Creative Energy on the Treasure Coast

Brian 0:10

All right. Well, welcome back to the Vero Beach podcast. We are sitting here with John and Crystal here at the Riley Black Studios. And this is part two slash part three episode here. But we're excited to get into this part. This is the first time we've ventured out to Sebastian for a podcast episode. Well, welcome. Yes, thank you. Thank you. You know, we're, you know, we, you know, even though it's the Vero Beach podcast, we're like, hey, you know, we've got people all over Treasure Coast and beyond asking to be on it now. And I'm like, let's just go to the, we'll expand to the Treasure Coast, but nowhere outside there. So we're we're excited to be here in Sebastian. And uh Ashana, you had a question that you wanted to ask. So now I'm gonna hand this to her.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Subtle. Yes. Okay. How how would you describe the creative energy here on the Treasure Coast?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Um, I think it's great. I think most people are open to being creative in whatever way is most comfortable for them. Um, and we love that we get that luxury of being able to mold to whatever makes sense for them. You know, if they want to do the fun, funny content, we can do that. If they want to do the serious mental health, like the tough talks, like we can support them in that. Um, basically any business we could potentially help from the big ones to the small ones to nonprofits. Um, we work with any budget. So if your budget is$100 and what you want to accomplish, we'll tell you what we can accomplish for$100. You know, that may mean that you have to record some of it and then he's only doing the editing. Or, you know, we we I never want to be unattainable to anybody because as a small business owner with the laser engraving business, it felt like there was a lot of I kept hitting walls where I was close to growth, but felt like I couldn't afford the professional help that I needed. Um, for example, a CPA. For the longest time, I didn't get a CPA because I actually, oddly enough, have a financial, a bachelor's degree in five in finance. Um, but all it taught me was that I don't like it. And so I could do it, but I didn't. And I didn't because I didn't want to, right? So I kept putting it off. I and then it was a mess to deal with at the end of the year. And I was like, okay, I I just assumed that I couldn't afford a CPA to help me. Well, then I looked and I found one that was affordable. And I was like, wait, you mean I can spend$50 a month and they do the stuff that I hate doing? And it was like, oh yeah, say less. Yeah. And so the same thing with video for a lot of people and content, it's a chore to them. And I get it, because it's not what your strong suit is. If you're a baker, if you're a roofer, any kind of business, and you want to maybe make the things or do the roof or whatever, and you don't want to also be a content creator, you don't have to be. Yeah. And we can do as little or as much as you want. And so that's what I love about the creative part is we can be as creative as you want to be, and it can look however you want it to look for your business.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

We moved, we moved to the area at a perfect time because it is growing and um creatives are also growing. So I think, I think um, and we've we've kind of come it like we've hit this wall as well where a lot of people are still like word of mouth. Um, but more and more it's they're seeing that now what happens is when you know someone does um recommend somebody, the first thing that other person does is go to their social media. Yep, right to see, like to see what they're doing. I want to see what you do. I want to see your recent job. You know, do I mean even as simple as do we have other mutual friends? You know what I mean? So there's there's a lot of reasons that people go and like kind of research you or your business. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Um employers do the same thing, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

They look at your social media, it's more and more like it's growing here along the Treasure Coast. So I think it's an exciting time and we moved in at the right time.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

And I think you're right too, like referrals.

Creatives You've Met

Brian 4:15

I mean, when we launched the podcast, we started, we recorded our first guest in May of 2025. We had two guests, I think that we recorded. Right when we recorded those first two guests, we put some stuff out there about what was coming because we had the site built, we had everything ready. And ever since then, we've been booked every week, and it's not because we've gone out and got people, they've all come to us because they've all seen it and they're like, I see what's going on. People's talking. Same thing with you guys. People that's that's how we're seeing here today. Yeah, that's the best way to market. Who are some of the creatives you guys have met doing this, you know, here in Sebastian or you know, any of the areas here in Treasure Coast?

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Um, here, here locally, um, I would say uh we just we just did uh a project with um Jen Lee, who's another podcast. Yeah. Um and then as far as like community, um, I mean on local, we opened up local lens with um Danielle Winecoop.

What is a Creative?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yep. Yeah. Um and then um Well, so one of the first ones we met, right, was Amanda um with Southern Tees, the mom of Kayla, who actually owns it. Okay. Um when we first moved here, um, you know, we saw that they did uh offered laser engraving services and and stuff like that. And I had called them because we wanted a local shirt company. And so, you know, we ordered merch for our laser podcast, but we wanted someone to do that again locally to avoid the high shipping costs because we were getting, you know, 100 shirts or 50 shirts at a time. It's it's expensive to ship. And so I wanted someone we could just go pick them up from locally, and then we started talking about laser engraving, and then the relationship just kind of grew from there, right? Um, and so you know, Amanda was one of the first ones, Mikey with Sacred Water. Um, it just it's so easy to make those connections here. And heck, yesterday when we were checking out a place and we walked in and we were meeting Crystal with Unicorn Epoxy. And I remembered her name because it's also mine. Um, but we walked in there and we were gonna meet her because we were kind of checking out her space to see if it was somewhere where we would like to be eventually or whatever. And then Joseph Martinez of JSM Picks walks in right behind us, and he's like, This town is really small. And to make it even smaller, Joseph with JSM Picks used to actually be stepbrother with John 20 years ago. He's on our schedule next week.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, so his uh my dad and his mom were married for a while. So if anybody's listening, like, who are you talking about?

