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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:31] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:36] SPEAKER_02: Hello, I'm Mario Toniguzy, Managing Editor of Canada's podcast. Joining me today is Dianna
[00:42] SPEAKER_02: Saunders, who is the owner of Aurora Transcription. Thanks very much for joining us today.
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: Dianna. Hi, thanks so much for having me. I'm a big fan of the podcast. I really appreciate it.
[00:55] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you. Let's start first of all about the company Aurora and just tell me a little bit
[01:01] SPEAKER_01: about what you do. Absolutely. So I'm Dianna. Like you said, I am the founder and CEO of Aurora Transcription.
[01:09] SPEAKER_01: We are based out of Calgary, Alberta, but we provide transcript services to core reporters and
[01:14] SPEAKER_02: reporting agencies across all North America. Okay, now can you describe a little bit of what
[01:19] SPEAKER_02: that means, the transcription services and what kind of, I guess, clients or businesses you
[01:25] SPEAKER_01: they have a need of what you do? Absolutely. Whenever I say what I do, people get a good
[01:31] SPEAKER_01: big question mark over their head. So I'm happy to answer those questions. So we work for the people
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: that are in testimony in courtrooms or lawyers offices across the nation giving testimony and
[01:43] SPEAKER_01: they're the ones that report it. They're often known as court reporters. So I'm on the back office
[01:48] SPEAKER_01: staff of that and I help specifically just with the legal transcript side. So typically me and my
[01:53] SPEAKER_01: team will receive audio from courtrooms or lawyers offices across the nation. We take that down into
[01:59] SPEAKER_01: a certain format and make sure it gets to the client accurately and on time. And give me a little
[02:06] SPEAKER_02: history of how this all began when it started. Why? For sure. So I actually started in this career
[02:14] SPEAKER_01: in late 2017. I had an administrative job that I didn't really like a lot. I have very entrepreneurial
[02:20] SPEAKER_01: spirit, both my parents are first generation immigrants from Italy. They're both entrepreneurs.
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: So I always knew that's something I wanted to do, but I'm not much of a salesman, I guess you can say.
[02:31] SPEAKER_01: So I started looking into just some stuff being I could do on the side and I found some legal
[02:36] SPEAKER_01: transcription work. I immediately realized there is a huge demand for this and the reason they're
[02:41] SPEAKER_01: such a demand is because it's a very skilled task that not a lot of people can master. And also there
[02:47] SPEAKER_01: is a great divide in the amount of people that can perform this service versus the people that need it
[02:52] SPEAKER_01: based on the amount of litigation that happens in North America. So I started my company in late 2018
[02:58] SPEAKER_01: and I've been doing it ever since and I just started posting last year on social media and
[03:03] SPEAKER_01: I've gotten a lot of attention from that. So I'm well on my way to you know being rounded about
[03:07] SPEAKER_01: on producing the transcript side and then also have a branding side as well.
