Inspiring Creativity On and Off Camera with Jane Clauss

Lyric Kinard (00:02.196) Hello friends, it is so good to see you again and I am really excited to introduce you to Jane Klaus. She is an amazing media personality. It looks to me like she's a natural on camera. We'll find out more about that in a minute. But Jane, tell me about what you do and how you got to doing what you do now. Jane Clauss (00:15.79) Yes. Jane Clauss (00:26.282) Well, I first and foremost am a creative maker. I have been creating and making since I was five. I used to wake my mom up at 4 a.m. and say, it morning time, mommy? Because I want to go make something. And so I've been making my whole life. I fell into radio and television in my 20s and then did that for 30 years and still doing it. But I've always been a maker and I've always wanted to find out how I could take this creative passion that I have. and blended with my television and radio career. And so that's where I'm at today. I am, I mean, I guess you could say I am a television personality. I am a host. I'm a podcaster, but I'm a creative maker and a content creator. Is that what they call us? I don't know. Lyric Kinard (01:13.364) There you go. You make stuff and then you make stuff about making the stuff, right? Great. What does your, your website has so much stuff on it and you do so many things. You and I might also be alike in our ADD-ness. We want to do and have and create all of the things all of the time, but you have a podcast, you have different. Jane Clauss (01:18.272) Exactly. We're always making something. Jane Clauss (01:32.482) I think we are, yeah. Lyric Kinard (01:40.468) video channels, you have a blog, you have a shop where you sell both merchandise and things you've actually made. Am I missing anything? How does that all tie together? Jane Clauss (01:51.63) You know, I want it when I was creating my website, I wanted it to be a place where people can go and explore. So if you weren't looking to learn how to make something, maybe you wanted to be inspired by reading something or maybe you wanted to go back and watch a video or watch a segment that I did somewhere or, you know, that that either could be from health and wellness and fitness to creativity or like peeling back the curtain on other people's creativity. So when I was building my website, a long time ago in the early 2000s lyric. When I started my website, I said it looked like a 1950s kitchen. You know, like when a kitchen needs to be updated. So when I first started my website, and then when I needed to redo the website, I would just say to the web designer, it looks like June Cleaver's kitchen. We need to update it to today. And so I've always been. Lyric Kinard (02:25.47) Mm-hmm. Jane Clauss (02:43.948) you know, really enthusiastic about having a website, but I want it to be a place where people can like swim around and like just be in it and feel it and do what you want to do. If you want to shop, great. If you're feeling inspired to make something awesome, if you want to listen to a podcast, amazing. Or if you want to watch a show, go ahead. Lyric Kinard (03:00.948) And you can do all those things there. So do you host all of your own videos and podcasts on your website or do you also have a YouTube channel? Jane Clauss (03:12.302) I have a YouTube channel and my YouTube channel right now is kind of the landing spot for everything. I'm not doing any live YouTube shows, but I'm super contemplating doing that. I've been doing live one hour, you know, sort of here's a project, let's make it for other people. And I'm really toying around with this idea. I do have a YouTube channel. It's DIY by Jane is, or Jane Klaus. You can always find me there, but yes, there is a YouTube channel as well. I host all of my own. podcasts, my own shows. I don't always have to be the center of attention. I can turn the camera on somebody else and have them be the center of attention so we can find out what they're making or what inspires them at the moment. But yeah, I'm always like coming up with the content and hosting it. Lyric Kinard (03:58.374) I love the Crashing Somebody Else's Studio series that you have because makers always love to see other people's spaces. They're so inspiring. Jane Clauss (04:06.4) It is literally such my favorite thing. I was working in England for a company called Create and Craft where we were selling craft supplies. And it was such a great experience for me. But when we were there, I was talking to the audience. It was kind of like shopping telly. So we were selling paper and cutting dyes and things. And as we're talking to the audience, I would say, send me a picture of your craft room. And they would send it in and our producers would get it up on TV. Lyric Kinard (04:25.31) Hmm. Jane Clauss (04:34.732) And all of sudden I'm like, well, this is kind of fun. Looking in someone's craft room is like driving by a house with the drapes open and the lights on. And you're like, what's happening in there? Same thing. And if you are a maker, whatever your passion is, I love to see inside somebody's creative space. So I came up with this idea and said, well, let's craft. crashed their craft room. And I was fortunate enough to go to over 30 different craft rooms