00;00;48;12 – 00;01;11;29
Jim Serpico
Welcome to Bread for the People. I’m Jim Serpico. My next guest is an, I would classify her as an old friend, even though it was probably eight years ago. We were sitting on set next to each other in Video Village on this series of Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll. At times I was directing, at times I was producing.
00;01;12;16 – 00;01;49;00
Jim Serpico
But Abby was up at the monitors, focusing and taking everything in and between takes was tapping away on her laptop. Just because I believe you were potentially answering customer questions for your brother’s business. But before we go into that, I have Abby Walla with me. Abby Walla is an actress, writer, producer, entrepreneur, dog lover, and co-founder of Crushing It On Camera.
00;01;49;18 – 00;01;50;24
Jim Serpico
It’s good to see you, Abby.
00;01;51;03 – 00;02;00;06
Abby Walla
Good to see you. And I love that description of me typing probably way too loud on my laptop. It takes lots of clacking.
00;02;00;21 – 00;02;05;14
Jim Serpico
Your brother has a very successful business. I don’t remember what it is.
00;02;06;00 – 00;02;19;08
Abby Walla
Yeah, he actually exited it at this point. So he had his business was Hello Sign, which was acquired by Dropbox. And so he stayed there for a while throughout the transition. And he’s, he’s, he’s now a free man.
00;02;19;27 – 00;02;23;17
Jim Serpico
And you were kind of like helping out and on the side.
00;02;23;26 – 00;02;25;08
Abby Walla
Yeah. What are you.
00;02;25;08 – 00;02;26;16
Jim Serpico
Doing on that laptop?
00;02;26;18 – 00;02;47;01
Abby Walla
Was I doing what was I clocking? I used to work in their customer support team, so I would be like answering any technical tickets or things like that. That was my, like, side hustle. And that was perfect because I’m based in Los Angeles. But like, I flew out to New York to help out on the show. And so in between, I was doing my thing.
00;02;47;17 – 00;03;04;10
Jim Serpico
That’s pretty great. So you do a lot of things. You’re a working actress in Hollywood, you’ve been on Veep, and you’ve recurred on a series a while ago called Switched at Birth. So you’re amongst all the other things. Are you still going out for acting auditions?
00;03;04;29 – 00;03;28;08
Abby Walla
Yeah, definitely. So the pandemic was obviously for everybody. It was weird. And during the time I really doubled down and focused on my business, crushing on camera, and then in the last, I would say like six months or so, I have been able to really like turn the dial up again on acting and all of that. And so, so yeah, and audition yesterday, still doing the thing.
00;03;28;27 – 00;04;04;07
Jim Serpico
That’s pretty cool. I mean, the thing about you that I know is you really put your mind to what it is you’re going to do and there’s no half assing, right? There’s like, we’re going to figure this out and we’re going to crush it shortly after the series ended, you and David Staats wrote a short film called Holiday Hostage, and you wanted to make it your business to get this produced, get to film festivals, and there was nothing going to stop you.
00;04;04;15 – 00;04;23;09
Jim Serpico
I remember meeting you and David out in L.A. and I knew it was going to get done and ultimately it did. And you guys do it in a big way. You got a name director, you got besides you guys being in it, you got name actors and actresses, and ultimately you got it to how many film festivals with this movie?
00;04;24;05 – 00;04;59;09
Abby Walla
You don’t know how many we and we ended up doing. But yeah, we won like best comedy and I think like five different festivals, you know, best ensemble, different things. So yeah, so we, we did the whole thing. It was like it was such a fun experience to be able to. I would say there’s, there’s nothing like being in like a random town in, like the middle of Colorado or Texas or something, and just like watching your film in a room full of hundreds of strangers and just like hearing them laugh at it, hearing what they resonate with that was like such a uniquely special experience to get to travel around and show that movie.
00;04;59;25 – 00;05;20;25
Jim Serpico
Yeah, Why did you do it? Why did you put all that effort? I mean, chances are that movie alone wasn’t necessarily going to make any profit, right? I’ve done these short films and I think I know why you’ve done them, why you did this one. But I want to hear from you. You know, what’s going through your mind?
00;05;20;25 – 00;05;47;02
Jim Serpico
Because listen, you’re in a profession in terms of being an actress. That’s very hard for people to realize, like how many times actors and actresses go out to auditions and there are hundreds of people going up for the same role. And when you don’t get a role, the way of finding out, you don’t get a role is by never hearing anything.
00;05;48;13 – 00;05;52;12
Abby Walla
Right? You’re like, Oh, I guess they’re in love. It must be hard in a different direction.
00;05;52;23 – 00;06;02;10
Jim Serpico
It’s not like they send you a polite letter saying, No, you didn’t get it, you just never hear. And that’s the standard all suffer.
00;06;02;12 – 00;06;16;16
Abby Walla
Or do they just go with, you know, a guy instead of a girl? You know what happened? Oh, yeah, I can confirm that the short film made no money. If that was your first question. The intent behind it, I would say it kind of.
00;06;16;16 – 00;06;25;27
Jim Serpico
But by the way, none of them make money, right? So that’s not a failure. That’s not a failure. It’s just we’re all we’re usually doing these things for another reason.
00;06;26;03 – 00;06;45;22
Abby Walla
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. So it making money was definitely never the goal with it. So it kind of goes back to I would say, you know, I came on to L.A. when I was 16 years old to go to summer school at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. They invited me back to the full-time program.
