Be Intelligently Lazy! Capsho CEO Deirdre Tshien Shares How to Work Smart (& Have More Fun)

00:00:00
How would you respond if somebody called you lazy? I'm guessing you wouldn't take it very kindly. As a matter of fact, you might be really angry right now that I'm even insinuating that you'd be lazy. But what if it's a compliment? What if instead of being lazy in a bad way, you could be lazy in a good way and do less of what doesn't matter and do more of what does?

00:00:26
My guest today is going to help us see the distinction and how you can use tools, but not only tools, but keep a mindset of doing less, but living more and being able to still reach the people that you're called to reach by marketing effectively. I cannot wait for you to hear this interview with Deirdre Shen, co founder and CEO of Capshow. But first, let me welcome those of you who are new to our show, and then we'll get right into this fascinating conversation. Artists, musicians, and creatives of all kinds looking for help bAllencing your passion to create with your everyday life? Not sure if your faith can coexist with your profession?

00:01:09
Welcome to a place where real artists discuss real life. You're listening to the God and gig show. Visit godandgigs.com for show notes, links, and more information. Hello and welcome to our show. Thank you so much for making this podcast a part of your creative day.

00:01:29
And if you are new to our show, thank you so much for giving us a chance. And let me tell you why you're in the right place at the right time. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Allen C. Paul.

00:01:41
I'm the host and founder of God and gigs, and we are here to help you to transform your creative life from the inside out by applying timeless spiritual principles to the temporary creative problems that you're facing. We've been here since 2016. No signs of stopping. Our community is growing and we have all kinds of resources for you. All those links are in the show notes, but I welcome you.

00:02:06
You are in the right place at the right time as a creative freelancer, business owner, anyone in the intersection of the arts, entertainment industry, and content creation, but with a heart for God and your christian background. And speaking of transform, I cannot wait for you to hear the transforming concept from our guest today. Deirdre Shen is the co founder and CEO of Capshow, which is an aipowered content marketing tool that helps entrepreneurs to market their content and to save time while they do it. She's a serial entrepreneur. She's founded seven businesses over the last nine years, and she has all the experience when it comes to not just bringing creative ideas to life, but also how to wrestle with the lifestyle and the choices that help you stick with what you started to create.

00:03:00
Now you're going to hear from her and you're going to learn what it takes to do more while doing less, to be able to understand the why behind all the content and the strategy and the marketing you're doing so that you don't get lost in the weeds. She's going to explain how her tool helps you do that, but more importantly, she's going to explain the heart behind what she's sharing. And when you hear all of the things that she is doing to help content creators like you and me to really understand what matters and to do less of the things that don't matter, you're going to want to stay totally connected to this episode. She is, by the way, also the host and founder of a podcast called Grow my Podcast, but it's not called that anymore. I messed it up during the interview, but they've changed the name.

00:03:49
Thank goodness. So now you're going to want to look for win the content game. But there was more about that at the end of the episode. So I am so glad that you're going to hear this episode, hear Deirdre share what intelligent laziness is all about so that you can live more while doing less. Let's listen into our conversation with Deirdre Chen.

00:04:15
Ladies and gentlemen, I am beyond honored and blessed to have an entrepreneur, a content creator, a podcaster, someone that's literally written a book on marketing and on what it takes to really be human and be authentic, even in this age of AI. And she's a CEO. But you've already seen and read all of her bios. I want you to hear from her herself. So, Deirdre sin, welcome to the guiding gig show.

00:04:41
How are you? I'm so good. Thank you for having me on. This is a big honor to be on the show. No, the honor is mine.

00:04:48
Anytime. I can literally see the face behind the brand that like, fawning over. And this is not just a fest on cap show, a love fest on cap show, but there will be some talk about that tool. But I really wanted to meet the person behind what you do. And as a fellow podcaster, the first thing I wanted to start with, and then, you know, this is coming because you've been doing this for a long time.

00:05:09
But the first thing I wanted to do is kind of give you, like, the left field question and say, okay, she's expecting to give her bio. She's expecting all the things. All right, so the first thing I want to ask you is, how can you help me be a cat person? Because I am not. You know what's funny?

00:05:27
We actually just got a puppy.

00:05:32
The story behind that someone is, I've always been a dog. I just. I love animals. You can see if you're watching this on video, you'll see that I have monty the sloth on the table with me right here. But my husband is like, he has this phobia of dogs from, like, when he was little, he was jumped on by this german shepherd.

