This One Shift in 2026 Can Multiply Your Net Worth ft. Kristen Hogue (The Scout Guide Abilene)

So I set it on the coffee table. My dog ate it, so I forgot about it. It was outdoors and it rained. It was, it was like a Taylor Swift music video. We're selling the house, we're selling the cars, we're moving into a trailer on the ranch with my parents. But I would say I spent about $10,000 on this last party. By May of '24, I was a franchisor. If I'm having to chase somebody down to be a part of the Scout Guide, then they're probably not my best client. Get in front of people and have no shame. Definitely a numbers game. Try to see 10 people a day. If I can talk to X amount of people, maybe I can convert. We're basically introducing you to the community per se once a year. Nobody knows the COVID color until the guide actually launches.

So how did you even get started with this whole venture, the Scout Guide?

It's kind of fun. Um, it's all family oriented, so I guess it was in 20— 21, my cousin came to me. She lives in Midland, Odessa, and she brought me the West Texas Guide. And she was like, you have to do this for Abilene. It is so cool. It's a franchise. And so I set it on my coffee table and I was like, eh, I have a cool job here. Like, I work from home. I don't know. Like, I'm in a pretty good, pretty good spot. And so I sat on the coffee table. My dog ate it, so I forgot about it. And then my other cousin, she lives in Lubbock. and we were at a family gathering and she was featured in the Lubbock one. And it kind of dawned on me, I think I want to do this. And we were going through a lot of restructuring with the company I was working for. And so I just was like, I'll, I'll look into it and see what happens. And that was in February of '24. By May of '24, I was a franchise owner.

So when was the first one that y'all released?

So it was May of '25, so this year. So full circle.

Oh, it's almost '26. Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

I think that every day I feel like 2025 just started.

Wow. Yeah, I know.

Okay, so it took you about a year to put out the first release?

Yes. So I guess I got my marketing kits. So when you start the Scout Guide, obviously you don't have anything to show for it. All you have are other people's guides. Um, I was really lucky because all of the gals surrounding me within like a 2-hour radius, they're like, yes, please take our guides, use them as your business card. And so you have nothing to show for it and you're kind of going to knock on doors and say, hey, this is what I'm doing in Abilene, but you're showing other people's guides. So I got my marketing. I know it really is.

It's like, hey, I want you to be a part of this, but like, I don't really know what to show you to be a part.

Yeah, but we don't have one yet. So yeah, so literally it was my big business card. I would walk in with a West Texas book or a Lubbock book or Southlake and say, like, write a little note, like, we're bringing this to you guys, we'd love for you to be a part of it, and tie a ribbon on it and hand it over. So that was my— that was, I guess, I got all of my guides from other markets beginning of June of '24 and sent my book to the printer in April of '25. So heck yeah.

Do y'all use someone— I don't know if you can disclose this, but it's just pure curiosity, do y'all use a local printer or is it all within like the same person that does all of them?

So the same printer does all of them. Okay. And there's 100— I think there's 100 or 101 markets, I can't keep up at this point, but we all share printer space. So whenever I say like we have until January 30th to get your pictures done, it is because there's 100 other people that I'm sharing space with and It's a huge deadline we cannot miss.

So yeah, and the books are done so beautifully. That was one of my first things is I showed Deryn and I was like, I wonder where they got this printed because there's like gold and like all these beautiful things.

And yeah, that's cool. Thank you. Yeah, it's a, it's a pretty cool guide. It's well made, I feel like. And that's what kind of drew me to it was we don't have anything like this in Abilene and why not? We really support local business and that's literally the gist of it is just supporting local.

So are y'all still taking spots for the next one?

Oh, for sure.

Okay.

Yes.

Um, I'm gonna grab that real quick.

All of our, um, we have it on the table here. Might as well bring it up. Yeah, she's here.

So if somebody like— well, you're getting reset. No, you're good. If somebody has like no idea what the Scout Guide is, like, what is it? What is the like whole purpose and this is why it's created.

This is what it looks like if you want to be a part of it.

Yeah, let's—

like, yeah, is that you?