00;06;46;00 – 00;07;04;23
Abby Walla
I went home, graduated high school early because I was just like, I’m done here and I need to get out to L.A. And so I moved out here when I was 17 on my own. And I’ve just always had an entrepreneurial spirit since I was a kid. I was always, you know, I love your side hustle shirt that you’re wearing right now.
00;07;04;24 – 00;07;32;28
Abby Walla
Yeah, I always had one side hustle or another. And I think from moving out here so young, I always came with the intention in of like, this is a one-way ticket, you know, like I’m doing the dang thing and I’m a as much as I love acting and that’s my passion and my number one priority, I’ve always been a realist about not wanting to sit by the phone and wait for it to never ring like you’re saying.
00;07;32;28 – 00;07;58;03
Abby Walla
It’s not even like we’re getting the phone calls of the rejections or just hearing nothing. And so from pretty early on of me moving out here, I was like, Oh, I can’t, you know, from being an acting class, not being able to find a scene that I wanted to work on, I was like, What if I write something and, you know, starting to kind of play around with that too, you know, initially just to be like to have more fun stuff to work on, to be able to shoot stuff with friends like all of that.
00;07;58;11 – 00;08;22;02
Abby Walla
And so I would say that evolution continued into what eventually became Holiday Hostage was like, I know what I’m good at. I know what my brand is, my type is David and I very much have overlapping senses of humor. And, you know, we were just like, why have we not written together? Why don’t we take what we both love to do, and put it together?
00;08;22;02 – 00;08;46;15
Abby Walla
David had already done the film festival on the producing side, and so we really like, put our skills together to be able to create that. But it was really just about wanting to get something out there that we were proud of and reflected on what we felt like we could do. And to be able to use that as a stepping stone for more opportunities versus, you know, it wasn’t the goal of it becoming a feature or making money.
00;08;46;15 – 00;08;50;21
Abby Walla
It was just like, we want to put something out there that’s going to lead to more opportunities. And it definitely did that.
00;08;51;08 – 00;09;28;15
Jim Serpico
Yeah, I remember we did a kind of in our mind it was a pilot, but we did it as a short film for many different reasons and we did shop it to television networks and we also went through the film festival circuit and we took it to one of the academy Award qualifying festivals in Derry, Northern Ireland, and it was amazing because we met a lot of friends that we still talk to today from that festival from England.
00;09;30;09 – 00;09;38;19
Jim Serpico
It was just it it’s a great opportunity to meet people all over the country, all over the world and network, because a big part of this business is networking. Right?
00;09;39;00 – 00;09;39;24
Abby Walla
Exactly.
00;09;40;05 – 00;09;59;19
Jim Serpico
I mean, and it comes from people with investors. You never know who’s going to invest in your product. You never know who’s going to hire you as an actress. Right. Because you acted you were the lead in or one of the leads in the movie. You co-wrote the movie. So now people are looking at you as a writer.
00;10;00;01 – 00;10;04;18
Jim Serpico
And you mean these people all over the place. So it’s a great way to do it.
00;10;05;03 – 00;10;21;28
Abby Walla
And I think it’s the common thing in the industry where it’s like everybody’s got an idea. And so if you’re someone who can like take the idea and actually execute on it and be like, okay, I had an idea. I put in the work, I did the thing and now I have something to show for it. I think that that’s really powerful too.
00;10;21;28 – 00;10;40;06
Abby Walla
So it’s not just like all these genius ideas living up in your head. It’s like you can actually get something done. And, and it was also a tremendous learning experience because we did crowdfunding with it. We had to raise money like we didn’t have the money in our bank account to be able to make that happen. We wanted to be able to do it union and everything too.
00;10;40;06 – 00;11;01;00
Abby Walla
So, you know, just learning how to to basically create a social media campaign to raise money and nobody knows who we are to be able to make this movie. And that was before we had any of the people attached to it as well. That came later. So there is just such a tremendous learning experience for us that I’ve taken forward into it, everything I’ve done since.
00;11;02;07 – 00;11;26;17
Jim Serpico
Were you at all nervous to put this in the crowdfunding world? You know, like people, people like I’ve even talked to, to restaurants, like there have been successful restaurants that have done crowdfunding. I did crowdfund thing on a documentary we did called Burn. We raised a good amount of money that helped us shoot that movie in Detroit about Detroit firefighters.
00;11;27;11 – 00;11;33;12
Jim Serpico
But I know some people are hesitant about doing it. Put your name out there. Did you feel funny doing it or were you cool with it?
00;11;34;02 – 00;11;51;24
Abby Walla
No, it definitely was nerve-wracking. It felt very vulnerable to be putting ourselves out there like that because it’s like, how many times have you clicked on to a Kickstarter? And it’s like their goal is like $30,000, $50,000, and they have like $700. And so it’s like that fear of just like, are we just going to fall on our faces?
00;11;51;24 – 00;12;15;05
Abby Walla
And it’s awkward to be asking family and friends for money. It’s like, why don’t you pay for your own thing? So we really took the approach of, well, one, we hired a crowdfunding coach to teach us how to do it, and that’s all. So like another theme of as we kind of go through an entrepreneurial journey, acting journey is like I’m always somebody who’s like, If there’s someone who knows how to do the thing, I’ll hire them to teach me how to do it.
