August 2, 2025 • 20 mins
Cut The Tie Podcast with Don Manigly
What happens when you hit the ceiling with your current approach and need to think bigger? In this dynamic episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich welcomes Don Manigly, VP and Director of Creative Development at Boathouse Pictures, an independent motion picture studio that specializes in both production and strategic distribution.
Don dives into the critical importance of not just creating great content, but ensuring it gets seen—because making something amazing is only half the battle. The real challenge, and where Boathouse Pictures truly excels, is getting films and projects into prime distribution channels like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
About Don Manigly:
Don Manigly is the VP and Director of Creative Development at Boathouse Pictures, an independent film and TV studio with a unique dual capability: production and strategic distribution. Over its 13-year history, Boathouse has developed narrative and documentary content while also supporting commercial marketing and advertising projects through their sister company, Spruce Hill Partners. Don brings expertise in not only creating cinematic storytelling but also in navigating the complexities of marketing, distribution, and scaling the business.
In this episode, Thomas and Don discuss:
- Why distribution is your Ferrari
Don emphasizes that filmmaking without distribution is like owning a Ferrari you never drive outside your neighborhood—it's impressive but unseen. - Scaling beyond your comfort zone
He shares the importance of shifting focus to bigger clients with more significant budgets to avoid stagnation and achieve sustainable growth. - Building relationships first, pitching second
Don highlights the necessity of nurturing relationships, especially on platforms like LinkedIn, to create meaningful business connections rather than rushing into a sales pitch. - Learning from past opportunities
Don reflects on missed opportunities, including one with a global hotel chain, underscoring the importance of consistent follow-up and relationship management.
Key Takeaways:
- Don’t let great work sit in the garage
Exceptional content deserves equally exceptional distribution—don’t sell yourself short. - Big vision means bigger clients
To scale sustainably, you must step outside your comfort zone and target clients who match your long-term vision. - Relationships are your currency
Authentic connections lead to referrals and lasting partnerships, outpacing cold outreach. - Follow-up is critical
Growth often lies in consistently nurturing existing client relationships rather than solely chasing new ones. - Visibility accelerates growth
Personal connections at live events create deeper bonds and generate opportunities faster than virtual interactions alone.
Connect with Don Manigly:
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-manigly/
🌐 Website: www.bhpictures.com/
Connect with Thomas Helfrich:
🐦 Twitter: @thelfrich
📘 Facebook: Cut the Tie Group
💼 LinkedIn: Thomas Helfrich
🌐 Website: www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 InstantlyRelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I'm your host, thomas Helfrich.
I'm on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back from success,and I hope you define that
success for yourself, because ifyou didn't, you're chasing
somebody else's dream, so makesure you do that.
Today's guest, don Mangling Lee.
I did it intentionally so youcould repronounce it, so we get
as much marketing as possibly.
(00:20):
But you're a maniac?
I doubt it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You're a maniac, thank God for asking your name
correctly, so we can really getthe marketing effect of
repetition.
So the name is pronounced DonManigly.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That's Manigly not Man-ing-ly or Man-gely.
I mean, I've heard it.
Well, not time, we'll have ourseven.
We'll have our seven, Manigly.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Got it.
Most people think I'm relatedto the uh, the famous baseball
player and coach, they, theythink they think it's Mattingly
and I'm, and I have to correctthem.
I said no, no, no, it's notMattingly.
There's no relation there.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I wish I had his money and fame, but all right,
before we get into the detailshere, someone has hey, here's a
million dollar check to hire you.
I just just absolutely loveyour uncle baseball player.
Are you going to be like me too, and you're just going to let
it go at that point.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I mean, at that point you're throwing a million
dollar.
Check my way.
I just have to go legallychange my last name.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I would just be like, listen, and I'm so glad that
you trust us to do your videowhere editing a boathouse
pictures, because, you know,regardless of my background,
just make it very clear thatyou're hiring me for what we can
do, not just because of my name.
And he says yes.
Then you're like, hey, I, Isubbed that up legally.
You were hiring us for ourtalent, not, you know, just
throwing that out there.
(01:42):
Um, um, take a minute to uh,just, uh, just quickly introduce
yourself, your company and whatit is you do well.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I'm don managley, vp, director of creative
development at boathousepictures.
We are an independent motionpicture studio.
We specialize in film and tvproduction, and that's narrative
and documentary projects, andwe also work on the marketing
and advertising side.
So if you have everythingcovered from a production
(02:11):
perspective but you're stilllooking to market your project
and distribute it, we are thecompany to talk to.
We've been in existence now for13 years, if you can believe it
, and honestly, there's nostopping our momentum.
We've gained a lot of ground inthe last two years.