That was impressive. That was actually very impressive.

What can I say? Yeah, so, so yeah, reach out to Kristen.

Um, we are taking spots, um, right up until the end of January, I would say. We'll, we'll figure it out for you. Um, I know it seems like it's pretty close, but you'll be surprised how quickly we can get this done. A lot of my clients will be like, oh, it's only June. But yeah, it sneaks up on you. We're, we're trying to get new people in, we're doing creative meetings, and then we're scheduling your photo shoot. And when you have upwards of 45 clients, probably more this year that you're scheduling photo shoots for, it gets to to be hectic. So we'll jam pack all of that into January and we'll just roll with it. We'll go back to back days, weekends.

So obviously the Scout Guide is like, the whole thing is kind of a networking thing.

Yeah.

The type of people or specific type of people within it. Did you have that network before you started or did you have to build that? Whenever you started the Scout Guide?

So I think it's kind of twofold. Yes, I had the network. I'm very social. So if you meet me, I'm probably going to make you be my friend. So I had somewhat of a network just because I like your story. I like to get to know people in general. But my friends are also there. They grew up here and they have been my biggest advocates. They would share my stuff on social media. Which, you know, when you're trying to build a brand, where do you start? Like, that's a huge thing is brand recognition. What is the Scout Guide all about? And they were not afraid to step up and help. So I would say like I had a good network, but it has broadened immensely since the Scout Guide. And that truly is what the Scout Guide is about. You know, it's a beautiful publication and it, it comes out year over year. But the gist of it is you're supporting local and you're building a network and an intentional network, not just somebody that's coming in and wants to meet Darren per se because they want to get a free video or something like that. Like it is a group of people that intentionally show up to every event and if they can't, they're bummed that they're missing out, but they're all like-minded people in that aspect.

Yeah. Okay, so how did you come up with the— and if you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to, but how did you come up with like the pricing side of things? To where it was something that, okay, this would make sense to do. Does the Scout Guide help you in that direction, or did— was that all on you?

Yeah, so we have a baseline we have to charge. Okay, so I have to pay royalties and I pay a design fee, so my prices are based off of the royalties and a design fee, um, like for the franchise? Yeah, for the whole franchise. So we also have surrounding cities, like I was saying, Fort Worth, Midland Odessa, which is the West Texas guide, Lubbock and Southlake Grapevine. I think that those would be like our biggest sister city guides. I reached out to all of them and said like, hey, where are we on pricing? I feel like obviously Abilene needs to be a little cheaper just because we aren't as big of an area. And now, I mean, now we have the AI facility coming in, but at that point we didn't have a really a major niche in a business market like oil and gas, or the Metroplex is right there, or Texas Tech. We have ACU, which is great, and that's growing, but there wasn't really anything just drawing people to Abilene that had more money per se, or were in the higher income bracket. So I felt like I needed to be just a little lower price than those cities, and that's kind of what helped me decide.

I feel like that's with everything, because that's one thing that I've ran into with the Abilene market. Like, well, I see people doing this all over the country running production companies and the pricing that they have, they're like, yeah, I signed a $7,500 a month client yesterday. Like, like that was the first one. I'm like, yeah, nobody will pay that. So you kind of have to do some math and see where the market's at for Abilene.

Yeah.

So I was just curious how you came up with that. Yeah. What would you say? Are some similarities with every single person that ends up in the Scout Guide?

Like, who—

what are the type of people you look for?

I look for people that are supportive of it, that believe in it and want to be a part of it. Like I was saying earlier, I feel like you— people who really get the networking aspect of it are people that are great clients for the Scout Guide. I, I guess the everybody in there just wants to be a part of something. They want to be a part of this community. And it really is an intentionally built community. If I'm having to chase somebody down to be a part of the Scout Guide, then they're probably not my best client because they don't understand it or they're not believing in it or they're not gung-ho about it. And I think most of my clients are really enthused with the Scout Guide and they've all become my friends. And I feel like You know, that is the gist of it, is we're looking for a network of people that you can reach out to if you, if you need something, if you need an embroiderer, if you need somebody to, you know, make you a marketing video or a brand video. Yeah, I think it's really important that everybody is giving their all to the network and the other people in the network.

