Lasso Studio Interview
In this conversation, Mack Garrison interviews Lindsay and Alan Lasseter, co-founders of Lasso Studio, about their journey in motion design and branding. They discuss their early experiences in the field, the challenges and joys of running a creative studio as a married couple, and the importance of authenticity in client relationships. The Lasseters share insights on their unique creative process, memorable projects, and the significance of trust and community in their work. They also reflect on their experiences with major clients like Apple and the lessons learned along the way, emphasizing the value of connection and collaboration in the creative industry.
Takeaways
Lasso Studios was founded in 2020 by Lindsay and Alan Lasseter.
Their early experiences in motion design shaped their creative journey.
Balancing work and family life is a priority for the Lasseters.
Authenticity is key in building client relationships.
Trust between clients and studios enhances project outcomes.
Memorable projects often stem from strong client connections.
The creative process is unique to each project and client.
Community and connection are vital in the creative industry.
Lessons from working with major clients can reshape studio practices.
Events like Dash Bash foster learning and collaboration among creatives.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Lasso Studios
02:02 Early Experiences in Motion Design
05:02 The Birth of Lasso Studios
07:07 Navigating Work-Life Balance as Partners
09:07 The Unique Style and Process of Lasso Studios
11:59 Authenticity in Client Relationships
15:09 Memorable Projects and Client Connections
19:47 The Importance of Trust in Client Partnerships
24:00 Lessons from Working with Major Clients
29:01 The Value of Community and Connection at Events
Transcript:
Mack Garrison (00:00)
Hey, what's up everyone? This is Mack Garrison, co-founder, director of content over at Dash, and we've got another speaker series interview with the talented studio, Lasso Studios, a husband and wife partners, Lindsey and Allen Laseter. They are co-founders and co-creative directors of Lasso Studio. I'm sure that doesn't get complicated. Co-creative directors, no butting heads there. Out of Nashville, Tennessee, since 2020, they've worked together to merge their passions and branding, design, and animation.
serving clients ranging from local clients and nonprofits they believe in to powerhouse brands, including Apple and more. As partners in both business and life, they are building their studio intentionally to balance raising a family, building the life they desire and creating a foundation that can hold steady when life shifts in major and unexpected ways. Ooh, I'm excited. Allen, Lindsey, so good to see you all. I know you both. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today and introducing yourself to the dash bash.
Audience.
Lasso (00:58)
Absolutely. Thanks for having us, Mack, and inviting us to the Dash Bash. This will be our first time. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (01:02)
Is this really your first time? my gosh. One,
disappointed you haven't been before. But two, incredibly excited that y'all are gonna be joining us this year. I think folks are really in for a treat. I've known you both now for a long time. Lindsey, you and I are in the producers channel. We talk regularly. And Allen, I swear Allen, I tried to hire you for like years. You're the most booked up freelance contractor I've ever met in my life. I think literally for five years Dash tried to hire you and we were never able to do it because you're always booked up.
Lasso (01:31)
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (01:32)
Well, let's hop into it. I'd be curious from y'all's perspective. It's always interesting to me in motion design because it's such an eclectic mix of people from different backgrounds who kind of find their way into this space. I'd be curious from y'all's perspective, what are some of those earliest moments of motion design? When did you kind of realize, this is a cool field to be in? And I could toss that. We'll start off with you, Allen, and then we can go over to you, Lindsey.
Lasso (01:58)
Yeah, think my first, my truly first experience with motion was actually, I was just kind of thinking about this earlier, was working with a company I used to work for full time. That's right. Red Pepper, here in Nashville, and I didn't really know what I was doing, but I had a friend who knew After Effects and he had shown me a little bit of stuff and Red Pepper needed someone to just like make some little graphics move for like a...
Mack Garrison (02:13)
nice.
Lasso (02:28)
type video for some company and so I like jumped into like some really kind of simple what is it kinetic type kind of stuff so that was kind of like yes totally yeah and so I kind of that was like kind of my first kind of dipping my toe into the waters kind of memory and then my
Mack Garrison (02:38)
yeah, classic, classic. It's the gateway animation to animation is kinetic type.
Lasso (02:55)
My first full-on motion experience was doing some intro titles for a Google conference in Nashville in, what was that, 2013 or something like that, That was another thing where I had just a little bit of experience. The project fell into my lap and I was just thrown to the deep end. That was like it.
Mack Garrison (03:05)
wow.
Was your background always
design, Allen? Did it start kind of with design and creative and then there was this kind of like moment or two that you got into the motion side of it?
Lasso (03:26)
I was more like specifically like live-action like I really wanted to like be a director like for like live-action like film that kind of thing and I just kind of yeah stumbled into motion through that.
Mack Garrison (03:28)
Mmm, okay.
super cool. And I feel like I feel like everyone's got that friend. It's like, hey, look at this cool thing I made. You want to do something similar? You're like, yeah, that sounds kind of fun. How about how about you, Lindsey? What was kind of your early experience with the animation space?
Lasso (03:43)
Total it. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, it came through Allen. We met at art school and we literally lived across the hall from each other. And that's how we got introduced. And Allen was studying film and I was studying graphic design. We both had transferred into college. This was kind of like our second go around, right? Of like the first thing we were both studying. Allen originally studied graphic design, though, too. So I think it's interesting all the overlapping. And so, yeah, really for motion.
Mack Garrison (03:54)
nice.
Okay
Lasso (04:17)
And I think what I remember most was like recognizing how much power that could have. Like he mentioned the agency job that I had more in the advertising realm. But what was really cool for me in experiencing it was seeing Allen's shift and discovering it was something that he really loved and recognizing like it was a direction that he could take because.
Mack Garrison (04:34)
Mm.
Lasso (04:39)
Just being able to watch him develop his skills for it was really my real introduction. And yeah, like to your point of like someone sharing what's inspiring them, I feel like that was a really special way to be introduced to it and to get really inspired by a world that was definitely not my own.
Mack Garrison (04:53)
I love that.
What was the college that y'all met at?
Lasso (04:57)
It's called Watkins College of Art and Design and Film. Yeah, yeah.
Mack Garrison (04:59)
How cool. Nice. Do they still
have the art design program and all that stuff still run strong? Cool.
Lasso (05:05)
They do. I'm actually teaching
my first class there. They're part of Belmont University now and so yeah it feels fun to be kind of back into yeah college world.
Mack Garrison (05:14)
That's super fun. That's great. You go find a major that you love and you find a life partner. I feel like that's a, that's a huge win from going to school. So that's great. So y'all are, y'all are dating, you're creative, you're doing all this stuff. When was kind of this moment that was like, maybe, maybe we should start a studio. Maybe we make this more. Cause if I'm not mistaken, you were both kind of independent contractors for a bit, or maybe Lindsey, you were in house for full time. Like when was it this idea of like, let's, let's pull together a studio.
