We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Charles Hawthorne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Charles, thanks for joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

I think the hardest part about scaling up any business is the time and planning. From when I first started my business I knew this is what I wanted to do full time. I currently have a full time job in the oil/gas industry and work shift work. I knew if I really wanted to do this, I would have to really commit to scale up my business. The first thing I did was become more organized and official. I filled for my LLC, got with a CPA, and set up bank accounts for my business using the profit first method. I knew if I wanted to be able to live off of my income I, needed to be able to pay myself first. Next I went out and started just doing more where I could. I shot free videos with friends, events for church, and some non-profit organizations. This helped me network and grow my clientele. Finally I pushed hard for creating content for social media. Social media can be so powerful when used right. Since then, I have landed a contact with a local gym, booked several weddings, got more day to day shoots and have gained a bigger following on social media. As someone who always wants to jump in head first, taking this approach with a small business can make it much harder in the end. Starting with a plan and being more organized has helped me so much.

Charles, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I first got into video, and photography when I was 16. I started off with a phone and GoPro and fell in love with it. For me it was always just a hobby, but over time I realized it could be much more than that. I love my current job, but it isn’t my purpose in life. I knew there was something much bigger that I could do if I followed my purpose. Since then I have really ventured into helping other businesses, and filming content for social media. I enjoy being able to capture other people pursuing their purpose, which is where my business name came about. Over the years I have done filmed/taken photos of a very wide variety of things. From weddings, to cars and real estate I have done a lot to find out what I’m good at, and what I enjoy doing. I really enjoy filming for social media and creating content for businesses. Social media is a big creative space, and allows me to put my style on things that are typically more traditional and bring things to life.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media has drifted into a video platform. On Instagram and TikTok the algorithm will really boost some content. This helped me out because my brain is very fast paced. I like quick and creative edits for my videos and these are eye catching when scrolling through social media. Consistency is key. Just be consistent. Start with one post or video a week. Stick to it, and from there start adding more. There are so many good resources online about how to grow your page. Just recently I had my first viral video. Of all the time I have spent editing, this was a 7 second behind the scene video that took me all of 10 seconds to pull my phone out and record. That video now has over 10M views and is still climbing. It can be so daunting trying to be creative and thing of the best post and staying up with the latest trends but something it’s the simple things that do the best!

How’d you meet your business partner?

My wife has always been my business partner. This is a dynamic that I feel many small businesses start as, and it can be very complicated. Separating work life and home life is hard, especially when your business is at home. If you currently have this dynamic, you are not alone! Doing business with your significant other can cause fights, and separation between you. Learning how to communicate properly, just like you would any other business a partner is so important. Treating each other with honor and respect will take you to a new level. Another thing is learning how to separate home and work life when you are at home. Along with my media business, we ran a screen print shop for a little over a year. We both learned from scratch and taught ourselves. Our shop was in our garage and our home office was a bedroom. It’s hard to escape the thoughts of work when you see it all the time. What we did was create a family space in the backyard. I spent a few days cleaning up the yard, and the patio and now love spending time with our daughter outside. If you don’t have this, find a local park or something you enjoy doing together. Connect and talk about anything but work! Make sure you have time together that isn’t work. This helps establish a good work life balance, as well as make your relationship with them stronger. In the end this will benefit both of you at home and work.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: PYP.MEDIA
• Facebook: Pursue your purpose media