Unlocking Creative Potential: The Power of Margin | Dustin Pead

PROFITABLE TALKS...

In this episode of the Profitable Creative podcast, host Christian Brim speaks with Dustin Pead, a creative business coach who transitioned from a 20-year career in creative church ministry to helping creatives maximize their processes. They discuss the importance of margin—both financial and time—how to navigate the challenges of running a creative business, and the unique value proposition that creatives bring to their work. Dustin shares insights on overcoming fear, embracing change, and the significance of having a plan to ensure profitability. The conversation also touches on the importance of loving what you do and the journey of finding fulfillment in one's work.

PROFITABLE TAKEAWAYS...

• Most creatives are great at ideas but terrible at execution.
• Margin is essential for creativity and peace.
• Discipline leads to freedom in creative work.
• Financial and time margins are crucial for business success.
• Creatives need to understand their unique value proposition.
• Delegation and automation can enhance efficiency.
• Fear of the unknown often exaggerates challenges.
• Transitioning careers can be scary but rewarding.
• Loving what you do is vital for success.
• Surrounding yourself with smarter people is key to growth.

Ready to turn your PASSION into PROFIT?!? Let's get CREATIVE ➡️
https://www.coregroupus.com/profit-first-for-creatives

Transcript

Christian Brim (00:01.684)
You let me know when you're ready.

Dustin Pead (00:03.298)
Yeah. And are we video too or like what

Christian Brim (00:08.426)
We record the video just for marketing purposes. We, the, the podcast is audio.

Dustin Pead (00:14.682)
Okay, cool. Just making sure.

Christian Brim (00:18.134)
Hi Nick, Nick is an audio engineer. I like to hi Nick. Okay, here we go.

Dustin Pead (00:20.734)
hey, Nick.

Christian Brim (00:27.666)
Welcome to another episode of the Profitable Creative, the only place on the interwebs where you will learn how to turn your passion into profit. I am your host, Christian Brim. Special shout out to our one listener in Elk City, Oklahoma. I have been to Elk City. Actually, was the, I've been to Elk City many times, but it was infamous because it's the one and only private pilot flight.

that I took. took my uncle from Oklahoma City to Elk City. That's the one and only time that I have flown a passenger as a private pilot. Anyway, my guest joining me today, Dustin Pede. Dustin, welcome to the show.

Dustin Pead (01:13.668)
Christian, thanks so much for having me, man. I'm excited to be here.

Christian Brim (01:16.38)
Absolutely. So Dustin, tell our listeners who you are and what you do.

Dustin Pead (01:23.45)
Yeah, I mean, that's the million dollar question for all of us, isn't it? I'm nobody special, I, yeah, Dustin Pede, born and raised in southern Virginia. Now I live outside of Atlanta. I was in creative church ministry for about 20 years on a full time basis and stepped away from that in the spring of 2023 and started pursuing my own creative business in which I coach and consult creative professionals to maximize their process.

Christian Brim (01:26.24)
Yes?

Dustin Pead (01:53.562)
Most creatives are really great at having ideas and really terrible at executing those ideas. And they get frustrated and they live on little to no margin. And so what I tell people all the time, including on my podcast as well, is that I help creatives know themselves, their process and their team so that they can create greater things together.

Christian Brim (02:15.382)
I love it. So what size companies do you normally work with?

Dustin Pead (02:19.936)
Most of mine are pretty young companies that are, I would say, probably no more than 10 employees. Not necessarily always young. should, I should restate that. Not necessarily always young, but probably up to about 10 employees because they are still small enough where their processes and systems are moldable and they haven't

They haven't established too many bad habits by the time I get in there and come alongside them. But a lot of solopreneurs as well, especially in the creative world, people that are trying their hand at the fractional CMO stuff or videography or photography or anything like that, that don't quite have a team yet, just helping them kind of maximize their time.

Christian Brim (02:50.475)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (03:08.576)
Well that actually was my next question is, that does it apply to people that don't have employees? What you do?

Dustin Pead (03:15.473)
Yeah, I do. Especially in, you know, 2025 that we're sitting in now. had to almost, almost at 2024. Sitting in 2025 now, I'm just now starting to bring on a little bit of team myself. But even before that, I would consider a lot of the tools and resources like AI that I have at my disposal to be part of my team.