Lasso (05:22)
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean it was 2020 and I think for most people that was when like life, like oh life could be different kind of revelations came up and so for us I think a big reason was we had had our daughter at that point and I did have like worked in agency, boutique studio, in-house as a creative director and
was working freelance for probably about six months before that. And it was like proof to us of like, we can work in the same space, like, and know that we could still have a good relationship. And so really an opportunity came to us very beginning of 2020 for rebranding Nashville Design Week. And yeah, it was really a casual, I was telling Allen about it and it was like, wow, it would be really fun to take like what we just genuinely love.
Mack Garrison (06:25)
Fun.
Lasso (06:34)
being like branding and identity systems and motion and illustration. And there was so much freedom with that project. It really was a dream in that way of like a lot of trust. We are getting to create something that is for the creative community itself. And so there was so much freedom. And I think that was honestly the best way that it could have started out for us.
Mack Garrison (06:52)
Nice. It's
always good when it starts on like a project that you really love, right? And when it goes smoothly, you're really proud of it. You're like, dang, could I just do this more? Like, how do I do this more? You know, I find it so interesting, just being partners and working together. You know, how do y'all navigate that work life balance? Is it one of those things where like you kind of leave work at work and when you're off, it's like, look, we can't talk about the same work because we always talk about work. Or is it just part of life that that is just always around and y'all kind of just lean into that?
Lasso (07:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, we kind of, think it's just kind of a juggle and we go in, you know, ups and downs of like being really good at the, you know, leaving work at work thing. And then we get into times where it becomes all consuming, you know, just kind of depending on how busy things are and what any given project requires. But the ideal is, we keep our work to pretty specific work hours. And, you know, we try to like be pretty intentional about hanging out as a family.
as much time as we possibly can and in those times work just doesn't come up naturally and then by the time we put our kids to bed we're like we can't we don't have any bandwidth to talk about work. it kind of lends itself to having a natural separation there.
Mack Garrison (07:51)
Sure
That's good. I'm glad
y'all aren't like that super, super couple that's just like on point all the time. Cause like I get home and I have to disconnect. just talk all day, do stuff all day. I'll just like, you know, veg out on the couch with my phone. So glad to know that y'all are human as well and doing that too.
Lasso (08:15)
Yeah, it's been interesting just like over the years learning how to communicate with each other in that way and like even helping each other of like remembering like hey this is not the time for this like we can move this to tomorrow and and supporting each other too of like we really did start the studio so that we could have like this balance that wasn't existing previously and so it's nice to be able to support each other in that.
Mack Garrison (08:24)
Yeah.
I love that. Well, I got y'all's website pulled up and I'm try to do my best to describe what I'm looking at on y'all's work to audiences listening to this. But you you have such like a funky style and I don't know how to describe this other than it one is incredibly unique. It feels old but modern, right? You're tapping into this kind of retro feel but it also feels really progressive and forward focus. It's such a good unique mixture of like compositions but there's such a sense of brand.
and branding that comes into it, of course, as being a brand studio and emotion studio. You know, how do you all I'm so curious about y'all's process, you know, because I think there's a lot of typical motion studios out there that might feel a little bit similar on their process. But for a group that has such keen insight on branding, maybe you could walk me through just like what does it look like on a project when you get something and it may be a high level.
Lasso (09:34)
I mean, it really depends on the client and on the end result. And that puts us into like, okay, who's owning since we're both creative directors and deciding like how that should go about. really, I think.
There is so much behind the scenes of like the years that both of us have been like honing in and especially for Allen as like the illustration that he brings and just his unique approach to motion. It feels like there's a lot of beauty of the work that's been building to that so that it can come more naturally in our process now. And we definitely like whether it's like a brand forward or a motion forward project, like we're like, okay, this is essentially the steps that we're gonna start moving in towards. But really, I think one of the big
things is connecting to the intent of the project, connecting deeply to the clients and creating a good flow with them. then, I mean really for the creative, I think one of the most important things is trying to get into the mindset and the flow where we can actually trust our own instincts.
Mack Garrison (10:30)
Mm-mm.
I love that. Anything you wanna add to that, Allen?
Lasso (10:34)
Yeah, I feel like one of the other things that kind of makes our process unique is that like, think, and this is something we're still kind of trying to figure out is...
Because when we first started, really saw ourselves, what was exciting to us was being able to not be a studio that does motion and also branding, but have those things integrated from the very beginning. And we've had a few projects like that, but obviously it's a little bit more of a niche kind of, you know.
market I guess for that. So that kind of makes things interesting. like when we don't have a project like that, like how do we keep like, how do we keep it like collaborative and working together as opposed to like, well you go do this, I'll go do this kind of thing. So that is something that we're kind of constantly having to think about a lot. Sure.
Mack Garrison (11:02)
Yeah.
Mmm.
Honestly, I think everyone is to a certain degree on like systems and process
type stuff. It's one of those things like you're like, you find something, it works super well, you keep doing it then you're kind of at this new place where you're doing new work and you're like, man, maybe we need to tweak this a little bit, right? I think something that I get from both of y'all just immediately is just so much authenticity, just even in our conversation today, I've met both of you in person, you are who you say you are, I can just get the vibe of how it's like working with you.
You know, how much do you feel like that aspect of it plays in, you know, to the work you do? Like if someone's out there thinking about starting their own studio, like, do you feel like it's pretty important to kind of understand just like your vibe and how you work and kind of your personality equally as as important as the work that you do?
Lasso (12:07)
Absolutely. I think that is one of the key components of like when people are hiring you like they're not just hiring your studio they're hiring like the essence of what you're bringing and what the relationship while you're working together can be like so I think that is such a key component.
And yeah, I remember like early days of my career and you know, places that I dreamed of working and eventually did get to work where they were just like, really, I want, you know, ideally we're not working together late at night on a project. Those times come sometimes and I want to work with someone that I'm going to have like just really good feelings about. Like we get to make that choice. So yeah, absolutely.
Mack Garrison (12:38)
Right.
I love that. go ahead, Allen.
Lasso (12:51)
Well, no, no, yeah, I don't have much to add other than for me it just kind of comes down to I think I think of it, try to keep it simple and just try to be honest in every part of life. And this mode where you start feeling like you have to perform or project a certain image, it just puts so much pressure on you. And so for me, it's like, yeah, just...
It's like hard sometimes because even when you're trying to like there's like a trap you can fall into where it's like well I want to be seen as authentic and so then you're like Doing a little dance to like make people think wow. I'm so honest I just try to like and I think we've kind of built this into our city like just try to be honest like in everything whether we're talking to a client whether we're talking to other
studio owners or whatever. A lot of the stuff kind of falls into its place itself if you just kind of approach it.
Mack Garrison (13:44)
falls into his place
or falls flat. feel like I've made some jokes on some like corporate client calls and they're nothing there. I'm like, okay. It's a test.