all over the country and even in the UK and just kind of take a peek behind the curtain. I love it too. Lyric Kinard (05:11.464) That is so much fun. Are you comfortable on video? Was it just natural for you? have such a huge personality on screen, and that's what TV personalities do, right? But did you have to work at that? Did you have to learn it? Jane Clauss (05:29.96) Yeah, absolutely. I did not go to school for broadcasting. I went to school for public relations. And when I kind of took the turn into television, I was working at a radio station in Phoenix and the local TV station said, hey, you seem to know what's going on around town. Why don't you do this segment for us? And I thought, well, am I good enough to do this? Like, can I do this? And so, yeah, I mean, I think it was more of an internal thing and it was more like, I allowed to do this? And then it became, you know, after so many reps and so much time, then you stop thinking about it. But I'm telling you, if I'm on a break or I haven't done it in a while, I always say, am I the one that's supposed to do this? you know, does it come natural? I think the enthusiasm is just something that, you know, I have. and if it comes across on camera, amazing. But I also feel like I need to prep and I need to be in my space and I need to be totally focused on this moment at this time and not thinking about anything else. Lyric Kinard (06:35.892) Hmm, so it sounds more like learning to give yourself permission and kind of get over imposter syndrome, which friends, everybody gets at some point or another, and it never really goes away. You just choose to let it go. It sounds like it's more that mindset than, my gosh, I don't look or sound good enough on camera. Jane Clauss (06:58.796) Yeah, mean, imposter syndrome is real. I still get it. It's funny. Like I have imposter syndrome all the time. When in the making, you know, process, like I know that I can do TV or radio, but sometimes I'm like, am I allowed to show people that I can make this garment? And I feel sometimes like an imposter, like I can't really so, but you know, but I can, you know? So anyway, I think. Going back to your point about I don't look good enough or whatever, we think about ourselves. You look great. Anybody can be on TV. You just practice or be on camera. I'll say this, and I wanna make this point about a 17-year-old that's going to college that wants to major in broadcast, and that 17-year-old says, I'm not pretty enough or smart enough to be on TV. So you don't major in it, but you end up in it anyway. That was me. And that was because I didn't feel like I was pretty enough or smart enough. Throw that out the door. Everyone is pretty enough and smart enough to do whatever it is that you want to do. If you have the drive and passion to do it, you can do it. Lyric Kinard (08:13.428) And the thing is, it's not about us. Why are we doing this? Like, why do you do this? I mean, we love to create and we love to share, but outside of that, why are we putting in all the effort to create content, to set up video equipment, to edit and put it in all of these places? That's a huge amount of work. Who are we doing it for and why? Who are you doing it for and why? Jane Clauss (08:40.622) I do it for myself. I do it because I want to inspire the masses to create. I want to inspire the person that thinks I'm not creative enough. I'm not good enough. I don't know how to do this. Yes, you can. I want you to try it. want you to spend one hour every single day and just be creative. The other half of that is I do it for myself because I feel like a millionaire when I'm done. I can make no money and I am the richest person in the world. So I think for me it's twofold. I do it because I love it so much, but I also want everyone to feel that sense of satisfaction that you made it yourself. It's such an amazing feeling. Lyric Kinard (09:26.194) That's fantastic, and we'll cut this little bit. We have construction, they're digging cables outside. Good, it's not a hearing, like my internet is like gapping. Yours is fine, it's going to record. So if all of a sudden I'm just sitting here going, it's because of, I'm like waiting for my internet to come back on. So it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine. Jane Clauss (09:34.626) I didn't hear it. Jane Clauss (09:53.293) okay. Lyric Kinard (09:55.44) Okay, pause and then we'll start back up. So that is, it's a service mentality. It's for you, it fills your soul. But part of filling your soul is to bring that joy and that creativity and the same spark and joy you get from creating into the lives of other people, right? Otherwise, we would just do it on our own in our studios and never share it. Jane Clauss (10:22.318) 100%. I want everyone to feel that joy. And we're lucky that we have the technology to be able to share our gifts and our joy and our passion with everybody. mean, think about back in the day when we had to get up off the couch and change the TV, right? Or can you turn the volume down, Now, mean, like now we're broadcasting from our living room all over the place. Like you have the opportunity to do it. Lyric Kinard (10:40.455) You Lyric Kinard (10:52.04) The technology really is still miraculous to me. I