00;12;15;16 – 00;12;16;20
Jim Serpico
I never even heard of one.
00;12;17;05 – 00;12;17;19
Abby Walla
You know.
00;12;17;19 – 00;12;19;02
Jim Serpico
There was crowdfunding coaches.
00;12;19;21 – 00;12;43;00
Abby Walla
Yeah, so it exists. So, you know, the approach that we took is because our film was a comedy, we really took the approach of like, we’re going to make our campaign seem like this really fun, entertaining kind of a party that everybody wants to be a part of versus like, we’re begging for money because we’re broke actors. And so like, created tons of really fun content.
00;12;43;00 – 00;13;14;08
Abby Walla
And, and the short films about a dysfunctional Jewish family held hostage on Thanksgiving. So what we did is we roped in our actual Jewish mothers into the crowdfunding campaign, and we did a lot of like fund short videos with them. Our moms became like the star of the thing. We also did this like, ridiculous stunt where David and I said, if we hit certain benchmarks we would allow our moms to set us up with JDate accounts and run the accounts for us, and like pick dates for us.
00;13;14;16 – 00;13;35;02
Abby Walla
So it turned into this like whole thing where people are tuning in every day because they wanted to see, like, what happened next. We’d be posting screenshots of stuff our moms like Facebook lives like. And so we turn it into this whole fun, entertaining thing. And so people were like, Okay, if this is how funny our campaign is, I can’t imagine how great the film is.
00;13;35;02 – 00;13;50;15
Abby Walla
And people just wanted to be part of it and want it to support us versus that feeling like we were biting. So we had something to offer by like entertaining people. And so I would say that’s always the best approach. It’s like, what are you giving them for? Want to invest in what you’re doing?
00;13;50;25 – 00;13;53;02
Jim Serpico
So your value was entertainment?
00;13;53;13 – 00;13;55;17
Abby Walla
MM Yeah.
00;13;55;17 – 00;13;58;21
Jim Serpico
So did David’s mom pick dates for David?
00;13;59;13 – 00;14;01;22
Abby Walla
She did. We each, we each.
00;14;01;26 – 00;14;05;25
Jim Serpico
I got to hear about this. I want to hear about these. How did it go?
00;14;07;10 – 00;14;12;25
Abby Walla
Not. Not great. I will tell you. I also ended up with a lifetime ban from JDate.
00;14;14;05 – 00;14;15;08
Jim Serpico
A lifetime fan.
00;14;15;17 – 00;14;17;05
Abby Walla
Ban. Ban? I was.
00;14;17;08 – 00;14;18;16
Jim Serpico
Banned. You were banned?
00;14;18;19 – 00;14;25;25
Abby Walla
That was banned from JDate. Apparently, it’s against the terms of service for your mother to be managing your account for you.
00;14;26;22 – 00;14;27;06
Jim Serpico
Oh, my.
00;14;27;06 – 00;14;48;06
Abby Walla
God. Yeah, but no, we each went out on, I think, two dates. Mine were incredibly awkward. I would say Mother does not know best, but it was a fun experience and they were like, super game. And. And everybody loved tuning in for all the reports on how it went.
00;14;48;20 – 00;14;52;03
Jim Serpico
Right. So did you guys reach the goal of what you were trying to raise?
00;14;52;07 – 00;15;05;19
Abby Walla
Yeah, we blew past it. So that’s why we had to end up doing like a lot of these like additional stunts because once you hit your goal, people are like, okay, you got what you need. It’s like, okay, how do we up the ante? Because we can always use, you know, you can always use more money in terms of production and stuff.
00;15;05;19 – 00;15;10;27
Abby Walla
And so yeah, we, we ended up doing like 10,000 more than our goal or something.
00;15;12;06 – 00;15;30;12
Jim Serpico
And you guys were and still are. But in another way, you use social media very effectively to get the word out about the campaign crowdfunding campaign. Did that come naturally to you guys or was the coach involved?
00;15;31;22 – 00;15;55;05
Abby Walla
Yeah, both. I would say like I think there’s we took and this is the thing with coaching too. It’s like I always take what I learned from the coach. And then what’s important is you put your own spin on it. And so that’s also where I would say like, like you know, knowing customer service and knowing what people respond to, like, like all the things that I’ve done, they always stack up.
00;15;55;05 – 00;16;10;11
Abby Walla
So it’s like it can seem like, Oh, she’s got this side hustle and that side hustle and this random thing and that random thing, but it’s like all these things actually feed into each other and all of those things fed into me being able to have the business that I have now because I’m using all of those skill sets.
00;16;10;17 – 00;16;30;26
Abby Walla
So we took a lot of the stuff that we learned from the crowdfunding coach. But then, you know, like we created Meme, then we created like individual, like gifs, like funny, you know, screenshots. Like we said, we, we brought in our mom, so we took the things that we knew were our strengths and we added that to what we were being taught.
00;16;30;26 – 00;16;36;22
Abby Walla
And so that’s, you know, that I think that’s why it really took off right?
00;16;36;22 – 00;17;08;09
Jim Serpico
So it seems to me that for the reasons you guys did the short film and with your expertise in making content, including that film and leveraging social media instead of making a short film, you could do some kind of social series that would also get you out there as an actor, actress, writer and create a buzz. I mean, you guys are very tapped in and talented.
