Tell me about your vision.
Yeah, so all my vision for AmpleMedia was
actually kind of a funny story. So I had a strategic consultancy before that called Drive Solutions where we help businesses really
pivot their businesses to be more strategic about what it was that they were doing to try to achieve better results, right?
And so most companies and organizations want growth. They want to be doing better
operationally within their businesses. And so that's what we were really focused on. My background though in education was on the marketing side of things. And so
I'd have these conversations where
marketing, sales, lead generation, you know, awareness. These are all things that these businesses were really concerned about once we
really mapped out a better path forward for them strategically to grow their businesses. And
and so I had one client in which we did a massive change of their strategic direction of their business. And so
we needed to explain that to their customer base and their
stakeholder group who were all very disengaged. And I thought, okay, so what's going to be the best way to do that?
And I started looking at, now keep in mind this is like
15 years ago, I started looking at explainer videos, those animated explainer videos that we see all over the place now.
At that time they were relatively new,
but I thought those actually are going to work really good because we can explain really complex ideas and very abstract ideas
very easily with these animations and we can make it really tight, really concise in terms of the messaging.
And so we wouldn't be really consuming a lot of the viewer's time and we'd still be able to communicate in a very rich way.
And so I started looking for providers for that and there wasn't anybody locally that were producing those.
And so I had to look to the bigger cities in Canada, so Toronto and Vancouver.
And what I was seeing there was just really, really expensive and the quality wasn't all that great actually.
And so I turned to a buddy of mine and I said, who had gone through an art program,
he was an illustrator,
and I said, you know what, if I were to write the script for a series of videos for this client,
would you be interested in illustrating, storyboarding it? And
maybe you might know somebody who could animate it.
And he said, oh yeah, I'd love to do that because at the time he was working in a job that he just was not loving at all.
And he wasn't getting his creative energy really amplified in that.
And so he was always kind of complaining to me about how much he hated his job and he couldn't be really creative.
I said, well, OK, if we did this, you get to be creative.
And he's like, yeah, I love it.
So we started doing these videos.
The client loved them.
Then people started seeing them and they were asking the client, well, where did you get these made?
And so then they would refer them over to us.
And eventually I turned to my buddy and I said, I think there's a business in here if we really wanted to grow this.
And he's like, yeah, I'd love to do this so that I can really be creative.
And that's where it all kind of started.
So the vision was to try to help a client with something.
We didn't have any access to that expertise in the local marketplace.
And I had a friend that was always complaining about being not creative.
And so I kind of created this business out of those three, you know, the collision or the intersection of those three needs or wants.
Absolutely. And I love that you had someone you could actually call and say, hey, look, this is something that I would like.
And because I know you might be bored in what you do, let's try to figure something out.
And to me, that is respectfully stated.
And that's a founder and a CEO mindset. You know, it's like, you know what?
What I don't have and what I cannot give to you in another area, if I could just collaborate with someone else and I can, you know,
we can build something that gives you the quality and the things that you need behind it.
Yeah, that makes all the sense in the world.
So if I may say kudos to you, like, I love that.
Thank you for that. Yeah. And I think it's really interesting because I think that it's a bit of a curse in a way as well.
And so I talked about this in our podcast with some of our guests to where, you know, as an entrepreneur,
as a founder, as somebody who sees opportunities everywhere, it's really difficult to be able to identify,
OK, well, which are the opportunities that are going to have the best potential for success and and so on?
Because it's we were different.
We're hardwired a little bit differently than the average person, because I hear this all the time from people that go, oh, man, you're a business owner.
That'd be great. I'd love to own my own business. I just need an idea.
I just don't know what I could do. And I'm just like, that's I don't understand that way of thinking or that way of being at all,
because everywhere I see, everywhere I go, there's opportunity because there's problems.
And all we're doing is trying to solve problems that either we ourselves are experiencing or that we're hearing other people experience.
And it's just like, I know how to turn that around into a business.
And and so it can be really distracting and it can be really, really difficult to to navigate through that and stay focused.
And then also obviously pick the winners that are going to turn into great businesses.
So now I just thought about something, Ample Media Therapy,
like, hey, because you have the tools, you know, with all these ideas,
someone that actually has the foundation of like creating a business without the thought process or,
you know, that doesn't have a mindset like you could utilize that, you know, that Ample Media Therapy to be like, oh, that's good.
I think I could do that. Yeah.
So the other thing, too, and this is where I guess is maybe even a little bit more of a curse in a way.