Christian Brim (03:22.858)
Yes.

Dustin Pead (03:41.89)
And so I think in 2025 as creatives, we have to understand that some of these tools can be used alongside of us and can move things forward in our businesses without necessarily having to do everything. You know, it's the old focus funnel, right? There's things that we can eliminate, automate, delegate. Well, there's a lot of things in 2025 that we can automate. So why not do that? Maximize your efficiency there.

Christian Brim (04:09.108)
You said something in your introductory explanation that is music to my ears, that word margin. Why do you help your clients with that aspect of their business?

Dustin Pead (04:17.935)
Hmm.

Dustin Pead (04:26.552)
Yeah, well, no one likes to live with no margin, whether they admit it or not. A lot of creatives will say, don't put me in a box. I like to sleep till 11 a.m. and I usually get started working around three o'clock and I'll work to about one or two in the morning. If you can do that, great. The problem is in the real world of client deliverables, that life doesn't cut it. And so what ends up happening is

Christian Brim (04:31.03)
You

Christian Brim (04:50.934)
Hmm.

Dustin Pead (04:54.65)
people, these, these creatives have this type of lifestyle or this type of imagination of what it's going to be like. And then they get into it and then they're just like, I'm always behind. Well, the reason you're always behind is because your processes and your systems don't allow for any margin because margin is full of stress, but no margin is full of stress. Margin is full of peace. When you, when you have that span of time that's free,

Christian Brim (05:02.228)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (05:06.419)
Hmm.

Dustin Pead (05:24.506)
it actually frees you up to be more creative. Whereas if you're in a crunch, yes, sometimes crunches can force you into creativity. But creativity, as one of my coaches has always said, is more muscle than magic. And so you can't necessarily expect the magic to repeat itself over and over and over again at 1159 when the project is DUE at midnight.

Christian Brim (05:27.871)
Yes.

Christian Brim (05:39.862)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (05:52.264)
Right, right.

Dustin Pead (05:52.442)
Like it's just not it's just not gonna happen eventually you're gonna your your sins will find you

Christian Brim (05:57.642)
Yes. Well, you know, it reminds me, I can't remember the author, but he, was, one of those ex military authors that wrote a book. but, but the statement was discipline actually allows freedom, which, which most people look at it the opposite that, that, that discipline somehow takes your freedom away. but it's the exact opposite.

Dustin Pead (06:14.744)
Yeah.

Dustin Pead (06:24.862)
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And like I said, a lot of creatives will say, don't put me in a box. But when you really get down to it, if let's let's say, for example, you're the creative pro and I'm your client and I come to you and I say, I want to do a video, but I have no idea what I want it to be about how long I want it to be, what I want it to look or feel like, what the music should be or even what the message should be. And I'd like that by next week. You'd be like, it's not going to happen.

Christian Brim (06:48.758)
Not gonna happen.

Dustin Pead (06:52.026)
You'd be like, well, you gotta give me some parameters. You gotta give me something. Well, as soon as you realize you gotta give me something, you gotta give me some parameters, then you're asking for a box. I'm not saying the box has to be tiny, but there is a box. And so knowing what that playground is, not only for your clients, but for yourself, breeds margin.

Christian Brim (06:53.878)
Hopefully, hopefully they'd say that. Right.

Christian Brim (07:06.804)
Right. Sure.

Christian Brim (07:17.034)
Well, that's interesting because when you said margin, I was thinking as an accountant and I was thinking about terms like gross margin and profit margin. And I love the way you're using it because it's, it's, I think the two concepts overlap. I think that one of the things that I, I see a lot of business owners, not just creatives, but I think creatives might have a special struggle with it.

is the idea of margin. And I remember speaking to a group of videographers last fall and really just kind of walking through that concept of margin and how important it is to run your business and how it drives all other decisions you make in a business from pricing to

you know, hiring to, you know, it's, it's literally gross margin is the King metric. Like it's, it's the one thing that a small business has to, has to, has to, know and manage. And I think, I think a lot of solopreneurs get confused because they don't have an employees. They, you know, in creatives, they might not have a lot of marginal costs.

you know, they've got fixed costs, but they don't, they don't have any, know, they, whether they take on one or 10, clients or jobs, doesn't cost them anymore to do that. And so they, they particularly struggle with this concept of, of margin. but what, what is your experience in, in, your business and in coaching other creatives, around those conversations about margin.

in a financial sense, not a time sense.

