Flip the Switch Episode 37: Summer Felix

SOPHIA: Today on Flip the Switch. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Summer Felix, the CEO of the Draw shop. One of Power Digital’s clients. We discuss how Summer has started a wide variety of businesses, and has found her passion in creativity. Our conversation covers life as an entrepreneur and how to stay motivated when times get tough.

Let’s get into it.

00:59 AUSTIN: Welcome to Flip the Switch presented by Power Digital Marketing. This is episode number 37. Richard Nixon.

That’s right, we decided to switch it up. We usually do a player, but we did a president because there wasn’t any good 37 athletes.

Besides the point. As always, this is a business podcast. And we’re really excited to bring you guys today… we have an interview with one of our clients from the Draw Shop. Her name is Summer Felix, she’s the CEO of the company. She brought us a ton of good information on life as a CEO. What it’s like battling through adversity to just stay motivated. And everything that comes with being an entrepreneur. So I was really excited and enjoyed it.

01:39 PAT: Yeah, it was super-useful interview. We got into a lot of great topics.

But before we spoil it for everybody, we just don’t we just go right on in.

01:46 AUSTIN: Let’s get into it.

All right, today on the show we have Summer Felix the CEO of the Draw Shop which is one of our clients here at Power Digital. We’ve been working with them for 3 years now I believe. Which is incredible.

Very thankful for the partnership. But we’re very excited to have her on. She’s going to tell us about herself and the business, and the various businesses that she’s involved in. Lots and lots of businesses.

So without further ado–Summer, thanks for joining us today.

02:18 SUMMER: Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here.

02:20 PAT: Oh yeah, we’re stoked to have you on. so just to give our… we’re familiar with you, but just to give our listeners a little bit of a background before we get into things, Would you mind just kind of explaining who you are, where you come from and what you’re all about?

02:31 SUMMER: Sure. So I like to say that I was a baby born to 2 hippies that became yuppies. But I was raised with an entrepreneur father, so I think that’s always been something that… I just felt like that was the way that you… that’s what you do.

But I… let’s see… my biggest things growing up always involved story-telling. And so I started after high school, college, I started writing a ton. I got into copywriting and fell in love with the whole story-telling aspect of it. And then I started a business with my now ex-husband. And we had that for about 9 or 10 years. And I was primarily doing copy on that.

Of course, Biz Dev. and that type of thing. But then we were married, had two kids, and we divorced and sold that business. But from that business, I learned so much about what you’re not to do.

03:32 AUSTIN: What was it that you picked up from a young age from your dad that made you have that entrepreneurial spirit or maybe that spoke to you. “This is who I’m going to be.”

03:41 SUMMER: Really it was our lifestyle was amazing. And so he was the entrepreneur that was not the workaholic. When he had to work, he worked. But he also knew how to delegate. He knew how to work with people’s strengths so that he didn’t have to be doing all of those things…

03:59 PAT: Like a work-life balance entrepreneur.

04:00 SUMMER: Exactly. And I mean, my dad was home. My dad picked me up from school every day. My mom took me to school, and my dad picked me up.

He worked from 6 AM in the morning ’til about 1 o’clock. And then that was it. In his business, he had people running it. So we had this amazing relationship. And I loved that.

Whereas I had so many friends whose dads were coming home at 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock. Or they’re like, “My dad just travels. I never see him.”

04:22 AUSTIN: Right. It’s so easy to fall into that category of just everyone is told to have that 9 to 5, and you’re going to do that…

But if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need to start to think about things a little bit differently. Which you completely have, and clearly you learned it from an awesome guy. And that’s translated into everything that you are today.

So looking back a little bit more… Pepperdine creative writing, that’s where you went. Awesome school. And also corporate communications if we’re correct there.

04:47 PAT: Is that 2 degrees?

04:49 SUMMER: So that’s an interesting story. It was a contract major. So it was a BA in Communications and Creative Writing. And so people are like… it was actually… this is technically it… a BA in Theater, minor Creative Writing. BA Theater Communications.