So that's so cool. So this is something I didn't even know. So If you're a part of the book, if you're in the book, it's like a networking group that y'all form.

Yes.

Like all the people that are in it.

Yeah. So cool. It's a multifaceted guide. Like, obviously you're purchasing the guide because it is so beautiful and we take a lot of time and attention into building your spread to where it fits you as a person and as a business. We're basically introducing you to the community per se once a year. And then also we have social media where we support you and we reshare things that say you guys post and, uh, you know, just kind of helping get your brand out there, recognition. The more people see it, the more they recognize it. So that's the social media portion of it. And then with this networking portion, 4 times a year, more if my clients wanna do it, um, but 4 times a year we will host networking get-togethers and just make sure we're putting people in the same room that they can build their community.

So like quarterly events?

Yes.

What do those look like? Well, I know you mentioned the other day you— it's a, it's a whole thing.

Yeah, it's a whole thing. So there's two large ones. Um, I would say we'll start from the launch. So the launch is the biggest hoopla shindig, whatever you want to call it.

You did it at the Mill last year?

So last year we actually did it over here at the Spalding, the story— the Storybook Park. Oh cool, probably said it wrong, but yeah, the, the Storybook Garden down here by, um, the convention center. And it was really cool, it was very whimsical. I wanted to do something different out of the box.

But yes, is it outdoors?

It was outdoors and it rained. It was, it was like a Taylor Swift music video. Yes, and it was really cool. Everybody got their umbrellas out and I was walking up at 7 when the party started, and I was like, nobody's gonna come to this. I looked like a wet rat after it was all finished, like all said and done. And, uh, yeah, everybody showed up. I think there was like 150 people there. It's crazy. But the launch party is when you get to see the guide for the first time, and nobody knows the COVID color until the guide actually launches. So until they show up to that party They have no idea what they voted on and, you know, what won. And then the other large party that we have is the COVID Color Party. And we just had this at the Grace, and that is where members get together and vote on the COVID color. And with this being our second guide, I think people are kind of understanding what it is a little bit more, and they get really competitive and dedicated to a color. So that's really cool. But we— those are two events we really go all out for. and that people really get upset if they miss. So those are fun. And then we'll have quarter other networking events. Um, if clients wanna host something, I'll host more than 4. Um, if we can partner up and do it together, people love showing off their spaces and I love letting them.

Yes.

So are these events like members only type of thing or are they open to anybody or how does that work?

It kind of depends on what we have going on. Um, I would say I, like I was mentioning my friends earlier, my friends are always going to be invited. I owe a lot of success to my friends because they are the ones that were in the trenches sharing things, filling a room whenever I didn't have anybody to fill a room. They made it look like it was a cool party, so they will always be invited. But yeah, typically this last one we did was all members only. I always tell my clients too, if you have somebody that you think would be a good fit for the guide, invite them and let's broaden our network. So you're kind of giving them a sneak peek at like what we're all about. Yes. Um, and then for the launch party, I will open up ticket sales for that. I haven't decided if I'm doing it this year, but that's in May, so we have a little time to get there. Um, you know, like, let me get through January. Yeah, but I typically— I'm thinking about doing tickets again. We'll see. And then I have another— a couple things up my sleeve for getting the guide out there after the launch this year too. So yeah.

Okay. So you're like the networking person.

And so I don't know about all that.

You are one of— you're great at building a network, obviously, like it's your job. So whenever you hear network equals net worth, what are your thoughts on that?

I would agree. I think it just depends on how intentional you are with your network. I would also say that a network is not transactional. I think that it is something you build on to where you have— I mean, for us, for instance, we've had a lot of conversations recently. They've all been genuine. I'm like, I'm going to walk in and I'm going to leave after an hour. And then we end up talking for an hour and a half.

Yeah.