Brian 6:48

Stay tuned. Uh okay, so before I go further in this, you know, we we've talked a lot about creatives. Define creative. What is a creative?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Uh for us, it's literally anyone who wants to uh create their own space. You can be a creative as a roofer. You can when you have a craft or a thing that you are passionate about, that is is in that category. There's no limits to a creative, in my opinion. If you have something that you're passionate about, you're a creative. You that can be a realtor if you're passionate about the real estate and the industry and you get the word out there to other people, you're a creator. Um, so it's it's pretty much anybody now. As long as you have again either a business or a passion or hobby that you are are you know passionate about and you want to get that word out, you're a creator.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

If you're out there, if you're someone, if you're a plumber and you take pride in your soldering work because it's clean and you look at other people, that's that's your creative is is what you do. If you're a tie, if you lay tile and you make sure that all the lines and the gaps are like that's your creative. So just because creative doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be the arts, right? It doesn't have to be the arts. If you if you're an accountant and you find things, like you take part, like we have a friend who's an accountant and she finds things for companies all the time. Yeah. And that's like that's what brings her like fulfillment, right? That's your creative.

Brian 8:25

So I think that's actually that's a really good. I I thought it'd be good to talk about that because I think that helps. Because a lot of people, you know, when it comes to podcasting or anything like this, they think I need to start a podcast because everybody's doing it. And then they're thinking, I'm gonna launch a podcast, it's gonna blow up. But when I start thinking about what is a creative, and you guys nailed it, I think it really like what what you're saying. If I sum it up, it sounds like it's really what your passion is. You do it because you love doing it. Yep. Yes. You know, we're doing this podcast, not because we're making millions of dollars doing this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Don't get into podcasting thinking that you're gonna make a ton of money. Because I can tell you, it can be uh it can be a vehicle to at least not through the actual podcast.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Because if you have a podcast around your business, it can drum up business for you. Yeah, but the podcast, yes, is it is a passionate project.

Brian 9:14

But even like even if you're even if you're a business and you're like, okay, we want a podcast, don't that's great, do it, but don't put somebody on doing the podcast that isn't passionate about the work you're doing because they're gonna be able to tell that in the podcast or any kind of content that they're hiring Riley Black Studios to help them produce.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, but that's one thing that I love about the creative space is that you can't fake it.

Brian 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

You know, you have to truly love it and enjoy what you're doing. And then when you do, that comes across in your work and in your content, right? If you try to fake it, you may, even if you're a good actor, people may not know what it is that's off, but they're gonna know something's off. They're gonna know, like, do you really mean that? Do you really feel that way? Do you really enjoy this? Or are you just the face of it? If you're just the face of something and you don't truly live, breathe, and feel that, people are gonna know that even if they don't know why they're feeling that way.

What Do You Tell Others About the Community?

SPEAKER_00 10:14

And sometimes, sometimes as well, uh, we get we get like we start off with the passion of whatever it is that we're doing, right? And that's the reason why we got into business. But then the business side takes over. And now you're you're working, now you're marketing, now you're doing all these things and you're so far removed from what got you started that when you do start a podcast around that, it can revive that passion because now you're talking now you're spending uh uh kind of like intentional, you're spending an intentional half hour to an hour just talking about what you're passionate about. And you're like, you know what? This week I'm gonna be out there with the guys instead of in the office doing administrative work and trying to get new leads, I'm gonna go out there and it's been a while since I've whatever laid some tile, you know, worked with a at a customer's house or whatever. Um I'm gonna be back in in the trenches with the with these guys because I miss it.

Brian 11:05

Okay, so a couple things I would like to ask you before we wrap up. Number one is uh what is something special about the community that you guys find yourselves telling others?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Um I I will say the um one thing about our community is that they're very um they want to help support small business. Yeah. This is a very small business friendly. Small business friendly community. Um and I'm not just talking about Sebastian. Sebastian Viral Beach pretty much the whole treasure coast. Um I find that a lot of people try to shop local first before they go into the chains and the big markets.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

You'll see the posts all the time of yeah, who does this? I want to support you guys too. I need to go.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

And a lot of times the like the chains in the big box are easier to shop at. So but they're still posting in the groups saying, hey, I'm looking for this. Who do you guys recognize?