00:05:57
He would be the one who would run. We'd walk past a front yard, and there'd be a dog there, and he'd be, like, running to get past that. Not protecting you at all. Okay. No, of course not.

00:06:10
He's like, you've got this hair dolled up myself. So to ease him into. I thought, we're going to get it. Why don't we just get a cat to begin with? Because they're super low maintenance.

00:06:26
And luckily, Puffington, who is our cat, he's so sweet. He does not scratch. He doesn't do really much of anything except sleep, to be honest, and eat. And so that was kind of my grand plan behind finally getting a puppy was like, we'll just start small, and we'll get a cat first, who we love, by the way. We love Puffington, but really, it was like the stepping stone to get a.

00:06:54
Dog, to get to the dog. So now you got, okay, I like that. I like how you said that this is just to get us warmed up for the actual real kind of pet, not this kind of fake pet that pretends that they love you, but then actually wants to kill you in your sleep. I'm sorry. This is an entire left field turn that I took.

00:07:12
I just was laughing to myself. I said, oh, my gosh, she's a cat mom as well, when I was reading your bio. So now let's get to the meeting, nitty gritty, that people actually want to hear, which is about you. So, again, you know this part, the 32nd elevator pitch. If people are meeting you for the first time and they don't get a chance to read everything, what are the few things that you do want them to know about?

00:07:33
Did you the person and the entrepreneur? Oh, yes. Okay. Well, I guess starting off with what I do, which is CEO and co founder of Capsho, which is an AI powered. Well, we'll go into it, but it's an AI powered software that helps creators, entrepreneurs, specifically who create long form content, essentially market that content, get themselves discovered.

00:07:55
So that's kind of like what I in verticommerce do.

00:08:01
I know you said 30 seconds. I feel like I'm going to be. That's okay. We'll give you Grace. We'll give you Grace.

00:08:06
I gave you the cat story first. That was my fault. I'm also a cat mom and now a puppy mom, but I'm really passionate, actually. I've been really leaning into, how do I help more people be intelligently lazy? I mentioned this sloth, Monty the sloth, that he is our spirit animal here at cap show, because it's all about the reminder of it's okay to be lazy.

00:08:33
Which, by the way, is, if you know anything about me in my background, is what's really hard to get my head around like this. Lazy. What do you mean? I'm not lazy. I'm really, really hardworking.

00:08:43
It's like biting words, right? Yeah.

00:08:47
But if you do it in a really intelligent way, then you actually get more out of what it is that you're doing. And so that's what I'm kind of on a mission to help people with is like, how do we just be more intelligently lazy? Because that's actually how we find success in our businesses. I hope that helps. Yeah, it helped a lot.

00:09:05
It definitely said a lot about you. And again, I try not to just have people go down the list of all the things you've done, but you are clearly not lazy in the term of not getting things done. I mean, you built businesses again, I'm sure you could just hit some highlights of your business experience and what has led you to this point? And I'm going to do this already. Like, my add brain goes all sorts of different directions.

00:09:30
So forgive me as a bad host already, but I just did an interview and a live stream with someone who is also anti hustle, who also only works 20 hours a week. I love her to death. And one of the things she really helped me to see is that this idea of doing less, working less, actually lets you live more. So can you tell me, what was it that kind of led you to this? Is it an epiphany or a reason that maybe there was some hustle culture in your background, working hard in your background?

00:10:03
So what led you to this reason? To feel like intelligently lazy was something to strive? That sounds weird. Strive for, but something to, right? Yeah, I feel like.

00:10:12
You know what's funny? I can definitely tell you. I'll tell you the first story and then I'll follow it up with like, because sometimes we forget or we lose our way. And I had to kind of almost relearn this again very recently as well. But the first time is, and it's really actually what led to capture was I've been an entrepreneur for the last decade, literally ages me.

00:10:39
But ten years started in a hospitality. We had a dessert bar back in Sydney in Australia where we grew up, and this is my husband and I. So we grew our dessert. It was a dessert bar, dessert bar to five locations. And then we also had two burger restaurants as well alongside that.

00:10:56
So that was our first foray into entrepreneurship. Now fast forward, a bunch of things happened. We moved over to the States. We were exploring different business ideas. And then literally three years ago, I started my coaching business, which was really about helping ecommerce business owners with their digital marketing, with how to grow on the Internet, essentially.

