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Episode Description:

Doug McConnell of McCo Media joins Beth in the virtual studio, discussing the Type A+ traits that help us take chances and make connections as entrepreneurs, and his number one tip for content creators everywhere.

About Doug & McCo Media:

McCo Media is a commercial photography, video, and podcast production company. Our business is to help you feel cool about your business. Whether it be capturing your team portraits, products, brand message, or giving your voice a professional platform to keep your conversation going with your clients through podcasts. We provide a place to capture it easy and professionally.

Links mentioned in the episode:

WEBSITE:

The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram

HOST:

Beth Lawrence LinkedIn

Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram

Beth and other Type A+ Guests will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips on how to optimize your work and life.

GUEST:

Links:

www.instagram.com/mccomedia

Episode Transcript can be found below:

Beth Lawrence: ​Hello everyone. Welcome back to the type a plus podcast. I'm your host, Beth Lawrence, and I'm very excited to have a local friend on the podcast today. Doug is the host of the Haddon Ya Heard podcast, among a slew of other things. And we got to talking when I was on his podcast about type a personalities and how that manifests for each of us. So Doug, please introduce yourself to the listeners. 

Doug McConnell: Yeah, thanks for having me on Beth. I really appreciate the opportunity to chat. This is my first time on someone else's podcast.

Beth Lawrence: So first timers here. 

Doug McConnell: So my name is Doug McConnell, owner of McCo Media, a commercial photography, video, and podcasting business. also the host of the Haddon Ya Heard podcast, where I interview local business owners. To give a more behind the scenes. of the community's favorite businesses that they shop with and work with on a daily basis.

Beth Lawrence: That's incredible. As a small business owner, myself, it's not easy. I think for a lot of us to brag about ourselves and talk about what we do. So I love that you are creating this container for business owners and also for the listeners to be able to see what's in their towns that they may not be Even be aware of. So Doug, tell me about when you started your own business. 

Doug McConnell: It is quite the journey. I never anticipated going into business for myself like this, so it's been quite the pivoting road for me I started like my career path about six years ago doing real estate photography videography all the media stuff because I went to school for a similar work.

When me and my wife moved to this area, I always had this passion for, you know, creating for other people, and pivoted where I really like to see the businesses. That's where it started to thrive. When I started shopping with people, meeting really cool people and seeing this area be so intertwined with each other in the business sense, I was like, how can I be a part of the growth here?

How can I make these business owners feel proud and happy? So I pivoted from doing like 90 percent real estate media stuff to swinging the pendulum, starting my own business and being like, we're going to take this in baby steps. But we're going to go all in.

I don't know where the track is leading, I don't know how to put the track together, but I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna take what comes, pivot and to make it work. 

Beth Lawrence: How long have you been in business for yourself, um, outside of the real estate stuff?

Doug McConnell: So probably about like four years in this area. Probably four years almost. Yeah, 

Beth Lawrence: nice. Oh, that's I I am in my I guess almost sixth year now But fourth year, I feel like I learned so many lessons. I learned them the hard way.

I'm hoping that you're not learning 

Doug McConnell: No, it's all about learning the hard way. Definitely. Definitely Yeah, 

Beth Lawrence: it feels like I, I said to someone the other day, it felt like high school, like, you know, first year, like you're a freshman, you kind of are getting your bearings, you're figuring out where your classes are, where you're, you know, where your interests lie or where your best clients are, learn the lessons in the second year, kind of start building and figuring out who you are and what your business is as an identity.

And then by the third and fourth years, you're like, Oh, I got this. I'm good. Yeah. 

Doug McConnell: No matter what comes your way. Yeah. That's a good comparison, because I do feel like, uh, sorry to interrupt, I do feel like when you first start you're like That baby face, like super like, Hi, here's me, here's my business. And then like, by like three, four, you're like, I know the hills, the valleys of how this is going to work when I can market and it's more business oriented, so I can.

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, you definitely kind of, we all figure it out on our own time, but I think those first four to five years, especially doing it through a pandemic. I mean, we can call that out. Like that's really, really challenging. And you learn what you're made of. I mean, all people that own businesses have learned what we're made of in the last couple of years.