can't believe that we're able to just go, to just reach people all around the world. Let's back up a little bit because I'm really curious. You have all of these things in the back of my head because I really love the business part of it as well. I love figuring out how things work. It costs a lot of money to travel somewhere and bring film equipment and it takes a lot of time to edit or pay somebody to edit. I am really interested in your business model. What is it that you do that brings income and what is it that drives people to that part of your business? How do you keep it going? Jane Clauss (11:44.44) I love that. I struggle with that because other people say, I'm selling this product. I'm selling this whatever. I would say a product, another product, this item, whatever it is. I guess I'm selling myself and what I can bring to a brand. And so I typically will pitch myself to a company and say, let me Lyric Kinard (11:59.144) Right. Jane Clauss (12:12.294) let me do your video production. Let me be your spokesperson. And through that, we will sell your product. A lot of people will say, I'll want to be an affiliate and then I'll make money while selling your product. I'm way more comfortable working as a right arm extension of the marketing team, as a brand ambassador or a spokesperson because I can. And it's for me to think of, well, how can I create a video Lyric Kinard (12:20.498) Hmm. Lyric Kinard (12:32.775) Hmm. Jane Clauss (12:39.318) in this form, this form, in this form, and what will the content be? Well, that's all my television and radio schooling after all these years. I can implement those things into a plan for a brand. So that is my business model is that I typically say, hey, let's, these are all the things that I can do for you. We can do one or we can do all of them. Let's pick and choose. It's like a Greek menu, whatever you want. Lyric Kinard (13:03.348) All right. So it's brand sponsorship. You get paid by other companies to promote their products to... show people the joy that they get from using their products, which is a little bit different than a lot of people do. Brand sponsorships take, I mean, you gotta go out and hoof yourself, right? You have to pitch and promote and approach those brands and be confident. Did you have to have a huge resume in order for those brands to accept you? Jane Clauss (13:23.062) It's totally different. Jane Clauss (13:30.712) Yep. Yep. Jane Clauss (13:42.542) So when I first started pitching myself to brands, I just came up with a proposal, like just a PDF, a bunch of different, a deck they call it, a sales pitch. I'm not awesome at sales. Everyone says you should be in sales because I have a high energy, but it's weird for me to go to someone like, hi, I can do this for you. So what I did was I said, well, what can I bring to the table? Lyric Kinard (13:54.129) Yeah. Jane Clauss (14:05.698) How could I help them achieve their marketing goals? And what are the kinds of things that they want to look for? So first and foremost, I would find out what their marketing goals are. What are their challenges? What are, you where would they like to go? And it's surprising when you sit and listen that, yeah, everybody has a challenge or everybody wants to make a pivot. Can you help them get better? Can you help them win? And so in the beginning, I would just say, here's what I can do. I have a show called Creative Living. You can be in it. I have a radio show, you could do this. I can make things on camera. I can interview people. But now that I've done that, I've been down those road, I can turn it around and say, what do you need? Do you need social? Do you wanna be a part of a bigger show? Do you wanna do a live show? Do you just need some things made on camera? Do you want my hands? Do you want my face? Do you want me to speak for you? So I have just a, know. sort of a menu of things that they can choose from. I always put it in the proposal. I give them the big picture and then let the brand in conversations decide how does this work for us in our budget. So that's always a big thing. Cause I've seen a lot of different budgets and sometimes the budgets don't work with where I need to be for hiring an editor. or the budgets are great and I can have a big huge team and a crew. So, you you have to be flexible, but certainly I would say don't ever say no, because you can build your resume even starting small and doing little projects one by one. Lyric Kinard (15:42.802) Right. I love that you learned to come to partnerships with how can I lift you? how can I make it win for you? Everybody wants, you know, we're all selfish beings at the core and we need our businesses to thrive. So if somebody comes to you and says, I want you to do this for me, that's not nearly as attractive as here's how I can help you. And it's always a win-win. I love the creative industry that we're in because it feels like it's so much more collaborative and lifting than I'm not going to work with you because we're in competition. Jane Clauss (16:26.626) Yeah, no, I think, you know, like, what do they say? Rising tides. Yeah, exactly. Somebody had said that to me because I'm like, well, do you mind if we're both doing it? Like, no, I want you to succeed. I