all off.

[00:26:31] Bye everybody, and I see you in the next episode.

[00:26:34] Brandon Fortino: Thank you again.