Lasso (13:49)
Yeah, there you go. There is always that. But even that, I
mean, I would rather that than like have to, again, like uphold this like kind of image, kind of project. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (13:57)
Right, man, that's so accurate, that's so honest and
so much truth to that. here's a good question for y'all. You we talked about the Nashville Design Week and just how that felt like such a good project and a perfect fit for y'all and really was a jumping point into becoming Lasso. I'm curious, looking back at your career thus far, if there's any other projects you're really proud of, either from a creative standpoint or just that.
client relationship we're talking about where the work looked good. Maybe it wasn't the best out there, but there was such a good relationship that was really enjoyable. Anything else stick out to you all besides the Nashville Design Week project.
Lasso (14:30)
Yeah, I've got my answer. I'm curious what yours would be. The thing that's come into mind is it's funny because it's one of the projects that we had a little bit lighter kind of involvement in.
at least in proportion to all the work that was done with it because it was kind of a collaboration of different creative studios in Nashville but really cool little wine bar restaurant in Nashville called Bad Idea. got to collaborate with some super amazing creative people here in town and like a lot of our work and before we started our studio like the...
huge majority of my work as a freelancer was with people outside of Nashville, which is awesome. And I still am so thankful for the ability to be able to work with people all over the world. But there's something really cool about doing some work for a place in town that's trying to do something cool in and of itself and like seeing the work come to life, like in brick and mortar and seeing people that you live close to like interact with in that kind of way. So that's been, that's been a really cool one for me. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (15:23)
I love that.
Lasso (15:24)
Yeah, honestly, like the first time that we went and like actually had a date and ate there. Because from the first time we had the conversation with the owner, Alex, he actually reached out to us because of Nashville Design Week. That's how he found out about us.
Mack Garrison (15:36)
cool, nice.
Lasso (15:37)
It was just a perfect example of someone who is like, we want what you do. I want what you do and I'm just going to trust you to do it. And it was really encouraging too, just to witness him as a client doing that with so many other people that are a big part of the Nashville creative community and people that we consider good friends. So yeah, I would definitely agree with that one.
Mack Garrison (15:57)
I feel like it's one of those things and I'm sure you all have been asked this question as well. I think every creative kind of gets asked it at certain point. What is, who's your dream client? Who is the ideal client you want to work with? And my answer, and it sounds like I would echo the same sentiment is always like, it's less about like the industry or the client. It's like, is there trust?
Do we have a good working relationship? Because you can make anything exciting and fun if there's that partnership of like, let's get into it. I love your style. This is what I know about it. This is what I our customers want. And you have that back and forth. That trust is so key.
Lasso (16:29)
Yeah.
100%. And I think it's been fascinating, like all the different types of clients that we've been fortunate to work with and being able to channel in to that element. And I think that you can, as we've been doing this over the years, it's like we can like tell, you know, even from like very first conversation of, you know, is that there, knowing what questions to ask, and then if it's not a good fit, like sending them to someone who we think it would be like really great for what they need. And so yeah, it's.
that's so important and it's such a gift when you have it.
Mack Garrison (17:02)
There's such a vibe on that initial conversation and I love that. I wanna pull that thread a little bit. What are some of the questions that you ask right up front that you feel like kind of sets the tone on like whether this could be a good relationship or not? Is there any that come to mind? It's like a go-to question y'all ask over and over.
Lasso (17:18)
Yeah, I think it really is more like getting a personal connection to them of, know, we've tested and I handle like new business development and connecting to our clients and potential clients. So letting it be like less formal, honestly, is where I feel like it helps a lot. And just really just asking questions and letting them speak and not controlling the conversation so much and, you know, letting it...
letting them dive into like, why do you want to do this? Why does it matter? Like being able to connect to them personally as a human, I think is really important of again, kind of that vibe check of like, hey, if we're going to be working together for like months on end, like what's it going to be like for us to talk each day? And oftentimes you really can get a sense of that right away. And even just knowing like confidence level and clarity for them. And is it a space where like we can support them and just really getting that like energy along?
which I think really helps because yeah, we would we've definitely had projects where we've started to move forward in the conversations of working together and that there's essentially just a series of flags of like hey I don't know that that we are really the best partner for this and even just protecting our our time and energy more to know like sometimes even the largest budgets are not worth it if it's gonna spend our lives and our days into chaos
Mack Garrison (18:35)
Yes.
It's also, think
this like scarcity mindset that unfortunately exists for a lot of us or people who are just starting their own studio or freelance career that are listening to this. It's like, is that next one there? If I say no to this one, is that okay? And I think all three of us would agree that you have to recognize those flags and act on it. And our regrets that we have from our careers, I would surmise come from the one we didn't react to those red flags that we saw.
Lasso (19:04)
Yes,
absolutely. Yeah, and like you said something a minute ago about thinking, because I think it's so easy to when there's like a prospective project coming in, you think about the point of signing the contract and locking in the project and you never think about like, yeah, day after day for a long time working on it. Like it took me forever to actually start remembering that that's most of what we're doing is like working with other people. It's not about just winning the project.
Mack Garrison (19:31)
Yes.
Lasso (19:32)
So yeah, that's definitely cool.
Mack Garrison (19:32)
Makes you a little bit more, critical is not the word, but just focused on the right partnerships. Because again, like you said, Allen, like you're gonna be working with them for a couple of months at a time, potentially. It's like you wanna make sure you enjoy that relationship. You know, one thing I didn't ask y'all earlier, I meant to ask about LASA, where does the name come from? I'm so curious. And you got to put y'all on the spot here, because I know some names sometimes just sound fun, and that's totally reasonable.
Lasso (19:38)
own.
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (19:56)
but I'm really curious if there is any, y'all are a brand studio. I feel like it last though has to come from someone.
Lasso (20:01)
Yeah, it definitely does. Yeah, it sounds so silly. Yeah, my friends kind of used to jokingly call me Lasso because my last name was Laseter in high school.
Mack Garrison (20:12)
sick. I was hoping like, I was like, I used to be a cowboy and totally was just gonna
live out less be a cowboy.
Lasso (20:19)
Yeah, that would be cooler. yeah, I think, yeah, I don't remember. I think I maybe started...
I don't know, it was always kind like in the back of my mind. I don't actually remember when we said we should use that as our studio name. Well, it's funny because yeah, like as a branding studio, it's like we even support brands who are considering like, what should we name our company or our product or things like that? And so I think there was kind of a beauty to the fact that like we didn't, we didn't overthink it to that nth degree. Like it felt fun where we did worry or overthink it was like there was another Lasso Studio
in a country that I can't pronounce, but it looked like they had not been operating for a really long time. So for a period, we even just considered, we were like, all right, we're husband and wife, what if we were just the Lasseters? Which I'm so glad that we didn't move forward with that. And honestly, we give credit to one of our friends because they just started calling us Lasso as a duo. Yeah, because Lasso was always there, but it's like, we actually did, so we spent a lot of time like...
Mack Garrison (21:08)
haha
fine.