Dustin Pead (09:12.953)
Yeah

Yeah, I was going say we're talking time versus financial margin. And what's interesting is while you were talking, I was like, well, they're both really, they're both really a straight line, right? The time margin is a timeline. And then the financial margin is the bottom line, right? Like that's what it affects, right? So yeah, I think for me, what in my coaching with creatives, it's not necessarily, I mean, it definitely comes up the financial stuff.

Christian Brim (09:18.569)
Right.

Christian Brim (09:24.406)
Mm.

Christian Brim (09:28.47)
Mm-hmm.

Dustin Pead (09:44.612)
But typically I'm sending them to people like the core group and saying like, Hey, Hey, these, yeah, these, these guys are the ones that are going to help you understand how to price your service so that you have enough margin. But the concept is the same, right? Christian is that with little to no profit margin, you don't have any room to breathe. You can't move. You can't make any strategic moves to the right or to the left. You are stuck. But in

Christian Brim (09:48.608)
Thanks for that plug. Appreciate that.

Christian Brim (10:05.557)
Yes.

Christian Brim (10:11.146)
Yes, no, you're exactly right.

Dustin Pead (10:13.08)
the time margin is no different. If you wait up until the last moment because you got bad briefings or you didn't get enough information or you didn't ask the right questions or you didn't implement the right processes or systems for yourself or for your team, then you're stuck. You're stuck in doing what you're doing and you're not going to be able to deliver at the quality that what you want. And all businesses want to scale at some degree, right? And so

Christian Brim (10:28.021)
Yes.

Dustin Pead (10:39.148)
In order to scale, have to introduce this concept of margin, both financially and with your time.

Christian Brim (10:44.596)
Yes, 100%. So in your business, you're still fairly new. How have those issues of margin, both financial and time, played out for you?

Dustin Pead (10:57.89)
Yeah, I mean right now the tension point for me and this is one of the reasons I reached out to the core group is that the time margin for me is that I don't have as much time right now to work on the business as I would like. I'm a little stuck working in the business. Now I'm making some strategic moves to not stay there but that is a both time margin issue and a

Financial margin issue, right? I have to bring in enough money to make sure that I can make those strategic moves I have to have the appropriate amount of margin. And so for me, it's surrounding myself with people who are smarter than me Like the core group like other people who are smarter than me at social media or marketing and those types of things like like I brought on designer recently I'm not a designer by any means but I need design work and I shouldn't be spending my time Trying to design stuff. That's just decent enough

Christian Brim (11:49.781)
Yes.

Dustin Pead (11:55.226)
on Canva when I when I could hey I'm looking at my budget going I think I have enough money to hire to hire a designer here for you know a few hours a month to help make my content look really sharp when I deliver it and it doesn't look like it was done by some dude in his basement even though that's what I am.

Christian Brim (12:13.982)
Yeah, I mean, I can tell you that my experience, my journey as an entrepreneur has been a lot of, well, I'll say a lot, but I think too much for me, do it yourself. And, you know, I use the excuse, I don't know if it's true or not, but it sounds good, that...

Dustin Pead (12:28.744)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Dustin Pead (12:36.218)
You

Christian Brim (12:38.142)
You know, as entrepreneurs, we like problems. We like to solve problems. We like to learn new things. And, you know, I think there's a certain level of understanding that you'd need to know. In order to delegate it to someone else, you can't let in your case, you can't hire a designer without having some fundamental understanding of what it is that you need.

And you know, but you can't get stuck in doing that work if it's not the most valuable thing that you do. I think that's very key. And I've talked about it a lot with a lot of different groups and on this podcast is really understanding where your value is like what what value do you bring to the table to the business and to your clients?

Dustin Pead (13:33.636)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (13:37.866)
that only you can do. And then to your point, delegate, eliminate, or automate the rest.