00:11:16
And that was when I actually started my first podcast. And what I realized very quickly when I hit publish was that it's one thing to create that content and hit publish, but it's a whole nother to actually get that content found. And so when I started, I started really going down this rabbit hole of, okay, how do I actually get my content and therefore myself discovered. And that was really painful, I'm going to be honest, because it was very much like I had the likes of, we hear a lot about Gary Vee and he talks about, I think it's like content domination or whatever. In one, I was like, okay, well, I have to be everywhere all at once at the same time.

00:11:58
And so I was doing all of that and literally it burnt me and my team out. I was barely operating a business, I'm going to be honest, because it was like full time plus more just in the marketing part of it, which is insane. And so that's actually what led to really like capture and what it is that we do. But you can probably tell from that story was that I was very focused on the content marketing part of it, right? Like that's kind of what capture helps content entrepreneurs with.

00:12:32
And when I say that then I had to relearn this very recently is because I felt like I had at least the content marketing part of it down. But then the rest of my business was very much like still operating from that hustle and agrary. And especially because being in software, I think there's this, well, I definitely have this assumption, this belief that for software, any kind of SaaS platform to succeed, it stems from that hustle. I remember reading the book, even from the likes of Rand Fishkin and stuff, where there's stories of them literally sleeping under the table for periods of time. We just get told that this is what it takes to build a successful, especially software business.

00:13:21
And so that was kind of like how I was operating. And it was October 31. I tell this story now literally just last. So how many months? Only, what, five months ago?

00:13:31
A handful of months ago, yeah, just. About as a recording. Exactly, yeah. Like October 31 that we actually made the decision to let pretty much our entire team go. And the reason why was because I was operating under this.

00:13:48
I was operating under a lot of assumptions. And this is, I think, hopefully by me going through this and talking about this, one of the lessons that even I'm learning right now, talking it out loud, is like, never operate under assumptions that interrogate everything, every decision that you make, because there were a lot of assumptions that we just didn't question them. Right. It was like, yes, we're just going to work every day because just make. That assumption the way we've always done it.

00:14:21
Would that be another way to say it? Yeah. And also my assumption as well was like, success in Reddit commerce also meant that you had this big team. And because, again, that's another, especially in the software business, that's another growth metric. Right?

00:14:36
Like whether you're going to exit or you're talking to investors or whatever, a big thing is like, oh, well, how big is your team? And so in my mind, for some reason, I was like, okay, well, I have to build a team because that's going to be a metric of success. And what we realized when we had these really honest conversations. So there's three co founders, myself, my husband, and we have another co founder. That's three of us.

00:15:01
We had a really honest conversation with ourselves and with each other around. What are we actually in this business for? We never really questioned it. We never really questioned the fact that, hey, are we even looking to get investment? No, we're not.

00:15:17
Are we even looking to exit anytime soon? No, we're not. What do we actually want out of what it is that we're doing and what it is that we're building? And at the end of the day, it was literally just to, we just wanted to actually enjoy life. We wanted to build something that we're really, really passionate about, and we want to help people succeed.

00:15:36
But at the end of the day, none of that matters unless we are enjoying what it is that we're doing ourselves. Right. So that was actually what led us to pretty much October 31, like, cutting our team because it was a really hard decision. But when it came down to it, we were actually way more stretched and overwhelmed managing more people than if we just cut right back and just focused on the one, two, three things that we knew we needed to focus on in order to create something that would help people actually succeed. Oh, my God.

00:16:12
I've totally forgotten the question, but no, you're nailing it. So this is the way all of our interviews go. By the way, after 270 of these, I'm used to this at this point. So the way that I heard what you just said was two books. And I'll just get.

00:16:28
Because I'm a book nerd, and I've heard you mention many books, so we can nerd out about books. The two books I heard in my head when you started talking was Simon Sinek. Start with why and then who, not how. So the who and not how to me immediately spoke to me because the who was you three. And then the start with why is the why it's just you three and why you didn't need a huge team to validate something that you really weren't actually looking for.

00:16:55
And this speaks quickly. I want to pivot to those who are solopreneurs, those who are creatives, those who are like me, kind of like, okay, just getting a va to me felt like I was bringing on a team. It felt like I had this person's world on my shoulders to give her a stipend. Felt like it was going to tear my heart out because I felt so responsible. And then for the work to continue, it felt like it had to.

