Zave is a serial entrepreneur who has have spent a lifetime taking on hard challenges and building teams. From leading infantry soldiers into war zones to building ad-hoc teams that allowed him to become an award-winning commercial photographer, and for the last seven years, helping to create team Xhilarate, a booming brand design agency.

He is currently working on a new venture, My Back Yard. MyBkYd is a collaboration between branding agency, Xhilarate and Zave Smith Photography, the online collection of human interest stories told through images and video is their way to help increase traffic for these small businesses while giving back to the community they’ve always called home.

Key Moments

[03:31] Photographed people going back to work in Philadelphia.

[08:37] Balancing work and personal growth as entrepreneur.

[11:33] Big city, small community, networking for opportunities.

[13:26] Perfect technique allows instinctual, heartfelt photography.16:14 Enjoyable collection of 21 sweet interviews available.

Find Zave Online

https://www.zavesmith.com

https://www.xhilarate.com

https://www.mybkyd.com

If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please give us a review on the podcast directory of your choice. We’re on all of them and these reviews really help others find the show.

GoodPods: https://gmwd.us/goodpods

iTunes: https://gmwd.us/itunes Podchaser: https://gmwd.us/podchaser

Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee

Follow Seth Online:

Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) • Instagram: Instagram.com/s3th.me

Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein

Seth On Mastodon: https://s3th.me/@pch

Seth’s Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com

Transcript Provided by CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, so the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneur’s Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneurs and the As I say, I’ve done 200 episodes of this, which I have.

Seth [00:00:37]:
So I have a good buddy of mine, Dave Smith, on the line today. He is a continent marketer. He is a photographer extraordinaire. He is a visionary in the Philadelphia, Texas Seeing the kids here explode right now. He has a new project on my well, it’s my backyard, but it’s spelled my borg yard. And it highlights, Individuals in the Philadelphia area, in our backyard, hence the the name. And It’s a really neat project, and it really I think it hones in on all Zay’s, specialties of sorts. You know, his his creativity and whatnot.

Seth [00:01:16]:
And if the name rings a bell, Zay was one, I think, was, like, the 1st or 2nd interview I had on this podcast way back when. So he’s making a second appearance. He is the only other person other than Zayd to have a 2nd appearance as Jason Foster’s had 3 because he’s special. But, you know, Zayd is special too. That’s what he’s going. He got to get on a second time. He’s always up to something, so let’s bring Zav in here and see what he’s up to now. He’s always up to always up to something good.

Zave [00:01:41]:
Good morning.

Seth [00:01:42]:
How’s it going, buddy?

Zave [00:01:43]:
I’m good. I’m good this morning.

Seth [00:01:45]:
That’s great. And it’s a cold day here in Philly. It’s gonna be even colder when this episode comes out because it’s gonna come out in January, and we’re recording this in November right before the way before Turkey Day in America. So

Zave [00:01:58]:
Yeah. We’re gonna have a house full of people starting to Send here on Tuesday, so

Seth [00:02:03]:
Oh, geez.

Zave [00:02:04]:
No, I love it. I love it.

Seth [00:02:06]:
We found all the kids running around. It’s grandpa, grandpa, grandpa, Grandpa, grandpa, grandpa. I’m trying to work, guys. Yeah. I know there’s no work when everyone’s in the house.

Zave [00:02:14]:
No. They They we had Tuesday evening, so it’s really just Wednesday.

Seth [00:02:20]:
Oh, that’s not bad. Because Wednesdays, no one’s to talk to you anyhow, on that day anyhow. So

Zave [00:02:24]:
Yeah. I wouldn’t work on Wednesday anyhow.

Seth [00:02:26]:
Exactly. You’re not allowed to. My kids off on on Wednesday, so it’s kinda like, alright. I gotta take them to the eye doctor. That should be not fun. So Anyhow, enough of our side rant here. What is my backyard? Like, what and how do you come up with it? It’s kind of clever.

Zave [00:02:41]:
My backyard is it just kind of, fell into place. Oh. You know, I’m basically a commercial photographer who specializes in life in portraiture. And when COVID first hit, the commercial photography world did a Houdini. You know, just there was nothing going on. Nothing. Yeah. And after a month or two of sitting around the house, I think by let’s see.

Zave [00:03:05]:
We locked down mid March Yes. 2019. I think it was. So

Seth [00:03:11]:
no, it was March of 2020.

Zave [00:03:13]:
2020. You’re right. Yeah.

Seth [00:03:14]:
So 19. No way. It was March of 20. Yeah. It was March of 2020, it was again mid March. Yeah.

Zave [00:03:20]:
2020. So by the beginning of May, I Couldn’t stand being at home anymore.

Seth [00:03:27]:
I’m sure your wife is more it was more your wife saying get the hell out of the house.

