In this vlog, the host of Howdy Media gives a day‑in‑the‑life update covering multiple aspects of running a small media business in Abilene, Texas. He discusses a potential contract with the City of Sweetwater to provide modern website, YouTube, photography, videography, and podcast services, highlighting the demand for high‑quality media in smaller Texas markets. He outlines upcoming shoots, including a real‑estate shoot and a possible women’s conference filming, describing equipment constraints and HDR workflow. The host promotes openings in his coaching program for brand and video business owners. He reflects on navigating slow seasons by batching YouTube content, strengthening his personal brand, improving client communication, and optimizing his CRM (HubSpot) and email campaigns. He shares a quick tutorial on using ManyChat AI‑driven automations combined with Calendly to streamline video‑service inquiries. A story‑time segment recounts a legal threat from a person claiming a trademark on the “Howdy Media” name, the host’s response with a friendly cease‑and‑desist letter, and his plan to file his own trademark to prevent future issues. Finally, he updates subscriber milestones, sets growth targets, and encourages viewers to engage, join his free Insider group, and comment on the content.
Chapters
called me and was like, you need to change your name or we're going to sue you. And I was like, okay, hold up, hold up, hold up. I was like, ding, ding, ding. This is great content. Got my front porch coffee today and it's going to be a fun day because I have a couple of meetings about some projects upcoming. One of them was with a potential new client, um, the city of Sweetwater. It's not 100%, but we're getting there. Uh, and we just talked about how they wanted to modernize their website, modernize their YouTube channel, all the things. And the way you do that is by producing good quality media, good quality content with photos, with videos, um, everything that you can think of. It needs to be modernized. They're getting a new website. And so they need to have good stuff to put on it. So we're working on that. It's not 100% yet, like I said, but that could be really cool to be working with a city. Um, so if you're a city manager or whatever, let me know. We can come out and help you with your photo and video services. We're in Abilene, Texas, right here in downtown. But they're also interested in becoming a podcast member here at the studio And I think it's awesome that people are willing to drive. We have somebody driving from Dallas, we have people who drive from Lubbock, maybe even Waco pretty soon, who are utilizing the podcast studio. And there's really nothing else like it in this part of Texas. And so it's just super cool to see that people are willing to drive and travel for this service, which just shows that it's a need. If you're wanting to partner with me, by the way, if you're wanting to open up a studio in your town, let me know and we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. But it's gonna be a good day. I have one more meeting today after lunch. I have a real estate shoot at 10 o'clock. I want to bring you guys along, um, just so you can just see what it's like from my point of view. And it's gonna be a good day. Let's get it. There's a women's conference that she said she might want to get filmed, um, tomorrow. I'm pretty sure we're gonna get on a call here in a little bit. If it's nothing too crazy, then I was just going to send you out there because we are also limited on our microphones. The only mics we have are the DJI mic and the Rode Wireless Go mic, which you can record internally on both of them if you need to. Okay. But— and we have one camera that we could really use. We could probably use the A7III as well. I have no idea. It may be like an all-day thing. And if that is, then that's all good. We can just— we can just say we can't do it. I'll let you know though. Sounds good. All right, man, appreciate it. So we possibly have— if you didn't hear from that call— we possibly have a shoot tomorrow of a women's conference. I don't know the details or anything on it yet, but Could be a cool opportunity. With this shot, it's hard for you to see, but we're not even getting the street, so— So basically what we do— basically what we do is we get 3 shots of the outside, 3 shots of the backyard, And all this is HDR. It's all— we layer it together in post, and so that's how we're able to get crispy, clean photos that capture all the highlights and capture all the shadows. Hey, real quick, I wanted to let you guys know that we are actually opening up a few more spots in our coaching program. And so if you're wanting to level up your brand, level up your business through content and video, this could be a cool chance to work directly with me and we can get it done together. If that interests you at all, there's going to be a link in the description and we can meet one-on-one and talk about your goals. Let's get back to the video. Beginning of 2025 started off really slow, but February is picking up to be very busy compared to what we've been doing. But if you're a business owner, if you're a video business owner specifically too, there's going to be slow seasons. And that's one thing that I had to learn is what