Q. Please give our readers an introduction to your business.
Ans: Making a movie or a TV show is a complicated process. The bigger the project, the more moving pieces to keep track of. Klio Studio is an all-in-one cloud-based software to help plan and manage projects for the film, TV, and commercial industry. Klio Studio combines task management, chat, and communication with managing and creating budgets, schedules, and call sheets.
Q. Please give us a brief description about yourself.
Ans: I grew up in Humble, Texas outside of Houston. I attended the University of Texas at Austin, the state’s flagship school, on a Navy ROTC scholarship, and joined up on graduation in 2007. My naval career included turns as an engineering operations manager of over 100 sailors; logistics and personnel management for over 150 military members; Nuclear Systems management; navigation and piloting 35ft to 1,100ft ships (patrol boats, Destroyer class, and Carrier class); Qualified Battle Watch Captain for NATO Command; speech writer for a 4 Star Admiral; firefighting and hazardous materials management; small arms and hand to hand combat; and work as a Legal Officer. Somehow during all this, I also managed to create a side career in entertainment, first working as a model and actress in Tokyo where I was stationed, and then hosting FOX Back Stage Pass for the FOX Japan Network! Returning to the US for a deployment at Naval Base Ventura County, I started to work in Hollywood including stints at TMZ, Fox Sports, and AMC, and started my own production company Yellow Light Media. Upon my honorable discharge in 2014, I doubled down on her entertainment work and in 2017 began building Klio Studio.
Q. How did you initially become involved in your industry?
Ans: I did a lot of theatre and competitive performance as a child through high school but I never knew a person could do it as a career. After commissioning as a Navy Officer, I was stationed in Japan because I knew Japanese. In my free time, I got back involved in the theater world in Japan and ended up working as a model and actress in Tokyo. When I became one of the correspondence for a Fox International Channel entertainment TV show, I also started producing the project. It was very interesting to live a double life, the military didn’t really know what I was doing in my free time. I realized this was much more my calling than working in the military and started researching careers in the industry. Soon after, I was in Hollywood.
Q. Describe the efficiencies your clients have achieved as a result of using your solution.
Ans: Do schedules and budgets by hand can take weeks, with revisions taking just as along. With Klio Studio, we can drop that time to hours while everything is saved in one interactive system. Teams can collaborate without ever leaving home. Personal information can remain confidential but team members can ask each other questions though the chat functions.
Q. What three pieces of advice would you give to young business owners?
Ans: 1) Delegate. And not just assigning other people tasks, assign responsibility. Get your team to function without you. This will free you up to think about the next steps.
2) Check your passion. Investors are always asking about why you’re passionate about your business. That’s because most small businesses fail, many times because they founders quit. I looked at starting several business but had a heart to heart with myself on whether this was something I wanted to do day in and day out for the next several years. The answer was always “no” until Klio Studio was created. If you aren’t willing to go to the end of the earth to make this thing happen, wait for an idea that does fire you up that much.
3) Check your expectations. It always takes longer than you expect. If you think you will be in a multi-millionaire in 4 months with your million dollar idea, think again. These things always take time and a get rich quick scheme only are only that, schemes.
Q. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful small business owner?
Ans: Insight, foresight, and problem solving. Most other skills you can hire out but the owner has to know “what is really going on in my industry and in my company?”, “what will come next? How do we adapt?”, and how to not let a speed bump or a hurdle keep the company from running the whole race.
Q. How do you go about marketing your business?
Ans: What has been your most successful form of marketing?We are just beginning marketing but personal referrals and word of mouth have been the most successful.
Q. What do you believe is the key to long term success?
Ans: You have to create a relationship with success and failure. Trying to achieve a big goal is like climbing a mountain. Sometimes the ground is unstable and you slide down, but do is that failure? Sometimes you run into a dead end and you have to double back. Sometime you have to go down before you can go up. Not giving up is the key for long term success as well as mountain climbing.
Q. How has your company been impacted by the COVID pandemic?
Ans: While we’ve been building Klio Studio since 2017, when the Coronavirus appeared, we knew we had to launch asap to help producers manage their newly distributed teams online and effectively. Since we were already in beta, we kept hustling and are excited to launch this current, affordable, and needed solution to Hollywood today.
Visit us : https://www.kliostudio.com/