[03:11] SPEAKER_02: All right. I want to talk a little bit about that, the use of videos, but before we get into
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: that, Deanna, I wanted to ask. So you know, when you're when you or your people are transcribing
[03:25] SPEAKER_02: things, I'm just wondering if it's all kind of like a all a blur or do you get caught up in some of
[03:31] SPEAKER_02: obviously some of these courtroom testimonies can be fascinating and exciting stories, right? So
[03:39] SPEAKER_02: so do you kind of try to blur it out I guess? Well, a large aspect of it is you can blur out
[03:48] SPEAKER_01: details but the experiences and the emotions that you feel while listening to people on the
[03:52] SPEAKER_01: stand very they stay with you a lot. And that's one reason that I love my job is because you take
[03:58] SPEAKER_01: something like a courtroom that's very animated and exciting and dramatic and you put it on a
[04:03] SPEAKER_01: piece of paper and black and white following very calculated rules. So that's the part that I love
[04:07] SPEAKER_01: about is it takes the kind of like beauty of the courtroom and makes it in a really readable
[04:11] SPEAKER_01: simple format that a lot of people can do. I worked on everything from business to feuds to insurance
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: claims to medical malpractice to death penalty cases, whether or not you can think of. So there's
[04:23] SPEAKER_01: definitely some that stick out in my mind where I kind of you know, favored one side of the other
[04:28] SPEAKER_01: in my mind. So out of the transcript of course and constantly even the trial I'm working on now
[04:32] SPEAKER_01: and closely bouncy between the defendant and plaintiff. I'm sure of who I believe, right? So I
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: kind of feel like a jur in some senses of the word because I hear all the evidence and I make my own
[04:42] SPEAKER_01: conclusions whether anybody hears or cares about those at all. That's good. That's cool. So tell
[04:49] SPEAKER_02: me a little bit about the branding part of what you do and I understand you've started
[04:57] SPEAKER_02: using short, short length videos. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about that and what do you do in
[05:06] SPEAKER_01: that regard? For sure. So I never really found much of a branding aspect to my company because
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: this is a very inundated career. You don't have to do a lot of market acquisition to get very busy.
[05:17] SPEAKER_01: So I had my website and all of that because I wanted my clients to be able to go there and see that
[05:22] SPEAKER_01: was a reputable company and all that. And then about a year ago, any time I mentioned what I do to
[05:27] SPEAKER_01: somebody, either I get two responses. One is I don't care. That sounds super boring. And the other
[05:32] SPEAKER_01: one is wow, that's super interesting. I can do that or I have somebody that I know that could do
[05:36] SPEAKER_01: that. So very quickly I realized there's a huge demand for doing this kind of work that's very
[05:41] SPEAKER_01: remote. It's very flexible. But also it's a very highly paid skill once you get good at it and
[05:46] SPEAKER_01: pass through the learning curve. So I partnered with somebody that touchedly taught me and really
[05:51] SPEAKER_01: took me under her wing. She has a great course. I don't think I should be teaching legal transcription.
[05:56] SPEAKER_01: I've only been at this six years. I really think it's important to learn from very skilled individuals
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: such as a court reporter like she is. So I realized, you know, I should start talking about this and
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: necessarily people don't come my way. At least they know about this industry. And very quickly I just
[06:11] SPEAKER_01: had a lot of following and a lot of attention because I'm kind of one of the only people on
[06:15] SPEAKER_01: TikTok or Instagram Reels talking about this. And I can talk forever about how valuable short form
[06:21] SPEAKER_01: content is, video content is. But it's been really amazing in eye opening to see how much
[06:27] SPEAKER_01: demand there is for people who kind of want to take control of their own futures and learn a new
[06:31] SPEAKER_02: skill and provide for their families in that way. So tell me a little bit about the kind of topics
[06:39] SPEAKER_02: what would you do in these in these videos? I talked about funny things, the legal transcription
[06:47] SPEAKER_01: is going through, like for example, if we have attorneys that are arguing and talking over each other.
[06:53] SPEAKER_01: Or I sometimes talk about challenges or pitfalls of the industries, things that I experienced when I
[06:58] SPEAKER_01: started. I also like to provide kind of over the mountain view of what it can be like after you've
[07:04] SPEAKER_01: been at this for a couple of years. Because when you start, this is something you have to be very
[07:09] SPEAKER_01: dedicated towards. It's a very simple thing to do, but it takes a lot of practice to get very good
[07:14] SPEAKER_01: at it. I compare it a lot to learning a new instrument or learning a new language. When you start
[07:20] SPEAKER_01: off, it's very labor intensive. You have to think a lot, make a lot of decisions. And once you get
[07:25] SPEAKER_01: going at it, I can play anything that comes my way now. So I like to show people what it can be like
[07:30] SPEAKER_01: once you get situated in this field. And what it can turn into based on the work that you want to put
[07:35] SPEAKER_02: into it. So what is roughly, how many people are followers on your platforms? So I have videos that
[07:45] SPEAKER_01: have been masked over a million views, but the amount of people that would be interested in pursuing
[07:51] SPEAKER_01: this career, it's very niche is what they call it. Not a lot of people are searching legal transcription.
