Building A Content Creation Agency & Studio: True Behind The Scenes (Guest Interview)

Summary

Content Is Profit Episode Summary: Building A Content Creation Agency & Studio: True Behind The Scenes (Guest Interview)

Podcast Information:

• Title: Content Is Profit
• Host/Author: BIZBROS
• Guest: Luis Camejo
• Release Date: February 27, 2025

---

Introduction

In this episode of "Content Is Profit," host Travis welcomes Luis Camejo, one half of the dynamic duo behind Studio Podcast Suites and Biz Bros. With over seven years of experience in content creation, Luis shares his journey of building a successful content creation agency and studio from the ground up. Their conversation delves into the essential skills, mindset shifts, and strategic decisions that transformed their side hustles into profitable ventures.

Starting the Business: From Side Hustle to Service-Based Success

Luis recounts the humble beginnings of Biz Bros, emphasizing the importance of self-belief and taking actionable steps. Initially operating without a registered company, Luis and his brother Fonzie offered production services, primarily converting long-form content into short-form clips. Their first breakthrough came when they secured a $500 check from a local Mexican restaurant by identifying and addressing the business’s pain points.

Luis Camejo [02:00]: "I think number one is believing in yourself."

Travis underscores the significance of starting lean, avoiding unnecessary expenses like expensive merchandise or business cards before validating the market need. Luis echoes this sentiment, highlighting their initial reliance on basic tools like iPhones and gradually investing in equipment as revenue allowed.

Luis Camejo [05:27]: "We started our services with our iPhones... it was about $100, and then it grew from there."

Developing Essential Skills: Mindset and Sales Proficiency

A pivotal theme in the discussion is the development of a resilient mindset and strong sales capabilities. Luis emphasizes that believing in one’s potential is crucial for overcoming initial challenges. His personal journey includes transitioning from multiple jobs as a first-generation immigrant to mastering sales through hands-on experience rather than formal training.

Luis Camejo [02:46]: "Self confidence for sure. You know, the belief that you can do it, I think it's number one."

Travis expands on the importance of learning to sell by doing, advocating for immersive experiences where one learns on the job. He contrasts this with traditional education systems that often require upfront financial investments for skill acquisition.

Travis [08:52]: "The big deal is that you can actually learn while you earn... you don’t have to like go deeply into debt to learn skills at all anymore."

Strategic Investments and Overcoming Challenges

Luis discusses a significant turning point when he and Fonzie invested $25,000 into a mastermind program, which initially bolstered their motivation and led to new client acquisitions. However, the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 posed severe challenges, forcing them to pivot their business model swiftly.

Luis Camejo [12:46]: "The environment helped me. I got to put myself in an environment that's going to push me a little bit further."

Faced with a sudden loss of clients, Luis and Fonzie focused on niching down their services to multipurpose content creation, allowing them to streamline operations and better serve their target market. This strategic shift not only salvaged their business during a crisis but also laid the groundwork for future growth.

Luis Camejo [15:38]: "We are still trying to figure out if it's going to work out or not... we are bridging that gap."

Balancing Personal Life and Business: Navigating Lifestyle Burn

Balancing entrepreneurial pursuits with family responsibilities is another critical aspect covered in the interview. Luis attributes much of his success to the unwavering support of his wife, Katie, who ensures that household responsibilities and financial obligations are met while he focuses on growing the business.

Luis Camejo [23:53]: "She's been nothing but supportive... everything in the house... we go 50, 50."

Travis and Luis discuss the concept of lifestyle burn—sacrificing immediate comforts and traditional markers of success to achieve long-term business goals. Luis shares personal anecdotes about making tough decisions, such as prioritizing family’s financial security over aggressive business expansion, demonstrating the delicate balance between ambition and practicality.

Luis Camejo [24:49]: "Sometimes the guilt creeps in because as the men of the family, we're supposed to be the providers as well."

Defining Financial Freedom: Beyond Numbers

The conversation culminates with a heartfelt discussion on financial freedom. For Luis, financial freedom is not merely a specific dollar amount but the ability to make spontaneous and meaningful choices without financial stress. This includes being able to take family trips, invest in personal interests, and provide comfortable experiences for his children without constantly worrying about money.

Luis Camejo [32:43]: "The ability to really pursue whatever I want to pursue without that stress... that’s freedom."

Travis reinforces this definition by highlighting the importance of setting long-term visions and making sacrifices in the present to achieve desired future outcomes. He encourages listeners to align their daily actions with their ultimate financial goals, ensuring that every step taken serves the larger mission.

Conclusion

Travis wraps up the episode by commending Luis and Fonzie for their strategic decisions and resilience in building a profitable content creation agency and studio. He emphasizes the importance of pursuing one’s passion while maintaining financial stability, urging listeners to invest in themselves and make calculated risks to achieve their dreams.