00:17:22
As you mentioned, if I'm not comparing myself to the Gary Vee's and the bigger podcast, and you literally have a podcast called grow the show. Grow my show. So I remember listening to your podcast about those same things, the shoulds that you decided not to follow through with. Yes. And it's like, yes, these are the things that we think we need to do, but the why behind them, as the why gets weaker.

00:17:48
Right. It becomes less and less about what we want and more about what everybody thinks that we should want. And so I love that you spoke to that, and it does go across. I love the fact that this goes across discipline, across demographic, and across the actual lines of what your business actually does, because it's more important what you want from your business. I want to make sure I get a question out of this, because you're now at a place where you've passed this moment that you let the team go, what has changed?

00:18:20
What is not just cap shows, but your personal outlook? I mean, you just finished a huge event. As I were recording, I was there. I wish I could have come to cat. I missed it.

00:18:31
I'm going to just go ahead. Oh, my gosh. I'm sorry. I was there at pop Fest. We couldn't get there till Thursday, so I couldn't get there to the entire thing.

00:18:38
I wish I would have caught you in the hallways, but, yeah. What is your outlook now? What's changed since you've made that big decision to be more focused on the why that you really wanted? Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

00:18:49
So many things that I could not have known until. Unless I'd gone through it. And that's part of the entrepreneurship journey. But for me, okay, I'm going to start with the more tangible thing, and then I'll go into the more. But what I didn't realize when I was like, okay, well, when we go right back to just us and really focusing, is that the word focus gets thrown around a lot.

00:19:24
And I think intellectually we're focused. For me, throughout my entrepreneurship career, I thought that I knew what focus meant, and I thought that I was focusing, but not to this level. Not when you have very limited resources, which is a conscious decision that you made, because you're like, yeah. Not because it's like we're struggling with money or anything, but it was literally because I cannot, as a person, as a human being with emotions and other things going on, and I actually cannot be stretched in that way. It just makes it so much more real and tangible that the focus.

00:20:05
What? The f word, right? Because there's only so many hours in a day. I think we all know this, which means that you have to be so disciplined about what you do actually focus on. And through this discipline, we've realized that it is so important.

00:20:21
It kind of feels full circle when I go, like, you question everything, and I don't even mean, like, because we started with questioning sort of some big assumptions and big decisions that we were making. But even now we question, like, when we're like, oh, this would be a good idea. Wait, let's pause and just really think about it. Is this actually going to move the dial for us? And it sounds like it takes a lot of time to question that, but it takes way less time to spend 30 minutes questioning something a little bit deeper than to actually just go ahead and do the thing and then realize.

00:20:59
Right. Absolutely. So that it actually doesn't do anything for you. So just even having that change has been a game changer for what it is that we focus on. Because now I actually not only take Saturday Sunday off, but I actually also take Friday half day off.

00:21:18
So, like two and a half days that I don't have to work. I mean, I still sometimes think about work because I can't help it. That's just how my brain is wired. But I don't have to open my laptop and do anything because we're so focused on what it is that we want out of this business. And because of that focus, we're disciplined about what we actually put on our plates to be like, okay, this is the thing that is going to move the dial for us.

00:21:45
This is what we're going to focus on. This is what we're going to build muscle memory in. And then it's only until we've built that muscle memory that we're then going to add to it. We're then going to stack onto it. So for know, if we talk about content marketing, because I'm total content marketing, like, we made a very conscious decision to be like, Facebook and LinkedIn are the platforms that we're going to be now.

00:22:11
You, and you heard this in shelved, assured. It's like, I want to be on YouTube. So.

00:22:18
And I just got off a call about YouTube and again, it's knowing the why behind you want to be there, I guess. Right, because you guys talked about this. Yeah, exactly. The why. But then also knowing that making the decision to do something or be on a platform, if we're talking about in a content marketing example, you have to know that there's so much to do it well, which hopefully, if any of us are going to do anything, we want to do it well.

00:22:49
Yes. It actually takes a lot more than just, oh, I'm going to be on it, which is like, oh, yeah, I'll have a username and a banner and I'm on YouTube. Right. That's what it means. It's like, no, and we're actually going to be working with someone to actually help us know all the things and do it well, because when you're invested in that way, it means that you're actually going to make it work for you.