05:05 PAT: Oh no way.

05:06 SUMMER: So there’s that whole story-telling. So I did all kinds of plays and musicals and all that fun stuff. Went to Europe. Got to perform in the Fringe festival. And I loved it. That’s the whole story-telling thing. I love it, love it.

And I was a Theater major when I started because I did so much theater in high school. But I was like… “Pepperdine’s really expensive. I’ve got student loans. This is a lot of money on some classes I really don’t want to be doing.”

I didn’t want to be building sets and that was part of what you had to take in order to get your BA. So my theater director was like, “Well I really want you to come abroad with us.” This is like the 2nd time. “I want you to study abroad and perform in the shows.”

So I was like, “Okay.’

He was like, “Here’s what I think you should do. You can get all of these credits done. We’re going to devise a contract major for you.”

I’m like, “What’s that?”

He’s like, “You’re basically going to create your own BA.”

I was like, “Can I do that?”

He was like, “You sure can.”

And so that was like, probably one of my first experiences of having to actually be my own advocate and go out there and have to talk to the different directors of the different departments and sell what I wanted.

This is what I want and I got it signed off and that’s how I have that weird, funky major.

06:20 PAT: How valuable has that experience been for you since graduation and venturing into the business world?

06:27 SUMMER: It’s awesome. I mean, anytime that you can… you have to step out of your comfort zone and ask for something that you really want, even though you’re kind of feeling like you’re going to get rejected, is a great… it’s growth. Every single time. And so it just pushes you the next time to do it again.

06:44 PAT: It’s interesting because we hear that all the time. “You need to step out of your comfort zone.” And it’s like a widely known thing. But people have so much trouble doing it. Why do you think that is?

06:51 SUMMER: Because nobody wants to fail and feel that stomach ache of rejection. It’s so easy to talk about it. I could go on… there’s a list of failures, right? If you’re a human being you’ve had them.

And you can look back, and you can say, “Oh, I’m so glad I did that.” But in the moment, it sucks.

07:12 PAT: It hurts.

07:13 SUMMER: It hurts really bad. But you also know coming out of it how good it feels to have come through it. And you just get stronger and stronger each time to where you start to take more risks. And you don’t get anywhere unless you’re taking risks.

07:25 AUSTIN: Absolutely. I think that’s something we… that Pat and I are totally working on as we get into that second layer of being in the business world. Entering into those upper years. And you have to not be afraid of the failure side of it, because that’s totally the growing aspect of it. That experience is invaluable, which is translated to success for you. And then really exciting to hear that.

Just talking about creativity since that’s so huge. Just a little bit of backstory on the Draw Shop. It is a whiteboard animation company. So creativity is at the center of the business model. And that’s really exciting. And that just translated very well through Summer.

But take us through your creative process or kind of how that came to be and what it is for you that creativity is such a big part of your life.

08:12 SUMMER: I mean, if you really think about it… Everything that you’re doing every day is some type of creation. Whether it’s business. It might not necessarily be artwork that you’re drawing, but anything that you are doing is creating. And creating is also bringing it to reality. So it’s having an idea, and the creation process is bringing it to fruition. And so for me, it’s really… A lot of it is reverse engineering. So you have an idea, and then you go, “Okay, what does the end product look like if this is a success? What does that look like?”

And then the creation starts to come when you go, “Okay, what are the pieces that I need to make that happen?” And then now, “who are the people that I need to help me get there?”

Cause most likely it’s not going to be just you that helps you get it to fruition.

09:02 PAT: Right. That makes a lot of sense too. And it’s kind of interesting that methodology, because I’d always… And I’m not necessarily… I don’t consider myself necessarily a “creative” being. There are people that are extremely good at artwork and design. That’s guys like John and Joe.