Travis [34:39]: "You will get more satisfaction, fulfillment, chasing your dream than you will by accomplishing somebody else's dream."

Luis expresses gratitude for the opportunity to share his journey, leaving listeners with an inspiring message about perseverance, strategic thinking, and the power of a supportive environment in turning content into profit.

---

Key Takeaways:

• Self-Belief: Fundamental to initiating and sustaining a business venture.
• Sales Skills: Crucial for validating and scaling business ideas.
• Strategic Investments: Thoughtful financial commitments can catalyze growth.
• Mindset and Environment: Surrounding oneself with motivated, like-minded individuals fosters success.
• Balancing Life and Business: Supportive relationships and practical financial planning are essential.
• Financial Freedom: Defined by the ability to make choices without financial constraints, not by a specific income level.

Notable Quotes:

• Luis Camejo [02:00]: "I think number one is believing in yourself."
• Luis Camejo [05:27]: "We started our services with our iPhones... it was about $100, and then it grew from there."
• Travis [08:52]: "The big deal is that you can actually learn while you earn..."
• Luis Camejo [12:46]: "The environment helped me. I got to put myself in an environment that's going to push me a little bit further."
• Luis Camejo [15:38]: "We are still trying to figure out if it's going to work out or not... we are bridging that gap."
• Luis Camejo [32:43]: "The ability to really pursue whatever I want to pursue without that stress... that’s freedom."

---

This episode offers a comprehensive look into the realities of building a content creation agency, emphasizing the importance of mindset, strategic decision-making, and maintaining a supportive personal environment. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, Luis Camejo's insights provide valuable lessons on turning content into profit.

Transcript

[Luis Camejo]

Hey, I'm Louise. I'm Louise. And you're listening to the Content Is Profit podcast.

[Travis]

What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Travis Makes Money podcast, where we believe that money solves all your money problems. Then you're just left with all your other problems. But if you have money in the bank, it's a little bit easier to solve the rest of your problems too, so you may as well solve the money problem first. Today, I'm bringing on Luis Camejo. Luis and his brother Fonzie, the dynamic brothers behind studio podcast suites and Biz Bros. Have spent over seven years mastering the art of content creation that drives opportunities and profit. They're the owners of studio podcast suites and hosts of the top global podcast Content is Profit. Luis, what's up, dude? Welcome to the show.

[Luis Camejo]

Thank you for having me, man. I'm stoked to be here.

[Travis]

Of course, of course. Remember the first time we connected a while back? It was you guys on your show for the first time. And since then, I've seen your show do really, really well, man. I'm super, super happy for you. Super proud of you guys. Just stay business. Not a lot of people get into this game and keep doing it, so congrats.

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. And, you know, your interview was awesome. And we saw you then a couple events and, you know, so your evolution as well, you've been rocking it.

[Travis]

So. Hey, you know what? You gotta just. You gotta just keep doing it, man. Consistency is half the game, you know?

[Luis Camejo]

Yep.

[Travis]

So let's start off with some money conversation, man. First off, how do you make money?

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah, absolutely. So we offer production services is what we've done primarily the last five years now, specifically turning long form into short form. And last year, we got. We acquired the studio. So we also do podcast production now, but we've always attached it to a service, even though when we started side Hustles, you know, about eight years ago, when Bizarre started.

[Travis]

Yeah. That's awesome, dude. What skill have you found it necessary to develop in order to be able to increase your ability to make money?

[Luis Camejo]

That's a good question. I mean, I think number one is believing in yourself. Right. I remember our first social media thing that we saw was to a Mexican restaurant. We showed up, company wasn't even registered, and we were consuming some kind of content around the time. I think it was like Tai Lopez and three videos were enough to motivate us to go and do the thing. And we had the conversation, conversation with that owner. We found some pain Points where like, hey, we can offer solutions for these pain points. And our first $500 check came in and that afternoon we went with that check before cashing it into, you know, online and somebody's registered the company and cash the check. So, you know, self confidence for sure. You know, the belief that you can do it, I think it's number one.

[Travis]

How were you making money before that?

[Luis Camejo]

I held multiple jobs. You know, I was immigrant here in the States, went to school, had to have a job to stay here legally before I got married.

[Travis]

So you're first generation.

[Luis Camejo]

I am first generation, yeah. I came here in 2010 from where. And then with the job, there's always some kind of side hustle. So we did vinyl stickers, we printed shirts out of our garage. We will offer like video services here and there and evolve from there.

[Travis]

Where did you immigrate from?

[Luis Camejo]

Venezuela.

[Travis]

Venezuela. Okay, great. Well, hey, dude, thanks for coming over.