Lasso (21:21)
trying to go through like a real naming process. There's something about coming up with a new name. It just feels like too, it feels like overthought and like too random. then you're like, just not that Lasso is like inherently any better than any of the other names we came up with, but just the fact that it's kind of has a history. It's like, it just feels more natural. And yeah, like our friends saying, just go with Lasso. It's like hearing it from the outside. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (21:23)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Honestly, I feel like it's kind of that push you need to
have a friend to like take you out of your bubble and be like, look, it's a great name. Just roll with it. Even for us, we had a late great friend, Andrew, who was like, we told him we were flirting with these different names. We were like, all right, we're thinking about Dash. And he's like, oh, there's the day you're born, the day you die. Dash is what happens in between. I'm like, yeah, well, that. But the reality was my business partner Cory and I, couldn't agree on a damn name.
Lasso (21:53)
Yeah.
Love that.
Mack Garrison (22:15)
we kicked around like 300 and we got to that point, we're like sick, know, dash works. So sometimes you need that, that friend to give you that little sidekick of like, you're in the right place.
Lasso (22:18)
Yeah. Yes.
Yeah, it's like the same as like when you're trying to name your kid. And so I'm glad that ultimately it was like, it just feels good. And yeah, I think that that could even just connect back to like how we want like our work to feel and how we want our clients to feel even like, yes, that feels right. It feels good.
Mack Garrison (22:28)
Mmm.
Yeah.
Well, I love that you're like tying it
together, right? We're bringing everyone around on this project. Last one it up. I love it. I love it. Although I would have loved it more if you, one of you was a cowboy. I will say that going back to it, but yeah, that's true.
Lasso (22:51)
We at least live in Nashville, so it's like the automatic connection that
most people outside of the city have, so we've got that in a way.
Mack Garrison (22:59)
So I'm, to change the subject a little bit, I'm really curious. One question I've been asking on these interviews is just about some stories in our industry. Both of you all have been working in this space for a long time. And one of my favorite things about attending conferences like the bash and others is just connecting with other creatives, finding out some stories that they have, like you'll never believe this client one time or we worked on this crazy thing.
Good, bad, or anything in between, I'm curious if you have a story you could share about a project that was either like crazy hard to get done or something just unheard of that you're working on. Any stories kind of bubble up to the top that maybe you could share on here, even if you disguise some names.
Lasso (23:39)
Yeah, mean, absolutely. I think one that comes to mind is the first time we ever worked with Apple. And it was, you know, one interesting thing in starting the studio and that I think that we continue to work through is even just our own mindset of like, we are a studio and we're capable of like doing all that we dream of doing. And even just...
you know, hoping that we could have opportunities with clients at like a larger scale who really value creativity, especially in the way that they do. Like those are ideal clients for us. And so it was interesting timing because I was pregnant with our second child and that that year, you know, we really, it was the first time that we were going to like create our own maternity leave as a company and knowing like, okay, this is, this is a big thing. This is something that we really want.
And so something that was really beautiful about that timing was, you we had created the plan and the vision for what we wanted that to look like. And we needed like a solid project to land within a certain time period and experiencing the fear of like, what is going to land? When is it going to come? And then the beauty of like it, the way that the email and the inquiry came in and the relationship, and then even the beauty of how that team worked with us, because the truth was I was
pregnant and our son was going to come, clearly in pregnancy, it's very hard to say it's going to happen on this date. So from the producer side being like, we just need to be like super clear with you of like, we're planning to shut the studio down for two weeks whenever the baby does come, but we can't tell you, you know, when that is going to happen. And so just like laying that all out at the beginning and experiencing that fear for ourselves, right? Of like, what if us kind of taking away what a studio would typically offer?
Mack Garrison (25:20)
Hmm.
Lasso (25:24)
which is like we're gonna get this project done by X-State.
Mack Garrison (25:24)
Mm-hmm.
Lasso (25:27)
And the beauty of that project was how just human and joyful they all were for us. Like they were thrilled for us. And that was just one beautiful example of how those partnerships can really support like the life that we actually wanted and allowing that project to flow. And it's one that like we're super proud of, but that, you know, just based on the nature of the project and white labels and all those, like it's not one that we've gotten to share before. But that was like a really, I think a much
Mack Garrison (25:51)
Hmm.
Lasso (25:54)
more personal but like really special project that we've experienced.
Mack Garrison (25:58)
I love that so much. I feel like there's always a fear. I think we all navigate this as creatives, because whether it's you have a boss in your in-house, you're a freelancer working for a client, you're running a studio, dealing with clients, there's always this fear as if we don't do something that we might not get the opportunity to do it again, or it has to be handled a certain way.
You know, it's such a refreshing conversation to hear that story and that Apple treated you all that way. I'm sure that it probably shifted your perspective on what is a purple. Like have you guys gone from that conversation? Has it shifted your mentality even on other projects? It's like, wow, if Apple is doing XYZ, we should have the standard with everyone. If that standard was different before. Have you felt a change since that project on how you treat other projects and handle other clients?
Lasso (26:48)
I I think even we were trying to do that beforehand, but I think there was something unique about how big that project and even just like the opportunity with a more well-known client name was, but that that really was getting to practice, like being honest about who we are. Like we are a husband and wife team and we scale up based on the scale of the project that we have.
And so I think just knowing, like we can be honest about who we are. We can set really clear boundaries too of like this is what we're doing or this is what needs to happen. And so continuing to like build that confidence and to know that we can do it for other clients too.
Mack Garrison (27:25)
I love that, love that so much. If anyone's listening to this podcast, which we hope people are, I don't even know, is this a podcast? Is it a vidcast? It's all of the above, check D, right? I'd love to get y'all's pitch on someone who's maybe on the fence of buying a bash ticket, thinking about coming to see y'all. Why should someone come see Lasso? Why should they come hang with Allen and Lindsey? What are you guys gonna talk about at the event, you think?
Lasso (27:33)
It's all these things.
I think it kind of did again kind of go back to what we talking about earlier. I mean the goal is just to be as honest as possible and to try because you know this is really fun. think this is what's so interesting about this event is that we're kind of trying to focus on and my understanding is that in general like we're kind of trying to focus more on you know the true like authentic part of you know what doing this work is like.
And you know, as a studio, like, you know, it's like we have kind of a mixed, it's okay if we're get this honest here, but there's kind of a mixed like motivation where it's like we want to come and be totally honest. But also, yeah, it's like we want just in general, not just at this event, but more people to know our name.
to get more work and form more relationships and stuff. So it's like going to be a really interesting balance, I think, of like being totally honest, but also like, I don't know, like how honest do you want to be and not like scare people off, you know, because we're messy. It's messy humans.
Mack Garrison (28:48)
We want the field
to continue. People need to continue to start studios and stuff. We don't want to be, you know, tell them how hard it is sometimes.
Lasso (28:53)
Yeah. But it's
like to me, I don't know, to me that's the most interesting thing. Like meeting anyone, hearing anyone talk is just like hearing the truest thing they can say about themselves. So I don't know. To me, I think that's the reason of self to come and hear not only us, but hopefully a bunch of other people talk about the real, the real part of all this stuff. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (29:13)
And it is the real
part about all this. Go ahead, Lindsey.