00:23:16
And we can't be invested right now because we don't have the time, we don't have the bandwidth to actually be invested in it. So we're going to really just build muscle memory in Facebook and LinkedIn, which we are doing. The amount of engagement I'm getting on those platforms now, the consistency that we're posting on there is. So to me it's like, wow, I can actually feel the shift in not only the results, but who we are as people, as entrepreneurs, as creators and that it's amazing. And until you feel that, I think it's really hard to almost conceptually talk about it because it's like, oh yeah, what do you mean?

00:23:52
I'm on those platforms. Yes. But no, I love how this actually really hits home with a lot of us. And again, content marketing, social media, I feel like a lot of these buzwords, like you just said, it becomes hard to conceptualize them because you're in the bottle and it's hard to read the bottle when you're inside the bottle. Right.

00:24:12
So I think a lot of this comes to a lot of us as well. Yeah, just do what works on this platform and be more of this, be more authentic. Right. But yet it misses the point of what you want to feel or why you want to serve people in a certain way. And I want to pivot right there to why your AI tool is designed to give people back time and is designed with this human kind of picture behind it, which is a person reading.

00:24:42
Because I've been using cap show for at least, I don't know how long you guys been out, but I feel like I was one of like, maybe not, I wasn't beta, but I think I heard you on goodpods. I was like, there's no way I'm ever going to use that product. And then later I was using that product. And so I want you to talk a little bit about why is it important that people allow themselves to get the muscle memory in these things, but make sure they maintain their voice and don't lose themselves in trying to be like all the things. And I guess that's what I'm kind of like putting two questions into one.

00:25:12
How does cap show help them do that? Because as you mentioned, it's not just for podcasters, it's for content marketers and pretty much everybody. Now, if you have any kind of business, is a content marketer. So how do those two things work together? Yes.

00:25:26
Oh my gosh. Okay, so when we first launched Capshow, we went live July 2022. So it was before chat, GPT, it was before the whole AI hype. We launched it off the back of actually coming back from the first podfest that we went to. And we went to Podfest because I didn't even know that it was a thing at the time that was kind of how new we were in the industry.

00:25:51
But I was talking to a friend and she was like, you have to come to this event. She was speaking at it. So she was like, just come and check it out. And it was great because we met so many podcasters there. And when we were talking to them, this was just literally before beta launched for cap show.

00:26:07
We heard that the one thing that they were really struggling with from a time perspective was their show notes. So we're like, okay, well, why don't we just launch first with a really good, as a good show notes writer? But my heart was always in content marketing because, you know, content marketing. And so that was kind of where we built capsho out to be. And when Chachi Bt went live and there was a whole hype, it really got us really looking hard at what it was that we were doing as an AI powered software in this space as.

00:26:39
And because you could see when chat, GPT was coming, what the world would come to in a way was like, I call it like the content vomit. Like, anyone can now create content. I'm sorry, that's such a great phrase. Oh my gosh, right? Just like vomit all over the Internet, literally.

00:26:58
So we had to be really intentional then about where Capsho played in the space. And that's kind of where we coined the term humane. It's like human with AI. It's like we're now in this humanity era where everything that we do is going to be augmented with AI in some form. But that doesn't mean that we lose our humanity.

00:27:19
Like, we still need to lean into what it is that makes us human. And what that comes down to is, first of all, I call it the anchor content, because it's kind of like garbage in, garbage out. If you put a really crap. Am I allowed to say that on this trust? There's much worse said on this podcast.

00:27:41
Okay, great. So if you put crappy content into something like capture, you're going to get crappy content out, right? So that's why you always have to start with, why is it that you're creating content? And what is the. I've heard different ways of saying this, but really recently at Capshovian's life, at the live event that you were mentioning, we had Joe Pelousi speak.

00:28:03
He's the founder of CeX, the content entrepreneur expo, and he calls it content tilts. Like, what is your content tilt? What makes you different with your content? And that's a very human process. Like, no AI can actually come up with that.

00:28:21
It needs to come down to your thoughts, your experience, your stories, all of the things that human. Right, exactly. And even the way that you do it. So I recently did. Did you do the quiz, your content superpower quiz?

00:28:37
I think. Did I? I need to go back and look it up. Okay. I did.

00:28:41
Yeah. Anyway, I can give you the link if you want to share it as. Well, but we'll put it in the show notes for sure. Yeah. We created this really quick quiz to come up with your content superpower.