[Luis Camejo]

No, absolutely, thanks for having me. This has been. We're in the best country in the world, man. Opportunities are there, you know, out for, you know, for your, in your reach. And it all takes, you know, some hard work and consistency.

[Travis]

I love it, dude. I love that. You started with mindset. This is the, the piece about money that most people don't want to talk about. Like if, if, if some, if, if people are listening and they're, and they're looking at like, man, I just need to make more money. They usually don't want to tune in and hear a mindset conversation, but it's probably the exact thing that they need to hear because, you know, you're, you're the, you're the thermostat. You know, you will be able to. Well, you want to be the thermostat. I should say. Most people are thermometers. They, they rise based on the environment or they fall based on the environment. And you want to be the one that sets the environment and that starts in the mind. You gotta be able to start believing that it's possible for you to go make more money before it's ever going to be possible for you to make more money. I think it was Henry Ford that said, whether believe, whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right. And so starting, starting with the mindset is 100 have to start, you know, out there that have decent jobs. They're making, you know, 60, 70, 80K a year or something. But they're realizing that there's more month at the end of the money. Increasingly, as inflation gets worse and worse you know, things cost more and more, and then all of a sudden you look and your paycheck doesn't go as far as it used to, and it's like, man, well, what do I do here? You know, the, the American dream isn't dead. It's just changing a little bit. And you got to be able to keep up with that. So congrats to you guys for being able. For being able to do that. And I love that you started with a service based company. I think that's highly underrated. A lot of people will go out and start developing products and they become almost like inventors. It's like, man, the, the. The volume of skills that you have to acquire to develop an amazing product and then take it to market and then sell it and then be able to make enough money to be able to cover your cost to scale that. It's so, so, so intensive and difficult. Not impossible, but much more improbable than it is to start with what you guys did. Hey, we have an idea. Let's go see if somebody wants to do it. You know what I mean? Because you guys, you don't even have a business registered, right?

[Luis Camejo]

No, it was just the idea, right? And we're like, let's test it out. The second we sell it, we really make it official. And we didn't have equipment at all. We started our services with our iPhones. We literally would show up, and I think the first thing that we got was like a DJI Osmo, the first generation that made the footage a little bit smoother. It was about 100 bucks, and then it grew from there.

[Travis]

That's perfect, dude. This is the exact blueprint that people need to hear. Because, dude, I see so many people that are like, they go start a business, but before they do anything, they order like $1,000 in merch. They order like 500 business cards because it makes you feel official. It's what I call fake progress.

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah.

[Travis]

You know, you think that you're making progress. Well, I got my business cards now I got my website. I got. It's like you're $5,000 into a business that, like, with money that you didn't really have that you're not even sure people want. Like, you're not even sure that there's a. That somebody wants that particular problem solved. So you know how to make 100% for sure that somebody wants that problem solved. Go sell it. Somebody gives you dollars for an idea that tells you that they want that problem solved. And now you can go do some of those other things that you want to do. But you got to start with selling it, right?

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah.

[Travis]

So the skill, the, the first thing you said was mindset. But the thing that I'm hearing secondarily is the skill of selling. Tell me about your journey learning how to sell, man.

[Luis Camejo]

I mean, I don't think that journey ever ends. So you know, we continue to, to learn. And I remember, I remember just hard time having a lot of friction around sales. You know, my dad and mom, they were not entrepreneurs. I was like never around that kind of environment and that my dream was professional soccer. So like wasn't really like into a company that sold. So something that really, really helped me is as soon as I got my work permit, because after graduation you gotta have a work permit to work in the States. I ended up and joined a fitness studio as a front desk guy. And the goal was solely to sell memberships. So I put myself in that environment. I'm like, okay, if I want a company, right? Because the dream was always there to, to kind of have my own thing and, and you know, almost like being control of my own future. I saw in Venezuela, you know, inflation go up. My parents, like you mentioned earlier, like the paychecks would not like be enough. So that conversation was always there and mindset was, okay, I want to create my own future. So for that we need to sell. And I was like, I have no skills, like I don't know how to do this. So I remember buying Grant Cardone's things and then I was like, I wasn't resonating with that message. And I'm like, man, is this the only way? And then, but ended up putting myself in an environment where I have, I had to learn how to sell. And especially like it was a pre sale environment. So we were out in the sun in Florida in summer trying to sell $159 membership to people that couldn't even see the equipment because the studio wasn't even built yet. So that really put me in a position to learn really quick lear, to have conversations, learn to extract those pain points. If we were the solution, you know, making sure that that person was heard. And the solution was there. And that was my job for about three to four years. Moved up, you know, assistant manager, manager ended up running a thousand person studio. And it was like really cool. My team was about 14 people. So learn a ton, learn then how to teach it. And then from there, you know, around that time, parallel to that, that's when we're like starting the agency and doing the Side hustle.