want you to do all this stuff because then you're mine. So I do love the community that we're in. We all want to work together. None of us do the exact same thing. So we have specialty, our specialty in our certain area. Well, maybe you do something similar, but it'll never look like what I look like because Lyric Kinard (16:31.152) lifts all the ships. Lyric Kinard (16:38.025) Right. Jane Clauss (16:56.362) It's creativity. Everyone's creativity is different. And what I love about the brands that they want to work with multiple makers and multiple influencers. And certainly there's not, you know, there are other me's and there are other you's, but they need all of these different types of faces and content and makers and visions to really enhance and give a great foundation to the brand. And I can see that when I look When I talk to the brands, I'm almost like, and then you can collab with your retailers and you could do, I'm like telling them all these other things that I would never even be a part of only because I want to help them, you know? Lyric Kinard (17:33.17) Yeah Lyric Kinard (17:37.748) If you come to it with a mind of service, then the business part follows along as well. You mentioned different budgets when you work with brands and sometimes you have a video team and editing, but do you ever not have that team and you do all your own filming and editing for some of your content? Jane Clauss (17:59.686) Every day. So it's so crazy because I grew up in a world where I've got a sound guy, I've got two cameras, I got someone monitoring. What does it look like? I've got a producer over here telling me to wrap it up. And that's how I grew up. That's what I'm used to. And then it kind of was like, OK, well, I can write the script, too. And then when we had the pandemic and all the videographers said, I cannot film for you. this week and then really stop. said, well, I have to figure out how to do this myself. And thankfully I did. And it's just grown since that time. And I have a full studio setup, full lights. I have three different sets. I have a green screen. So I'm, I am much more capable myself of doing it. Listen, I am not the best editor. I'm not the best shooter because it's hard to film yourself. when you're the person you're filming, so it's a lot of extra work. I can do it. So that's good, that's the good thing. I can edit. I mean, I'm good at it, but it takes me a longer time, I think. Or maybe it takes everybody a long time and I just think that I'm not good at it because it's not what I, as I grow up doing, it's not what I do. I'm a hoarder, why would I wanna get rid of anything? Lyric Kinard (19:00.817) Right? Lyric Kinard (19:23.294) Great. Lyric Kinard (19:26.9) in those film clips. Jane Clauss (19:27.982) Exactly, exactly. Yeah, so I love working with a team. I also think this, if you're building a business shooting video for others, if you have somebody to help you, say, shoot and edit, then you can release that to them and you can get more clients. And that's how you're going to build. If you're able to pull in the first one and maybe you don't make any money on the first client because that's all going to the person that helps you, we'll stack some other clients on top of that. And now you've got a full calendar. So you're turning it and burning it and you have your crew working on the back end and you're building a business. Lyric Kinard (20:05.3) All right, so going back to the beginning of the pandemic before you were filming all of your stuff, you have an amazing setup now because video is what you do. It's all about being on camera. So of course it makes sense to do that. Did you start out with a huge outlay of fancy equipment and setting up a fancy studio or did you build it as you went? Jane Clauss (20:34.222) So oddly enough, I moved into a artist loft right before the pandemic because as a child who loves production forever, I've always loved production. Since I was a little kid, I loved production. I should have been in production my whole life, but I've said, well, I want to have my own studio set for no reason. I live, I'm... live in Chicago and in our condo there wasn't really, I had a blue room, we called it the creative room, but there wasn't space to like really have a set. So I don't know, I got a wild hair and I said, I'm gonna move into an artist loft. So I had this beautiful studio before the pandemic. I had my three sets. So luckily that was all set up when the pandemic happened. So I was able to do all of my shows during that time. Did I have the best equipment? No, I had. maybe a couple of lights, but as that grew, I got a backlight and I got a low light. So you could, behind me, when I'm on a set, if you don't have a backlight, it's dark. And I was always, I was working on a team and the team would say, well, do you have a backlight? Or I work with a photographer and they would ask me about it. And then I was at the gym and I ran into a gaffer. Do you know what a gaffer does? Lyric Kinard (21:44.392) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (21:58.388) They do such cool stuff with equipment, but tell us. Jane Clauss (22:01.186) They do, yeah, they do lights. so, I mean, random, I'd never seen him in the gym before. A friend