And one of the things that we talked about a lot. When we were talking on your podcast about being type a was, it's surprising actually that one of the characteristics of a type a personality is not being averse. Like not being scared of change, because you would think being a super structured person, that change would be a little scary for us.

So talk to me about your type a personality, how it manifests in you, how has that served you? And also maybe not served you. 

Doug McConnell: So we'll go with how it's not served me to start, I guess, especially business oriented.

Especially as a photographer, I'm very particular on making sure a photo or some kind of commercial product is done perfect. that's one of the biggest, I guess, type a personalities is like making sure everything is perfect, perfect, perfect. That's, that's me. For my business journey so far. It's. been figuring out from year one to year four that You know, just get it out there. Get get whatever it is delivered. If they have feedback, they're going to give it to you and it's not the end of the world, and you don't need to beat yourself up over it. Just make sure you get things done in a timely fashion. And, you know, that's probably the hardest thing for me to learn. In regards to the main topic you actually brought up. My favorite part about having a type A personality is about learning and understanding and embracing change.

I didn't realize it, but my entire business journey, I've embraced change pivoted from what I wanted to be originally. I started in real estate photography, wanted to pivot to headshot photography that worked out for a little bit.

But the market that I was in started asking more questions about, can you do these kinds of videos? Can you do product photography? Can you do lifestyle photography? So unknowingly and understanding my craft and always getting better, I pivoted, created this Mako Media brand, which is not solely headshots now.

And, you know, Pivoted to podcasting. That's the latest and newest service that I offer. And it's my most fun service. I love it. Having conversations with these people like yourself, giving you a platform to just reach a new audience is super fulfilling and I would have never guessed. This is where my path would have led me if I didn't embrace conversations with people and just say yes to things. What is that one movie where he's just like, say yes to everything? I guess it's called like, say yes, it's like an ad saying the movie or something. And I literally just did that. People would be like, can you do this? I'm like, yeah, sure, I can figure it out. . 

Beth Lawrence: Oh my gosh. I think, I think you're thinking of Yes Man, maybe? Or that might be Jim Carrey. That might be. That might be. Jim Carrey. I. I. I. It's so funny. I had, I had a, a year like that. Actually, right before I started my business, I worked for a startup called snap kitchen. And I was terrified. I was launching the Philadelphia market.

And basically I was the face of the brand. They had no market presence. They were actually rebranding at the time. And. I feel like that was the year that I told myself, just say yes to everything that you're afraid of. I was so afraid to fly across the country by myself.

I had never done that. And I had to do it for an interview and I just did it. I was scared to do my first on air interview with Fox and I just did it. And I felt the most successful in that role.

And I think that saying yes, just doing things you're afraid of prepared me for entrepreneurship. Because without that, I think I would have been too in my own head and not able to really see outside and see the opportunities that arise for me. And one of the things that you mentioned was.

That you listen to other people and other people were asking you to do things or other people were requesting things. If you weren't open to those conversations, you may still be spinning your wheels, just concentrating on headshot photography when there's this whole other world that you've now built just because you were able to embrace change, listen to others, and then also figure out how to do all this stuff.

That's a big thing, too. You figured out how to do all this stuff. You know, that's that's a big thing. 

Doug McConnell: I'm, I'm an ambitious person. And if I don't figure out how to do something properly, then I can't add that to my repertoire. But it just holds everybody back if I don't. If they're asking for these things, I need to be able to deliver. If I'm not giving them a human experience when they're ordering a service, then I'm missing my opportunity to be my most authentic self.

Beth Lawrence: Love that. And when you're, when you are your most authentic self as an entrepreneur, you tend to attract people who are like that. And who are comfortable in who they are. And I think that actually, once you're comfortable in who you are as an entrepreneur, especially a solo entrepreneur, I think that that really is that senior year, so to speak attitude, that's going to get you through. Talk a little bit about, what did the pandemic pivot look like for you? 