[Travis]

Love this dude, because I think the education system in the country has gotten to the point where people have again, we come back to the mindset thing. They have this belief that you have to pay in order to learn. Because that's what college teaches you. That's what school teaches. School preps you to go to college and then college tells you you gotta invest money here before you can learn these skills that you're gonna be able to monetize. But in a lot of senses, especially when it comes to sales, which is arguably the most important skill when it comes to making more money, the, the big deal is that you can actually learn while you earn. And that's exactly what it did, is like you, you literally said it like, I invested in this program, didn't really do much for me. I didn't really, I didn't really resonate with that type of selling. I didn't really know what to do. So I got a job selling. And it's like when you get a job selling, you either learn how to do it or you quit or get fired. You know what I mean? So you gotta, you, you better learn and you better learn quickly. But the cool thing is when you're, when you're learning that skill, you're also getting paid to learn that skill. You don have to like go deeply into debt to learn skills any, especially anymore. You know, like there's, there's hundreds of hours of sales trainings you can find for free on YouTube. And if you're in a job environment that gives you, you know, I tell people, you, you, you gotta go get in an opportunity that gives you unlimited opportunities to sell and talk to people. Whether that's selling gym memberships, whether that's telemarketing, cold calling, door to door sales, whatever it is. Unlimited opportunities to speak to people and improve your ability to sell. Because once you have the ability to sell, you can take that into whatever venture that you're going into. And it does so much more for you, man, because it gives you the confidence that you need to be able to go do it again. It's like, well, now you have more confidence to invest in yourself. Now the next program doesn't sound as expensive because you know that you can outsell the money that you just invested in the program or you know, you can buy that piece of equipment that you need for your side hustle business because, you know, next month I can go sell more stuff because I know at least I have that skill set. And if I have that skill set, then money Will not be in scarcity anymore, you know, because money's not in scarcity. It's in abundance. The problem is that everybody else has it.

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah.

[Travis]

So you gotta.

[Luis Camejo]

How do I get there? Right. How do I meet them in a place where, you know, that can exchange hands.

[Travis]

Right.

[Luis Camejo]

And provide. And provide some value?

[Travis]

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, what's been the best investment that you've made in your business so far?

[Luis Camejo]

Ah, man. I think like, that best slash more scary one was probably, I think it was like the first mastermind that we really joined for sure. Like, we were moving from at that point on my job, I was pretty copped out. Some new person came in, we were bumping heads. I was dedicating a lot more time to the side hustle. Wife was finishing school, pregnant. There was a lot of pressure around, and I was like, okay, I think it's time to move. And the decision came where I quit my job. And I was like, okay, the environment helped me. I got to put myself in an environment that's going to push me a little bit further. Right. So we made a significant investment at the time. My wife told me, hey, the only way that you can do this full time with me agreeing is we need to have enough money in the bank for a year until I graduate. She's a pharmacist now, and then you can do the thing. And she didn't really care where the money came from. She was like, we just need that amount. And so I went out and I applied for a bunch of personal loans. Got the money from, like five different loans. Show her the bank account, and she's like, sweet. So I quit in September. That same weekend, we ended up in a mastermind event in Idaho, very far away from Florida. And we ended up investing half the amount of what I took out for the full year in to this program. How much was was about $25,000.

[Travis]

$25,000. So at this point, had you ever put money into yourself to any sort of that degree?

[Luis Camejo]

Probably the most we did until then was about 1600 bucks in a masterclass. And we were in this event and we felt like these were our people. And we thought like this was going to push us forward. And we just felt like very motivated. The belief was there. We immediately had conversations in that environment about the product that we're going to sell. And we got leads from there. So we're like, it's possible, right? So, yeah, then it happens. We started selling, we started executing on the product. And then Covid happened. That was like 2020, like right there. And every single account that we had, except one, closed doors four months in, and we're like, we had 60 days of Runway. My wife had no idea I did this. Like, she's like, oh, they're working. They're doing fine. And that's when really, it got, like, really, really scary. Because we had about, okay, we had 60 days to kind of figure this out and continue moving the needle forward because we had to change our entire model. We were selling to small businesses in town. So everybody closed. And we're like, man, we have to evolve. But just the fact of having that experience, not only, like, maybe not a lot of the material that was taught in the Mastermind, but put it in the position of, hey, I have to pay this investment back. While, you know, it was a very high pressure environment, it pushed me to levels that I never thought. It created that pressure to kind of move forward, and it really helped us. And that's literally what kickstarted everything. That's what gave us the idea of the podcast. And then it evolved into, you know, what we do now?

[Travis]

What did you do when Covid hit and you had to readjust everything?