of mine said, hey, you should talk to him. And he ended up having some C stands and some cables that I could hang lights behind me in my studio. And he helped me set it up. And so I learned from him how to get... you know, a pin light, how to get a back spotlight to pull you off of your set. So all these little things I learned along the way in the beginning, I'll go back. Some of those videos are on my website. You'll see how dark it is. You'll hear how how low the audio is because I didn't have a microphone. So so many things I've grown into. And yes, I started small, but luckily I had the space and a couple of lights. Lyric Kinard (22:48.468) Right, and when you're teaching, when you're creating video, especially for hands-on things, it's amazing to have a studio set like that. But just a few important details like the mic or good lights that don't have to be huge and expensive. I use LED light tablets in different places and they don't take up space, they're... clamped to furniture instead of big stands on the floor. And they work just fine. It's pretty amazing. I'm curious when you do edit your own work, what software are you using? Jane Clauss (23:28.43) I use Final Cut Pro on my Apple MacBook Pro and I use GarageBand when I'm doing audio. I was using Audacity and then my Audacity is another program that we use in radio and then whatever computer I had at the time said we no longer allow you to use Audacity. Right, yes. Lyric Kinard (23:46.148) Right. They don't support it with our recent system update. Jane Clauss (23:50.784) Yeah, so I just I dove into GarageBand and I can do voiceovers on it. I can edit my podcasts on it. I love it. If I'm if I'm recording on a lavalier mic that records audio separately on an SD card and then you're capturing the audio just on the camera, I can sync the two and I do that in GarageBand as well. And that's just as simple as clapping so that you can sync the. Lyric Kinard (24:05.908) Mm-hmm. Jane Clauss (24:18.678) to audio bits, one with the video and then one with the external audio only. So I do that in GarageBand and it's fine. And then as far as editing the video, I just use Final Cut Pro and I learn so much every single day. And sometimes I forget and then sometimes I go back and I remember and then sometimes I do things and I'm like, wow, how did you know that? Lyric Kinard (24:39.508) Right. And Final Cut Pro is a really, really powerful program. It does have a learning curve, but it's things professionals use all the time. So if you know that you are moving forward and you're going to be creating a lot of video for the foreseeable future, it might be worth that learning curve using that program. Jane Clauss (25:02.806) I, yes, I 100 % agree. And I also think Final Cut Pro might be one of the easier ones in the learning curve of curves, because if you can put together a simple sequence, which is just like clip after clip after clip, and then you could throw down, you know, a voiceover or you could put some music underneath it, it becomes pretty simple. It's when you want to add transitions and you want to do layering and you want to add, you know, little... Lyric Kinard (25:18.248) Mm-hmm. Jane Clauss (25:30.296) bugs on the bottom, bugs that would be like your name brand. So mine would say DIY by Jane and that would be just kind of floating in the lower corner the entire time. Those are things, correct. And those are things that I learned over time. But I feel like for me to learn, know, Final Cut, was an easier curve than if I use some professional software that let's say they had at the TV station. Cause I would look at what my editors were doing for my show and I'm like, well, I can't do that. Lyric Kinard (25:34.196) Hmm. Lyric Kinard (25:39.154) Right, and overly. Jane Clauss (26:00.027) They can! Lyric Kinard (26:00.18) You Yeah, you can do anything you set your mind to. mean, often our people who want to create video are kind of technophobic and think, I'm going to mess it up and really, you know, mess it up. It's going to be okay. And there's so many options. There's so many options to use. So never be afraid to just try something out and see if it works. Jane Clauss (26:05.55) Absolutely. Jane Clauss (26:16.46) Yeah. Just leave a copy. Jane Clauss (26:25.934) Absolutely. And if you, should save a copy. Do not, if you're, yeah, do not. That's right. If you, and if you do mess it up, then you have the one to go back to. And listen, if you mess up, it's alert, it's part of learning and then you won't do it again. I mean, that's how we all grow up and become who we are today. So I think it's kind of fun. Lyric Kinard (26:29.402) Absolutely. Save your original and only save copies. Jane Clauss (26:50.316) What's gonna happen is you'll end up learning how to do it and then you will become like a production geek like me and then you want all the equipment and then you're talking about boom mics and setting up different adapters that you've never heard of, but it's fun. Lyric Kinard (27:05.212) Yeah, the tech, I personally find the tech really, really fun. Any excuse I have to try out something new is, ooh, new toys for me. I love it. Jane Clauss (27:14.188) Yeah, I gotta tell you, I just set up a boom microphone that a friend of mine is