Lasso (29:15)
Yeah, I just going to add, I think the beauty of these types of events is, you know, clearly you're drawn to it for a certain reason and the people who are speaking are essentially like an expander for things that are possible. you know, our goal, like Allen said, is like, it is messy. It is messy to do the work. It's messy to be a parent. It's messy to work with other human beings in your own studio and other like just clients. And so I think like we were honored to be asked and I think that it felt
It felt like a level up moment of like, like we have been working really hard and getting the chance to like share the real behind the scenes, I think is a real gift. And just allowing people to see here's how they handled it. Here is what I'm drawn to. Here's what I know I want to do in my life right now. Like I've been thinking about that so much lately, especially teaching like these students that are about to graduate and like go out into the world and just being able to really zero in on what matters to you and connecting to people who are.
gonna like you know kind of help you step into that next version even when it feels scary and so I hope in a small way like we can do that just by sharing what what's happened for us so far.
Mack Garrison (30:22)
I love it so much. Community, connection, reconnecting, learning from one another. It's what's so important and what keeps our relationships with other peers so strong in this industry. Thanks everyone for tuning in today. Been chatting with Lindsey and Allen Laseter who are the co-founders and Creative Directors at Lasso Studio, an amazing brand and animation shop based out of Nashville. We cannot wait to have you at the Dash Bash. If you have not got your ticket yet, it's June 11th through 13th, 2025.
We're having an optional third day of workshops this year, two full day of speakers and hangouts. There'll be parties, there'll be plenty of time to network and really just learn a thing or two from one another, which is what it's all about. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today, y'all. Great chatting and can't wait to see you all this summer.
Lasso (31:05)
See you soon!
Mack Garrison (31:07)
See
ya.
Aradhana Bejarano Interview
In this conversation, Mack Garrison interviews Aradhana Baharano, co-founder of Little Labs, an animation studio based in California. They discuss Aradhana's journey into animation, her education at SCAD, the transition from a creative role to a business owner, and the challenges of starting a studio. Aradhana shares insights on networking, mentorship, and navigating client relationships, as well as her excitement for the upcoming Dash Bash conference where she will be speaking about her experiences and the rebellious spirit of artists.
Takeaways
Aradhana's early inspiration came from a book on animation she found in middle school.
Her education at SCAD exceeded her expectations and helped her grow as an artist.
Transitioning from a creative role to a business owner requires delegation and embracing new responsibilities.
Starting Little Labs was a leap of faith, but they managed to keep Disney as a client.
Networking and mentorship are crucial for success in the creative industry.
Contracts are essential to protect against misunderstandings with clients.
Approaching client relationships as collaborations can ease tensions and misunderstandings.
Aradhana finds inspiration in various artists and believes in the power of community.
The Dash Bash conference is an opportunity for networking and inspiration.
Aradhana's talk at the Dash Bash will focus on her journey and the rebellious nature of artists.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Aradhana Baharano and Little Labs
03:00 Early Inspirations and Journey into Animation
06:00 Education at SCAD and Its Impact
09:00 Transitioning from Creative to Business Owner
12:05 Starting Little Labs: The Leap of Faith
15:01 Networking and Finding Mentorship
18:02 Navigating Client Relationships and Challenges
20:59 Preparing for the Dash Bash Conference
Transcript:
Mack Garrison (00:00)
All right, what's up all you Dash Bashers? Thanks for tuning into another episode of our speaker series where we're getting to know the speakers that are coming to the Dash Bash. And I'm so excited to have one of those speakers with us today. Aradhana Bejarano with Little Labs, the amazing animation studio based out of California. They got over a decade of experience working on animated content and interactive experiences. She's collaborated with brands such as Disney, Netflix, Google, Snapchat.
Meta and Khan Academy for Kids. mean, these are all just amazing brands to work with. Aradhana thanks so much for hanging out with me and chatting with me today.
Aradhana Bejarano (00:34)
I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Mack Garrison (00:36)
You know, I
think one good place to start is always kind of at the beginning because it's fascinating to me how everyone kind of gets into motion design. It's such an amalgamation of different backgrounds and experiences. Maybe you take me back to some of those like early animation memories you had where you were like, this is interesting. Maybe, maybe this is a career I might want to pursue.
Aradhana Bejarano (00:53)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so I grew up in India and...
my introduction to animation was sort of in middle school. I was very, I love cartoons, I love watching animated films, I was really a nerd and geek about it, but it was one day in my high school, my middle school, in the school library, I came across this book, animation book, and it was like the only animation book in the library, and it was like the one, it was just the one, yeah, it was just the one I stumbled on.
Mack Garrison (01:22)
It was just the one, you just read it over and over again.
Aradhana Bejarano (01:27)
the one I would read every day from that fourth on, it was perfectly placed for me. And I read it and I was like, like a light bulb went off in my head. was like, I can actually do this. I love drawing. And it was like the aha moment. And I wasn't necessarily surrounded by people who knew about this. And that book sort of sparked my imagination. And so then I started looking for more information and going to bookstores. And I found the Animation Survival Kit by Richard Williams.
Mack Garrison (01:52)
yeah, that's a classic.
got a copy in here with the office with me.
Aradhana Bejarano (01:53)
That's a classic idea. Yeah,
exactly. And it was overpriced in India, so I couldn't afford it at the time with my pocket money. And I didn't want to share it. I wasn't ready to share it with my family because they, again, so I would just visit the store every week and like read politely as much as I could without purchasing it. I own it now. I have a copy and everything. so that was just my earliest memory of like, this is something I can do.
Mack Garrison (02:00)
no.
Nice, nice.
Aradhana Bejarano (02:20)
It like, it's like almost perfectly like it was meant to happen. I had to stumble upon that book to like learn about it and like, yeah, and get into it.
Mack Garrison (02:25)
How fun.
Absolutely, serendipitous
that you found at the moment that you did. So it sounds like, know, there's not a, at least at the time, wasn't a ton of folks around you in your space and your network knew much about animation. So you're growing up, you're learning about this stuff. You have this passion for it. And I believe you went to SCAD, if I'm not mistaken, right? So was that a big reason that you were like, I need to go check out the US to kind of try to find a path into animation. That's what led you to SCAD?
Aradhana Bejarano (02:36)
Mm-hmm. Mm-mm.
No.
Yes, I might just get...
it
Exactly, yeah, there wasn't a ton of schools or colleges around me. There was sort of like media studies, but not really animation specifically. There was a lot of schools to teach you software. So I did all of that while I was in high school. I also learned Photoshop and all the tools, but not necessarily the foundation to anime. And then it sort of became my goal. I started looking at the US and other colleges just outside of India in general.
Mack Garrison (02:59)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Aradhana Bejarano (03:23)
and SCAD ended up being the one I was the most, like it felt like the right place for me and also needed to be able to afford it and they offered scholarships so yeah, yeah, yeah and they do. it's gorgeous, the campus is amazing, I love that.