[Luis Camejo]

First couple seconds freaked the heck out. My brother came in, we had a little office, and he came in and almost, like, emotionally slapped me. He's like, go, walk it out. Walk. Walk it off.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Luis Camejo]

And I think it was probably equally or more worried. And when we came back, we're like, okay. At the time, we're offering, like, multiple different services, and we're almost like, you know, glorified freelancers. At the time, we had no team, no nothing. And we're already having the conversation to kind of niche down into one thing. So the conversation was already happening, as in, we need to evolve and simplify things so we can scale the service itself. So we're like, well, let's see it as an opportunity. We had 60 days to really turn this around, and we don't have customers anymore. So our time is back. We can now execute on the thing that we wanted to do. So it was almost like a blessing in disguise, right? Because then we really focus on what we wanted to do. We wrote him in it, and that same afternoon, we wrote it on the whiteboard, the six things that we're doing. And we're like, let's pick one that we both feel very strong. And that's what we did. And we started sending messages, sending DMs to people that we knew. And we're like, hey, can we send you an example? This is what we do, can we send you a sample? Can we hop on a call and show you a demo? And within a couple of days, we ended up closing our next client.

[Travis]

What was the niche that you picked? So what, what was the niche that you picked?

[Luis Camejo]

Multipurposing content. So we're like, we're really good at the production side. We had a system that we created out of necessity because the, the businesses that we're selling to, we will go on location and we will shoot content for the entire month because they didn't want to handle any of that. So production wise, the back end looked really well, but we were selling product to the wrong customer. Right. So we're like, let's have the framework be the niche. As in people that need this, they're already creating, they already have a solid offer, they already have some cash flow and let's apply it to that. So it just happened that there were people that were already publishing podcasts for a while. Maybe they didn't have a team, an internal team, maybe they were tired to outsourcing this thing. And we were able and reliably giving them this content because we knew we could deliver. So we're like, let's put a goal, these three people and then we look to hire somebody to kind of help us out with that. And then it was a lot easier because of one service versus six.

[Travis]

So first you changed your mindset very beginning. Then you invested heavily into changing your environment, which is highly, highly underrated. Most people are not in an environment where they get to meet a bunch of people who are like minded, who have similar beliefs to the ones that they have. Even though you might think those beliefs are crazy, all those people also thought those beliefs were crazy until they got in a room with a bunch of other people that thought they weren't crazy. And when you, when you can finally normalize those like crazy beliefs, then you can start to free up the mental space to then be able to solve the problems that are being presented to you, which is exactly what happened. And a lot of times can be really difficult when you come across that first big obstacle because you know, this is where the rubber meets the road and a lot of people just, just can't take it. But the frame that really helped me, and I'm curious to hear what helped you guys. The frame that always helps me is like the 10,000 people frame, which is basically imagine it's 20 years from now, everything in your life is back on track and you and you crushed your dreams and your goals and you're sitting in a great position, and you're standing in front of 10,000 people and you're telling your story. Every single person that I've interviewed on my podcast that has had any sort of, like, wild success has always had multiple, multiple setbacks and multiple, multiple obstacles. It's not a matter of if. It is only a matter of when. And so it's. It's helpful to me when I'm going through that, because when you're in the middle of the crisis, it does not feel like there's an out. It doesn't feel like there's a way forward. But sometimes when I can. When I can really take myself out of it and go, like, you know what? That I'm in front of 10,000 people and I'm telling the story. This is part of the story. This is. This is that. This is that moment in. In the story where. Where, yeah, everything was against me, all the odds were stacked against me, and I. I felt like I was doing everything right. And then this thing that was completely out of my control changed everything about what I thought was going well immediately in a single day. And then. I like that you said we whined about it at first because it's okay, you know, like, you got to process the emotions. It's okay to be sad. It's okay to throw a fit. It's okay to drink a beer. It's okay to, you know, scream and cuss into a pillow, whatever you got to do to get it out of your system. But if you spend too, too long in that space, that's when you, you know, live the rest of your life as a complainer and a whiner, and you never get to tell the story because the story stopped right there. But the important thing is continuing to. To go beyond that point, which is exactly. You know, what. What you guys did tell me about a big risk that you've taken since then that just didn't work out for you.