retiring and he was selling a lot. He's a still photographer, but had some video. So of course I went over there and got a great deal on it, but there was a boom mic and my eyes lit up and there's a big cable and there's this big plug in the back. And I'm like, well, how do I put that in my computer? And there was an adapter. Well, I couldn't get it to work. I couldn't get it to work. I'm reading up on this phantom. Lyric Kinard (27:22.674) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (27:33.78) Ha Jane Clauss (27:41.41) Battery, what's a phantom battery and how do I work? And then all the simplest thing, I turned the computer on and turned it back. I turned it off, I turned it on and boom, it worked. could farm. This is my... Number one thing, I'm telling you, it's going to change my life this boom. I love it. But that's a little bit, I don't need it. I don't need it. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (27:49.748) Have you restarted your computer to fix the problem? Lyric Kinard (28:02.932) Too much fun, too much fun. I could talk equipment stories and fun things like that all day long. Let's go back a little bit and talk about how you plan your video content. you have a formula for your videos that you find is successful in reaching your people and also, Jane Clauss (28:08.91) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (28:33.042) conversions, know, having, if you have something you want your people to do when they watch your video that builds your business or your sponsor's business, how do you make that happen when you create your video? Jane Clauss (28:47.214) So the formula is open, tagline, ingredients and or supplies, things you'll need, step, step, step, and then close. And open is always on camera. Everything else is done on camera because I'm in it already. I'm doing it, but I'll have a script or I'll have a teleprompter and I'll read sort of the steps, maybe add a couple of on camera things as I'm going through it. And then the close is always on camera. So that is my formula. I start with, the whole thing starts with my script. I never sit down and write the script. I'm typically driving in the car. I put my notes on, on my phone and I just start talking. And that is how I come up with the script. Now the content, you know, what is the script about? If I'm working with a client, they say, we want to use this blade. I'll think to myself, and we want to do something sustainable. I'll think, okay, well, I'm going to show a project on distressing old denim jeans to turn it into a whatever, shoulder bag. And so it all starts there with what do they want? What's the need? And then it goes into intro tagline, ingredients, steps, clothes. That's if it's a project driven video. If it is a product driven video, it is what are the talking points behind this product? What does the client want? And then I'll... I'll Jane it up a little, I'll zhuzh it up with like some Jane speak and then do sort of the same thing, you know, like give an intro of an example of what you'd be using the product for and then all of the details and those details about the product, what it can do for you, how it can change your life. That's all B-roll. Yeah. And then at the very end, the call to action is wherever the client wants me to send them. So if it's get more inspiration at this website or Get more inspiration at this live YouTube show or social media, whatever it is that they want. Lyric Kinard (30:47.516) Right, so you do have a format that you plug things in and it makes it easier to plan the whole thing out. I love what you said that I caught when you said what the product will do for the client. And it's kind of the same as going to your sponsor in the first place and saying what can I do for you if we remember that the technique or the product or whatever we're. Jane Clauss (30:52.142) Mm-hmm. Jane Clauss (30:57.943) Absolutely. Lyric Kinard (31:16.916) promoting or showing or educating about what can it do for the people who are watching this? They need to get something out of it, right? Otherwise, you know, we've all seen the pushy gross here, you should buy my stuff. But if we have to convince somebody they need something, I think we're doing it wrong. If we show them how it makes their lives better, if they are the center of the story. Jane Clauss (31:32.323) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (31:45.416) Don't you find it so much more effective? Jane Clauss (31:48.404) and so much more fun. What I love is that I get to be the right arm extension of the maker of the audience of the person watching and I'm trying the product for them saying, wow, this changed my life because of blank. I always also only want to work with or promote products that can help you get the job done easier, better, right, smarter, quicker, whatever that is. Listen, I'm the queen of hacks. And sometimes I'm like, wait, there's a product that can do this for me. And when I meet that product, I think, wow, this is so fantastic. Everybody needs to know about this. And sometimes I'm the last person to know. But having worked with different shows that we are always featuring products and we're saying, you know, there's limited supplies left. You need to get this today. I