Doug McConnell: Yeah. So that was actually interesting cause that was probably like the second year that we were living in this area, and I was kind of all over the place with what I want to do in my business, trying to figure out what was the best way to get in contact with business owners, cause I didn't know anybody here.

Right. So. I had no context, had no way to make business, no real way of marketing. Starting from scratch. It's the weirdest thing, but it's also the most humbling thing because it allowed me to be my most authentic self like right after the pandemic. I kind of brainstormed what I want to do. Did I want to get a studio? Yes. Because my wife, she's a teacher and like we're on top of each other when she's trying to teach from home. So, she's like, get all your gear out of here. So, I had to get a studio built, and then again that's embracing change as well. I never anticipated having a studio.

So, I took on that endeavor. My business really started to thrive. And I started to thrive right after the pandemic when I was most comfortable with myself, just being who I was and realizing that everybody in this area, business owner or not, they're human and that's where we can relate.

So trying to get people on my podcast, for example, when I didn't know anybody, I'd knock on doors, I'd go into local businesses constantly. I have one funny memory for sure. The local guy, he has a thing on his door.

It says absolutely no soliciting. And I read that while I was walking in to solicit basically. And he like looked at me and I looked at the sign and I looked at him and I was like, listen, I'm already in the door. I'm gonna shoot my shot here. Oh my God. I love that. So just being comfortable with like the weirdness and You know, just going with the flow of life.

 After I left, I was like, he's never going to sign on the podcast. I literally got an email five minutes later. Like, Hey, like you just walked in, uh, let's do the podcast. I was like, Oh, sweet. So like positive things can come from just going for it, regardless of what it is. Even if it's those baby steps of just like opportunity that you need to create for yourself.

So the pandemic to answer your question was tough for everybody. It allowed me to reflect, figure out business strategy a little bit, see where I wanted to take this business and then just push the snowball off the top of the mountain and see where it went. 

Beth Lawrence: Oh, I love that metaphor. I always say that, when I was laid off that I felt like.

I needed to be pushed out of the nest because I would always brag. Like when I worked for snap kitchen, I'd be like, Oh, no matter what happens, I love this job. But after this job, I'm going to open my own business. And then I got laid off and my husband was like, so you're going to do that. But I think that there's also something about being type a, where that like drive to be perfect.

Also, I think allows us to take those little tiny baby steps that really scare us. Like I'm sure that you have like the butterflies in your stomach when you're going through those no soliciting signs. But if you approach it like you did, as a human being and another business owner, I'm sure that other business owner saw that in you and saw that you were genuine and you weren't just, you know, coming to get a number or reach a quota.

You were really coming to meet another human. And that's how you and I met too, and I think your podcast is super, super smart because you know, a lot of the small businesses.

They don't have the resources, they don't have the people to get out the door and do the marketing, and they don't have the resources a lot of the times to do the marketing, and I love that you are able to take these stories and amplify them in that way. Do you find that a lot of the business owners that you interview seem to be type A as well?

Or do you find that it just depends on the individual, the organization? 

Doug McConnell: Yeah, it really depends, I guess. The one thing I've noticed doing this is I think people forget, especially when they have businesses like myself, sometimes you forget how to have fun. And this is giving them an opportunity to kind of go on, like when you were at school back in the day and you would go on like a field trip or something. People are hesitant at first. They're like nervous and then they open up and they're like, oh my god, this was such a great experience. Thank you so much. And then obviously I give them the podcast up to help promote themselves and feel cool and give them another opportunity to market through a different medium source. I feel like you have to be kind of type A to own a business and run a business. So I'd say probably the majority for sure. 

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, I think you're right. There has to be at least something inside of you that drives you to, to do what we do every single day and to do it to the best of our ability.

One of the things that I was super impressed by when I went to your studio, you have all of these incredible tools to really optimize the recording process, the editing process, and I would imagine you're that way with all of your other content. If there's a business owner out there, that's kind of just winging it with their content, what advice would you give them as far as, you know, creating this content, feeling confident in it?

And also being able to say like, Hey, maybe I'm not that great at this. Maybe I need help from someone like Doug. 

Doug McConnell: Yeah. I mean, Hey, if you want some help, I'm always available to chat and kind of lead you down the right path of just making sure everything works properly. 