Zave [00:03:31]:
No. She was really not happy about me doing this. I I messed up and geared up and decided to go do some photography of people who are back to work. That was what the series was called. So I went in various Philadelphia neighborhoods, and I photographed the the people who were back to work back then with security people, construction people, Some grocery people. Yeah. Grocery people. And did this ended up doing a bunch of different neighborhoods, and it was a still photography project that was well received.

Zave [00:04:02]:
I was really happy with it. So what happened is in the spring of this year, I had a couple days that I was a little slow.

Seth [00:04:11]:
And I thought, you know what? As shocking as you’re never slow. You’re always

Zave [00:04:14]:
up to something.

Seth [00:04:14]:
You’re always up to something.

Zave [00:04:16]:
Always up to something. So, I I decided to go back and and think, why don’t I go revisit some of these neighborhoods and see what’s going on now, what the changes are. So I took my camera, And I just happened to go to Reading Terminal, was the 1st place I stopped. I don’t know why I went there. Maybe I was hungry. I don’t know.

Seth [00:04:35]:
So you’re Jewish, and we like to eat. So go for it.

Zave [00:04:37]:
So I went down there, and I I spent, a couple hours just photographing. And I came back and I showed my business partners that exhilarates some of the shots I did, and and Michael McDonald, who is our creative director and and artist just went bananas and said, we gotta turn this into this project. And the My Backyard website, we had developed for another thing About 4 or 5 years ago, they just we never did anything with it. And you haven’t you

Seth [00:05:05]:
had a domain name, so might might as well use it.

Zave [00:05:07]:
It was we had the domain name.

Seth [00:05:08]:
We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.

Zave [00:05:12]:
We had the, WordPress, you know, structure. And so we just decided to apply that to these new photos and start this new project up. Now the the interesting thing here was the pivot I had to do because What started as a still photography project wasn’t really working on this new website. It really had to be A video project. And to be quite honest, I’ve never shot, like, guerrilla style 1 man band impromptu Videos. Oh, up

Seth [00:05:45]:
for a challenge. There you go.

Zave [00:05:46]:
So I I went back to Reading Terminal. I turned my little, Canon R5, Stuck a good shotgun mic on it and, went and started interviewing the people who worked there, the people who shopped there, The people who started businesses there. And I I had, like, you know, 6 questions

Seth [00:06:06]:
Yeah.

Zave [00:06:06]:
Asked them and filmed it. And it and and, you know, because of who I am, I most of the questions reflected around the business of being in the writing terminal.

Seth [00:06:18]:
Yeah. If anyone is running internal, it’s a bustling marketplace of like stalls and shops and stuff. And it’s it’s very eclectic, very Philly.

Zave [00:06:27]:
Yeah. And it’s been around for about a hun over a 100 years now.

Seth [00:06:30]:
Oh, yeah.

Zave [00:06:32]:
I think it was started 18/93, if I remember After

Seth [00:06:35]:
the railroad used to be around, and they used to go in right above it.

Zave [00:06:39]:
So I, I went back and I started doing these video interviews. And after doing 3 or 4 of them, I thought, you know, I have no idea what I’m doing here. So I went on YouTube, and I decided to Google, Interviews, right, you know, I said Google, like, shorts about writing terminal, and, you know, about half dozen popped up, and they were all about the food, like close ups of the The grease coming off the sandwich, the cheese steaks or whatnot or or the donuts.

Seth [00:07:05]:
Now I’m hungry. Thanks, Dave.

Zave [00:07:07]:
Yeah. I know. And I thought, You know, it never occurred to me to do anything about the food. I just wasn’t interested in that, but I was interested in the people, their stories, Why they’re there, what they like about working there or not like about working there, what is it like to own a business in the Reading Terminal?

Seth [00:07:25]:
Yeah.

Zave [00:07:25]:
And that’s what the stories were about. So in each location, we’ve shot 3 locations already. We shot the Reading Terminal, Italian Market, and old city, and I’m currently almost

Seth [00:07:35]:
done areas. Yeah. Yeah.

Zave [00:07:36]:
And I’m currently almost done with Manayunk. Oh, that’s

Seth [00:07:40]:
my area. Yeah.

Zave [00:07:40]:
Yes. So we’ve we’ve, I’ve selected Six establishments, not necessarily all businesses. I’ve tried to make it diverse as possible, but 6 establishments, and I’ve gone in there and talked to the owner Or the manager, or there’s some people who either work there or shop there, and ask them about what is it like to be In, you know, old city, or what is it like to be in the Italian market? And that’s become the core of what my backyard’s about.

Seth [00:08:08]:
I love it. And that’s one of the beauties of to swing it back on to entrepreneurship, which is what the whole idea of this podcast is. Because you’re an entrepreneur, you can do this kind of project. You can say, hey. Look. I have an idea. Let’s run with it.