So I'm building my network right there and it's intentional. It's not forced. So I think just being intentional and then piggybacking off of that, I think I've told maybe 10 people about y'all's operations since I left. So it's just like your way of organically marketing and spreading that word of mouth.

It's so like simple.

Yeah, it really is.

When it is organic and not forced, you can feel like Yes. I don't know. There's no bashing on like MLMs or anything, but like when somebody comes at you and they're like so aggressive, they're like, this is what I do. This is who I am. It's like, I don't even know you. Like, I don't even know.

Like, you just slid in my DMs after 20 years of not seeing you.

But this is like, I don't know. That's the best thing I could compare it to. But like, yeah, it is. It's organic. And then you get excited to tell people about what somebody else is doing because you're like, I genuinely love that person. I love what they're doing. And like, so I love that.

Yeah.

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Oh, I feel like just listening. I've— it's like really hard these days to find people that are like not rushing out the door and not being intentional with their time. I feel like if you can sit in a room with somebody and have a conversation and then they feel like you really paid attention to them when you leave or when you see them the next time, and I can say like, How's Olivia doing? Like, yeah, I didn't forget your daughter's name. I think that that is huge. People are so transactional with their time too, where if you can just sit there and be present, I think that that is a huge way to build trust with a client or somebody you're trying to get to know down the line. I was thinking this morning about doors being shut to network. And people that you think you want to be in your network. And then I was thinking, I had had a few hard nos this week. I was thinking, well, maybe now's not the time. Maybe they're not the right fit for my network. And that's okay. We can just move on and be okay with it. Like, we don't have to just sit there and chase down that one person that may not want to be a part of the Scout Guide. Like, that's not the person we want, and we want somebody that wants to be a part of something.

I think that's important. That's something I've had to realize. If we lose a client or if somebody's like, no, I'm like, okay, well then obviously you're not a good fit.

Yeah.

So, and that's another reason I love doing podcasts is because it gives you not an excuse, but a reason to sit down with somebody for like 30 minutes to an hour, however long.

Yeah.

Think about how often we do this in real life. Or like on a normal day.

Yeah.

You don't just sit down with somebody normally for an hour and talk to somebody, especially with social media. Obviously I'm a big social media guy, but face-to-face in business is always huge.

Yeah, I totally agree with that.

I want to go back to when you were talking about your friends and your support group and being there. So Darren and I always talk about like the foundation of being able to do what we do is like the people under you and like how they encourage you and whether that's like you. So I'm kind of curious. We always talk about spouse roles because like, it's just you work as a team, like inevitably.

Yeah.

You know, like it's like you got it. So when you had this idea or, you know, we're kind of thinking about taking on, it was sitting on your coffee table. Like, what was your husband thinking? Like, because you said you had a job, right?

Yeah.

And so he was like, okay, cool. Like, how was that? At the beginning?

I feel like he's used to it. I am restless. I always have wild ideas. I am trying to— and half of them don't even— none of them come to fruition except for the scout guide. But I'm always like, what if we did this? Or, you know, I'm sure he was just like, whatever. He is a— he's a— I don't know if y'all are Enneagram people, but he's an Enneagram 6. Like, we're going to be consistent.

The loyalist.

Yes, the loyalist. And he doesn't like change very much. So We did this. He was like, okay, but are you good to work your job? Yeah, but he's always supportive. It's so cool. But I think he probably just thought it was another one of my, like, wild shot from the hip ideas. And then I started pulling the money together and he was like, oh, we're really doing this. Okay. Yeah. And showed him my— like, when you go through the franchise process, you have to do this like ROI review. And I was like, I presented it.

Favorite thing, ROI.

I presented it to him after I presented it to the franchise and he was like, okay, whatever. But yeah, he's a huge support and he's just like, whatever you want me to do. If I need to show up and help set up for an event that's going to have 150 people.

Whenever I saw you at the mill, it's like you're all like beautiful sitting here with all the scout guides and he's like shoveling in all these boxes of books. I'm like, that is support right there.

Yeah, Brady is doing the work, man. And he never complains about it. That's so cool. It is. It's pretty wild. I'm pretty blessed. I can say that for sure. That's awesome. But yeah, he is getting his workout in. He is lifting these 40-pound boxes of guides quarterly.