00;17;09;18 – 00;17;25;16
Jim Serpico
And I think, again, I believe that you guys will succeed at whatever you put your mind to. Has it ever crossed your mind to do like a free series and provide value to people to accomplish some of the same things you wanted to accomplish with the movie?
00;17;25;16 – 00;17;54;08
Abby Walla
Yeah. I mean, like, I think for me, where the next steps are is like just kind of the leveling up of it is just like my goal from day one has always been like, I want to have my own series that I create starring produce, like do that for real. And so that’s basically like the direction now. And so like working on writing, you know what, I would like to be able to sell for a TV.
00;17;54;08 – 00;17;56;20
Abby Walla
And so that’s kind of the next step for me. And then like an.
00;17;56;20 – 00;17;58;09
Jim Serpico
Original spec script.
00;17;58;22 – 00;18;19;22
Abby Walla
Exactly. Yeah. So I don’t know that like, yeah, there’s, there are so many avenues now, which is what’s so exciting about content creation. It’s like you can do, you know, you could do a TikTok series or an Instagram series or you could do YouTube and like there’s so much out there for people that just have fun ideas and want to be able to entertain people.
00;18;19;22 – 00;18;31;16
Abby Walla
And then if you’re smart about how do you then turn that into whether it’s monetizing it or creating more opportunity from that attention. There are just so many opportunities out there right now.
00;18;32;23 – 00;18;57;19
Jim Serpico
Yeah, there are. It’s also it remains if you’re going for the A-League, it remains very competitive. Yeah, that’s the reality. I mean, you’re realists. It’s still not to say it can’t be done. And if anyone could do it, you could do it. But it’s like, yeah, there’s the Roku’s, the tube is the football or whatever it’s called, and then there’s Netflix and Amazon.
00;18;57;19 – 00;19;16;01
Jim Serpico
But it’s really hard, you know, to land those things. So, so these kind of, you know, however they know what is you, you know, you got to try it. And that’s what was great about the short film. But what about writing on a shelf for someone else?
00;19;16;17 – 00;19;48;21
Abby Walla
Staffing Yeah, it’s it’s I don’t know that that’s my path specifically. It’s something I’ve definitely, like, thought about and considered. I think there I think kind of like big picture down the road. I would love to be able to produce stuff that other people that are not necessarily things that I have written and stuff as well, but I know some things that the route that makes the most sense for me, I really do love the on-camera portion of it, and being able to, you know, bring it to life in that way.
00;19;48;28 – 00;19;55;16
Abby Walla
So, you know, things can always shift and evolve, but I don’t know that that’s like my specific path at this moment.
00;19;56;01 – 00;20;20;11
Jim Serpico
Yeah. I love how you talked about bringing everything that you’ve done, whether it was like it seemed on the surface it was related, right? And dealing with the customers, you know, all that background kind of helps inform how you’re going to go ahead or you could use it in your next thing. It’s kind of what I’m doing with my side hustle with the bread business, right?
00;20;20;26 – 00;20;46;26
Jim Serpico
Everyone sells bread if you get bread anywhere. But I’m trying to market it with my weird sense of humor and it seems to like resonate with a certain group of people. And I think that’s kind of our story. And recently that that content has gained the attention of certain people in the food content space.
00;20;49;06 – 00;21;00;23
Jim Serpico
So now there’s potential talk of me being more of an in-front-of-the-camera person for these types of things, which I think is hilarious on one level.
00;21;00;23 – 00;21;04;00
Abby Walla
Is this an exclusive announcement right now that kind of.
00;21;04;24 – 00;21;18;07
Jim Serpico
I mean, listen, you know how it is. It may never happen, but yeah, there are conversations about it. And it’s funny, it also relates to so I can’t go on Facebook without seeing you guys and that’s a testament to you.
00;21;18;25 – 00;21;22;24
Abby Walla
Do you get hit with our ads all the time? Yeah. Oh, I love it all the time.
00;21;24;02 – 00;21;28;08
Jim Serpico
But like, they have a serious amount of views.
00;21;28;17 – 00;21;29;27
Abby Walla
Yeah.
00;21;29;27 – 00;21;38;29
Jim Serpico
And I listen, I’ve seen the stuff from the very beginning, from day one, I’ve seen the ads, and maybe I was one of the first ten people to like them.
00;21;39;08 – 00;21;39;17
Abby Walla
Yeah.
00;21;40;00 – 00;21;53;03
Jim Serpico
But, like, it’s in the multiple, like, many thousands and thousands. I think this thing has grown so unbelievably. Can we tell everybody? Tell it. Let’s tell everyone about crushing it on camera and what it is.
00;21;53;18 – 00;22;21;21
Abby Walla
Yeah, for sure. So crushing on camera is an online coaching business that David, my writing partner, a former writing partner. We’re not writing moment together, but we came up with and basically, we coach entrepreneurs and business owners on how to be great on camera and use video in their marketing. So you know, that is from realtors to doctors to coaches to course creators to dog trainers like anybody.
00;22;21;21 – 00;22;22;19
Jim Serpico
To bread bakers.
00;22;22;19 – 00;22;43;24
Abby Walla
To bakers, anyone who needs to be the face of their business. Yeah, people that are not necessarily like, you know, naturals on camera, but they have a story to share. They’ve got value to give. They’re experts at what they do. And so basically, you know, we help them. It’s a mix of like things one on one in terms of being great camera.