[07:56] SPEAKER_01: People don't even know they're looking for me when they find me. Right? So right now I have about
[08:01] SPEAKER_01: 40,000 followers on TikTok. It's a little bit less on Instagram, but it's such a great group of
[08:08] SPEAKER_01: people and I go live every day and I have thousands to an end and it's been a lot of fun.
[08:13] SPEAKER_02: Every day. Yeah, it's not amazing. Wow. Obviously you don't have a shortage of topics to talk about.
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: No, seriously, I feel like I can talk about it forever and ever and I do. I have a whole TikTok page
[08:28] SPEAKER_02: for it. Let me just ask you like, you know, obviously, like diving into this area of video and social
[08:37] SPEAKER_02: media. What's your advice to other entrepreneurs about this and the why more importantly, the why
[08:45] SPEAKER_01: they should be doing something like this? Number one, why short form video content is the most
[08:52] SPEAKER_01: consumable form of marketing. We have people that are spending 10 to 15 hours a week
[08:59] SPEAKER_01: watching short form video content and it's also no surprise to anybody that our attention span
[09:04] SPEAKER_01: is getting very short. So I don't think a lot of people even have the attention span to sit there
[09:09] SPEAKER_01: and watch a whole 30-second commercial. So that means that more companies, really big companies that
[09:14] SPEAKER_01: have these huge budgets for marketing are going to short form content. So there's these whole
[09:18] SPEAKER_01: industries that are opening up in there. So I really think that if you are new to something or you
[09:25] SPEAKER_01: want to make a big impact, short form is where you need to go because there's not a lot of people
[09:29] SPEAKER_01: doing it yet. We see a lot of it but there's still not a lot of people that are doing it and I think
[09:34] SPEAKER_01: that's what made me really different is there's lots of legal transcription companies out there but
[09:38] SPEAKER_01: I am the only one doing short form content and I can go into why I think that is, you know what I mean,
[09:43] SPEAKER_01: but that kind of set me apart. There's nothing special about me or different about me but because
[09:49] SPEAKER_01: I'm the only one, it gives me a like a, right? Yeah, yeah. So why did you choose those two platforms
[09:57] SPEAKER_01: by not Facebook or not Twitter or not LinkedIn? For sure, I post on all of them so I make content
[10:07] SPEAKER_01: in TikTok and then I post in other ones and the biggest reason for this is the algorithm.
[10:12] SPEAKER_01: And I'm not an expert on this by any means but I've seen the power of TikTok. I woke up one day,
[10:19] SPEAKER_01: I had 1700 followers the day before, I woke up on a Monday, I had a master of 30,000 followers and
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: like four million views on one of my videos. That cascaded down to the rest of my videos because
[10:29] SPEAKER_01: in the way that TikTok is created and somebody likes my video, it'll show them another one of my videos.
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: If somebody visits my page, it's going to ask them to follow me, it's going to invite them to,
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: visit the links in my bio and learn more about what I do. So it's more about on the,
[10:46] SPEAKER_01: when you're viewing experience that I think makes it a lot of different in TikTok and that's why
[10:52] SPEAKER_01: like millions of people are flooding over to that app and leaving other apps like Facebook and
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: Instagram. We still use them and I'm still on there for sure. I really think there's big potential
[11:01] SPEAKER_01: in YouTube shorts as well but obviously the business owner, I wear many hats, I also have a
[11:07] SPEAKER_01: company to run. So I have to choose what I'm doing, stick to that and be consistent.