Mack Garrison (03:31)
Sure. Hey, there you go. Good scholarship is also really helpful. I love scat. It's so pretty down there. mean, I've gone down a few times for commotion. I think they do a great event. Yeah. Have you have you been to Savannah
before before learning of scat? Did you have any idea about Savannah?
Aradhana Bejarano (03:47)
I've never been to the US before
I came here so yeah it was it was I was just all in mm-hmm yeah I just I remember I painted on my wall I'm gonna get scared that's how I told my parents like this is how I'm gonna get scared you know of course I mean it was it was hard like having your child move across like thousands of miles and they had never been to the US before and
Mack Garrison (03:51)
So you were all in, you were like, I'm going to school here, I'm immersing myself, amazing, amazing.
that's so fun.
Aradhana Bejarano (04:11)
all of that. It took a little bit of convincing, but they eventually agreed to me. And I got a scholarship as well, partial, not full, but that helped as well. yeah, just like, I'm going to do this. This is my dream. I'm going to work.
Mack Garrison (04:15)
I love it.
I love it. Do you feel like
did SCAD sort of live up to those expectations? did what you were expecting in school for animation, was that what you got? Did you get more than you expected? What was that college experience like, especially being sort of an international student coming to the US?
Aradhana Bejarano (04:34)
Mm-hmm.
For me, mean, anything was more than I expected, I mean, you know, it's almost, I mean, coming from a different country, like I didn't have those opportunities. So me coming in on my mindset was, this is amazing. I'm getting to learn what I need to learn. And I had the best experience there. really, it really did help me spread my wings and learn about myself as an artist, but also as a human being and being just such an international college. You know, you meet people from all over the world. It just, it just expands your horizons in all different ways.
Mack Garrison (04:46)
Hahaha.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:12)
So that was great and all the professors were like well most of them I wouldn't say all but like I think there were really amazing professors that helped guide me through the process and honestly college really is like what you make up in I feel like Everyone has the experience that they make of it and so it gave Scott really gave you the tools to explore and then you do what you do with that and Take it out in the world
Mack Garrison (05:13)
I love that.
I love that.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:38)
And so.
Mack Garrison (05:38)
You're a great case study for the university. They're gonna see this video and want a copy of it, because all these are amazing things. But you're right though, I think when you find good mentors that can help support you and guide you, I look back at my time at NC State University, and it sounds very similar to how you look back at SCAD. It's like you get out of it what you put in. So if there's any students listening to this interview we're talking about.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:42)
You
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (06:02)
You know, it's lean in, talk to your professors, get to know them, ask people around you for that assistance and support because it seems like that sets you up on a great trajectory and of course, eventually in starting your own company with little labs.
Aradhana Bejarano (06:10)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, and also, SCAD
so than a lot of the other colleges that I have noticed and interacting with other folks not having worked in the industry. Just like having those conversations like we do have like did have like classes where you're like working on your portfolio, working on your video, you have those conversations pretty early on. So you can you know you're learning all the foundations and basics. I did my undergrad not my post grad at SCAD and so a lot of it is just foundations but you know at some point teachers like and the professors do start talking to you but but how do
want to apply this in the professional world and those conversations really helped me figure out where I need to be. yeah. Yeah, no worry. Yeah, okay.
Mack Garrison (06:52)
I love it. That's fantastic. Well, I don't want to spoil too much from the actual presentation at the Dash Bash this summer. So I'm going to fast forward a little bit. Little Labs exists. You guys are crushing
it. You make some amazing work. In my opinion, it's some of the best that is out there in our space. What I'm really curious about is something that I've personally struggled with and I want to know if you've navigated that and it's being the business owner and less of the creative. How have you navigated this shift?
Aradhana Bejarano (07:06)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Mack Garrison (07:18)
that I'm sure you're navigating from like the person who's making this stuff to doing this stuff to now being the entrepreneur. What's that been like?
Aradhana Bejarano (07:18)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
It's been a journey. think when we started off, was, you know, myself and my partner Camila who started the studio. We were doing everything. And it's been a journey like starting to delegate and hand off those things because those are not sustainable eventually. And I've sort of embraced this role of now my role at the studio is different. I'm the creative director and also the business owner. And I delegate everything else. So I am managing people a lot more than I used to. And actually now
embrace it and love it because that's my genius and that's where I'm at in my career at the moment and my my role is more to guide everybody and help them create the best work and so that's that's that's just what I've embraced and I feel like probably you have as well yeah yeah
Mack Garrison (08:11)
yeah, it's interesting because
like I think at a foundational level, once you are a designer and a creative, you were just naturally built around this idea of problem solving. And all you're doing when you're running a company is essentially trying to solve problems in creative ways. And so it's different problems, right? So you got these teams that need this information and you're trying to get them the right direction, say the right things to get them in the right place. Quick question for you with Camilo, your partner.
Aradhana Bejarano (08:20)
Mm-hmm.
Right, it's different problems. Yeah, right, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (08:37)
Have you all always
Aradhana Bejarano (08:37)
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (08:37)
been collaborators? Have you always kind of worked together and this was a natural extension in starting the studio or how that all kind of come to fruition?
Aradhana Bejarano (08:42)
Yeah,
so it's kind of cliche like to meet your life partner at work in this industry because you work so much but that's how we actually met. We met at
Mack Garrison (08:48)
Yeah
Aradhana Bejarano (08:53)
Disney while I was working at Disney. And so we were always sort of working together in a sense. And then what sparked the little labs was you would start collaborating outside of work on things just, you we were having fun with because, you know, at work you do the work that you're told to do. And so you go home and explore. And so that just sparked like our collaboration efforts outside of the Disney work environment. And it just spin and grew into what the little labs is today.
Mack Garrison (09:08)
Sure, right, right.
How fun,
Aradhana Bejarano (09:21)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (09:21)
I love that. Well, it is, the natural progression, right? So you're working together all the time and it's like, well, we might as well just be partners then as well too. That's right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, is with the labs part, what's interesting to me is like, you know, have your day-to-day job at Disney, you kind of have this labs piece where you all are collaborating on the side. Is their intentionality and calling little labs, I mean, is that an extension from that, you know?
Aradhana Bejarano (09:28)
Yeah, right? Yeah. And not with everybody. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
it is. Yeah. So the part little came from, know, we were working at large companies and corporations before and this was our space to be little and small.
and we love that, like that's us. And then the labs part was us experimenting outside of our day to day. And that just spin ball into the little labs in that we're, and it is in the sense of what we, who we are now as a team, as we've grown as well, we're always experimenting, always pushing our boundaries as a team and being playful. And that's where the roots of the name come in.
Mack Garrison (10:17)
Mmm.
Oh,
I love it. It's so fun. I'm always curious from folks who are, you know, creatives in house that then end up moving into starting their own agency or studio. Was there like a signature event or a project? I'm always curious. Like what, was it like, oh, this is maybe a little bit more than just a side project. Like maybe this is something we want to do full time.
Aradhana Bejarano (10:28)
Mm-hmm.