00:28:51
The three core ones are either you're an expert, you're the expert, you're the curator, or you're the investigator and all of those. It's a superpower that only, again, us as humans have, and not only that we have, but that we know that our audience wants. Right.

00:29:11
You bottle all of that up. And what I'm trying to say here is that anchor content has to start with you as the human. And then the great thing about what capture does is it actually spits back to you what it is that you created. And you might look at that and be like, that was really good. These are some really cool things that either I said or that my guest said or that I was able to elicit out of my guest, or, oh, my gosh, this was not that great, or we spoke about 10 million different things.

00:29:47
How do I make this into a really impactful piece of. And I didn't realize that this was the thing that capture was doing, but it definitely has done it for me. But it actually helps to almost coach or guide you as to what it is that you could do better next time with your next piece of content that you're creating. That's kind of almost like the meta, if I can say part of what capture does, but really also at its core is what it does. When we're thinking about this whole cap show's place in this humanity era, we also know that the output needed to have a really great way to have the human interact with that content that was being created.

00:30:32
Because the first version of cap show was very much like, it will just spit back out to you. Like, just give it to you. Here's the one thing. And then it still had an editor so you could still edit it, but it didn't have the level of flexibility that captured now has, which is like it's in blocks. So you can structure it differently to how the next podcaster would structure it.

00:30:51
It gives you options so that it's not just the one thing that will give you, but it gives you multiple, and you can pick and choose, and you can merge things together if you want. And it just gives you so much more insight into what it is that the possibilities that you can have even with the output of your content once you put it through capture. So, yeah, there's kind of a few things that we designed captcho to do to be able to help fundamentally you as a human, as a creator, make even better content for your audience. At the end of the day, I. Love the fact that it really comes back down to that.

00:31:25
What does make you special? What is, like you said, the content tilt and the thing that pops into my head even as you were speaking about it was so many of these other tools are now leaning, it sounds like you beat them to their punch, because now there's custom tools. Custom? What is it? Custom instructions in chat GBT.

00:31:43
And everyone's now trying to design this thing where it actually has your voice already programmed in it. And I think it's because, like you said, the content bomb, it was like we all, including me, felt like as a creative, this is literally what I do. If now you're saying that these machines, and again, I'm going to go to the opposite extreme, right, where the fear and they're going to replace us and musicians will not be needed because they can play a million notes that I can't play, and they're going to be writing songs that can replace Rihanna and Drake. So all of that is in my ear saying, you're replaceable. What you create doesn't matter.

00:32:21
And yet on the other side, you're echoing what I really heard. And forgive me for going a little spiritual here. It is something that cannot be replaced about the human spirit, that creative life, creative thought is not replaceable by the computer because we are literally the ones that generate it, and it comes from a place that cannot come from a computer. So I was centered in that, even though I was scared out of my mind for a little while. And so I just want you to speak a little bit to maybe the technophobe, the person, not necessarily to capture, only because they may be thinking just in terms of chat bc they may be all these other tools just speak to us as creatives.

00:32:59
As a software developer, as someone who literally makes these tools, you just kind of echoed it, but just give them a little more reassurance of why this is not going to be the end of all creative life for the human. Because these tools are designed to help us and not replace us. Oh, 100%, yeah, I mean, you nailed it. It is there. Think about AI as kind of like the little robot on your shoulder, just assisting you, just kind of like whispering in your ear to be like, oh, these are some good ideas.

00:33:31
Maybe you can lean into this and you're the one still there making it. They're not the robot at your computer, like, literally creating for you, or in front of the camera, I should say, or on the microphone. They're just on your shoulder. If we can think about AI in that way, and technology just in general in that way, then I think that we have this really great opportunity to do more with less, which, at the end of the day, no matter what it is you're doing, but especially if you're a creator, you really need to lean into, because that is where we get our humanness, the more time that we can actually spend out there, whatever that looks like to you. For me, it's like going on walks.

00:34:13
And when I go on walks, it's such a great way for my mind to decompress. And in that decompression, I actually get so many more ideas. I'm like, oh, I can talk about this, and what about this thing? And here's this framework that I can. I get so many more ideas when I can actually just live than when I'm by doing less.

00:34:32
If that makes sense. It makes total sense. It goes right back to what you said, that the tool is a way to get back to what really makes you you. And you're exactly right. Like, when I spend hours and hours just figuring out how do I format my show notes or how do I format my YouTube description, I am not in my best.