[11:12] SPEAKER_02: So let's talk a little bit about how to get started. Like obviously, you know,
[11:18] SPEAKER_02: when you started doing this, it must have been a little overwhelming to look at all this and
[11:23] SPEAKER_02: oh wow, you know, what do I do, right? You know, how would you guide or tell, what would you tell
[11:30] SPEAKER_02: people who are saying, yeah, you know what, she's right, I got to get on to TikTok and Instagram
[11:35] SPEAKER_02: and do videos like, you know, what would you tell them how to get started?
[11:40] SPEAKER_01: For sure. Well, number one, be prepared that your first videos are going to suck. Probably your
[11:45] SPEAKER_01: first 10 videos, 30 videos are going to suck. And that's because like anything, we have to learn
[11:50] SPEAKER_01: how it works. You have to learn, you know, the kind of film style you like, what works, you have
[11:55] SPEAKER_01: to look at analytics, you might like a video but then nobody else does, right? So you have to
[12:00] SPEAKER_01: really follow that stuff and be constantly, be willing to adapt. But if you're just starting,
[12:06] SPEAKER_01: if you've never been on TikTok, spend some time, you know, scrolling through. What
[12:10] SPEAKER_01: catches your attention? What are you scrolling past? What kind of style do you like? For the first
[12:15] SPEAKER_01: little bit, I just watched people that I liked their content and then tried to replicate it in my
[12:19] SPEAKER_01: own way based on my own niche. And then once you start getting more advanced, you realize that it
[12:24] SPEAKER_01: doesn't matter what everybody's doing, I've kind of found my own path, but that doesn't happen
[12:27] SPEAKER_01: overnight, like anything, it takes a little work. So if you're scared or unfamiliar, just log
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: into the apps, try creating some stuff, you know, if it fails, you can all stick it down. It's not a big deal.
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[13:16] SPEAKER_02: I was going to say like if you got a boring personality or whatever, it's not going to work.
[13:22] SPEAKER_02: Obviously you, Deanna, you're very outgoing and very positive about things. So it probably
[13:27] SPEAKER_01: shows through in the videos, right? Does that help? I think that does help. We can also utilize,
[13:33] SPEAKER_01: I believe that if you don't know how to do something higher, somebody that does it, that does
[13:37] SPEAKER_01: have to do it, right? So there's lots of people really talented people usually called user generated
[13:43] SPEAKER_01: content specialists, and they'll film videos for you. If you tell them what to talk about,
[13:48] SPEAKER_01: you can give them a script. It's not usually that expensive, and those videos can create huge profit
[13:53] SPEAKER_02: for your business. Excellent. Let's talk a little bit about your background. I curious you said
[13:59] SPEAKER_01: your parents were entrepreneurs. What did they do? So my dad is mechanic. He's on a shop locally in
[14:05] SPEAKER_01: Calgary for well over 40 years. It was his father's company before that. And then my mother has been
[14:11] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneur in so many ways throughout my life. Number one, she started a jewelry company. That was
[14:16] SPEAKER_01: my first experience in entrepreneurship. I helped her with invoicing, I did the credit card
[14:21] SPEAKER_01: statements, I packaged and merchandise, everything. And then my family did go on into financial services.
[14:27] SPEAKER_01: It's a very prosperous industry that you don't need a lot of experience to get into it if you're
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: willing to learn and kind of be underneath somebody. So I always thought that was going to be my
[14:38] SPEAKER_01: like Christian entrepreneurship was through financial services. And then I found this and it spoke
[14:43] SPEAKER_01: to my heart and so much so many ways I can't explain. So I take a lot of the elements that I've
[14:48] SPEAKER_01: learned from my parents' business and applied into this. But there's a lot of aspects with this being
[14:53] SPEAKER_01: additional business that my family and my parents can't help me with. That I have to kind of
[14:58] SPEAKER_01: forage on my own and figure out my own way. So what did you learn from your parents that
[15:04] SPEAKER_02: help you in building your business and doing what you do today? I think I learned from my parents
[15:10] SPEAKER_01: that the typical nine to five or working from somebody else is not going to get you anywhere.