So beyond the distraction that it's created by seeing that opportunity everywhere, it's it's it's really difficult, I think, to
to talk to people who don't have that same level of, I don't know, curiosity and and willingness to to really try to find ways to help.
And so that's why with amplify your business, I just love that, because just like you today,
you get an opportunity to talk to like minded individuals. Right.
And so I love that aspect of it, because we are a different breed, like I mentioned.
And so to be able to have that opportunity to talk to people and relate to people that are on the same kind of
wavelength as what you are is just a real gift. And so that's that's nice.
But sometimes in those, you know, the family dinners and the the friend group from high school or whatever the case might be,
who don't live in the same space as what you live.
And sometimes those conversations just seem really contrived and and difficult.
I want to talk about business. I want to talk about growth.
I want to talk about all these things that are going to help change the world.
I love the word contrived because I tell you, it's no joke, I just have to tell a mini story.
It was myself, another colleague, I'm a full time real estate agent.
We got invited to a launch and my colleague said, I have so much to talk about in the business.
I don't know how this lunch is going to go. Like, well, we have to, you know, they don't have a business just yet.
We have to just we'll have to plan on the side because you're right.
It's hard to stay in a mindset of and I guess it's just about being present and where you are and all that.
But it was really hard to to end the actual lunch.
We ended up on what we wanted to talk about. And, you know, I think I'm like,
maybe I should apologize because that wasn't the goal was a business meeting and a business mindset with all of this.
And because you found that you had this love for creating and this curiosity and seeing opportunities.
Where where are you at now? You know, so you have a media and you have an employer business.
What's now? Yeah, that's that's a really good question.
So for me, with our business, so we've been growing quite rapidly, you know,
since the beginning of Covid, I suppose, when things reopened, we just really took off in terms of growth,
because we spent a lot of time when things were closed, just really focusing on, OK,
so how are we going to boomerang out of this? Because it was really slow for the first few months.
Everybody was holding their cash very tightly because they they wanted to preserve it.
They didn't know what, you know, tomorrow was going to hold.
And so so we had this pent up demand. But at the same time,
yeah, strategically, I knew that as soon as things turned around, that it all these other agencies out there
that were doing similar things to what we were doing, if they laid off their staff and really were kind of slowed down themselves,
they didn't have the expertise now in-house to be able to really just take on that extra work that was going to come in.
And so we made a strategic decision to maintain all of our staff. We didn't lay anybody off.
We just really focused on our own marketing and and really, you know, walk the talk that we talk to our clients about every day.
And so we propelled really quickly. Now, that growth, though, came with a tremendous amount of challenge because
there's a lot of systems operationally that we had in place for the size of company that we were at at that time.
And then when we have rapid growth, a lot of the systems broke.
And so when we got to a different scale and I and I hear this when I talk to other entrepreneurs is there's different stages.
So when you get to, you know, a 20 person firm, the systems that you had when you were five person firm, that ends up,
you know, not really working. And then the next level that is a significant one for people is 100 people.
And then again, you have all these different steps.
And so that's what I've been working on for the last while probably a little more than a year now.
Last year was our big focus there around trying to revamp our systems or processes, build better efficiencies in so that we could be more profitable.
And then also at the same time, be able to do a better job for our clients, too.
And so this year's vision is all about effectiveness.
It's about excellence in execution. And so we reworked our processes.
Now it's a matter of now leveraging what we invested in the last 12 months into something that is really going to help propel our our clients forward with better results.
And with the whole A.I. shift that's happening and its infusion into everything that we really do as an agency.
So from a content creation standpoint, ideation standpoint, strategy standpoint to the design and even now into some of the video content creation,
it's touching every aspect of our business. And so that's where I really spent a lot of my time.
So from what's next, it's about, OK, so how do we A.I. infuse our business beyond what any other agency out there is doing so that we can be leading and be ahead of that curve
so that, again, we can serve our clients better and we can really continue to grow and be relevant to the marketplace that's continuously evolving?
Absolutely. And I love that the transparency for lack of better words, because I think what it's shown the audience to you, you see the name on there as founder and CEO.
Right. But you also see that you're also having experiences and growth that are showing individuals that do start a business is that there's levels.
And although you've been doing it for a while, those levels you to have to experience and then adjust to the differences of the world.
So I love that. In my opinion, before I started all of this, I thought I would get on here and I would meet all these these individuals that have it together.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Lance, you were supposed to have it together, right?
You're telling us everything, the steps, because you're you're here respectfully, right? That that's the way you see CEO and founder.