00;22;44;00 – 00;22;57;02
Abby Walla
And then also my marketing background because I often another one of my side hustles was my digital marketing agency. So it’s like combining the on camera experience with the marketing experience to be able to help all of these people grow their businesses.
00;22;57;25 – 00;23;17;22
Jim Serpico
Now, do I qualify because I am not able to really jump rope? Although I’ve been practicing for the last two months, I really have been jumping rope. But I am not as good as you because you have an ad. One of your first ads, are you jumping rope? And what is that like an acting trick? What is that thing?
00;23;17;29 – 00;23;39;01
Abby Walla
What you doing? Okay, so because you guys can’t faze me now, so I’m jump-roping in the video. It’s a one-take and I. I’m talking throughout the video and I’m basically saying, like, this is how easy it can be to create videos like I can jump rope at the same time. Like if you cause the biggest pain point in the struggle of a lot of our audience is like creating videos takes them forever.
00;23;39;01 – 00;23;57;18
Abby Walla
They’re like, it takes me, you know, 2 hours and 20 takes and a mini meltdown to create a video. And so the idea is like it can be as easy as jump roping and doing a video in one take. And so it’s just a fun, like attention grabbing type thing. People love that one. We have a lot of different types of things that we test.
00;23;57;18 – 00;24;18;10
Abby Walla
And again, it goes back to like even the thing with the crowdfunding, it’s like, are you entertaining people? Are you giving value? Are you creating something that solves a problem for people? Like whatever that is? It’s not like I’m jumping rope because I just want to show off that I can jump rope. It’s like being able to speak to something and give value to something that they’re struggling with.
00;24;18;10 – 00;24;22;16
Abby Walla
And that’s that’s why that fun, ridiculous video does help our with ads.
00;24;22;24 – 00;24;45;04
Jim Serpico
Yeah, I’m always thinking about and I’m not saying I succeed at it, but I truly am thinking about what is the value at this video on posting on my brand account is going to provide? Mm hmm. You know, sometimes to be perfectly honest, I’m trying to write a I like to make people laugh. So I’m with you on the entertainment side, if I could pull that off.
00;24;45;21 – 00;25;16;20
Jim Serpico
But it’s not always easy to have a good one, you know? But I try. Try as hard as I can. That’s the first thing. The second thing is to provide myself with credibility in the bread space. And that’s the weird thing. Like, my tone isn’t always consistent because, like, I’m trying to show a great shot of a well lit loaf of bread in a still image on one side, and then the next video is me doing something crazy and cursing and being silly.
00;25;16;20 – 00;25;23;29
Jim Serpico
So I don’t I don’t know. Do you do you, in your opinion, does the bread picture provide value?
00;25;23;29 – 00;25;43;09
Abby Walla
I mean, I think there probably is an aspect because like I actually did look at your Instagram, I think like yesterday or something. But I mean, I think people do want to see that the product looks good and the bread is your it’s part of the product, but you’re the product because like you said, everybody’s selling bread. So why are they buying it from you?
00;25;44;01 – 00;26;03;25
Abby Walla
Like, what’s your unique selling point or why are you the one that they want to get behind? And so but there is an aspect of just like on Instagram, it is a platform that, you know, pictures and things like that. And so, you know, I don’t I don’t think there’s a problem with mixing in some of like, here’s what it looks like in addition to the different fun videos and things that you do.
00;26;04;09 – 00;26;24;00
Jim Serpico
Right. And without giving it all away because I’m sure it takes a long time. But is is that person’s personal story, like when you’re coaching those people and saying it’s easier than you think, it doesn’t have to take two and a half hours and 20 takes. Do they get the point, like out of the box that it’s their story?
00;26;24;00 – 00;26;43;04
Jim Serpico
Or is that the kind of thing you talk to them about? Like, are they struggling with what it is they’re even saying? What what the point of the content be just like a good friend of mine is a personal trainer and just like bread makers, this personal trainers everywhere. And there’s also multiple personal trainers in one city. So like, what is it about you?
00;26;43;29 – 00;26;44;28
Jim Serpico
Everyone has weight.
00;26;45;20 – 00;27;15;23
Abby Walla
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there’s free content. People could just go on YouTube to work out if they wanted to, like whatever that is. So why are people coming to you? So yeah, that’s a huge part of what we work on. So the way that we coaches, we basically layer. So one of the first things is teaching preparation, because if people don’t know how to prepare effectively for their videos, to be able to knock them out quickly and easily like we have our quote unquote, we call it our three take rule like it should never take you more than three takes to be able to create a great video.
00;27;15;23 – 00;27;35;15
Abby Walla
And that’s something that comes from our I mean, it’s the same thing with auditioning, really. It’s like you need to be prep to the point that you can knock out your audition in three takes or last like after that. It honestly does not get better. That’s where you start spinning and getting frustrated and all of that. So we teach preparation first and then we do start from there.
00;27;35;15 – 00;27;56;19
Abby Walla
Like a lot of the layers that we add on. One of the biggest things is storytelling, because that is the difference between hiring one personal trainer versus another personal trainer is which one do you resonate with? Which one do you feel like is the one who can actually help you solve your problem? Which one do you write? You know, when they talk, you actually understand what they’re talking about.
00;27;56;19 – 00;28;23;03
Abby Walla
They’re able to explain it in a way that lands with you. And so that’s why, yeah, whether it’s bread, personal training, whatever it is, story is the thing that distinguishes you because for the most part, people’s products are relatively similar. Like, you know, obviously if somebody has a terrible product that, you know, that aside, but if you have people that have like similarly great products, the story is what’s going to make people resonate with one person over another.