Yeah, you need that support. It's important, especially whether it's just like the faith and knowing like, oh, somebody else like believes in me that I truly care about. Like that encourages me so much.

Yes.

Or like whatever that looks like. But that's awesome that you have that.

Yeah, it really is.

All your cheerleaders. So cool.

Yes.

So would you say you have the mind of an entrepreneur? I don't know, because what you described is what I feel all the time.

Yeah.

Let me ask a simple question. At 11 PM, are you reading books or are you writing down business ideas while your spouse is snoring? Because that's our—

oh, you don't snore. That's our— surely not.

No, she does. I just like Nudge her, say, hey, can you roll over to the other side?

Whatever.

But that's like, that's Darren. It's like business comes alive.

It doesn't go away. And I, and it's like annoying sometimes because I'm like, can I just, I just want to chill, like, but I can't.

It's just the ideas are flowing.

So yeah, with every entrepreneur and everybody who has their own business, that's probably who's watching this, there's good times and there's bad times. Through the whole process, what have been some of the biggest struggles that you've come across?

I would say the nos are really hard off the bat, especially when you, you buy a franchise and you believe in it so much and you've seen how successful it is in other areas. I mean, let's— West Texas, she has like 190-something pages in her guide. Guys, mine was 54 this year. So when you see what you want to be and you see what you are currently, I think that has been really hard for me. Those first initial nos when I started off were so hard. But yeah. And then I, you know, I think we talked about this the other day. I was like, after the, the party the other day, I had spent a bunch of money on it. Y'all, we spend money on these parties. We want them to be really cool for our members.

Do you want to say how much you spent?

No, I don't want to bring that up. Don't make her bring it up.

It was a lot.

Yeah, I think I spent— I would say I spent about $10,000 on this last party.

Yeah.

Wow. And way more on the launch party. So we're going all out for our members. We want it to be something that you want to, like, show up. And anyway, after— oops— after I spent all that money on the party, I was like, oh my gosh, I got to go back and balance my books because I was like, we're selling the house, we're selling the cars, we're moving into a trailer on the ranch with my parents. Like, We— what am I doing? Like, major imposter syndrome. And then you balance your books and you're like, okay, I'm okay until next month, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

That's—

Darren and I, we talk about that honestly on this podcast a ton. But the highs and lows are like brutal sometimes. It's like, man, this is so awesome. Like, there have been months where we were like, we were able to buy our first house together. And then there were months where we were like, groceries? Like, what?

Yeah, what are those?

What are those? Yeah.

Like, the highs are really high and the lows are really low.

Yes.

So that's why we always like to talk about that stuff because not a lot of people talk about the hard parts as much as the good parts.

It is not all sunshine and butterflies for sure. And I feel like there's probably like, y'all can agree hopefully with this, or maybe not. Hopefully, hopefully y'all are just killing it. But like, I feel like there's way more hard days than there are easy days. And even with me, as much as it sounds like, oh, people are just going to come buy into the Scout Guide and I'm just waiting for clients to walk in the door. That's not accurate. I'm out every single day having conversations with people. Yeah. Pitching them, you know, 5 times a day, 10 times a day if I have a good day. And about 1 person out of those 10 may be a little interested. And then there's some, you know, if we have 5 days of that, that sign. So yeah, lots of nos.

Do you ever think about it like a, like a math equation? Like if I talk to X amount of people, this many people sign up.

My goal is to talk to 10 people a day. Now, whether or not that happens, like if we sit here and have a great conversation after I've pitched you and we're getting to know each other, we have friends in common and we're just kind of talking about all the good things. That's all I need for the day, you know, and or I'll roll that into like going to see 5 more people and seeing what conversations I can drum up there. But yeah, definitely a numbers game. Try to see 10 people a day. If I can talk to X amount of people, maybe I can convert 10. Yeah.

You know, so, so if one converts from every 10, I'm doing pretty good. You got to talk to 100 people to get 10.

Yeah.