I’m a little more the analytical guy. And I’ve always kind of thought that if you have this end-goal in mind, you need to first kind of achieve each of the individual milestones to get there. And I think that can be why people get so comfortable at times, is cause they’re just focusing… And the journey is valuable, but they’re just very in their comfort zone and they’re doing their thing. And they sometimes lose sight of that end-goal and what that’s supposed to be.

And I think that it’s… being a creative person and being able to think outside the box and have that bigger vision. Is crucial in anything that you’re doing in life for that reason.

09:49 SUMMER: Oh for sure. Absolutely. Otherwise you’re just kind of one… what’s the word? Aimlessly wandering.

09:56 PAT: Floating along.

09:57 SUMMER: You’re just kind of… and it’s just like, “Okay, whatever happens, happens.” But, you know, sometimes things do go in a different direction. But you wouldn’t have gotten there without knowing what is it that you’re trying to work towards.

10:07 PAT: Yeah, and with things going a different direction you need to be creative enough to know how to pivot and address that, right?

10:11 SUMMER: Exactly.

10:12 AUSTIN: I think creativity is totally a perspective on yourself as well. Like, we as a society really think of creativity as the drawing side of it… the web design that these guys do. But there’s totally that side of it too, of being creative in doing things like finding a new major that didn’t exist before. Or shifting your whole entire life because you have these skills, but maybe they’re not translatable long-term. That’s creativity in its own way. You didn’t draw something, but you became aware of a new situation by coming up with it in your head, and then acting on it.

So that too is don’t discount yourself simply because you’re not drawing a picture. You can be creative in a lot of ways. It’s just simply the act of imagining something and then turning it into reality.

10:50 SUMMER: Totally.

10:51 PAT: On that note actually I have a couple questions around some of the other companies that you have founded and been involved with. Can you kind of walk us…? So you graduated from Pepperdine after essentially creating your own major.

And then what were the next steps after that? You gave us a little bit of background on that first company that you started. Was that the first one or was that…?

11:06 SUMMER: That was the first one. And so under that company that I had with my ex-husband which was called Brevity, we had a bunch of other little companies. That we would build and sell. And that was at the peak of Internet. Selling information. So that’s what we were doing.

We were building sites. Selling information. And so we would build those sites up with big lists and really great revenue. And then we would sell them. And then we’d create another one.

Then we started teaching people how to do that themselves. So that just taught me a ton. But I would say it wasn’t something that I was… Any of the stuff that we were doing wasn’t really my passion. It was fun. We were making a lot of money. It was great.

But when we sold that business, it was like, “Okay. Now I really have to think about what do I wanna do?”

So I then got into ghost writing. So I was writing for crazy authors that I could only hope that I would ever meet. And so it was like that. I have to pinch myself “What, what?”

12:10 AUSTIN: That is incredible. I always think ghost writing too… it immediately popped in my head like Little Wayne or other rappers…

12:14 PAT: Yeah. Drake has ghost writers.

12:18 AUSTIN: Anyways, but yeah. Authors. Famous authors. They take on ghost writers because they probably just don’t have the time or the energy. So you were in the middle of that.

12:25 SUMMER: Right. And that’s exactly it. It has nothing to do with they can’t write. Most of these people did write their first book. But they’re so busy. They’re now going on their 9th New York Times bestselling book and they need help. And they have all of it in their head, they just need somebody to write it for them.

But it started with… I was working as a… I was doing copy, where I was writing the CTAs–Call to Actions–for infomercials. And so that then turned into “Hey, can you write this copy? Can you write our email sequences? Can you do this…?”

So many questions, and I always just said, “Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I can do that. I can do that. I did that before.”

But then I started… “Can you direct the infomercials because so-and-so isn’t able to be here?” And then all of a sudden I’m like, “Wow. I’m actually directing an infomercial. This is pretty crazy.”

13:10 PAT: Again, stepping outside of your comfort zone a little bit, right?

13:11 SUMMER: Totally stepping out. Because I wasn’t like this super-outspoken… I have to tell this kind of celebrity who’s filming their product right now that you’re not doing a good job. I need you to be a little bit more…

13:22 PAT: “Sham wow.”