00;28;23;07 – 00;28;44;10
Abby Walla
And you don’t need everybody to resonate with your thing. Like it should also be distinguished enough that people that are like, Yeah, that’s not my thing. We’ll just keep on scrolling by, which is totally fine because they weren’t going to buy from you anyway. So if somebody is looking for, you know, bread from serious bread maker and they like don’t have a sense of humor, they’re probably not your people.
00;28;44;10 – 00;29;02;11
Abby Walla
And that doesn’t matter. Like you need them to watch your content. So you might as well be like all out being you because the people that do resonate with that are going to love that. They’re going to follow you, they’re going to keep on coming back, they’re going to share it with friends for like minded, like that’s where things start to exponentially grow.
00;29;03;03 – 00;29;20;17
Jim Serpico
Yeah, I’ve got one that I’m planning to do that’s just really pushing the edge and it’s going to turn some people off. I’ve have. I definitely have gotten messages occasionally where I did. You know, people were offended or whatever, and I just block them.
00;29;21;16 – 00;29;47;21
Abby Walla
Yeah, I mean, like you said, you get you now see our ads and you see how much more engagement we have on those videos. Oh, yeah. Low means like we have like way more trolls than we’ve ever had before. Like the amount of people that are like, they’re actually the worst. The day, but which is really funny, but it’ll be like really random things like, this guy doesn’t look like he showers or like, whatever, but other people just being like, You guys are stupid, you’re not funny.
00;29;47;21 – 00;30;08;03
Abby Walla
Like, whatever. And it’s like, I don’t care what these people think. They’re never going to buy from me anyway. Like I’m not going to water down like, content. So some dude and his mom’s basement isn’t going to be like, you know, you got to do what you want to do and the right people are going to be drawn to that and the wrong people are going to scroll on by.
00;30;08;04 – 00;30;11;22
Abby Walla
And that’s exactly what you want with your content. You want to filter those people out.
00;30;12;17 – 00;30;18;11
Jim Serpico
But it sounds like while you’re helping these people shoot these videos, you’re also giving brand building advice.
00;30;19;00 – 00;30;37;22
Abby Walla
Definitely. Yeah. So it’s a lot of marketing stuff because a lot of people are like, I’m just a realtor. Like, you know what? What is different about me and stuff? And so we do dig into that with people and, and be able to, to help them really carve out what their story is, how they’re going to represent their brand, making sure it’s authentic to them.
00;30;37;28 – 00;30;59;02
Abby Walla
You know, a lot of people are more introverted. Their videos are going to look different than even in my videos because we’re more, you know, silly like we have people you have a more dry sense of humor. Like your stuff is going to look different than ours. And so just helping everybody carve out, you know, whether that’s the branding, the story, the tone in their videos, all of that to be the best version of themselves.
00;30;59;16 – 00;31;19;20
Jim Serpico
Yeah, it’s funny. I had to put together a reel that had a lot of the comedy stuff. I do on Instagram, along with like a montage of some of the people who have been on the podcast because I also have a lot of really credible people in the food space on the podcast. So I wanted to showcase that.
00;31;20;14 – 00;31;46;29
Jim Serpico
And then one of the notes I had his, you know, when you doing that intro of Amy ambling at Zingerman’s, we really wish you were smiling. It’s like you’re doing a fucking audio podcast. I didn’t do it for real, you know, It’s just it’s crazy. It’s crazy. Oh, the knowledge process. How are you? How impactful? That’s on the other side.
00;31;46;29 – 00;31;58;20
Jim Serpico
You’re giving notes now? Yeah. How our people, how do they accept notes? I mean, most people I find are. Well, certainly in the business you could get very defensive.
00;31;59;05 – 00;31;59;12
Abby Walla
Mm.
00;32;00;23 – 00;32;04;18
Jim Serpico
Do you find people getting defensive?
00;32;04;18 – 00;32;26;11
Abby Walla
Honestly, not really. Like, I mean occasionally here and there. But we really before somebody joins our program, they’ve gone through a pretty extensive fund and all of it in terms of like going through our content, having a sales call strategy, call with us previously and now we have a sales team that does those calls. So they’ve, they’ve had this like intake call.
00;32;26;16 – 00;32;43;25
Abby Walla
So by the time somebody is in our coaching program, they really trust that we’re the ones that can solve their problem. And so people are pretty receptive to it. They’re also not actors, so they don’t have like an ego about it, Like they are in a position where they’re like, I know I need help with this. Like help me solve this.
00;32;43;25 – 00;32;54;05
Abby Walla
And so for the most part they’re pretty receptive to it. And yeah, it’s it’s not quite the same as having to give like industry feedback to industry people.
00;32;54;05 – 00;33;07;27
Jim Serpico
And are you trying is your ideal client, a an employee of a corporation or an entrepreneur that owns a large corporation, or could it be a small company with like five people and you’re coaching the face of that organization?
00;33;08;16 – 00;33;42;02
Abby Walla
Yeah, it can. It can be across the board. I would say a lot of people that come through our coaching program are like solopreneurs or they’re the face of their business. But we’ve also definitely had like corporations, like sending their sales leader or a team leader into the program because especially in the world of Zoom and remote meetings, they need to be able to have that same feeling on camera as they might in person so that their teams are like really energized to be able to keep working hard for them and their message is clear and all of that stuff.