Dustin Pead (13:48.088)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's that unique value proposition, right? And for most business owners, especially ones that have created the business, not inherited the business, but for most business owners that have created the business, it ultimately ends up becoming some sort of strategy, right? That's where your unique value is. It's in your experience. It's in your wisdom. It's in what you've seen work before and what you've seen not work before.

Christian Brim (14:05.813)
Yes.

Dustin Pead (14:14.754)
And so that's why it's important for business owners to be learners all the time and to surround themselves with people that are smarter than them in the areas that they don't really need to be smart in. Right. And so it's that that delegation piece is what I work a lot with my clients with because these small small businesses that are less than 10 employees or if it's just a solo person, you know, they feel like they have to do it all. And like if you would have told me a year a year ago.

that hey, a year from now you're gonna hire some people to help you with your business. I'd have been like, with what money? What are you talking about? Like gotta eat still, you know? But if you push to the level of what you wanna get to, that margin happens, you know?

Christian Brim (14:48.682)
Right, right, right.

Christian Brim (14:58.558)
Yeah, and that's a great point because another thing that I preach, I don't know if you've had a chance to read the book yet, thank you. The chapter on pricing and that's, you know, that goes to the heart of the margin question, Is how you price your stuff because if you don't price it right or well, let me say that.

Dustin Pead (15:05.688)
Yes. Right here.

you

Christian Brim (15:28.182)
If you don't price it well, you can't have margin. If you're just running around taking whatever someone wants you to do, you're invariably going to be pushed down on price to the point where you have no margin. And then you just get into that wheel, right? Right. Right.

Dustin Pead (15:44.514)
Right. that's what, yeah, and you can't get off of it. You can't afford to get off of it. it's no different. Pricing is a plan, right? I plan to be, I plan to accept this amount of money from you after I give you the service. It's the same thing, right? Without the right plan, you have no margin. And so that's what I'm helping my clients do. Let's help them go, let's, you've got more clients than you can really handle right now, and you can't continue to do this on your own the way you're doing it.

Let me come in and help you organize some of this. And what I often talk to my clients about is it's a bit of organized chaos. It's throwing it back to Todd Henry. It's a bit of hurting tigers at times. Even if you're the only tiger in the cage, you're still hurting those tigers, right? But without having that plan in place, you're stuck. You're stuck on the wheel. And so the clients that I work with, that's what I hear when I'm onboarding them is they're just like, I just need to get unstuck. I'm stuck on, I'm stuck in the machine that I created and I can't get out of it.

Christian Brim (16:23.668)
Yes.

Christian Brim (16:27.36)
Yes.

Christian Brim (16:42.698)
Yeah. And, and that, that there's a, there's a great book. I don't remember the author. I'll think of it in a second. who, not how, and you know, it's, it's this principle that rather than solving the problem, the how, it's finding the right person for them to solve the problem. And you know, as a soul opener,

Dustin Pead (16:53.646)
yeah.

Christian Brim (17:10.294)
you know, no employees, you may think that that doesn't apply to you, but it absolutely applies to you because if you're going to hire outside contractors to do some of this work on a part-time basis, it's still very important to figure out who the person, the right person is to do that for you. And

Dustin Pead (17:30.52)
Mm-hmm. Which is terrifying as a business owner.

Christian Brim (17:34.262)
Absolutely, absolutely. Because you don't know, right? There's the stuff you don't know, like you don't know anything about, well, I say that, I don't know. You have limited understanding of accounting, so how do I pick an accountant, right? Or any other thing that you decide that you need help with. so that who becomes the critical question. And to my

Dustin Pead (17:47.876)
Yeah, exactly.