13:23 SUMMER: Yeah. It was weird. But then what happened is one time on set, they were advertising “with your package, you’re going to get this free book. That’s going to tell you all of these amazing things.” And then at the end of filming, they said, “Hey, you know, so-and-so doesn’t actually have a book. That’s just the cover of the book that we designed. Can you write? Can you write the book?”

13:47 PAT: Can you write a book?

13:48 SUMMER: Yeah. And of course, me… “Totally! I can totally write the book.” Cause in my mind I’m like “If I can do this, and I could do that, I could totally write the book.” And I did it. And then the next thing it was “Oh wow. That was great. We’re going to refer you to this person who needs a book. And now this person needs one.” And then all of a sudden it just got crazy. And the thing with ghost writing and writing books, is I was writing 4 at a time. And you can’t scale that.

14:14 AUSTIN: So is there a level of efficiency you have to have? Did you have like, shortcuts to writing the books? How does that look when you’re…?

14:20 SUMMER: I developed them along the way. I definitely was going through my own learning curve in terms of the process and what I needed to know from people. And some of that stuff I brought into the Draw Shop in terms of creative briefs. Here’s what I need to know from you in order for people to take action.

And essentially that was the book was. It was a really, really long sale letter. What do we need them to do at the end?

So I really loved it in the beginning. I was traveling with really cool people. I was just getting to pick the brain of people that actually helped me in the personal development world. And business. And just so many cool things.

But I started to burn-out. And I had two young kids, and I was like, “Okay. I could take this in the direction of–which I did for a short period of time–where I have my own business, and I’ve got copywriters underneath me. And I’ve got writers, and that.

But most people were like, “But we know you. We wanna work with you.”

So eventually I met my business partner, Eric. And we had a client that we were working with together. He was at a phase where he wanted to transition out of what he was doing. He was vice-president of a company, and he was like genius in marketing and building sales funnels and all kinds of awesome things. And I knew copywriting. I knew how to do that.

And so he sent me this video that was done by Dan Pink and it was actually Dan Pink’s TED talk that was turned into a whiteboard video.

15:57 AUSTIN: I think I watched that in business school. A couple professors showed it. It was amazing.

16:03 SUMMER: It was amazing, and you know, we saw how many views that video got, and how many views the talking head version got. Just the filmed version. And it was crazy.

But he sent me just the video. That was it. He didn’t say anything. And I was like, “Oh, we have to do this.” And we just knew that there was some way that we were going to work together, because he’s really just so fun. He’s so smart. WE just had this great friend chemistry going on. And we just thought… I don’t know. We’re just really good partners.

And so the next thing you know, we were like, “all right, I have a client actually that I’m working with who needs a video. Let’s do it. And let’s test it.”

And it totally beat… it beat any video that he had before. So it was… we were like, “Wow. This is so cool.”

And then he had people that wanted to do it, and then it kind of just started to snowball. And that’s the Draw Shop.

16:53 AUSTIN: How do you transition out of where you’re at, and it’s so hard to make that jump. What did it look like for you to step away from those other positions and really get into your own thing?

17:03 SUMMER: It was hard. Because you feel, you really feel like you’re accountable to all of these other people that you’ve been working with. And I think Eric felt that way too. And there was just one day… I remember it really clearly… he called me and I’m just standing there in my bedroom, and he said, “I’m ready to go all-in. so I’ve gotta stop doing what I’m doing. You might not be ready to go there, but I’d like it if you did…”

17:30 PAT: That’s where I’m at, at least…

17:32 SUMMER: Yeah. And I was like, “Yeah. I’m ready.” And it’s a risk because you’re now saying no to business that’s right there. That want to pay you now. And you’re saying no cause you know you don’t have the bandwidth.

And before I was trying to juggle it. “I’ll build this, and I’ll do this.” But it’s not… that’s just not sustainable. If I want this business to really be something, I have to go all-in and I have to start…

And if I want the lifestyle that I’m saying I want. Where I’m not a slave to the computer all day long, then that’s what I have to do.