[15:16] SPEAKER_01: Where it's not going to get you to the places you want to be. I've always been a very big dreamer.
[15:21] SPEAKER_01: And so I knew that you know, clocking in the somewhere wasn't what I wanted to do. But I also
[15:26] SPEAKER_01: am the kind of person that I need to be very passionate about what I'm doing. I can't just talk about
[15:30] SPEAKER_01: anything. It needs to be something that I'm really interested in. So I learned from my parents that
[15:34] SPEAKER_01: you need to find something you're passionate about. And then you need to do as much as you can to
[15:39] SPEAKER_01: help other people in that as well. Because when you help others, then you help yourself.
[15:45] SPEAKER_02: And you know, when you look at your journey as an entrepreneur, like what were some of the toughest
[15:52] SPEAKER_01: challenges you've faced? For sure. Of course, I was a 24 year old when I started my business.
[15:58] SPEAKER_01: Cash flow was not something that I had. So starting a business with absolutely no upfront money,
[16:04] SPEAKER_01: that was hard. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. I know I had a balance of budget like nobody
[16:09] SPEAKER_01: else. But it definitely is something that I think would cause a lot of businesses to fail and
[16:13] SPEAKER_01: does cause a lot of businesses to fail in the first five years. Another thing is I, in this industry,
[16:20] SPEAKER_01: accuracy is king. You can be the nicest, most most marketable person. But if black and white,
[16:28] SPEAKER_01: you cannot do this skill well. You won't come to fruition for you. So every day I have to
[16:34] SPEAKER_01: get up and really put my best foot forward, even if I didn't feel confident in it. And so learning
[16:38] SPEAKER_01: to just push through that, what I call imposter syndrome, that little chip on your shoulder,
[16:44] SPEAKER_01: that's telling you that, oh, you're not the one for this. This is meant for somebody else. No,
[16:47] SPEAKER_01: it is meant for you. Right? It's just you have to get through those buildings and fell down.
[16:51] SPEAKER_01: So those were kind of the toughest things I had to push through. And most of those are mostly
[16:56] SPEAKER_01: mostly due to myself, right? Like my own shirt, coming. Yeah. You obviously enjoy being an entrepreneur.
[17:03] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Yeah. What are the things you don't enjoy about being
[17:11] SPEAKER_01: I would have to say I don't enjoy sometimes. You know, I'm laying in bed, not Friday night hanging
[17:16] SPEAKER_01: out and my phone's going off because something's going wrong. That's not always fun. Especially when
[17:22] SPEAKER_01: you're responsible for other people, you know, people can drop the ball. Things don't go the way
[17:27] SPEAKER_01: they're supposed to. This is very deadline-driven work. I have lawyers and core quarters that are
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: waiting for my work. When I say I've never missed a deadline. I've never missed a deadline.
[17:36] SPEAKER_01: So I mean, you know, I need to stay up till three in the morning and work. That's what I have to do
[17:40] SPEAKER_01: because it's my business. So of course, like we have flexibility for this. I mean, I'm talking to you
[17:45] SPEAKER_01: now. I'm not working. But there's some things that, you know, you have to put other life events aside
[17:51] SPEAKER_01: that I know a lot of people my age, you know, wouldn't do. And I'm willing to do. You know, one of the
[17:56] SPEAKER_02: things I learned over the years is I remember a conversation I had with a friend of mine who's
[18:02] SPEAKER_02: an artist as a, you know, he paints and he was always telling me how there's two sides of what
[18:11] SPEAKER_02: he does. Number one is his job. Like he's an artist. So that's the one side. But the other side
[18:19] SPEAKER_02: is running the business. The actual business side of it, the marketing, it's et cetera. So
[18:26] SPEAKER_02: how do you, you know, and obviously you do both? How do you balance that?