Christian Brim (18:03.99)
previous statement, you need to know enough. Like you need to have some basic understanding of what it is that you need done because I've we've experienced this at core in hiring marketing professionals, marketing agencies, you know, et cetera, is that if you don't know what it is that you need before you go start talking to people, then it's going to be amazing that everybody has what you need. Right. It's like, well, but

how can that be because well the reason why is is because they're nails and you look like a hammer and and until you know that hey I'm not a hammer I'm a screw I need a screwdriver not a hammer you're gonna keep hiring hammers that's a horrible analogy but I went with it does that does that I mean does that ring true to you

Dustin Pead (18:52.922)
Yeah, no, absolutely does because I and just going back to the AI statement earlier, this is where, before I could hire people or before I thought I could afford to hire people, which it's a risk, it's a gamble, right? That you're going, hey, I'm trusting that this is going to level up my business. But before I even got to that point, you I was using AI so much and I still do quite a bit where I would just

basically do what I call like a brain dump or a mind dump into AI and say, this is everything that I'm doing, but I really love doing this. It's going back to the time and energy audit from Dan Martell and guys like Carrie Newhoff when they're talking about your energy zones and really, and the who, not how, and all these books are kind of talking about like work within your strength. Dan Sullivan. Yep. When you're, when you're looking, all these books talking about the same thing, right? It is like working your strengths.

Christian Brim (19:35.488)
Dan Sullivan. Dan Sullivan was the author of that book. Thank you.

Dustin Pead (19:43.779)
what find what it is at all costs that brings you the most joy. And that's unfortunately where these creatives that I work with have lost because they have to be the accountant and they have to be the wrangler of the schedules of the shoots and they have to be their own admin and all these things. And I'm just coming in and going like there's some systems that you can set up to make that a little easier so that you can get enough profit margin. Right.

Christian Brim (19:51.519)
Yes?

Dustin Pead (20:08.89)
Let's bring in the systems that will allow you to get enough profit margins so then you can hire other people. And then it's just moving up the ladder continuously. Right. And so for me, I literally would just mind dump into AI and say, these are the things that I'm doing right now. I'm really passionate about these things and I get the most life when I get to do these things with my clients. Who do I need to hire next? It'll tell you. It'll give you 18 different ideas and then you can look at it and go, I really feel like that's one of them for sure.

Christian Brim (20:16.587)
Yes.

Christian Brim (20:29.904)
Yes. Yes.

Dustin Pead (20:38.298)
And when I was noticing that I couldn't keep my book straight for more than a month at a time, and I didn't really know what to do with my money. Now that money was coming in, I'm like, this is our livelihood here. Like we survive on my business. So I better figure that out really quickly. Um, which is why I started reading the profit first stuff that led me to profit first for creatives. Cause those are the people I consider myself a creative. And those are the people that I work with.

So I'm like, I better understand this and that's how I found you guys. But it's more than just that too, right? It's like, Hey, I can, I can design, I can hop on Canva and make something look decent. have for years, but that's not going to get me to the level that I want to get up. Right. And that's honestly not what I don't super enjoy doing that either. Like what I really enjoy is being on calls with my clients, helping them understand that if they can just change this one little nuance or change this or add this little process and add this little process into their system that they already have established.

that they could really open up so much more. That's what I really love. And so.

Christian Brim (21:37.62)
Yeah, and a lot of times it is a small thing that levers, right? But we get caught in that fear of the unknown, I guess is what the overall fear is. We want predictable, and even if the predictable is miserable, we'll gravitate to the predictable because we know it's gonna happen. Right.

Dustin Pead (21:42.874)
100%. Yep.

Dustin Pead (21:51.886)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dustin Pead (22:01.912)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. have a service that I provide right now that it's kind of more on the freelance side doesn't really fall under the umbrella of what I do for my business. And I'm just like, my one of my goals this year is to make enough so I don't have to do that anymore. You know what mean? And it's just, but I could keep doing it and it would pay all the bills just the way it's paying right now. And I could probably even scale it if I wanted to. I don't like it. I don't want to do it.

Christian Brim (22:17.686)
Thanks.

Christian Brim (22:21.12)
Sure. Right.

Dustin Pead (22:29.146)
There's other people that can do it and I recommend people to those, you know, like you want me to do that? That's great. I appreciate it. I don't want to do that. Go go over here.

Christian Brim (22:32.598)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (22:36.116)
Well, and that's that's the other element. I mean, like, you know what we've been talking about are our basic structural elements that belong in any business, regardless of size. But the other element is, do you want to do it now? A lot of business owners don't care very much about whether they want to do whatever it is they're doing. But creatives are not that way. I mean, they're they're very passion driven and

Dustin Pead (22:46.65)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (23:05.616)
If, if they don't like what they're doing, it's real hard for them to continue doing it. And I think to your point, until you, you, until you change your mindset, that those are not, exclusive choices, like I either can do what I want and, and I may or may not make money or I can do what I hate.