18:01 PAT: I’ve heard that so many times… Because we obviously listen to a good amount of podcasts too. There’s one Masters of Scale. It’s the Bloomberg. And everybody that’s on there has talked about the same thing, where it’s almost like you have to burn your ships at the harbor. Where you can’t have that safe fallback. You kind of have to have that sense of urgency about it to make that work.

Just knowing myself I think that there’d be a good amount of conflict or obstacles that come about as a result of that. Can you speak to any of that part of it as well? Cause it sounds like everything went really well, and it turned out well for you, so how did you take a look at what the obstacles were and turn that into an opportunity to still get to where you wanted to go?

18:44 SUMMER: Well, I think the biggest obstacle for anyone who’s going to jump right in and take the risk and go all-in is “How am I going to support myself now?” You either have some savings, but that’s only going to last so long. You only have like so much time now because you’ve gotta get things up and running.

Really the big opportunity that comes from it seeing what you’re made of. Because unless you put that fire under yourself, and you put that sense of urgency under yourself, you’re probably not going to perform the same as if you have a safety net. You know what I mean?

So there’s… that’s the biggest obstacle. The biggest obstacle too is starting a business… before I had 3 other people in my business. Now it’s just me and Eric, and we’re having to wear so many different hats. We have some independent contractors, and now we’ve got to figure out a whole lot of stuff. So there’s a whole bunch of things.

I’m like, “Okay. Well luckily you’ve learned mistakes from business before. I’ve learned mistakes. So we know what not to do. But now what are the things that we need to be doing?”

And I think really forever as you grow in business, that’s always happening. So I can look at today and go, “Wow. We’re doing so many awesome things. I can’t believe we even made it this far starting at this point.”

20:08 AUSTIN: And how do you balance getting into the weeds, as you’re saying. Cause you’re wearing so many different hats. how do you balance that very low level, I’m in the details to that high-level, I still need to understand where the business is going 3, 5 years down the road. How do you balance those 2 and really make sure that you’re putting your time where it needs to go?

20:24 SUMMER: You know, I think… and hopefully this answers…

20:28 AUSTIN: That was a long-winded question, so it’s okay if it’s not the perfect answer.

20:33 SUMMER: No, it’s okay, but I hope this brings value, because we’re going through this now. You go through a period where for the last few years I would say, things are just kind of on cruise control. And it’s like our team is… our business is a self-managed business. Everybody knows what they are to be doing. Eric and I can leave the country for 2 months and we’re good.

But then, like any business, you’re like, “Well, I want more. I want to grow more. And we have demand here. How are we going to be at the forefront? We have more competition now, how are we going to win?”

All of those things, and we now have… because we were on cruise control we were starting up other businesses. So we have other businesses that our attention was going to.

So what happens, I think, with every business owner is that you have to at periods of time… sure, you want a self-managed company, but there’s periods of time, that you want to grow, that you have to step right back in. And you have to build a whole new set of skills and you have to get all different things in place. You need to add new marketing tools. You need to add new lead sources. You need to add new salespeople. You need to add new people to your team. That are better, stronger, all that good stuff.

And you have to do that. Because it’s your baby, it’s your business. You love it. And it’s fun doing it, too.

But I think you also have to build it and jump in there knowing that you then get to step outside again. And then keep that high level. So it’s like you’re working on the business, and then you step out and you just kind of view and keep playing that leadership role, I guess.

22:08 AUSTIN: It just seems like it’s so much trial and error. The experience that you’ve had. Because you’ve been through so many different situations of being in the weeds, and then also managing. And creating and managing and then stepping back in.

So I’m sure there’s something within you that allows you to know when it’s time. “I’ve been deep in, now I need to take this high-level overview of the entire company and the entire playing field and understand where we’re going.