SPEAKER_01 11:56

I know I can get it here, but I'd rather shop here first if someone offers it. So I love that.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

So you need to be able to do it. Yeah, and coming from South Florida, where it's the complete opposite.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah, you didn't know anybody, you didn't talk to anybody, we didn't know our neighbors. Here we know almost everybody on the whole street. Yeah, you know, it's just it's it's completely different in that sense. It's just uh you go to the school and you know uh people at the school, they're also the dog groomer on the side, and they you know, they know this person. Or, you know, uh we have the Riley Black Studios things on the back of our car, and people see that all the time. And like, you know, there was a a lady who um got an ornament for me around from me from around Christmas, and um we found out that our kids go to the same school. And I was like, Yeah, uh she said, Are you the are you the car that says Metal Mom? And I said, No, I'm the car that says Riley Black Studios. And she goes, I'm behind you in the car line all the time. So, you know, that's that's the coolest part. You know, we we unfortunately down in South Florida, we met our neighbors when they had a huge house fire. That's when we met them. And I kind of wish that we had met them before, but that just wasn't how that community was. You know, everyone down in South Florida, you're just trying to survive and you're in your own world and the worlds don't really collide. And here I love that they collide without effort for the most part.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Brian's favorite quote in three, two, one. Maybe he doesn't.

Brian 13:18

Yeah, we always hear that this, you know, the community here is kind of like the world's largest mulberry. That's what that's what Ray from uh Mayberry, Mulberry, Mayberry.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Sorry, Ray.

Brian 13:29

Yeah. I knew that's where you were gonna go. I wasn't gonna go there, actually. I was like, I've I've you told me to stop.

unknown 13:36

I did not.

Brian 13:38

Listen, a community, there's a lot that goes behind scenes that you don't know about. I get told what I can say and what I can't say. No, I'm just gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

There is a list. No. A notebook.

Brian 13:47

No, I've kind of let it go, and I felt like that has like Run its course. Run its course.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

He used to say it in every podcast. Like, if you're now my dad jokes on our whole history, though.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

This is what you gotta do because I'll tell him to stop drawing.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

I don't know why he said that.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

This is season two.

The Future for Riley Black Studios

Brian 14:03

Looking for a news statement. That's so season one. Season one, so season one. Well, you guys, again, thank you guys for joining us on the podcast. It's been great. As we get ready to wrap up, I got one more question for you. Uh looking looking ahead, what do you hope Riley Black Studios becomes for the traders here in the community?

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Ooh, uh an outlet for all things content. Whatever that is for you, you know, when we're we're taking this relocation as a blessing to hopefully be able to offer the community more than what we're offering now. You know, this was an amazing stepping stone. Um, and we hope that we can offer more and offer it to whatever content creation looks like for you, your business, your passion, um, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Prior to moving here, I've never been um just I grew up in South Florida, Miami area. Um you know, community is very small. It's it's amongst a handful of friends. Um, and here there there does seem to be a lot more ties to community. And I do think of things, you know, our moves a little more strategically because it's like how can we help this community that has one embraced us moving here? Yeah, especially when I get it, I don't want a lot of people moving here either anymore. Because we found the gem. You know, we want to keep it.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Right, right, right and rightfully so.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

And I get it now that we live here. Yeah, um, but we've become very quickly, we've become one of you guys. No more people. We're in, we were the last one.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Um, but to protect our gem and and again, too, how can we support this feel of local community and how can we best serve, right? So, yes, we are running a business, yes, we do charge, obviously. Um, but how can we support? How can we, how can we help? What can we do to help you and kind of see, you know, uh, you know, without money is such a hard thing to talk about, right? Because we need it to survive, but we need it to do everything, but at the same time, you don't want to make it about that. So, how to how to balance that? And that that that would be like my final mess. Like, how can we help? And future, we want to be, yeah, we want to be involved in all things community in community, whether, even whether it means we're sending you down the street to our competition, but that's because we have a relationship with them, you know? That's right.

How to Contact

Brian 16:22

So that's right. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you guys, this is exciting. I'm I mean, hey, again, you guys, some of the services you guys already talked about. I'm like, all right, I can see there's some collaboration here that we can send people to you guys too. So that's great. So, I mean, that's that's awesome. Well, we can't wait to see where you guys land here in the area as you guys go through this this new move. Uh, but thank you guys both for being on the podcast. What's the best way for people to connect with you guys?

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Um, Facebook, Instagram, uh, at Riley Black Studios. Uh, you can email us info at Riley Black Studios. Yeah, our website, rileyblackstudios.com. And if you see us out in the streets at something, say hi. We're always listening I'm always wearing my shirt. I'm always wearing Riley. If you see Riley Black, it's really beach. It's really fun beach. I guess I guess now I'm gonna have to get a chest tattoo.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

There you go.

Brian 17:17

I love it. I love it. That sounds like a new thumbnail cover for your guys' podcast. Well, hey, you guys, thank you guys again for joining us. If you guys have enjoyed this podcast, make sure you leave us a review and share it with your friends.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

And with that, thanks for listening, neighbor.