00;33;42;02 – 00;33;52;26
Abby Walla
So it can really depend across the board. But anybody who needs to be the face of their business or be on camera and be able to deliver a message in a compelling, clear way, Right.
00;33;53;03 – 00;34;14;15
Jim Serpico
Or has aspirations to do so and they should do so, but they don’t like. So it’s funny, you know like I came up through the bread thing. Obviously, I have to be a breadmaker to do that. But then I started becoming a vendor at farmers’ markets and I remember hearing from a lot of the vendors at the beginning.
00;34;14;15 – 00;34;43;10
Jim Serpico
I love how you guys put yourselves in the videos because most people don’t do that or don’t feel comfortable doing that and they’ve just put in a product or pictures from the farmer’s market or whatever, and that might make certain people aware that they’re. But besides that, it comes back to the value thing, right? What value we providing people and it can’t always be the product because there are similar products.
00;34;43;10 – 00;34;44;22
Jim Serpico
There’s nothing that unique.
00;34;45;11 – 00;35;01;16
Abby Walla
Yeah, like if you put like ten loaves of sour dough in front of me and I’m just looking them like, how am I going to know which one I should pick? But if I’ve seen a compelling video where I’m like, Oh, you know, Jim’s a real person. I like that his family’s involved, That’s.
00;35;01;16 – 00;35;02;11
Jim Serpico
Like a big thing.
00;35;02;17 – 00;35;07;21
Abby Walla
To me. Yeah, like, and he’s funny. He makes me laugh, like, okay, I want to support that guy.
00;35;07;28 – 00;35;31;00
Jim Serpico
Or, you know, another thing I do. Sorry to cut you off. Another thing I do at the actual markets or fairs that we have a booth at selling bread is we take those pictures of the family and we put them up like and try to make sure that people there see the we try to create this experience like this is the brand.
00;35;31;00 – 00;35;52;27
Jim Serpico
These are the people behind it. This is how it’s made. The names of the products have funny names, right? Like my plain bread is Plain Ass Italian bread. People see that and they just die. It sounds stupid, but they’re like, they love it, you know, because they feel they’re like, I don’t I don’t like seasoning. And then they see it and they know like, we’re taking a shot at them.
00;35;52;27 – 00;35;55;26
Jim Serpico
But in a funny way. Mm. You know, and they love it.
00;35;56;20 – 00;36;28;15
Abby Walla
And I think that also comes back to like there’s been a huge shift in marketing over the last several years towards people wanting to feel like they’re buying from other people versus just feeling like they’re buying from big corporations. So that’s why we need big corporations hiring influencers and to make these really casual on their iPhone videos of them talking about the products or using the products because people feel better feeling like they’re buying from another person, a trusted friend like that kind of a vibe.
00;36;28;15 – 00;36;44;22
Abby Walla
And so I do think you allowing yourself to be the face of the business, which might for some people are like, it’s all about the bread. It’s counterintuitive, but the fact that you’re allowing yourself to be part of it is allowing people to feel like they know you, they like you, they trust you, and you’re making them laugh a little.
00;36;44;27 – 00;36;47;27
Abby Walla
And that’s how you build that loyalty.
00;36;48;07 – 00;36;52;28
Jim Serpico
And making them laugh a lot. Abby. Not a little.
00;36;52;28 – 00;36;57;10
Abby Walla
You’re like the plain-ass bread. It’s really funny. It’s not a little funny. It’s a lot.
00;36;58;08 – 00;37;02;08
Jim Serpico
They fall down and they hurt themselves when they see it.
00;37;02;08 – 00;37;03;07
Abby Walla
Hysterical.
00;37;03;23 – 00;37;13;24
Jim Serpico
How do you know everything, Abby? And I’m being serious right now. Like, you know so much about so many things. How do you know all these business things forever?
00;37;13;24 – 00;37;33;23
Abby Walla
A student. I mean, I’m just always trying to learn more things. Like there’s so much that I don’t learn. I feel like I’m constantly brought up against the edge of my growth, of like, Oh, this is another area that I need to learn more about. But it is like the thing of it seems like, like the common thread of our conversation today is it’s just like all of the different things that I’ve done.
00;37;34;01 – 00;37;59;07
Abby Walla
There is a convergence of my skill sets that I think is like those things that felt separate. I’m out of phase now where they’re finally coming together and I’m able to like use all of the different things that I’ve done. I mean, make no mistake, like in my business now, like, yeah, we’re focusing on marketing and selling, but my customer support background is huge because you have to retain the people that are hiring you and to make sure that they feel happy.
00;37;59;07 – 00;38;19;01
Abby Walla
Like all of that gets tied in our content creation. Being able to raise money for crowdfunding definitely went into us being able to create fun ads for our business. So it’s just like I’m just honestly always trying to learn more and push myself to grow and hiring coaches and all of that. So it’s just kind of a forever journey.
00;38;19;15 – 00;38;54;12
Jim Serpico
Yeah, I love that. Your take. You’re able to take your life journey and when you were going through those different things and phases and chapters, you weren’t really thinking about what the agenda was and, and I feel like I’m in that same place. My, my, my backgrounds converge all the time. I really started on a path of music and to this day, to even do the bread thing, like whether I don’t know, I get a kick out of being able to edit the videos and use my music background and my music editing and just use all the areas from my life for all these different things.