With us it was sort of like we took the leap honestly. We yeah, it was was sort of like we we just jumped off not knowing if we have a parachute or not and we're like I mean, yeah, we and we did you know thankful that we ended up having a parachute we were able to keep Disney as a client for us when we when we left the company But we honestly were just just ready to go on figure out our new path We it's sort of like I reached our goal
Mack Garrison (10:44)
Yeah, nice.
I love that analogy, that's great.
Aradhana Bejarano (11:09)
know, a dream, like we worked at Disney and it was like, what's next? What is the next challenge? And we were young enough, I guess, and naive enough to like take that, like, we can do it, yeah. That's right, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (11:18)
Yeah, we can do it, right? You know, not thinking about all the other pieces to it. That's so fun.
I feel like, you know, I would echo that same sentiment. You know, when we started Dash, we were both young and in our 20s and probably we're not thinking about all the other pieces that come with it. But let's say for someone who is, let's say there's a listener out there who has been working somewhere, they've been freelancing, and the idea of a studio or starting this collective sounds really, really good to them.
Aradhana Bejarano (11:34)
Right. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (11:46)
What's
a piece of advice that you might give them, either based on something you've learned now, you wish you could have done, or something you're really proud of? What would you share for someone thinking about starting their own shop?
Aradhana Bejarano (11:50)
Yeah.
I think making sure that you have the resources to delegate, I think that was like a biggest learning for us on our site that we started to burn out pretty quickly trying to tackle everything ourselves. So whether it's financial resources or just people you can lean into and ask questions, we didn't think that through when we started off. ended up, it was almost like we have a fire. We need to find somebody to talk to you about this. And so perhaps if you have like a network of people
Mack Garrison (12:21)
You
Aradhana Bejarano (12:25)
you can lean into to kind of help you troubleshoot, or whether it's consultants or things like that. And then of course like a client base, like knowing that you you have some sort of confidence in a client base, like you have maybe had conversations with before you jumped in, that could that could be helpful as well.
Mack Garrison (12:40)
Mm.
Yeah, I think you're
right. I mean, I look back and you know, there was definitely the jump in and commitment similar to you all and how we started, but we did have some work that we brought into it. Like we were kind of moonlighting on the side. We had something similar to like the little labs where we were doing some stuff from the work on the side. So it wasn't jumping into nothing. So I think that's important. You also hit on something else that I just, you know, profoundly believe in is mentorship. It's close friends in the space who have navigated it.
Aradhana Bejarano (12:54)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (13:11)
think there's always a bit of a question mark on, you how do I find a mentor? How do I meet some of these other people? Did you go to a bunch of events? Like, how did you start to network and get to know folks who you had some of these tougher questions to ask?
Aradhana Bejarano (13:11)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
I wish I had a good answer. would have gone to that. I wish Dash Bash was there and I could have gone to that, right? Yeah, yeah. For us, it was slightly different because we were actually leaving a different industry and coming into motion design with this sort of like move. We were in the animation and interactive space. And so we really did just jump off the cliff hoping we'll land into a parachute. We were like sort of freelancing a little bit with studios in the LA area. So we had some of a network and that sort of
Mack Garrison (13:42)
Ha ha.
Cool, okay.
Aradhana Bejarano (13:50)
were able to build off of that but definitely I would recommend like networking and events and going to some of those either in your local community or area or conferences like Dash attending those.
Mack Garrison (14:02)
I think, you know, it's interesting
because I remember when I was getting out of school and I would imagine maybe, you you felt the same way. We were kind of intimidated. It's a big industry. Like, where do I even begin with this? And what I have learned in talking to folks like you and other creatives is just how welcoming everyone really is. And I think a lot of artists just don't recognize right away, just if you reach out, you know, there's a good chance that someone could respond to you.
Aradhana Bejarano (14:10)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, 100%. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (14:28)
So in that lens, know, I'm always curious just, you know, who are some of the various artists that inspire you? Who has inspired Little Labs over the years? Who are folks that you still are enamored by their work on day in, day out?
Aradhana Bejarano (14:36)
Mm-hmm.
Oh, such a hard question because I feel like, you know, we're all inspiring each other all the time. so there were definitely Ye House was a studio back, you know, I mean, Michigan. Yeah. And they were also husband and wife too. And so they always inspired us to take the leap. And we actually reached out to them and Camila was more connected to Michelle at the time as well. And we kind of were able to ask them questions and help out.
Mack Garrison (14:46)
Mm, sure.
yeah, up in Michigan, right? Yeah, yeah.
Aradhana Bejarano (15:11)
help us out and they were super inspiring to us over time. I mean, almost like everybody in the, even the work I see now, you know, inspires me a lot. On just an all time base, like any artist, like, you know, who's like following their path, being truthful to who they are always inspires me. looking back historically, like Frida Kahlo, Mary Blair, like those, those artists are always very empowering and inspiring for me. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (15:18)
yeah.
Mmm.
You know what's funny is I think
I actually reached out to Michelle at yet house at 1.2 I was randomly up in Romeo just which is a small town just north of Detroit and they're they're close by to it I forget the exact name of where they are, but they're up near there and I was like hey Michelle I'm in town I'd love to come see your studio and I don't know if they've ever had someone like properly come visit their studio So we tried to make it happen Didn't quite work out but they make some amazing work and enter just the nicest people in the world, too
Aradhana Bejarano (15:40)
Mm-hmm.
yeah.
Oh wow. They do. They are
so nice and we've just had a friendship. We've actually never met in person to this day and just we haven't had the opportunity. We either like missed each other or didn't couldn't couldn't make it work but one day. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (16:04)
really? that's so funny.
One day,
I know it's funny for anyone that's like not in our industry when they're like, oh, you're to go hang out with your internet friends. It's like, look, I promise they're really cool. I may not have met them in person, but they're the best. 100%, 100%. You know, I think one thing that you've definitely recognized probably is being a studio owner and I have as well is just our industry is kind of a wild uncertain place. You know, the longer you're in it, the more you can kind of see the volatile swings, the ups and downs.
Aradhana Bejarano (16:20)
They are, and they always are. I mean, it hasn't like disappointed me. So yeah,
Mack Garrison (16:41)
I would imagine that you've got some pretty good stories from over the years. I'm always curious on a good industry story, whether it was like a crazy project you finished, you didn't know you were gonna be able to get done or stuff that went totally off the rails. Do you have a good industry story you could share with folks today?
Aradhana Bejarano (16:45)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, plenty, but I'll stick to this one without naming names. We had this one client several years ago, right, when we were just starting out and they wanted like all this stuff from us. built, you know, they were launching this new brand. So we did a bunch of branding work, character work, even like toy design.
Mack Garrison (16:58)
Okay, six to one. Perfect, that sounds good.