But, you know, sit here and tell me that you still have steps of growth.
And this growth isn't necessarily because, you know what, I want to push to grow.
I want to push to help my clients be the best at what they can be.
And then by having 300 interviews with entrepreneurs, all you're doing is just continuing to grow in those levels.
We'll continue to probably just get higher and higher and higher where it just shows the newer entrepreneurs.
It doesn't happen overnight. Nothing happens.
No, and this is the one thing that I think we as humans, but definitely as business owners,
I think that there's an imposter syndrome that we all suffer from.
And I talk about this on occasion with people that I interview as well.
And it's something that is not uncommon.
Like, I don't know if I've ever met anybody, regardless of what stage they are at in their professional life,
where there is not some level of imposter syndrome that keeps creeps in every once in a while.
And I think this is the reality of business ownership and trying to grow your businesses and so on,
is just when you think you've got it figured out, right?
You've gone through a bunch of hurdles.
You've faced a lot of those crazy times where you feel like the business is going to just collapse around you.
And then somehow you manage to keep it going.
And then things are turning around and the revenue is coming back in.
And you're excited and think, OK, I think we got this figured out.
We have a system in place.
We have the right presence in the marketplace.
We've got inbound leads that are coming in and we're converting those.
And our operational side of things is just ticking along good.
And all of a sudden, boom, something will happen.
And it'll just kick you in the teeth.
And you just think like, what the hell?
I thought I had this all figured out.
And now there's another challenge in front of me, whether that's the pandemic that happened,
whether that is losing a core customer that represents a big chunk of your business or what we're faced with right now with Trump talking about tariffs and in Canada talking about retaliatory tariffs and so on.
So we could get into a trade war and that's going to disrupt a lot of businesses on both sides of the border.
You know, there's just it doesn't matter what business you're in.
Just when you think that things are going smooth, something happens.
You lose that key employee, whatever the case might be.
And so we're always having to learn.
And I think the best entrepreneurs are the ones that have that continuous strive to learn, to understand, to explore, to test, to try things out and continue to learn.
To try things out and continue, continue that process of evolving themselves as well as their business.
Those are the ones that are going to be successful at the end of the day, because if you pause, if you stop that growth in your thinking, in your business, you're going to likely get passed by the competition or or passed by some sort of event that's going to disrupt your business.
So, yeah, I don't think we ever, ever have it figured out. And so anybody who claims to, you know, I think that they are delusional because it is it is truly an adventure and you have to hold on tight because you're going to be going places you never thought.
Yeah, yeah. And it just reminded me of like a roller coaster.
You know, you see the dip and you know, there's a dip in there just when you feel like you're high up and I just world and everything looks beautiful and you forget that there is the biggest dip, which is which is something that is inevitable, I believe.
You know, and not everything just goes up, up, up, up in a way, you know.
Yeah, I thank you for sharing that.
And I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I always have one favorite question.
Regardless of all that you've done and all that you're doing, I would love to hear what are the greatest joys of what you do.
Yeah, this is an easy one, because for me, I I've always been somebody who really wants to serve others.
And so this goes back to my childhood, I grew up in a really small, remote farm community and in that community, because it was so remote, we didn't really have any, you know, social infrastructure that was, you know, government provided or anything like that.
Everybody had to rely on each other. Right.
And so you helped out your neighbors and you were there to support the community.
And so that was something that I grew up just really valuing and it was just part of who I was and am because of my parents, my grandparents, my great grandparents.
Right. They were always the people who who stood up and helped build the church, helped, you know, take care of the cemetery, you know, helped the neighbor when the neighbor was sick or had some sort of issue happen on their farm.
And so that's the way that I approach life is we just need to help others.
And the more that we are there for other people, the more we serve, the better the communities are in which we are living and raising our families and so on.
And so for me, I go back to what is the core elements to a thriving community.
And I think in a lot of respect, it starts with a thriving business community because it's the small businesses that really support then, you know, the local hockey team or soccer team or whatever the case might be, as well as the charities and the not for profits.
They're the ones that have, you know, the knocks hit on their door asking for donations, asking for support and kind or whatever the case might be.
And so we're constantly giving back. And if we are thriving as businesses, we can give back more.
And so then the community becomes much more vibrant as well.
And so I my passion, my joy is to see our clients, our businesses, our entrepreneur community thrive and anything I can do to support that.
And, you know, I think that we play a really important role in that in terms of the regeneration, which really fuels the growth of these businesses that we work with.
I get tremendous joy out of that.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.