00;38;54;28 – 00;39;05;16
Abby Walla
And how much has your producing background also helped you with starting a business? Because it’s not like it’s yeah, it’s like producing and running a business and not very different things.
00;39;05;28 – 00;39;27;08
Jim Serpico
No, they’re very similar. There’s plenty of differences, but there’s a lot in terms of actual production of bread and we’re talking about lots of bread. The producing really helped you figure out how to organize and execute a plan to make it happen. Yeah, you know, out of nowhere, right? I’m not I never trained anywhere and this is all self-taught.
00;39;27;08 – 00;39;39;02
Jim Serpico
And I went in way over my head, but the producing background definitely helped. What about I remember you were passionate about animals.
00;39;39;27 – 00;39;40;19
Abby Walla
Still on.
00;39;40;27 – 00;39;44;01
Jim Serpico
You? Still. All right. What are you doing with that?
00;39;44;01 – 00;39;50;24
Abby Walla
Like, No, I don’t like dogs. And I think you still involved what you say.
00;39;51;00 – 00;39;54;05
Jim Serpico
You’re still involved with with rescues.
00;39;54;05 – 00;40;17;23
Abby Walla
And let’s say my my latest antics on the on the animal side was I guess it was last year. You’re a little bit more than a year ago, I fostered a mama, a pit bull dog and her entire litter of puppies. So I had them from they were abandoned when the mom was abandoned, pregnant, the rescue took her and then they needed a foster for her.
00;40;17;23 – 00;40;37;08
Abby Walla
So I had all these puppies from when they were like two weeks old and had to have them for a couple of months until they were old enough to be adopted out. And then I kept one of the puppies as well as I adopted him. So that was I was that was always like something that I was like, okay, I want to at least once foster an entire litter just for the experience.
00;40;37;15 – 00;40;55;04
Abby Walla
It is a crazy experience. Also, probably once was a not for me, but it was it was so much fun getting to watch them grow. And then now I have little reunions with Oh, that’s cool. Oh yeah. So they’ll come over and play in my backyard and, and all the the the pups are still hanging out.
00;40;55;20 – 00;40;56;18
Jim Serpico
Pure pit bulls.
00;40;57;24 – 00;41;19;17
Abby Walla
No, they’re mixes of some sort. I don’t know what the dad was but they, they all look like, I mean the other boys are like almost £90 so they’re definitely not just pit mine luckily was like is only like £55. I ended up with the run, which was lucky because I don’t need a £90 pit Boston like 55 is It’s good.
00;41;19;17 – 00;41;20;11
Abby Walla
They’re so strong.
00;41;20;24 – 00;41;51;14
Jim Serpico
That’s awesome. Well, listen, I am fascinated with all that you’ve accomplished here. I think crushing it on camera is amazing because there are so many people that can use it. Even influencers that I know that are relatively successful with hundreds of thousands of followers you know, a lot of times they’re so successful because of what they’re showcasing in some cases, and it’s not them at the forefront and they start to think it is.
00;41;51;29 – 00;42;09;26
Jim Serpico
And then when they ultimately get on camera, they’re really flat. And, you know, they could use a little help there, too. So I think they’ve just right now, there’s so many ways to use video. It’s so important. And the skills that you guys teach are really important. So I love the idea of the company.
00;42;10;08 – 00;42;29;13
Abby Walla
Thank you. Thanks so much. Yeah, I mean, video is definitely not going away. It’s just going to become more and more necessary for that. The world that we’re living in. So it’s really fun to be able to to help people make that happen and to see the results. It’s just that that makes it super fulfilling for us to be able to just like really help people in an area that they struggle with.
00;42;29;28 – 00;42;33;19
Jim Serpico
Awesome. And we find you guys at crushing it on camera. Com right?
00;42;34;08 – 00;42;43;02
Abby Walla
Yeah. You can find them. Yeah. Find a site crush on camera dot com or I’m just Abby walmart.com and find me on the socials or whatever if you have any questions.
00;42;43;18 – 00;42;46;14
Jim Serpico
Awesome. Thanks for joining me today Abbie good to see.
00;42;46;14 – 00;43;04;20
Abby Walla
You have me I love bread and I love your project and it’s really fun to see how your your tying it all together. I think the first thing that we I was going to say the last thing is the first thing that I think we bonded on was the pizza bagel thing. Because I’m an Italian Jews, I’m as high as you are.
00;43;04;20 – 00;43;07;20
Abby Walla
So it’s the first thing we actually connected on was bread.
00;43;07;26 – 00;43;10;06
Jim Serpico
I love it. Good stuff.
00;43;10;20 – 00;43;14;03
Abby Walla
Thanks for having me.
00;43;14;03 – 00;43;32;22
Jim Serpico
This episode of Bread for the People was brought to you by Side Hustle Bread, Long Island’s handcrafted artisanal bread company side. Hustle Bread is a family run business, bringing the neighborhood feel back to Long Island one loaf at a time. If you like what you’re hearing, don’t forget to head on over to iTunes and rate and review this episode.
00;43;32;22 – 00;43;50;24
Jim Serpico
Reviewing and rating is the most effective way to help us grow our audience. This episode was produced by Milestone TV and film. I’m your host, Jim Serpico. Blessed be the bread everyone.