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: For sure. It's all about creating habits and habits that work with you. A lot of times when
[18:38] SPEAKER_01: people start on TikTok, they'll hear, oh, you need to post three to five videos a day. If that
[18:43] SPEAKER_01: doesn't work with you, if you can't stick that into your schedule, it's not going to be habitual,
[18:47] SPEAKER_01: right? So I found, you know, during the times of eight to nine in the morning, I had some free time.
[18:51] SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of fun to create TikToks. So I would just, you know, do that or work on marketing
[18:56] SPEAKER_01: material or sometimes I'm sitting waiting for, you know, a jury verdict to come in. I've been waiting
[19:00] SPEAKER_01: for one for the last two days. So then I'll pull up, you know, Canva and just create something
[19:05] SPEAKER_01: an infographic about what I do. So it's all about, you know, finding time in your day where you can
[19:11] SPEAKER_01: add these things or joining them to another habit you already have. If you get up and answer
[19:15] SPEAKER_01: emails for thing in the morning, get up and, you know, write some content that you want to do for
[19:20] SPEAKER_01: the day, like add it to something else. But yeah, especially the, this owner, like you never
[19:25] SPEAKER_01: have time for anything. There's always a million to do lists. So I find it really helps to just
[19:29] SPEAKER_01: compartmentalize it. Like, okay, this is the time I'm dedicating to this. This is the time I'm
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: dedicating to my work and stick within those parameters. Okay, you hit on an important topic there,
[19:39] SPEAKER_02: you know, about there's never time to do everything. Do you find you have time to do other stuff
[19:46] SPEAKER_02: beyond work? And if you do, what do you spend time at besides work?
[19:53] SPEAKER_01: For sure. Well, I'm in my sixth year of business on our shift now. So if you would ask me,
[19:58] SPEAKER_01: you know, maybe two or three, I would have said no, this is all I do.
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: But I've really, especially since 2020, just the pandemic in the world stopping. I think it
[20:07] SPEAKER_01: caused a lot of people to kind of zoom out on their lives. And so I really end up working for too,
[20:11] SPEAKER_01: far too much. And I learned about something called passion fatigue, which is when you are
[20:16] SPEAKER_01: burning yourself out with something you love. So I love this, but I was still doing it too much.
[20:20] SPEAKER_01: So I really started to prioritize time with my family. I got a German shepherd. He keeps me
[20:25] SPEAKER_01: out in nature. It's really important to knock it sucked into your business world because once you
[20:32] SPEAKER_01: get to the point where you're celebrating it or benefiting from it, who are you going to share it with?
[20:37] SPEAKER_01: Right? So I really try to spend time with my family and I'm newly wed. My husband, we have a trailer,
[20:43] SPEAKER_01: we camp and that kind of stuff and just enjoy Calgary and be present in my business, but also
[20:49] SPEAKER_02: find time to shut it off. Yeah, you bet. One last thing just came into my mind. Where's the name of
[20:57] SPEAKER_01: the company come from? Aurora. I love when people ask me that question because I always want to have
[21:03] SPEAKER_01: some, you know, definitive answer, but it's literally my two cat's names placed together.
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: That's all it is. The cat's names. One cat is arrow like the chocolate bar and then my
[21:13] SPEAKER_01: cat is Aurora like the Royalist. We're in Alberta, so everybody talks about the mountains and
[21:19] SPEAKER_01: Aurora, so I kept that theme and I never thought it would turn into what it turned into now, but
[21:24] SPEAKER_01: it's the name I have and I'll stick with it. All right, super. Well, thanks, Deanna, for joining us
[21:29] SPEAKER_01: today. Thank you. It's been such a pleasure. I really appreciate it. All right, that was Deanna
[21:33] SPEAKER_02: Saunders who is owner of Aurora Tenskipsian. I'm Mario Toneguzi, managing editor of Canada's podcast.
[21:41] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today.