People to sign up.

Yeah. Sheesh.

It's a lot of people.

Yeah.

And that's, that goes the same with— I don't do cold calling or anything like that, but I've heard a lot of people talk. About it's just a numbers game.

Yeah.

Like, I know the amount of people that I talk to and the amount of sales calls that I have is in direct correlation with how much revenue comes in and how many clients we have.

So did you grow up here?

No.

No.

Where did you grow up? Rome, Texas. What? Yeah.

I'm from Decatur.

What?

Are they close?

How did you not move to Decatur? You drive through Rome to get to Alliance. You drive through Alliance, get to Fort Worth. We always shop there anyway.

What?

That's so crazy.

No.

So how long have you been in Abilene?

Uh, June of next year will be 12 years.

Okay, so not that much longer than us. We talk about that all the time, like building relationship with people, meeting people. So really, like, being here 12 years— does your family live here, or y'all like all just— so husband's family, like any ties to Abilene?

My husband went to HSU. Okay, go Cowboys.

Yeah, that's where we met. Or not Recom, that's Tech. Yikes.

Yikes. Can you cut that? Just kidding.

Yeah, I'm going to get more emails now.

I'm just kidding. Yeah. So my husband was in the police academy when I met him.

Okay.

My friend was going to ACU and her boyfriend, now husband, was living with my husband. They were roommates. And he asked her like, hey, do you have any cute friends that you want to set me up with? And she was like, yes, I have one, but she lives in the DFW area. Anyway, he stood me up a few times. We were supposed to meet. I had come to Abilene like 4 or 5 times that fall, and I didn't meet him until like October. So, man.

Anyway, but that, like, asking that, like, all your relationships you're making, like, it's, it's not like you've lived here your whole life and you just know people. Like, you're having to put in all the work to go meet these people and put your face out there.

And that's—

it's hard.

It is. It's hard, but not really. Yeah, I feel like if you're nice to people, you know, it just—

yeah, around here, like, if you're nice and relatable, yeah, it's a lot easier than people think.

And people here love new stuff, like, yes, which is pretty welcoming of it.

Yeah, don't get in any Facebook groups because those people that are in it, I feel like, are not very welcoming of anything.

I've had some poor Chewies, some people— well, us too.

Oh, Chewies, yeah, they get bashed so hard. I'm like, let me eat my—

what are they, boom boom sauce? Oh my gosh, it's so good.

We've gotten hate from other people around here.

So like, we're all new here. Like, it's— we're all trying, we're learning, we're growing, we're having highs and lows. Okay, we're not going to be perfect all the time. Like, I don't know, but that's so cool. Like, and it makes me respect you even more. Like, I feel like some people, and maybe this is like a stereotype, whatever, they're like, oh, I was raised here, I know everybody. Like, but that just shows the work on your end too, of you getting out there and being present and like meeting all these people. Like, that's so important.

Just getting out there, having the conversation.

Yeah, we have friends, they're chiropractors in town, and they moved here, no ties to Abilene, nobody. And they literally like knocked on like all of Abilene's doors and were like, hey, we're doctors, like we're chiros, like we want you to know about us, like we want to serve you, we want to love on your family through chiropractic care. And it just like, they work their tushes off to introduce themselves to people and it pays off. Like They're killing it.

Yeah, they're the top chiropractors in Abilene.

Yeah, it's crazy. And then anybody can send a mailer, right? Like anybody can send direct mail, anybody can put out on social media, but it's like meeting those people and getting in front of them and it's hard. I mean, I had an intern last year who was literally my saving grace. Shout out to Cheney if she ever watches this. But I mean, she really did save my life. But it was one of those things where I was like, okay, you can send all the mail, the emails in the world you want to, But getting in front of people here in Abilene is a game changer. And I think we did like 2 walk-ins and she sold 3 pages off of that. And I was like, oh, see, all you had to do is walk in. But yeah, and those 2 clients have become 2 of my best clients. But we were face to face and selling each other, selling. So yeah.

So, so when it comes to like the marketing side of your business, What do y'all currently do? Oh, what does that look like?