[Luis Camejo]

I think we're in the middle of one. I don't know. We're still trying to figure out if it's going to work out or not. But the virtual, the studio was massive, right? We ended up buying this business out, right? We invested probably like 60k on it so far, Made a good deal with. The previous owner, was a friend of the podcast, and he needed it kind of out, and it fell in our lap, really. It came after one of those moments where there's an impasse, and we're like, what else? What's next? We're coming out of Working with a very big client and they're moving on a different direction and we're kind of lost. And literally two days after it fell on our lap, the opportunity and we took it, right. But we thought it was going to be one direction. We're like, oh, this is perfect. The pre service that we offer. Later we discovered that the gap between education gap between the customer of the studio and our agency customer was way too far. So the model was different. Still is a little bit. So it has been over the last 15 months an interesting challenge to kind of merge both. Right. Because they function as two separate businesses for quite a while. And just now we're like bridging that gap. And that required saying goodbye to customers of the studio that were there for three years since they opened because they were not a fit for moving forward. And some very hard conversations with customers that relied on that product. And we're like, well, this is the new direction we're going and trying to navigate. That was still is some kind of challenge. We're about to go to puffes and we're going to launch a new product. We launched a new product a week ago. On the production side, this is going to be on the education side. So we were still under the mindset of, hey, we have these hypothesis based on the information that we get from our customers. The questions, can we put something out there? And I think, what changed? Because we've been trying to do something with a community aspect or with a teaching aspect for probably two years, but we never end up launching it. And one change was we went to the mindset of everything is reversible already we've gone through so many setbacks that we're like, we always go back to like, okay, well let's reset and let's restart and go back again. That before there was a lot of fear. What if it doesn't work out? What if it doesn't work out? The worst case scenario is like we just start again, right? Like worst case scenario, we go get a job, we have a work permit now, which is great, right? It's okay, you know, we reset. Luckily we haven't had to do that, but that helped us kind of make the decision. And then once the decision is made, once we put dates in the calendar, once we announce it now we have to move forward. It's the same thing. It's like, how do I put myself in that environment where I have to perform and execute? So yeah, I think currently we're in one of those is nothing super negative, but I think It's a challenge to kind of figure that one out. As in, like, what's the next step that motivates me, serves my customers, motivates my team, and all those things together has been, has been a fun challenge for sure.

[Travis]

Well, without knowing all the details of everything, man, it sounds like you guys are doing it the right way. Like, you're not letting the tail wag the dog, so to speak, which is what a lot of people do. It's that sunk cost fallacy of like, well, we bought the studio, we can't eliminate these customers. It's the only way we're making money on the studio right now. It's like, yeah, but does it feed the vision?

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Does it, does it, does it accomplish the mission? And if the answer is no, then even if it means that you're going to take a big risk to get rid of those clients and, and you don't know where the next clients are going to come from, it's probably the right move. You know, like if again, if you zoom out and look at the long term and look at where you're headed, you know, you're probably headed in the right direction. So congrats to you guys and being able to make some of those really cool decisions in the meantime, man.

[Luis Camejo]

Thank you, man. Thank you. Lots of caffeine for sure.

[Travis]

Talk to me about, talk to me about your like lifesty burn if that's been a, a factor in the equation. You know, you mentioned you have a wife, you guys have families. Yeah, it's. This all sounds really great until, you know, you're, you're the rent checks due, the mortgage payments due, you know, and it's like, oh, well, we can't, you know, we, we can't be homeless here. We're not single and 21 and, and can, you know, sleep on our neighbor's couch for a few months while we figure this out type thing. Like you gotta, you gotta pay the bills at the end of the day and you gotta be, you have to have some sort of practicality in the decision making. So what have you done in terms of like lifestyle burn monthly expenses that, that, that you look at is like, yeah, it sucks that we're doing this thing, but I know it's going to pay off. Yeah. 100.

[Luis Camejo]

I mean, first of all, he shout out to my wife Katie, like, without her, like, this is not a thing. Like, she's been nothing but supportive. She doesn't understand it. Right. She's very like, opposite to me and she's like, I don't even know what you guys do or what you want to do with your life. Like, she's a pharmacist, type A, you know, ye doesn't understand entrepreneurship, doesn't understand why we take those risks or like why we stay up late on those things.

[Travis]

So.

[Luis Camejo]

But at the same time, she's been not only supportive on like, emotionally, as in, like, I'll let you do your thing as long as bills are paid, as long as, you know, you take time and spend it with the kids. And you know, obviously there's this commitment, but also sometimes financially, like, she's had to spot me a couple times and every month, you know, always we try to have, have a very transparent conversation, like on the, on the money side as much as possible. We go 50, 50 and everything in the house. And she's like, she's, she's very. You got to carry your weight, right?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Luis Camejo]