do I actually do during slow seasons? And this has been on my mind a lot recently. One of the things that you can do, um, because I'm, I'm usually busy most of the time, and whenever I have nothing to do, it feels feels weird, right? And you probably relate to this in some way, but it feels weird. And if I don't get in a car wreck here, I'll be good. But it feels weird, and I'm like, okay, what do I do with all this free time if I'm not out shooting and I'm just at the studio? I'm not editing, I've already caught up on everything. What do I do? So some of the things you can focus on your YouTube channel, focus on things that you normally don't have time to do, like focus on your website, your YouTube channel. Make content that you can be posting throughout the next month when you are busy. That way you don't have to sit down and record everything. Batch create. Um, so YouTube has been one thing. That's why I've been posting a lot, guys, is because I have extra time now. And so what do I need to be doing? I need to be doubling down on building my personal brand whenever I'm not shooting and building other people's personal brands. And so that's one of the things that you can do. You can focus on— if you have a team, you can focus on your systems. Get— take interviews, take advice, take feedback from the people that work with you. Even your clients too. Get feedback from your clients. Send them thank-you letters, send them little gifts from Howdy Media just to say thank you for being an amazing client and that you're looking forward to working with them in the future or the upcoming year, whatever it is. Is you could do that kind of stuff. One thing I've been focusing on is dialing in my CRM. We're using HubSpot to do our— and I'm still learning it, it is a learning curve. We're using HubSpot to do— keep track of all of our clients, keep track of all of our leads that we get, all the email addresses. And also to send out some email campaigns. That is something that I am— it's been a doozy trying to figure out because 90% of the time I am beyond busy and I don't have time to always sit down and write a couple emails. And if you can figure out a system that allows you to do that efficiently, that's where you're gonna win. And if you got any advice, leave it in the comments because that would be helpful if there's any programs or anything. Um, I've started using ManyChat more. I'm going to be implementing that even more in 2025. I'm a huge fan of it, setting up automations. If you haven't heard about it, ManyChat's like, um, it's an automation software that you can use on your Instagram, on your Facebook. I think there's a few other platforms that you can use it, but it's primarily targeted towards Instagram. Welcome to the Howdy Studio, by the way. If you haven't seen it, this is where We office, this is where we record all of our podcast episodes. Um, yeah, it's a good time here at the Howdy Studio, but today I'm also going to do a story time. Okay, so about a week ago, a guy called me and was like, you need to change your name or we're gonna sue you. And I was like, okay, hold up, hold up, hold up. I was like, ding, ding, ding, this is great content, by the way. So if something happens like this to you, you need to make a video about it. But I didn't get to record the actual call. I was like, crap, what am I going to do? So I'm just going to tell the story to you. Basically, I think it was like the 18th of January. I get a phone call on a Saturday morning and this guy was like, hey, My name's— I'm not gonna say his name, but he's like, my name is blah blah blah, I'm with Howdy Media, sound familiar? I was like, um, yeah, can I help you? He's like, um, yeah, I've been using Howdy Media, the name, for the last 20 years, I have it trademarked. And I was like, um, okay. And he was like, yeah, you need to change your name or I'm gonna pursue legal action. And anyways, I was like, listen, let me talk to a couple people, let me look into it. I'm not gonna promise you anything right now. And anyways, turns out this dude filed for the trademark the day before he called me. So it takes like 6 months according to my lawyer to get approved, and he has the nerve to call me telling me to change my name or he's gonna take legal action when she has no leg to stand on. So we, uh, we sent him a friendly letter, um, it's gonna get there on the Monday of next week. Um, so that was fun. Uh, I just wanted to update you guys, and if this has happened to you, if you've had legal threats before, let me know in the comments. Um, I just thought I would update you guys on this situation, but everything's good. Howdy Media lives on. He has no— nothing to stand on, no leg to stand on, um, but makes for good content. So, uh, if you have any questions on that stuff, let me know. I'm actually about to trademark the name so this won't happen again in the future. I technically own it and in Texas, but nationwide. I didn't even think about what would happen nationwide. So the things that you don't hear about or talk about whenever somebody's thinking about opening a business, it's this kind of stuff, people. And I also made a video talking about the things that they don't tell you before starting a business. I mean, if you want to go watch that, um, yeah, crazy, man, crazy.