A lot of, uh, a lot of posting, a lot of stuff that I, I do everything on my own currently. So Chaney did everything until October, um, and then I took it over. So if it's bad, Chaney's still doing it, but if it's good, I'm doing it now. Uh, but we, um, we have a newsletter that— well, it's not a newsletter. We have a blog that we put out every Monday, and it's Member Monday. For the most part, Mondays. If I'm out with meetings, I'm not going to get to it, and I apologize to my members, but I will make it up. Um, so we, we put that out every Monday. It is static on our website. So say, and you follow the link in our bio and you click it, and it is truly an article about each client every Monday and what is behind the behind the brand, how they started it, um, why they love the Abilene community. And it is really cool. You'll like hear different things about the Abilene community through them, but most of them— most of it is like, I love how Abilene supports local most of all. Um, so we do that. That's one of our huge ones. I feel like it's important, not only the guide, like I was saying earlier, it reintroduces you to the local businesses, but to get to know them. Like some Some people you may not know have lived here their whole life, or some people you may not know just moved here and love Abilene. So that's a cool thing that we do. And then we'll announce members on social media, um, and then just kind of help people know what's going on around the city. Um, we're growing this year, so it's, it's very hard to keep up with, um, announcements on members and stuff like that. But yeah, for the most part, it's all social media. And obviously, you know, the networking stuff, but that's the gist of it.

I just had a content idea for you.

Oh, good.

Always having content ideas. If you take that blog. So do you usually write those?

Oh yeah.

If you take that blog and instead of just writing it, you record a video of you delivering the information, take the transcript, have AI write the blog for you based on the transcript, and then you have You've knocked out like 14 birds with one stone.

Did your head explode?

And then you take that video.

My head explodes.

And you can cut it up into Shorts.

Okay, well, I can't wait for you to teach me how to do this.

Oh my lanta.

Now you have the same information, but like in 15 different places.

Nice. Yeah, right now we're doing like— we meaning me— I'm doing like low-rent reels. So maybe. Yeah, maybe you can teach me.

I mean, like, that's what I do. So like, if I Like this podcast, for example, we could take the conversation from this. So we have a video, we could take the conversation, the transcript from YouTube, copy and paste it into ChatGPT, say, hey, write me a blog over this conversation. Gives us a blog about what we talked about. And it's really accurate if you give it the transcript because it's the exact words we say. And then you take that video, cut it up, and you have content for like a month from the podcast.

So your brain's so— I don't know, it's weird, but it's brilliant.

So we'll kind of wrap things up here. Um, for the business owners just starting out building their brands, their businesses, what was— what would be like the number one piece of advice starting to build their business, build their network? What would that be?

I think this has been like the theme of the day, but get in front of people and have no shame. I think the way that I got people to fill a room when I first started this was I would do an invite. If they didn't respond to my invite, I would do a text message. And if they didn't respond to my text message, I would show up in person. And so I think it is just have no shame and it's your business, it's your brand. And if you're not out there hustling to make it work, nobody else is going to. So show up in front of people and just get your name out there. That's truly— and then build your network around it. You'll meet some people that really believe in what you're doing and yeah, they'll stand behind you.

Well, and we talk about all the time too, like, um, you can do all the logo work, you can do all the aesthetic online presence, but like at the end of the day, like you are your brand, the way you carry yourself, the way you like everything. And so that just ties into what you're saying of like Your presence matters when people see you. Not that you have to be like your job only, but like you are, you're carrying your brand, you're carrying what people trust, what they see, right? All the things. So that's great advice. Yeah, I love that.

Well, where can people find you on social?

You can find me @TSGAveline on Instagram. We have a Facebook page. It's The Scout Guide Aveline. And then you can also find us on my YouTube channel. It is @TSGAveline as well. And this will be the first video on it. Let's go! Let's go!

Go subscribe to her YouTube channel. Um, go follow her IG and all the things.

Big supporter right here.

Yeah, thanks for coming. Thank you guys to the Brand Builders Podcast. Yeah, we'll see you guys in the next one.