00:34:52
Not even though, like you said, I'm a content person, too, so my brain is kind of, like, the way best. This is a weird thing to mention, but it comes back to me right now because I'm a pianist. People said when they heard me play, I can see the way you write, by what you hear, by what they heard. Wow. So it was like, there was a connection between the way, I think, but that doesn't happen if I'm just, like, in the minutiae, right?

00:35:17
It happens when I'm able to kind of open my brain a little bit and not be stuck in, okay, what's the first lab? What's the first word? What's the first word? And that's when I go into cap show and things like that, and I do get that first title. And I was like, oh, that's what I was trying to say.

00:35:30
And it reminds me that I do have this kind of big picture that I can focus on versus, like you said, the little things in terms of the Facebook and the Instagram and the LinkedIn and all the things where we get stuck in the minutiae versus the whole of what we're. So I'm totally grateful for that. Again, I didn't want to make a total commercial, but I'm absolutely a happy cap show user. But more importantly, for those people, again, who are creative and trying to figure out how to get their time back, how to live, how to not be stuck, like you just mentioned at the beginning with your team and feeling like you're doing all the things and supporting this big thing that wasn't even something you wanted. So I know we got to start wrapping up, but just give me a moment to just tell us, if you could talk to the 2013 Deirdre, if you could talk to the 2015 person and tell them what was coming, what would be your advice to the person that is where you were now that you know what you know?

00:36:33
Right. What would you tell that same person if they were in your shoes? Wow, this is. I mean, so many things. Definitely all the lotto numbers.

00:36:43
Yes. On this person. Absolutely. Yeah. But other than that.

00:36:50
I think the one thing that I always feel like I battle myself with is it's going to sound really weird, but, like, taking up space. And I don't mean in the condom vomit kind of way, but I mean, taking like that, it's okay. I guess I always grew up. I don't know why. I don't know how this got into my head, but I don't know if it's, like, my asian background, culturally, I don't know what it is, but I always thought that I had to be the person that was.

00:37:24
I didn't deserve a voice. I guess. I was never the one to raise my hand in class. I was never the one. Even in corporate when we had meetings and stuff, like, I never voiced an opinion because I think in the back of my head, I was always like, well, it's not worth saying if no one else is saying it either.

00:37:40
I don't know. I always had this thought that all of my ideas or whatever was just stupid or not worth it. I don't know what it was. It's something that I battle with even to this day, and I'm trying to get better at it, but it is definitely, like, how do I just be okay with taking up space is probably what I would have coached myself through even back then. Wow, that's a mouthful.

00:38:08
I'm honestly a little bit like, it's weird. Like, I feel like a heaviness for you and for anybody else that feels that, because here we are in this space where we're talking about podcasting, creative life, entrepreneurship, all spaces where we need to fill, a space where literally there is a need for something that you created, there's a need for it, there's a need for the music, there's a need for more beauty. And yet people who are still with all these technological tools, scared to take the space. So this is what I mean when I say, I, sorry, start the podcast. Kind of open ended.

00:38:40
Like, okay, where are we going? And then we land where we were supposed to land. Because whether it's using the tools, whether it's being less frazzled, the whole point is that you have a space to take up. You have a place and a space, and you have a voice. Matter of fact.

00:38:56
Wow. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Yeah. You just reminded me, I literally put this in my membership.

00:39:01
My point of my membership is, you have a place, you have a space, and you have a voice. And my goal is to make sure that no creative ever feels like they don't have those three things. And so what you're saying is that to everybody that's listening right now is same thing. Like, you have a place, you have a space, you should take it up. And there are ways to use your voice.

00:39:23
And even if you haven't used it before, go do it. Go start the podcast. Go listen to the grow the show podcast. Because I'm listening into it, and I'm getting ideas, and I'm always running, doing my thing and listening to you and Bona and trying to like, okay, what should I do next? Because I get stuck in these little things again.

00:39:40
But I love this so much. And you are absolutely a blessing to the podcasting community. Thank you so much for what you've created and what you represent, which is the human side behind all this technology, is really putting marketing where it's supposed to be. So I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, personally. Thank you.

