Scroll down for detailed episode notes and quick access timings
In this episode you’ll learn:
- How Aaron’s mental and physical health affects his creativity
- About the moment Aaron decided to quit his job and start Phlearn
- How Aaron has learned to lead other creative people
Aaron Nace is an educator and photographer.
In 2011 he founded Phlearn to professional teach students around the world, Photoshop and Lightroom skills.
With over 600 tutorials and 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, and counting, today, the Phlearn platform reaches folks through the power of video in 149 countries from their base in Chicago.
In this episode we hear how growing up in Hawaii gave Aaron the foundation to become a business owner.
And the daily challenges he’s faced with learning to become a leader of creative people in global and inspirational organisation.
In part one of this two part interview, we explore his love for photography, all things cooking, and the mindset Aaron had to wrap his head around shifting from employee to employer and entrepreneur.
Items mentioned in this episode (quick access):
[01:05] Introducing Aaron Nace from Phlearn.
[02:18] How the season affect Aaron’s creativity.
[03:18] How our mental and physical health affect our creativity.
[05:03] Introvert or extrovert?
[05:53] Making healthy lifestyles changes a priority
Phlearn
[06:09] What Aaron does. More about Phlearn.
[07:12] Cooking and food photography. Making food look good.
[09:35] Aaron’s favourite foods.
[12:00] Growing up in Hawaii. Exploring.
[13:25] Finding the confidence to start a business.
Founding Phlearn
[14:05] What the reality was like of founding Phlearn.
[15:12] Testing out business models. Transition times.
[16:15] The moment Aaron decided to quit his job.
[18:23] Aaron describes some of the challenges starting Phlearn.
[19:42] Learning to become a leader.
Growing Phlearn
[20:46] Hiring talent for Phlearn.
[22:39] Learning how to manage a team of creative people.
[23:22] Ego and insecurity. Taking care of employees at Phlearn.
[25:33] How Aaron keeps everything organised at Phlearn.
[27:35] Releasing free tutorials on YouTube every week.
[28:10] Teaching Photoshop for the iPad at Adobe Max.
Links and Resources:
Quotes from this episode (click to tweet:):
- “I’m always experimenting…”
- “You’re either 100% in or nothing”
- “There came a time where I had to quit my job”
- “People were asking me to share my techniques”
- “What’s the worst that could happen? I realised the worst case scenario wasn’t that bad”
- “I did a lot of things right, I did a lot of things wrong”
- “I want everyone to have a positive experience (at Phlearn)”
- “We’re always trying to stay ahead as much as possible”
- “We’re a content production machine!”
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Thanks for listening
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