Which I understand, you know, and in my mind, sometimes the guilt creeps in because as the men of the family, right, we're supposed to be the providers as well. And you know, I think that has been probably the hardest struggle sometimes where, you know, you, you, you feel like you need to, to do more. Especially like my family environment here where we are, nobody's an entrepreneur. We are the crazy ones. So whenever we're in family environments, right, we have these conversations. Nobody understands what we're going through, all these things. So, you know, we have, we have to, I guess, justify somehow. And in my head, I'm a big believer in manifestation and you know, obviously create, creating our life. And if you look at where we're coming from or where we were five years ago, today we're living the life that we were dreaming then, right? And it's like we're so blessed, right? Like we live in an incredible neighborhood with an incredible house, access to like pool and summer activities for the kids. You know, my kid is in private school. Like all these things that you're like, wait, what? And that perspective has helped me a ton, but also serves as again, that environment to kind of push me forward. I remember a big decision that we had to make last year was the education for my oldest kid, right? And we're like, okay, what are we doing? Are we going to public school? Private? And in my head I knew that Katie was probably really scared money wise for the decision that we made. I was, but I recognize the same feeling than when I invested in that big mastermind. And I was like, this is going to put me in a position that I have to Perform. There's no other option. I have to move the needle forward. And that's what he did. And we did the first year.

[Travis]

Year.

[Luis Camejo]

Great. Onto the second year. And the kid is happy. The kid is growing. I see. And I see the benefit now of that specific scenario. So I'm like, perfect. You know, anything that's like, to cover the bills goes to the. Goes to the house. Anything else. We've always been reinvesting it. Back in the business. Back in the business. Back in the business. Which is okay, right? Eventually, I know there's coming. There's a payoff coming with what we're building, but right now it's like, like, let's live our life. We. You know, the things that we can cover at home, school, you know, the. The rent, the food. We're not homeowners. Like, we continue to rent. At some point, I want to build my own house the way I want it to be built. It's gonna happen, but. And then the rest is like, back to the business. Back to the business. Because I believe in what we're building, and I'm. I'm excited is what moves me.

[Travis]

Yeah. Dude. Dude, I love everything you're saying, man. You're doing everything right. It's so, so, so important. You made. Sounds like you made a good decision with the spouse thing, because, you know, it could either be the best decision of your life or the worst decision. I. I'm. I'm blessed and. Sounds like you're blessed to. To have had it be the best decision of your life. Because I've. Yeah, I've been in that position myself where. But, you know.

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Props to you also for, like, enrolling her in the vision is like, that's. That's the big thing that. You know, people have asked me before where it's like, how did you. You know, my wife just. She won't support. And, you know, I'm getting pushback from her, and she wants me to go to this other thing, but I just believe in this. It's like, well, you have to enroll your significant other in the vision. Like, where are you headed? It's like, yeah. Not like, I'm not doing this so that I can continue to make, like, mediocre income. The. The reason that I'm doing this is so that in 10 years from now, we can live whatever life we want to live. And you could potentially quit your job as the pharmacist or, you know, insert career vocation here for whoever listening. But in the meantime, they. There. There's going to Be some sacrifices. There's going to be some things that you're going to have to give up. There's going to be. There's going to be almost a purposeful decrease in status among friend groups where you don't get to drive the nice car, you don't get to go buy the house right now, you don't get to upgrade the furniture for the sake of just having cooler furniture or getting a better TV or sound system. You know, it's like, yeah, yeah, all that stuff would be cool, but in the meantime, that's not the goal. The goal is to be, you know, 10 years, 20 years down the road, and we're living a life that most people only dream of living. So, like, while you're working, you know, in the day to day to make sure that our bills are covered, I'm working on swinging for the fences. Like, you know, as long as she steps up to the, to plate, to, to the plate and keeps hitting those singles, like, then that allows you to free up your time and energy to focus on swinging for the fences and hitting that home run eventually set you and your family up for, for the rest of your lives, you know, so congrats to you again for, for, for being in that position because that's someone that a lot of people are not in. In.

[Luis Camejo]

Thank you, man. I mean, it definitely. It wasn't easy. I mean, there was a time where I had to go back and get a job in between because of. Okay, let me, let me test that scenario. Right Side hustle was still there. So, you know, the contrast to that is like sleeping less that, you know, I wasn't as happy as. So she saw the difference, right? I wasn't happy. She thought I was going to be happy. And then I was like, look, like scenario A versus scenario B. Why do we prefer, right? Like we're going to end up split up because of this reason. Like, if our priorities are family and if our priority is staying together for the long run, because that's a commitment that we made to each other, then what will be the best scenario for us? Like, forget what other people are doing, forget what other people are saying, whatever. They don't understand that nobody's going through the same situations that I'm going to. And that was a really hard conversation to have. But at the end we came to the commitment and here we are and moving forward and so great. Grateful for that. So hopefully that opens and motivates people to, you know, at least start that conversation if they're having that, that problem.

[Travis]

And even then, though, like, when you went out and got that. That other, you know, supplemental. Supplemental job or whatever, how much easier was it to get that job? How much easier was it to generate more income now that you've built a bunch of skills along the way? You know what I mean?