Dustin Pead (23:11.482)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (23:34.346)
that it'll pay the bills until you accept that that is not a reality. That's a construct you've put in your head. You can't really move beyond it. Like you have to understand that yes, you can do what you love and make money. It's absolutely, I've seen it time and time again, but you have to believe it to be true.

Dustin Pead (23:40.826)
Hmm.

Dustin Pead (23:58.244)
Yeah, that's what I spend a ton. I find myself spending a lot of my time getting phone calls and texts from my clients who want to quit, you know? And I'm just like, look, don't. Don't quit. You're so close. And I think, I could just speak vulnerably to some creatives for a second, I think it's really difficult sometimes for you to step into hard work because hard work is uncomfortable.

Christian Brim (24:25.366)
Hmm.

Dustin Pead (24:25.508)
There's a certain kind of hard work that's uncomfortable, but I would encourage you to look back on your life and go the times that I was the most successful on the other side was when I worked the hardest in a certain season and time margin and financial margin is the exact same way. You have to be willing to post. tell all my clients when I'm like, you are going to hate life for at least the next six weeks.

because we're going to expose some things and we're going to have to work hard to dig ourselves out of the hole that we found ourselves in. But once we get out of that hole, you're going to be like, I've never smelled air so fresh.

Christian Brim (25:05.664)
Yeah. Yeah. And the reality is, mean, my experience, I don't know your experience, but the fear of the unknown has, has usually been grossly exaggerated. Like when, when you get through it, you're like, well, that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Right.

Dustin Pead (25:20.922)
Mm-hmm.

Dustin Pead (25:26.274)
Yep, yep, absolutely. Absolutely all the time. I mean, when I made the transition out of what I've been doing for 20 years to step into this, I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I mean, a lot of creatives have the, what do they call the imposter syndrome? You know, I don't think that's limited to just creatives. I think it's just heightened, tightened a little bit. But yeah, I mean, there's a, there's the many days where I'm just like, what am I, you know, how am I doing this?

Christian Brim (25:39.966)
Mm-hmm.

No.

Dustin Pead (25:50.596)
How is this happening? But it's, I mean, everything you do in life is going to take a little bit of faith, whether it's faith in God or whatever, faith in yourself, whatever you may believe, it's going to take a little bit of faith to actually step forward and move or else you're still stuck in that cog.

Christian Brim (26:06.496)
There's a great book, I recommend, and it's, it's called the big leap. And I don't remember the author's name, but he's a, professor of psychology at Stanford, I believe. And he's, he's written several books, but my business coach recommended it. And it talks about essentially how your brain works against you. he defines it as an upper limit problem. So you, you get to a point where.

you're up against the unknown, whatever it is, it could be business, could be personal, I mean, whatever you're up against the unknown and how your brain actually fights you subconsciously, even to the point where you may manifest physical symptoms, like you may like get sick because your brain is not wanting you to move forward, but it's, it's, you know,

Dustin Pead (27:00.154)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (27:03.508)
reading the book, there's some methodologies to address it. And just understanding that, you know, it's not that you're not good enough. It's not that you're not brave enough to speak to Todd Henry. It's your brain working against you. It's just like your brain telling you you're hungry when you've got plenty of fat to live for, you know. It's just your brain wiring. And just acknowledging that that is there.

and then giving yourself the space to work through it is uber powerful because it's it's not a reality like I guess that's that's what I took away from it is is that it's it's a perceived reality. It's a perceived thing. It's not it's not truth.

Dustin Pead (27:46.67)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we're a lot of myth debunking going on in the entrepreneurial world for sure, but myths in our own head and otherwise. It's Gay Hendrix is the author of The Big Leap. Yeah.

Christian Brim (27:53.472)
Yes.

Christian Brim (28:00.948)
Yes, great book. Highly recommend it. So I want to ask you, 20 years in creative ministry, which I've never heard that term, which is fascinating on its surface, and then you decide to go out on your own. What did that look like? Why did you make that change? What were some of the things that you struggled with in making that change?