22:31 PAT: I think it’s a pretty interesting parallel to something that you were saying before. Because you were talking about how the creative process is you have this envisionment of what you want to achieve. And then you have these steps that you put in place to get there. And it sounds like when that vision changes, you have to go back and re-evaluate the steps that you’re taking to get there.

22:48 SUMMER: Yes.

22:49 PAT: And I think that, you know, just in speaking with you it sounds sort of like that creative aspect and the creative problem solving part of it is what is really helping drive that forward. And probably why you’re taking on the responsibility of wearing so many different hats right now.

23:00 SUMMER: It’s fun though, because you’re just constantly learning. So you start to learn things that you weren’t, maybe, totally paying attention to before. But it’s awesome. And the cool thing, like you said, is it’s trial and error. It’s constant testing. You’re always testing new things which is fun cause you get to see what works, what doesn’t work. And you just keep growing as a result. It’s awesome.

You’re never… I don’t think you’re ever a finished product, you know?

23:27 AUSTIN: Sure. And you have such a great energy about you. Positivity. It just radiates through the room right now, and then through all the businesses that you have. How do you keep that going?

It just seems like it’d be so difficult with all the trials and tribulations. What’s your secret, I guess?

23:43 PAT: I’d get worn out.

23:44 AUSTIN: Right, yeah. What’s your secret?

23:46 SUMMER: People ask me this a lot and I’m all about… First of all, I try to educate myself all the time. So I’m always taking in tips, tools to be healthy, well-balanced, business… all that stuff. But honestly, time management is huge for me. So I’m all about how do you move the needle every single day. And for me I can’t do that if I’m overwhelmed and just have a list of things to do. I actually have to have a schedule of this is when I answer emails, or this is the day for emails, and the day for getting caught up on things. This is the day for super-focused work. This is the day to bring these projects to life. Whatever it is, but I just have everything time-managed to the point of “This is the time I have to workout. This is the time that I now checkout and I’m just going to be with my family.” Or this weekend, I might work on Saturday, but Sunday’s totally free. Or I’m taking the entire weekend off.”

I just have to have it scheduled instead of just reacting to everything that’s thrown at me.

24:42 AUSTIN: Absolutely. That’s incredible advice.

24:46 PAT: Yeah. I was gonna say. I’m thinking about my schedule right now.

24:50 AUSTIN: Hopefully everyone listening right now is doing the same thing. Where you’re just thinking about all the things you’ve done, and then if you’re doing that. Cause it’s chaotic. Life is chaotic.

24:55 SUMMER: Yeah, and I don’t really know… to be honest, I don’t really know. My definition of balance is just being able to keep things clear in my brain. That’s how I can stay balanced, if that even makes sense. Cause balance… I don’t feel misbalanced if one day I have a whole family day and no work. Or I’ve had 2 weeks of mostly work and no free time. Because then I might have to…

I don’t know. I don’t really… I guess I’ve never really understood exactly what balance is. I might use the word, but to me it’s just keep yourself clear, know what you’re doing, know where you’re going. It’s too confusing and energy sucking not to know what you’re doing.

25:36 PAT: Yeah. And I think that too, just being able to really dive into one thing. You’re eventually going to get passionate about what you’re concentrating on. So if you’re able to divvy up your day into, like… okay, I have super-focused work right now. You know that that’s what you chose to do right then. So why not go after it with your full-fledged effort and emotionality, right?

25:56 SUMMER:

25:57 PAT: That’s a really interesting take. That’s a commonality that we’ve seen in a lot of people… CEOs like yourself that we’ve interviewed is they’re extremely gifted with the time management side of things. And they have a very positive outlook on life. And I have always thought that those things were just kind of coincidental. But it’s sounding more and more like it’s causal, right? That’s a really interesting way to look at that.

26:18 AUSTIN: Yes, it is, Pat.

26:19 PAT: I have a question for you. What’s one piece of advice that you would give an aspiring, young executive or entrepreneur based on the experience that you’ve had? It can be more than one, also… It doesn’t have to be one.