Um, and so That's kind of where we're in the process of looking for a photographer and videographer to come and capture the beauty of Sweetwater, especially in the springtime, because that's when we're really going.
You mentioned events. How many events would there be that we need to be out there?
So that's the thing that right now I'm gonna get with the chamber and then a couple of the entities that actually host the events and see if they might help us out with funding on that.
And that's, that's exactly like why we're even offering that is because there's a lot of people who have stories, who have like these objectives and agendas they want to get out there, but they just don't have the time because it is time-consuming.
Yeah, for sure.
Even just to get the equipment, like that's a whole task in itself.
Yeah.
And so That's— we're just trying to eliminate as many bumps in the road as we can. And so, um, is that something that y'all been wanting to start, was the podcast?
Yeah, um, our city manager has definitely been interested in it.
Sweet. I'll, I'll come up with something. Um, it might not honestly get to you till next week sometime. That's, um, we're about to leave out of town for the weekend, so Yeah, no problem. My computer, but I'll get that sent over, um, and I'll send you a text whenever I send that to your email.
I appreciate it. Thanks.
Have a good one. Bye. Okay. So what I've been working on the last 30 minutes, and it really didn't take me that long at all, but I'm using ManyChat. And if you don't know what ManyChat is, if you can see my screen here, it's basically like an AI automation software that you can use for platforms like Instagram. And whenever somebody DMs you, whenever somebody comments, you can set up what are called triggers. And what's crazy is I had AI write most of this automation, but this one is set up to when somebody sends me the word video in my DMs, which I'm going to put in my bio, it's going to send them this message. It says, yo, thanks for reaching out. Click this button to set up a call directly with me. Yes, it's that easy. Then it's going to go to, are you interested in our video services, podcast production, or our social media? Then it's going to go to, once they answer that, it's going to go to a thank you message and it's going to send them a link to my Calendly calendar so they can book a free discovery call. If they don't answer this contact, or if it hasn't responded, it's going to send the next 24 hours this message. Just say, hey, checking in on this, would love to talk more about your vision and goals if you're still interested in it. If they answer yes, let's do it, then it sends them that message again. This is all without me having to do a single thing. All I'm going to do is put this in my bio, put it in any post or YouTube video and I'm going to say, if you DM me the word video, then you can book a call directly with me and we can talk about the projects. It just gives them an easy way to connect directly with me. And I, I've used Calendly as my booking software and it's been great. It sets up the meeting for you, it gets the information you need from them. So if you need to call them or something beforehand Um, it's been great. So that was just a quick tip of how to use ManyChat. And I have a lot of videos, especially in our Insiders group, which if you haven't joined, you need to go join right now. It's in the description. It's a completely free group. We go live every single week. It's a good time. Um, but we've done classes on ManyChat and it's a powerful tool. Like, some people— if you want to delete Instagram for a whole month, you can still be making you can still be booking your meetings without having to be actually on Instagram because the automations take care of it for you. So it's powerful if you can use it. Just wanted to throw that quick tip in there. Um, hope you found some value. And if you've used this or if you're going to use it, let me know in the comments. Anyways, this isn't going to be a super long video today. I just wanted to touch base with you guys and fill you in on what we're doing, some crazy things that have happened. And so Yeah, if you like this content, let me know in the comments and make sure to hit the like button. Subscribe. We're at 1,200 subscribers now, trying to hit 2,000 by— let's do the end of first quarter. So March, end of March, I'm trying to be at 2,000 subscribers. By the end of the year, we're trying to get up to 10, maybe even 50. We'll see. But it's been a good time. I hope you're having a great weekend, and we'll see you guys in the next one.