Aradhana Bejarano (17:15)
We were just starting off as a studio and contracts were not, we weren't like masters of contracts, but because a colleague had recommended us, we sort of slipped on kind of getting the contracts really signed off because they were kind of skirting the issue. were like, oh, we'll get it done. they were like, know, business is always done with a handshake, you know, and which it is, but it was one of those moments which looking back, I'm like, why did we go through with this? But because they were highly recommended.
Mack Garrison (17:26)
Mmm.
boy.
Sure.
Aradhana Bejarano (17:45)
by a colleague we trusted we went ahead and did all this work delivered it and when it came time to payment they were like well you didn't really meet our expectations and and and all throughout we got all this good feedback thankfully we had all of the emails and things to kind of prove that there wasn't a miss because there wasn't really a miss or ever communicated to us that
Mack Garrison (17:54)
no.
Aradhana Bejarano (18:06)
that we had not met their expectations. It all ended up sorting out at the end, but it was a huge learning for us to make sure you have your contracts and stuff all in a row. So it was a little bit our fault, but also, you do kind of come into these situations sometimes where clients want to start a project without signing off a contract. And it's like, as a business owner, you have to make those decisions of how do you make that?
Mack Garrison (18:08)
Right, right.
gosh.
Ugh.
Oh, 100%. Like even as you're telling this story right now,
I'm sitting here thinking about one of our early missteps was the same deal. was like, didn't quite have everything outlined in the contract, had a client that really didn't want to pay us at the end. I think the way that we finally got paid, I'm not proud of this, but I basically called this person every day and was leaving messages that I'm going to call you every day until you pay this. And I think we negotiated.
Aradhana Bejarano (18:38)
you
Mm. Mm. Mm.
you
Mack Garrison (18:56)
a 70 % payment or something like that. I was like, look, if you pay 70%, I'll never call you or talk to you ever again. So, you just, yeah. And I think it's also a good reminder though too, is like even in the lens of the story, y'all were doing everything right. You were doing everything by the books for the most part. You glazed over this little piece and there was still kind of a little bit of a friction point. And I think that's a good reminder for creatives out there that if you're ever feeling like, golly, it's what did I do wrong? A lot of times you are doing it right. And sometimes this stuff just bubbles up, right?
Aradhana Bejarano (19:02)
Right, yeah, he's just chasing clients to make payments.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Right.
100%. And a lot of times you're working with clients who are not maybe in the industry and know how things are done. And a lot of it becomes having the confidence to educate or like standing your ground on what are your boundaries and limitations.
Mack Garrison (19:40)
You know,
this opens the door to a good question, I think, is how do you and Camilo react or how do you handle a situation that maybe feels tense? Like if something comes up and the client's like, I don't know, maybe they're unhappy about something or something was miscommunicated, but you can tell there's those moments every now and then where it's like, ooh, this doesn't quite feel right. Do y'all have like a playbook or something that y'all do when those situations arrive? What's kind of like your go-to solve for kind of easing some of that burden?
Aradhana Bejarano (19:52)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Usually it's like taking a breath and just hopping on a call and just leaning things out, leaning into our producer as well and like helping them come in. So we're really coming in as a team to service the client at the end of the day and provide the best solution. So we always start with that and we lay out that, you know, we're here to do great work. We're here to navigate this together. And we always look at our clients as collaborators.
Mack Garrison (20:21)
Hmm.
Aradhana Bejarano (20:31)
So that's really the mindset we go into with every meeting and so as friction comes up or there's misunderstandings we we always approach the conversation with that mindset and So far clients are usually very receptive to that because you're wanting to work together Honestly, yeah
Mack Garrison (20:46)
Yeah, 100%. I love that so much. I mean, it really is.
There's kind of an age old stereotype, think, you know, in creative versus clients. But really, to your point, if you think about folks as collaborators, as partners, then when there is a misunderstanding, it just becomes easier to have those conversations. So yeah, I love that a lot. Go ahead. Yeah.
Aradhana Bejarano (20:53)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say one thing.
There might be a client that maybe is not responsive to that. And in that case, you do have to set your boundaries. And we're like, this is hard. But we honestly, 99.9 % of the times, we haven't had those kind of situations because we come with that mindset. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (21:20)
Which is good. And I think like there's
also to the latter point you said is like, you you got to put your foot down every now and then it's, you know, you should feel confident in decisions you make. You know, I think we all are sometimes a little bit hard on ourselves, you know, wish we should have handled this differently or we could have, you know, in this instance of that particular example, we should have done the contract this way. You know, one of the nice things about making these mistakes that you and I have made is that we learn from them and you never do them again, right? You know, no one's perfect. You figure it out, you kind of move forward, which is good stuff.
Aradhana Bejarano (21:26)
Mm. Mm.
Right.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Right, yeah exactly.
Mack Garrison (21:48)
So let me ask you this, you're coming to Raleigh later this summer, what do you think are you most excited about for the conference? Is it getting up on stage? Is it meeting other people? I'm curious to know what gets you excited about the bash.
Aradhana Bejarano (21:59)
I'm just, you know, in the past years I've realized the benefits like of being at a networking event such as Dash and just the connections and relationships you make. So I'm really excited to meet people and hear the other speakers. Of course, I will be speaking as well, which I'm excited for. But more than anything, just every conference that I go to, I leave just feeling so inspired and empowered and looking forward to what I can learn from that experience.
Mack Garrison (22:05)
yeah.
Sure, sure.
I love that. And I echo that same sentiment.
know, I think conferences are one of the few opportunities where we mentioned earlier, we get together with all our internet friends to hang out and talk shop with people who know about it, which is really good. Well, let me let me do this. What do you think if you're giving a pitch to someone who has who is unfamiliar with little labs and you and your work, what would the pitch be on why they should come see you at the bash?
Aradhana Bejarano (22:27)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm that too, right? Yeah
Mm-hmm.
Sure, so my journey has been a lot about rebellion in one way or the other based on my cultural upbringing and coming to the United States and being where I'm at today. So part of my talk will be navigating that through my experience and I'm excited to share that. I think as artists, we're all sort of rebellious in one way or the other. And I talk a little bit about how I...
I transfer that into the work I do today. So I'm excited to share that and yeah.
Mack Garrison (23:17)
I love it. Love a good little rebellion in the art world. It's going to be great. We're super excited to have you. Just want to give a quick shout out and thank you to everyone who tuned in today. Aradhana Bejarano, thank you so much for the little labs and join us at the Dash Bash. If you haven't gotten a ticket yet, folks, and you're listening to this, what are you doing? Dash Bash is from June 11th through 13th, 2025. It's going to be right here in my hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. It's big enough where there's always something to...
Aradhana Bejarano (23:20)
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (23:42)
and it's small enough where you run to folks around town and you'll definitely run into a lot of animators and motion designers here that weekend. So if you haven't got a ticket, grab it now. Thanks so much for joining us today, Aradhana, and so excited to have you here shortly with Little Labs. It's gonna be great.
Aradhana Bejarano (23:56)
Looking forward to it. Again, thank you for having me. Can't wait to see you and everybody else.
Mack Garrison (24:01)
Same, sounds good.
Thanks everyone.