Dustin Pead (28:30.808)
Yeah, so for the creative ministry, just for people who are in the church role, means like churches are really no different than any other business and they have all these different departments as well. Right. And so most churches of certain scales have a creative department and creative department in churches consists of communication consists of production. So communication marketing and also consists of production because you're putting on a production every seven days, at least one.

Christian Brim (28:48.66)
Okay.

Dustin Pead (28:57.146)
And then it's also usually involves some type of music or what the church world will call worship as well. So that's kind of the creative ministry of local churches these days. I went to school for that at Liberty University and I still love it. I still attend church. I still have very strong faith in God, but I started to get a little burnt out on kind of the methodology of what local church had become in the United States. And so

I could just feel my heart changing over years and then there were some circumstances that arose to my own fault that I was just like, I think it's time for me to step away. And when I did, it was weird the way they got it timed and I had started a podcast around this whole creative process kind of systems and processes, know, helping creatives get organized a little bit.

I started a podcast about that about a year before my transition. And so when the transition happened, it was kind of like, well, God just clearly said, this is what you need to do now. And it's been, uh, it was really scary for about a month, but, uh, getting up every morning and kind of knowing that I don't want to say the future is what I make it because I don't necessarily believe that a hundred percent, but knowing that a little bit of my destiny is in my own hands that I can get now I can.

go create something of my own that didn't exist before and getting on calls with my clients and like I said, watching the light bulb go off and hearing them say, man, I'm so, I'm just at the beginning of the call, my shoulders were up and then now they're down. And just the stress relief in them is really just like, I learned over my years in ministry to love people. did not love people when I started in ministry. They were resources to me.

But by the time I left ministry, I learned how to really love and shepherd people and I really loved what I got to do was to love and shepherd creative people. And so now I just I do that more than just in the church. I have clients that are in the church world and I have clients that are used to be in the church world and now they're doing their own thing. But I really love to pastor and shepherd the heart of creative people.

Dustin Pead (31:14.56)
and talking them off the ledge, but unleashing them to do their best work.

Christian Brim (31:19.23)
I love that. you know, it really to use to your to use your words, it's become a ministry. You're a vocational ministry. Right. And a lot of people don't subscribe to that world belief, and that's totally fine. But but I for those that.

Dustin Pead (31:32.708)
Hmm, Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (31:47.638)
our disciples of Christ, I think that you don't have to be a quote unquote professional to have a ministry. Your vocation is your ministry.

Dustin Pead (32:02.894)
Yeah, that's what I'm learning right now, to be just 100 % vulnerable and transparent. The last three to six months, it's honestly been what I've been learning. Because you start questioning yourself. I think every entrepreneur does, am I doing the right thing? Is this really what I'm supposed to be doing? Should I go back to what I was doing? That type of thing. And I just get more and more confirmation every day that I'm in the lane that I need to be in for today, and I'm not worried about tomorrow.

Christian Brim (32:29.492)
Yeah. Well, how do Dustin people find you to work with you and learn more about what you do?

Dustin Pead (32:37.242)
Oh man, thanks for asking. So DustinPede.com, that's P-E-A-D. You can find out all my stuff, everything that I offer there. It's really coaching and consulting is what I'm leaning in. I'm leaning into more speaking engagements this year as well. I spoke at a national conference this last year, but they can reach out to me, DustinPede.com. Click on the Let's Chat button there. You can find me on social media, at DustinPede on the Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, places like that.

as well. yeah, I'd love to chat with anybody who feels like they need a little bit more structure around what they've got going on in their creative business because it's getting a little out of hand and it's hard to juggle everything at once.

Christian Brim (33:19.338)
Get off that hamster wheel. Yes. Well, I appreciate your experience here, your vulnerability, your honesty. Listeners, if you like what you heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. If you don't like what you heard, shoot us a message and I'll get rid of Dustin. I'm not going anywhere.

Dustin Pead (33:21.313)
Exactly, exactly.

Dustin Pead (33:41.05)
I accept that. I accept that.

Christian Brim (33:43.894)
There you go. All right. Until then, ta ta for now.