Small Business Spotlight: Carlos A. Ortiz of Zeta-Maya Entertainment
A quick message before we dive in-
We're so excited to re-launch our blog this year along with our new website and even more excited to be able to share a little spotlight on all of our past workshop attendees to catch up on their business endeavors. Check back here for more small biz features down the road if you enjoy learning about local entrepreneurs! Without further ado, meet Carlos A. Ortiz, a past Business Plan in a Day attendee and our first blog feature of 2024!
About the Owner. Carlos was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California but currently resides in Tacoma, Washington. Carlos with Zeta-Maya Entertainment is an experienced, unique, and passionate independent filmmaker who is an exciting new voice for the Latino community, and as a family man, filmmaker, community leader, educator, and mentor. He has studied photography and liberal arts at East Los Angeles College, film at UC, Berkeley under 4-time Academy and Oscar® Award winning sound designer Mark Berger, best known for his work on The Godfather II, Apocalypse Now and Amadeus, and has also studied videography at Clover Park Technical College. He’s also the Co-founder and Chairman of LUNA, an education-based, charitable nonprofit helping underprivileged and under-represented youth pursue and attain a professional career. He has over 20 years of photography and video production experience, over 15 years of sales and business development experience, and over 10 years of marketing and advertising experience. He is passionate about working with the whole community, improving the lives of his fellow Latinos and others, and creating opportunities for the underprivileged, especially our youth.
Getting to Know the Business: Zeta-Maya Entertainment
Tell us about the story behind your business. What motivated you to start it?
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and loved helping and serving others, and making money in the process. I remember walking to elementary school and buying candy at a corner liquor store and selling them at school to kids to double my money, or have some free candy for myself. I also enjoyed buying, selling and trading baseball and basketball cards.
Later in life, as I entered high school, I discovered a passion for storytelling, filmmaking and volunteer work. Since then, everything I have ever done in my life has been directly or indirectly related to storytelling and the creative industries. This company, Zeta-Maya Entertainment, is the culmination of years of work, planning and preparing towards a career in media, filmmaking and storytelling. It’s the realization of a life-long dream.
What makes your business unique within its industry?
What makes my business unique is me, but also our approach to storytelling and our go-to market strategies. We’ve developed a very special and cost-effective system of working with our clients in order to help them tell their unique stories. Our main goal is to help transform negative stereotypes, and to no longer perpetuate the horrible images and narratives that dominate our media landscape. We are part of a movement to tell stories that no one else is telling, and provide a voice to the voiceless.
Who is your ideal customer? Describe their needs and expectations.
Our ideal customer is a customer that understands our intent to tell unique stories, and that integrates IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility) into their mission, vision and values. We focus on clients with budgets of $5k or more per month, and clients looking for multilingual, multicultural and multi-platform marketing and advertising solutions to grow their business and be a valuable asset to the communities they serve and represent. We only work with like-minded, positive individuals and clients wanting to make a difference in our community and do impactful work.
What products or services do you offer? What are some of your customers' favorites?
As a full-service multimedia marketing, advertising, and video production company, we offer a full range of services and products, including video production, graphic design, website creation and development, SEM and SEO, social media marketing and management, event producing, promoting and production, TV and Radio commercials, and promotional products. Our clients especially like our video production and branding services.
What are your proudest achievements since starting your business?
Our proudest achievements since starting our business is that we get to work with some of the biggest businesses and nonprofits in the world, like New York Life, Geico, Edward Jones, Goodwill, United Way, Safe Streets, and Tacoma Sister Cities. They, like us, do very meaningful work that positively impacts our local communities.
It brings tremendous joy to our hearts when our clients appreciate the work we do for them and refer us to other clients because they are proud of the work we do together. When our clients are happy, we’re happy.
Business Journey and Challenges
What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced as a small business owner? How did you overcome them?
Some of the biggest challenges we have faced as a small business is capacity building, hiring quality talent, and being able to keep up with demand. It’s a balancing act, because we need to hire more people to be able to do the work, but we need more work and cash flow in order to hire more people. We are overcoming this by working with staffing agencies to help us hire more people and on a temp to hire basis. We are also subcontracting other business owners to help us with the workload.
I have learned to go from working in my business to working on my business.
What lessons have you learned along the way that you could share with other aspiring entrepreneurs?
I have learned to always maintain a positive attitude, and that everything happens for a reason, when it’s supposed to happen, the way it’s supposed to happen. We have learned to embrace Murphy’s Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and if there’s a wrong way to do something, then someone will find a way to do it that way. We have been able to overcome this by doing extensive planning, developing and implementing a sound system of doing things, executing Standard Operating Procedures, effective communication, and proper training.
The other thing that I have learned, is to make sure to enjoy the process, life, and the little wins. Life is short, so enjoy it and appreciate the journey and the company along the way.
How do you balance the business demands with your personal life?
A lot of people talk about work life balance, but I like to focus on work life harmony or integration. My business is my pleasure. I get paid to play. I don’t see it as work, I see it as things I love to do and I get paid to do.
For the most part, I don’t do anything I don’t enjoy doing. It’s important to delegate, streamline and automate things that you don’t like to do or that you’re not good at. Again, you need to go from working in your business to working on your business. It’s important to build a quality and effective team that can help relieve you of the day-to-day so that you can focus on only doing the things you want to do and that brings meaning and pleasure to your life. The concept of Ikigai comes to mind, which helps you figure out your talents, your passions, what the world needs, and how you can monetize them.
What are your future plans for the business? Where do you see yourself in the next few years?
This year we are going to expand throughout the State of Washington, and within the next couple of years we are going to expand nationally, as we continue to grow capacity, build our team and client base.
I see myself focusing on writing, directing and producing narrative feature films, feature-length documentaries, and original TV series that inspire, educate, and entertain, which is our motto. We are building a media empire, and hope to bring more productions and opportunities to our state.
What's your favorite part about running your own business?
My favorite part of running my business is that I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want to, and how I want to. I get to do what I love to do and get paid very well for it. I’m building my own vision and dream, and not someone else’s. The universe is the limit.
What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own small business?
I would advise someone thinking about starting their own business to do their research, mentally prepare themselves, develop a detailed business plan, including marketing strategies and tactics, and choose something that they absolutely love doing. That will give them the ammunition, motivation and confidence to build a successful business. Above all else, don’t ever quit. It’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it, because they’re worth it, and realizing their dreams, goals and aspirations is something worth investing in. Just keep swimming!
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve. ~ Napoleon Hill
If you really want to do something you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse. ~ Jim Rohn
Work to learn, not to earn. ~ Robert Kiyosaki
How has BPD helped you in your business now that you've completed the course?
Yes, BPD has helped me re-evaluate my business plan, fine-tune my goals, and better prepare for the future. It has taught me the importance of constantly revisiting my goals, accomplishments and future plans. It has been invaluable, and I really appreciate the work you are doing to help entrepreneurs prepare for success.
Thank you so much to Carlos for being our first business feature in this series, you can find out more about Carlos, contact info, and what he offers at Zeta-Maya click here to check it out!
Videos by Zeta-Maya below-