Zave [00:08:21]:
Yeah. It’s exactly that. You know? When you’re an entrepreneur, you do have a lot of pressures on your time. Your calendar is Probably, you know, the managing your calendar is probably even more important than managing your cash flow. Right? Oh, it’s it’s

Seth [00:08:35]:
incredibly Frustrating.

Zave [00:08:37]:
Yeah. What is my priority today? You know, is it marketing? Is it, hiring? Is it, you know, improving the product? What is but, you know, one thing about being what I do is Developing as an artist, as a photographer, as a videographer is also there. That’s how we improve our product and make yourselves more competitive. So, you know, I can justify going to take a, you know, couple hours off in an afternoon and and hanging out in in the Reading Terminal or Italian market. And I I just loved it. I I love the people I met there. They’re just, like, amazingly Warm and friendly and interesting and passionate like most entrepreneur one of the things I love about entrepreneurs, they’re a bit like artist, Is they’re crazy usually crazy passionate about what they do.

Seth [00:09:25]:
Or just crazy or just crazy in general.

Zave [00:09:27]:
Or just crazy, you know? Yeah. But it’s actually the passion that that attracts me, not so much the craziness.

Seth [00:09:33]:
Yeah.

Zave [00:09:35]:
And the people who who own places in Reading Terminal or Italian Market or You know, they, a lot of them didn’t like set out in life to do what they’re doing, but they ended up there and they found or find it Very fulfilling.

Seth [00:09:50]:
It is. And that’s part of that’s part of the goal is to find a job that you want to do.

Zave [00:09:55]:
Yes. And and,

Seth [00:09:56]:
you know, some sometimes that involves being your own boss, which is really cool. I mean yeah.

Zave [00:10:02]:
Yeah. You know, I don’t remember who said it, but if you find something you love to do, you not have to work a day in your life? Which isn’t quite true.

Seth [00:10:08]:
Because it’s not quite true. Because you’re still working.

Zave [00:10:10]:
I mean, I mean, I enjoy the taxes. I mean, you got to pay just work.

Seth [00:10:14]:
I mean, come on now. This is total work though. It’s always it’s always

Zave [00:10:17]:
Oh, you gotta put up with people like Seth. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff you have to do.

Seth [00:10:21]:
It’s networking. But, I mean, that’s the whole thing. Like, last night, I went out to 2 networking events. I mean, I enjoy it. It’s still, would I rather do something else? Yeah. I know. But it’s part of the business and I enjoy it. I enjoy meeting people and Schmoozing and networking and find business that way.

Zave [00:10:39]:
But events are interesting because when I was younger, I used to go to networking events thinking, where can I find a client? What can I get out of this? Right?

Seth [00:10:48]:
Yeah.

Zave [00:10:48]:
And that never worked. You know, when you’re when you’re you’re that hungry, no one wants to be never find it. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, about 10 years ago, I had a change in my mindset where I went to networking events Just out of curiosity, who are these people? What do they do? Why do they do it?

Seth [00:11:05]:
Yeah.

Zave [00:11:06]:
And that’s when I found networking events to be Much more enjoyable and much more, profitable.

Seth [00:11:12]:
Yeah. It’s you don’t go in there hungry, you go in there and meet people. Because it’s if you go in there thinking that it’s gonna be your your next deal that day, it’s completely wrong. You go in there to build a relationship. You go in there to meet the people. Like, I met They’ve on a virtual networking event, I think it was Startupbox. I met you before then. I think I met you before then, somewhere.

Seth [00:11:33]:
I mean, it’s it’s a small community. It’s a big city, but small community. But, like, we became friends to start a box, but it’s like I wasn’t go I wasn’t going there to This is our main business. I was going there to meet people like Zay that are interesting that, you know, might eventually turn into business, might turn into podcast guest. I mean, at that point, I I think entrepreneurs, the name was has was starting up around then. Yeah. Or during this pandemic project. So yeah.

Seth [00:11:57]:
So Now I’m gonna change this this question on the head a little bit. I’m not sure if you had this question back when you were on the podcast in the very beginning, but when you’re out about doing your projects, it could be my backyard. It could be at your in your commercial photography, but, like, both woo woo in the metaphysical and, like, hyperbole and literally, what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time besides the camera?

Zave [00:12:24]:
Curiosity.

Seth [00:12:26]:
You’re full of that. So yeah.

Zave [00:12:28]:
Yeah. I mean, you have to, If you’re photographing a person or interviewing the person Mhmm. And if you don’t care about what they’re doing or what they’re saying, it’s gonna be dull. It’s gonna be

Seth [00:12:40]:
bold. Yeah.

Zave [00:12:42]:
And, fortunately, I’m still an extremely curious person. I I find the world to be a mysterious a mysterious wonderful place.