00:39:56
Thank you for saying all that. No, thank you for having me on this. This was a great conversation. I would hazard a guess that if you did do the quiz of the content superpower, that you are leaning towards the investigator side, because you have a really great way of eliciting, just kind of bringing out perspectives and things that maybe your guests have never spoken about or even thought about. So, yeah, thank you.

00:40:22
No, I'm going to take the quiz for sure. Yes, I would love to be on the investigative side the curious side. Before we go, we know we do old school. I know a lot of people do the obviously click the links, but quickly tell them how can they reach you? How can they connect with you if they want to learn more about your products and your personality.

00:40:40
Yeah, so I think I mentioned before, Facebook and LinkedIn are where I spend most of my time on. So it's just Deirdre shen that you can find me there. D-E-I-R-D-R-E-T-S-H-I-E-N-I know it's not the simplest name.

00:41:00
If you're not, you should be a captcho affiliate. Okay, great. I think there will be a link, but in that link you'll be able to get an extended free trial of Capshow. So you'll get an extra credit to try capshow out. And we also have some really cool resources, some really short audio training that goes into some social media, how to get the most out of social media, but also how to get the most out of search.

00:41:25
So SEO and things like that. So really short, impactful audio training that you can get as part of that free gift that Allen's going to put the link for in the show notes 100%. And I can say again that she has built a community. That's what makes me feel comfortable using this, not only knowing that the tool is good, but the people around are actually connecting. Capsulebians are strong.

00:41:47
Deirdre, thank you so much for incredible conversation. I hope we do this again, hope we meet at Podfest or some other event soon. But until then, thank you so much for being a part of the guided gig community and sharing with our audience. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

00:42:06
My friend. I don't think you're going to find a more personable, transparent and authentic interview with any CEO than the one you just heard with Deirdre Shen. I am so thankful to her for being open to sharing, not just the tool, not just the AI, not just what she does to help us to save time and to do more with less, but the why behind it, why it's so important to focus on your strengths and not to get so tied up in the shoulds and what you have done with all of the things happening at once to try to keep all the balls in the air. As a creative, it's so refreshing to talk to somebody who understands that life and wants to get off of it as well. And as I mentioned earlier, her new podcast, which is actually her old podcast but now rebranded win the content game, is a great place to start so that you can get this flow and understanding of what marketing your business is all about as a creative, but never getting stuck in the things that you don't need to be thinking about.

00:43:14
And speaking of things you do need to think about, you definitely need to check out Capshow now. As I mentioned, the very show notes and the titles that you read every week have been designed in part by Capshow. And I used it to save me tons of time so I can focus on what I'm doing right now, building community, sharing, learning, talking, and growing as a creative instead of the things that take a bunch of time but don't really yield a lot of results. So even if you're not a podcaster, I highly recommend you check out the free trial of Capshow just to see what it can do with your long form content, with your YouTube videos, and with any other things you use that create content that you need to break down and share with a group or with your community. You can find that@gotinggigs.com slash Capshow Capsho and you can find that link in the show notes.

00:44:17
And since we're talking about valuable things, let me remind you that we are a value for value podcast. Now, you may not know what that means, but it's very simple. If you received value from this podcast, we would love it if you'd share value back with us and the community. There's three ways you can do that. You can do that by sharing time.

00:44:37
Simply sharing this episode, taking a moment to write a review, or leaving a comment absolutely helps us to build this community and to help more creatives. If you want to share talent, you could actually say, hey, I've got a graphic design that I'd love to share with you. I have some ideas for your cover art. I have these other talents that I'd like to supply to the community. We'd welcome it.

00:45:00
I would love to see it, because we're creatives, after all. And then finally, treasure, of course, you know that it takes money to run this type of operation, and we could definitely use those kind of monthly contributions that would keep us going. You can do that by supporting us through our subscriptions, which you can tap on our link in the show notes, which says support the show with the monthly contribution. Or you could even try something really cool and join us in boosting and boostograms. That is our podcasting 2.0 method, where you can actually send messages through to us live via little pieces of bitcoin.

00:45:40
And I know that might sound a little different, but it's not complicated. It's just a new way that you can share value with our podcast. And if you want to do that, tap the podcasting 2.0 link in our show notes and you'll see exactly what kind of apps will let you do this exciting new way of supporting community and giving us a chance to spread our value with more creatives like yourself. Well, my friend, that's our show for today. Thank you so much for listening and until next time, continue to become the creative that you were created to be.

00:46:16
God bless, and I'll see you next episode.