think the inspiration behind the why I need to have this is the most important thing you can convey to the audience. If you can get somebody who is not Lyric Kinard (32:26.173) Okay Jane Clauss (32:47.424) a true maker. They're not comfortable in like making a quilt or sewing or making a mixed media art, but you can get them on. I could have a business if I had this particular product that makes things easier for me. Meaning, let's say you could have a sublimation business if you had the printer or if you had the heat press. So you're giving them maybe it's the why or the inspiration behind it. And so I think there's a levels. to all of these different products that we have. And I think that there are different people that those products would connect with, like broader audiences or not. Lyric Kinard (33:23.132) Right, right, we're just guiding them to success and helping them imagine that success. Jane Clauss (33:31.522) Yeah, imagine what they could do. Lyric Kinard (33:34.49) Let's imagine your success. If you had like an easy button and your business was exactly, wonderfully, most perfectly successful without any roadblocks, without any effort on your part, it was just wave a magic wand. What are some things that that would look like for you? Jane Clauss (33:54.382) What doesn't it look like? So if we're just waving a magic wand, have a show on a national platform because I still love my shows because that still drives the message home to inspire others. So the umbrella is the show. The ancillaries are, let's say there's a product line. There's a team of people that I can go to and say, hey, let's do this. There's a producer. So there's more people than just me. And then there's a steady stream of clients and sponsors and real people. And there's real people involved, meaning it's not the, the, the machine is the people, the producers, the camera guys, the editors. you know, the salespeople, that's the machine, but the real people involved are the folks that are doing the making or that are doing the inspiring. So I just think that it's, for me, it's all about pulling everybody else in while working with a great team of people. I always say I would do that for free because I love it. Lyric Kinard (34:46.26) You Lyric Kinard (35:01.318) Right. End. And it gives you, when you have a support team, it gives you the opportunity to put all your energy towards the actual interaction with the people that you're serving through video, right? Jane Clauss (35:20.482) Yeah, and coming up with the creative side of it, whether it's creative content or the next thing or the social. I mean, that to me is so much fun. And that's pie in the sky. That's the big picture. That's what I love. But I also think like working by yourself, it's just like any entrepreneur. You learn from all of those little challenges that you have. You have to put together the creative proposal. You have to do the editing. You have to write the script. You have to host it. Lyric Kinard (35:22.834) Yeah. Lyric Kinard (35:31.156) Sure. Jane Clauss (35:48.714) And guess what? You probably have to make the dress that you're going to wear or whatever. You know what I mean? Like you have to do it all, but it's it's part of the journey and that's what makes you better when you can have the pine, the sky, you know, magic wand moment. Lyric Kinard (35:52.306) Right. Lyric Kinard (36:02.696) Right. So have you been doing this just since the pandemic, since COVID? Jane Clauss (36:09.528) been doing creative content. Lyric Kinard (36:10.684) this particular business that you've got going right now. Jane Clauss (36:15.278) No, actually, I've all. So when I was hosting Creative Living and also Living Healthy Chicago, which I hosted Living Healthy Chicago for like 12 years, and I always did radio on the side. This creative side of me just had to to be there. So you know what I would do, Lyric? I would call local stations and I would say, hey, why don't we come up with Father's Day DIY gifts and I'll do a whole bunch of different ideas. I'll come over and I'll inspire people to make. and I'll just do it on your morning show. So I did that all over town in Chicago. I did it all over the country. I call the Today Show and go, hey, let's make promgones from 1980s promgones. I made no money. I just wanted to inspire people to create. So I think this started like in 2009. So I've always, I've always done this on the side with really wanting to make money or wanting to do something bigger with it. Lyric Kinard (36:54.643) Hahaha Lyric Kinard (37:05.46) Hmm? Lyric Kinard (37:14.632) Mm-hmm. Jane Clauss (37:14.742) It was just that I needed that outlet. I needed to be able to do that. So I've been doing it a long time, making money at it, probably for the last 10 years, I would say. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (37:27.508) Right, so often people see somebody like you with this huge presence and huge personality and you're talking about big sponsors enough to hire a team and have a huge studio and they think, well she's born with it or she... you know, this just happened easily for them. And we don't see the years of steady progress, the years of keeping going, even when it might feel like, I've been doing this so long and I'm not, it's not working the way I want it to. So what would you say to people who, who've been trying it for maybe a year, maybe two and are struggling and wondering if they should keep going? Jane Clauss (38:16.482) Don't give up. If you love it enough, don't give up. Keep going. You never know when the next door is going to open, when the next person says yes. If you gave up now, then you don't want to ever what if yourself. Listen, I always I could just go. Can I go maybe just get a marketing job or can I just go get like a job? Not as a just. OK, I don't mean it that way, but I keep driving this thing. because I love it and I really truly feel that there's something there. So if you love it, if you're passionate about what you're doing, maybe it's what you're doing on the side and you are, you have to make money, we have to make an income. So, you you don't have to quit your day job, just find time to still be creative and drive this. If you're at a point where you can say, I'm gonna just keep going, every single day do something. Somebody told me and she's an amazing creative coach said How many frogs have you swallowed today? And I said yeah, and I'm like wait, what do you mean? You know, like what do you mean? She's like you need to pull back on your creative You need to slow down slow your roll on how what's going on Willy Wonka and start doing the business side of it So I would say if you're struggling find a coach if you're struggling ask a friend for inspiration if you're struggling take a minute and just sort of Lyric Kinard (39:20.455) You Jane Clauss (39:41.494) meditate on it or think about it. And if you love it, don't stop. Lyric Kinard (39:46.406) So swallowing a frog is doing the business part that you might be avoiding, but that is necessary for you to move forward. Jane Clauss (39:54.402) Yes, the hard parts. that's the parts that those are the uncomfortable parts. It's the parts where you're like, now I have this outline. Now I got to make it pretty. How much time is that going to take? You have to just take the time and do it because once it's out into the world, then you can move on to the next thing. But I also think time blocking is huge. And I mean, I am squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. You know, before we are talking today, I was like, I'm going to start. I'm like, no, I'm not. No, you are going over here to talk. Lyric Kinard (40:03.848) Just do it. Lyric Kinard (40:13.854) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (40:24.39) Right. Focus! Jane Clauss (40:24.43) to lyric, you're not a good sidetrack, I focus. And so that's, I would say time blocking, prioritizing, swallow the frogs early in the morning. And then if you still have any energy left, do some creative things later in the day or flip-flop it. also, born with it, born with energy for me is probably genetic, but also I work out so much and I have those... feel-good endorphins that are flying through my body. That's why I have so much energy. Lyric Kinard (40:57.49) You do the work it takes to get you where you want to go. Good. If we don't like this work, I mean, there's always parts of it that are difficult. They're the frogs, right? But keep in mind our overall joy in the creativity we get. This has been so delightful and so much fun. Where can people find you, Jane? Jane Clauss (41:01.516) And I like the work. Yeah. Jane Clauss (41:22.83) My website, Jane Klaus, C-L-A-U-S-S for extraspecial.com, janeklaus.com. am on, that's my website. Everything is there, but my socials are Jane Klaus. My maiden name is Manzouris. This is getting a little confusing, but Jane Manzouris Klaus. You might see, and that is me. So just Jane Klaus. Yeah, yeah. That sounds good. Lyric Kinard (41:45.128) We'll start at the website and go from there. Let's wrap up with a fun question last that I love to ask all the creatives that get to come share with our audience. Jane, what is the most recent, what is the last thing you made? Jane Clauss (42:04.59) So I'm actually working with a client. I am using their product. They have a subscription box and I'm using their product to create something from the box. And so I made a sign out of buttons and embellishment and jewels that says beach, because everything is kind of an island theme. So I'm just making a wall hanging that, yeah, that says beach. I have it right here. Yeah, actually. Yeah. So those are all buttons and embellishments. Lyric Kinard (42:25.428) So have fun! you have it right there! Lyric Kinard (42:32.168) That is so much fun. I love that. Jane Clauss (42:34.594) But it's everything that came in the box. It's not finished yet. I'm still going to add more to it. But that is what I'm working on now. And then later on today, I'm going to dive into some upcycling projects for another client. Lyric Kinard (42:47.134) Fantastic. Great, Jane, this has been educational, enlightening, and also entertaining. Thank you so much for taking time to be here with us on Creatives on Camera. Jane Clauss (43:02.786) Such a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. Lyric Kinard (43:06.256) All right friends, go create something, go teach something, go share something, go serve your people, and we'll see you next time on Creatives on Camera.