Seth [00:12:51]:
Yeah.

Zave [00:12:52]:
And, I think curiosity. The second thing is, you know, you do have to have your technical chops.

Seth [00:13:00]:
Yes.

Zave [00:13:00]:
You do have to know what you’re doing technically to execute your vision, because if you Words

Seth [00:13:07]:
will take a lot longer to do.

Zave [00:13:09]:
Well or or, you know, your brains only got so many, like, you know, 15 got 20 gallons of gas in any afternoon.

Seth [00:13:16]:
So you’re

Zave [00:13:17]:
spending 15 gallons of that trying to remember how to drive the car, you’re not gonna enjoy the scenery. Right?

Seth [00:13:23]:
Exactly. Good good analogy. I like that. That’s a good one.

Zave [00:13:26]:
So you got to have your technique down so it’s it’s almost, or is a reflex. And that just takes a lot of practice, and that just takes a lot of growth. But if you have your your technical stuff Down, so you don’t have to sit there and worry about exposure or f stops. If you have the other thing is you have to You have to let go and really connect to what your heart is telling you, what your your gut instinct is telling you. Like, if you go in a situation and you’re you’re framing someone up and you go, this is what my client likes, and and it’s all in your head, But your eyes and your eyes and your heart are telling you, oh my god. This is boring. Then you gotta have the guts and the freedom And the, chutzpah to go, let’s change it. We’re halfway through this, but this isn’t working.

Zave [00:14:21]:
Let’s change it. You gotta do a pivot. And a pivot in in art and a pivot in business is the same thing. You let go of what’s making you safe or what’s expected, And you go for what’s going to work. You have to be radically honest with yourself that this is not working. Let’s go here because this could, and then maybe it does.

Seth [00:14:43]:
And if it doesn’t, you know what you do? You pivot again. You keep pivoting until you hit something. Yeah. And hope you don’t hit a wall, but, you know, you you keep going. You keep pivoting and adjusting and tweaking. Just like you’re a good photographer, like, you’re Take your photo, you look at it in the view in, you know, the now, you know, nowadays, you look at it in the little screen, like, alright. Well, that was okay. I’m taking that picture.

Seth [00:15:02]:
You make an adjustment. Same thing as as you you adjust things. You change f stop in business.

Zave [00:15:07]:
Yeah. Exactly. It’s, what’s the market doing? I always I used to have to joke about, marketing, that if your goal is to chase the market, You’ll never get there because the market is it’s like playing pin the tail on the donkey, except that you’re not only blindfolded Blindfolded, but the donkey’s moving.

Seth [00:15:30]:
Oh, that’s gonna be really hard.

Zave [00:15:32]:
So what you’ve gotta do is just be really true to your vision of what you think is gonna work. Now the market doesn’t like it, it’s gonna tell you. You gotta be in dialogue with it. Right? Yeah. But you can’t just chase it. You gotta you gotta have some integrity.

Seth [00:15:48]:
Absolutely. I mean, that’s another thing that always carry with you all the time. It’s integrity and curiosity and being willing to pivot. I love that, dude. So people can I so people will it’s my backyard? It’s my b k y d dot

Zave [00:16:01]:
com. What is it? You have

Seth [00:16:02]:
an address somewhere. Put it on a ticket. I put it on a different

Zave [00:16:06]:
Yeah. Mybkyd.com,

Seth [00:16:09]:
with It’s a web two point o spelling. That’s what it is. We’ll put it in the show notes so people can, like, just click on

Zave [00:16:14]:
And I I think they’ll find it, it’s it’s kinda sweet. It’s a very sweet and enjoyable thing. There’s, 21 interviews up there now. By the time this comes out, there’ll probably be another 6 or so, plus a little bit of intro with yours yours truly. It’s it’s not meant for people to go through every single video. I don’t expect anyone to do that. But it’s, it’s it’s meant to, like, You know, go watch this one, and tomorrow go watch that one. And I think you’ll find it enjoyable.

Seth [00:16:43]:
For a break. It’s good for a break in the day. Right. You want the human interest piece, Go see Zay even his smile and

Zave [00:16:50]:
And it’s more fun than Facebook where everyone’s just telling you how great they are.

Seth [00:16:53]:
Or how bad the world is. 1 of the 2. Yeah. Okay. Jose, this has been so grim. So glad I got you back on. I got to fill a big I got to fill a big question at you, which was fun. So that was cool.

Zave [00:17:05]:
Cool. Okay.

Seth [00:17:07]:
And we’ll see everyone, guess what, next time. Yay!

Zave [00:17:11]:
Take care, Seth. Good to talk to you.

Seth [00:17:13]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than The Marketing Podcast Network at marketingpodcasts .net. Goldstein hopes you have enjoyed this episode.