26:31 SUMMER: Okay. I mean, honestly, what comes to mind and what I would tell someone is you constantly have to be learning. So listen to podcasts like this, because you’re going to get one little… It might just be one, tiny little thing, but those little things are the things that tweak what you would normally do, and move the needle…

26:49 PAT: We could listen to your podcast too though, right?

26:51 SUMMER: You could listen to my podcast, too.

26:54 PAT: You could listen to “Get Genius.” It’s a podcast that Summer hosts as well that does exactly that. It pulls out the one little nugget of genius that people have within them. And it’s trying to impart that wisdom on the listener.

27:02 SUMMER: Exactly. Cause sometimes it is that thing. It’s like, you hear one thing and you go, “Oh.” You hear it differently… you might have heard it once before, but if you just keep listening to that type of language. Or listen to audiobooks, and your brain starts to just operate on those levels.

27:17 AUSTIN: Probably my favorite thing about this show is when we have guests on like yourself. Cause we get to pick up this information where… this is not a normal setting, right? You and I have never in our time working together sat down and had a conversation like this. So it’s such a wonderful moment where we just get to understand each other’s perspective.

What you think about, what you’ve been through. And all that wonderful information. So I agree. Podcasts are amazing to learn about people and then have these conversations and asking questions like this.

Everybody has the ability, I think, to have a conversation with people around them about these type of things. And what they can pick up and learn about from an individual’s experience is huge. So I think I agree with you on that. It’s the little tidbits that you get from people and their experience that keeps you going and learning.

27:59 SUMMER: Yup. Oh yeah. Absolutely.

28:01 PAT: What’s one…? I got another one… What’s one piece of advice that you would give an aspiring young executive or entrepreneur if they are facing an obstacle currently that they feel that they can’t get over?

28:13 SUMMER: So really, don’t give up. Because the people that give up are the ones that fail. It’s okay to fail, and I don’t even mean that. It might be that you’re failing. What I mean is keep going, keep going. Because there is always no matter what, opportunity from every single obstacle, every single failure. You might not see what it is, but it will come to fruition whether it’s right afterwards, or whether it’s a year later sometimes that happens.

But just don’t let it drag you down, and just listen to positive things and focus on the positive things that are happening. Focus on the solution to the problem, rather than all the icky things about the obstacle. Because that’s what people tend to do. And then it’s just negative, negative, negative. Instead of going, “I’m going to be focused on the solution.”

29:02 PAT: Right. And you don’t want to let it bog down the other aspects of your life. Because you’re trying to achieve that balance too, right?

29:07 SUMMER: Right. Exactly.

29:08 AUSTIN: Absolutely. Wow. That was a solid finish. We’re going to leave on that note. Some positivity to take away from the day.

But Get Genius is the podcast. Is it on iTunes?

29:16 SUMMER: It is on iTunes. Yes.

29:18 AUSTIN: Awesome. So go ahead. Check it out there if you have a chance. She has a lot of her own clients on there too, so you got a lot of amazing stories like this I’m sure, and all that good stuff.

So thank you so much Summer for coming on. It’s been awesome.

29:29 SUMMER: Thank you so much.

29:35 PAT: Awesome interview. I really think that just her perspective on everything and her positivity and the way that she was able to really articulate the creative process in a way that applies outside the realm of just writing or drawing was…

29:48 AUSTIN: I had this moment where you really think about creativity differently. And I expressed that in my own way. But it really is. It’s outside of just the drawing or what we perceive to be creativity.

Creativity is dreaming up something and applying it. So it’s turning something into a reality which she has totally done in so many different ways. And the positivity is really what radiates through her and into the room.

So really exciting, inspiring interview.

30:12 PAT: Yeah. Great time. Hopefully you guys found it as useful as we did. That just about wraps everything up for us here on Flip the Switch episode 37. Presented by Power Digital Marketing. Thank you again for joining us. We’ll be back next week with a brand spanking new episode. But in the meantime this has been Pat Kreidler, Austin Mahaffy, John Saunders, Joe Hollerup signing off.