I'm starting to realize. Everybody's winging it. Literally everybody, and Everybody, top down. Yeah, seriously, everybody's winging it. So with that being said, just go for it. I'm super an advocate on just following your dreams. Anything is possible. So, what I would say is, take the steps that you want to do. If you're an aspiring business owner, have conversations with your local business owners. See where they started. People want to help. Check out YouTube university.

Seriously. If you're interested in podcasting, photography, video, whatever your thing is, it's on there and you can learn everything about it, take that, start to play around with social media, whatever you want to do and create. And then connect with the people that you aspire to be like. Because they're more open to have conversations with you than you, than you realize. Uh, and just be comfortable with yourself. Once you hit that point where you're comfortable with yourself, that's a superpower. 

Beth Lawrence: Oh, it really is, especially in this age of content, content, content, social media, social and Tik TOKs.

And it can be really difficult if you're not sure of yourself or if you're not confident and really. The best thing to do is just fake it, honestly, especially when it comes to like Instagram reels and tick tocks, like find a template, take some pictures and just post it up there. If whether you get 12 likes or you go viral, at least you're putting yourself out there.

That's really, really wonderful advice. So if anyone else is out there. They host their own podcast or they're thinking about hosting their own podcast. What is the number one tip that you would give them as far as the production of the podcast?

Doug McConnell: I'm always an advocate on starting with the cheapest equipment possible, so that way you learn how to do everything the hard way. And then once you learn how to properly record audio, then adjust and mix and master the audio, use whatever cheap cameras you can, blend it all together, learn it from the bare bones way possible , and then once you know how to do it, then you can elevate to using the higher tier equipment. 

The other thing would be, don't change your voice if you're going to be a host on a podcast. Cause that's what I did originally, and my wife was like, don't do that. Seriously be comfortable with you. Just get in front of the microphone.

Talk. People will listen. There's a gazillion podcasts, but one more is not going to be the last one that's made. There's 7 billion people on this planet and everybody has a place to succeed. So just go ahead and do your thing. That's what I would suggest. 

Beth Lawrence: I want to kind of put a star on learning it the hard way first, because I think a lot of type a people tend to be like, I need the best of the best.

Right off the bat. And then it's so complicated or so convoluted that you just leave it where it is and you don't use it. And I'm talking also about myself, obviously. Um, an example of this was when I first was doing my, uh, website. So I started my business after I got laid off, as we've discussed, I did not know anything about websites and I bought, I bought a WordPress site.

I was like, I'm going to do this. It's totally fine. And I swear. I think I, it was like two hours that I tried to learn how to do it. And I just completely stopped. And from there I went to Squarespace and I was like, Oh, this is so much easier. And through using Squarespace now I know a little bit about coding.

I know a little bit about at least embedding things and making things look different. And I think that if I had just gone and gotten the more simple. Right off the bat, I probably wouldn't have saved myself a lot of frustration and would have saved myself a lot of time and been able to launch quicker.

So that's really great advice, that I think is counterintuitive to how a lot of our brains work. 

Doug McConnell: Oh yeah. Sometimes, the simplest approach is the best approach, and don't be afraid to, reach out to other people to do things that you can't do, because you don't want to overwhelm yourself.

That was one thing as a solopreneur, so easy to overwhelm yourself, so allow yourself to not be overwhelmed. 

Beth Lawrence: Yes, achieving balance. is the goal, which is not easy when you are one person show. Well, Doug, this has been awesome. I'm so glad that we were able to swap podcasts and interview each other.

How can people get in touch with you, whether they're in the area or not? 

Doug McConnell: Yeah. You guys can Google, MCCO media. Instagram is @mcco_media_, dMs or call if it's a business inquiry. If you're looking for commercial photography, video, podcasting services to elevate your brand or your person, always here, ready to chat and see if I can guide you in the right direction.

Before we wrap up, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. 

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, of course. I really, really enjoyed this and you're a fabulous guest. Thank you so much. And thank you to you all for listening. 

We'll be back next week with the type A plus podcast.