[Luis Camejo]

100. I remember, I think it was like, two years. I didn't write, like, a resume or any. Or formally applied to any job. And I was like, oh, look at all these skills. Skills that we've built. Look at all this, like, confidence. And it was like, hey, this is just like another sales conversation. It's just I'm selling myself now on this thing. Right. And I think a lot of times, and I've had this conversation with Fonsi so many times, sometimes we think that it's us, but maybe we're in the wrong market. Maybe we're in the, you know, we're providing the wrong solution slightly. Right. We're talking to slightly the wrong people. And it's just, you know, stepping back a little bit and looking at that. And that's exactly what happened at that moment. And I remember getting hired for this job, and then they turned out to be, like, the ideal client. So then after a few months, it. The, The, The. The pancake flipped, and then they ended up hiring us. And that was, like, the impulse that we needed to go move it to the next stage.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Luis Camejo]

And again, like, we should not be afraid to maybe step back and then go try again, you know?

[Travis]

Yep, yep. It's the. Like I said, the willingness to decrease status for a time is a highly, highly underrated thing that, that most people just won't do. But then that's when you get lifestyle bloat. And then that's when you. You find yourself in a position where you can't take the risk, where you can't do the thing that you really want to do. Because now all of a sudden, your monthly, you know, expense sheet is just piled up because you've been trying to keep up with the Joneses for so long. It just becomes this. This. This cycle of. Of doing things that you don't want to do, to pay for things that you didn't really want, to have to impress people that don't really care. And then. And, you know, it just leads to depression.

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Through the roof, you know.

[Luis Camejo]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Yeah. You can end up doing what you want to do. Well, tell me this, man. We'll wrap up. What do you define as financial freedom.

[Luis Camejo]

Man?

[Travis]

Is it a dollar figure in the bank account? Is it income? Is it it?

[Luis Camejo]

I was trying to, like, I used to put an amount, as in, like, you know, if I have. I think the first one when I was 16 back in Venice. So I was like, if I have a million bucks, right? Because obviously in Venezuela, money, that's your billionaire.

[Travis]

Oh, yeah.

[Luis Camejo]

But I think right now, it's just the ability to really pursue whatever I want to pursue without that stress. Right. Like, it's like, do we want to go on a trip? Trip. Let's go on a trip. Like, do we want to invest in X? Perfect. Let's go invest next. Do we want to buy dinner for every single person in this restaurant? If we want to, let's do that. I think it's no number, and maybe that's something that I need to figure. Like, maybe it is a number. Maybe it is a bigger number, but, like, the ability to. You know, my wife is very big Disney fan, right? Kids are a very big Disney fan. We live two hours away from the parks. The ability to, on a Wednesday, be like, hey, tomorrow, Thursday, let's go to the parks. And we go. And we don't have to think about fast passes or how much the ticket is or how much the fast passes or whatever. Like, that, to me, is freedom, right?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Luis Camejo]

Maybe in the future, it's like, can we go to Hawaii, you know, on a Thursday? Like, I don't know. But the ability to do and have those experiences. Like, I'm a big football fan, soccer fan, right? We're watching the Barcelona game a couple days ago, and Luca turns around and say, oh, dad, I wish we could go to a game, right? I'm like, well, guess what? In summer, we're gonna be going to games because the club World cup is coming here, Right? The ability to pick up and, you know, buy an airplane ticket to go play. You know, we can't do that today. We will be able to do and do the Europe thing later, but that, to me, is financial freedom. To the point. It's like, we can. We can set up our life to make. To be able to make those decisions freely without having to be thinking about, like, can I afford this? Or, like, next month? Like, I need X amount of whatever. Right? Because we lived a lot of that back home with our family. So I think that was, like, one of those experiences that Mark, you were like, man, I don't want to live through that ever again.

[Travis]

Love it, dude. Great way to end the conversation. I appreciate you, Luis, for coming on and sharing the journey. Sharing some of the journey with. With everybody, listening. Look Luis immigrated here, first generation, came here with nothing and has built a company now that's. That's made multiple six figures in revenue over the last couple years. And. And doing stuff that he loves doing. And you really. That's the goal. That's the goal, man. If you can do something that you really, really enjoy and it has the upside potential to make you good money in, then downgrade the lifestyle as much as you got to downgrade it in order to be able to free up yourself to do those things. Because I promise you, you will get more satisfaction, fulfillment, chasing your dream than you will by accomplishing somebody else's dream. So that's it for this episode of Travis Makes Money podcast. Remember, money only solves money problems, but every problem becomes easier to solve if you got some money in the bank, so why not solve that one first? Luis, thanks for coming and doing this with me, bro. Hopefully we'll catch up in person again soon. Absolutely.

[Luis Camejo]

Thanks, Travis. Have a good one.