We're very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So I think something you said there is unique, that
you actually have thedistribution side on it too.
So I think the marketing you'rereferring to is getting on the
prime video, the bigger channels.
It's one thing, just to film it, then it's a now, what right?
And we could dive into thathere in a short.
But I think from, and the nextquestion is always like hey, why
, why pick you?
Let's say you're as just goodas anybody.
(02:52):
You just you know table stakesfor video.
Let's just say that was thecase.
Having the distribution readyto go is a huge value, and if
you're listening to this you maynot understand that, so I'm
going to have Don explain it.
Why is that so important?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's something that many independent filmmakers and
I'm an independent filmmakermyself, so I get it Many
independent filmmakers don'tthink about it.
They just think about I got toget the movie made and I got to
put it out there.
And, yes, you can do that.
You can make the film and youcan submit it to film festivals
or just put it up on YouTube andmaybe you'll get a lot of
traffic.
But wouldn't it be nice if thathard work actually brought some
(03:29):
money back into your pocket atthe end of the day?
And that's why you've alwaysgot to think about marketing and
distribution.
You know, it's one thing, likeI said, to make it, but then how
am I going to get it out to thebiggest audience possible?
How am I going to extend myreach?
It's a very important part offilmmaking.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I'll give you an analogy that came to mind and
when we started talking, just soeveryone's aware, we've done an
interview before, but I wantedto catch up with Don on some
cool things they're dealing with, on the cut the tie idea that I
think is really relevant to theaudience.
But let me set up what he'sjust saying just from an analogy
.
Let's say you live in a smalltown, outside of a large town
that you can see.
Let's say you can see LA, butyou're far enough away or you're
(04:11):
still in a small little town.
That's impossible.
But let's say that You've nowsaid I'm going to go buy a
Ferrari because I want to getsome attention, I want people to
notice me.
You buy the Ferrari, you don'tget it out.
You're like, oh well, I'll goput it on just YouTube myself or
post on LinkedIn occasionally.
So you just drive it aroundyour little town.
Few people who know you see it.
Some are impressed, some arelike show off whatever.
(04:34):
To get it bigger, you're goingto have to make sure you time
the event in the big placeswhere people are.
Drive it in front of the rightpeople so they actually know the
people who care that you haveit.
Otherwise you just spend a lotof money on a Ferrari that might
as well just sit in a garage soyou don't kind of make those
around you jealous.
And I think you got to get outthere and you got to know did
(04:54):
you even need a Ferrari first ofall, could you just?
But I think the idea is, if youhave something really of a high
value asset that's like reallyawesome to look at and you just
stick it in the garage or youdon't know where to go drive it,
you've wasted your money.
And I think that is so importantbecause when you and I were
talking, I was like I have thisidea for this.
You know this, uh, reality showand you're, and I was like I'm
just planning on making it partof my youtube channel.
(05:16):
And you guys were like that'sone place.
What about you know amazonprime?
What about netflix?
I'm like never thought of thatwas possible.
And so you know Amazon prime.
What about Netflix?
I'm like never thought of thatwas possible.
And and so, uh, I, I, I can'tstress, you know that is such a
unique piece to have both ofthose equations when they work
with you.
That it's.
And this listen, this is a freepodcast.
He's not paying to be here.
People are funny.
Uh, did my knowledge hold trueor did I miss something?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
No, I think, I think you're totally right about that.
I mean it's you know, when youthink about the value that you
bring to every project you workon, it's like don't let that
value go to waste.
It's like why limit yourself asfar as how you're going to get
it out there?
It's like just go big or gohome.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I say Well, you have one life to live.
Go big or go home.
I say, well, you have one lifeto live, and the people that are
on Netflix you've never seenbefore, that are now household
names that have made their thing.
They did that.
They just said screw it.
I'm going to be that person andI've seen other brands where
I'm like they're selling thisstuff around this and you're
like, oh, he's so cool.
Anyway, I'm not going to saythe name, but the point is I'm
(06:22):
like I had no idea who thatperson was until you contacted
me, which is interesting.
He's like oh, he's actuallypretty interesting, you
presented it.
Anyway, I'm not referring.
I'm referring to a veryspecific person, a persona that
has made a brand for themselvesand now is selling a bunch of
stuff around the brand.
You could do the same thing aswell, all right, so tell me
about Boathouse a little bit, soyou guys target who's kind of
(06:44):
like.
Well, first of all, people arelistening, so you can go stalk
Don properly.
Tell them how to get a hold ofyou.
You know, shameless plug kindof time, so they can at least
stalk you while they listen toyou talk.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, we're on all major social media platforms, so
you can find us on Facebook,instagram, twitter or X,
whatever it's called nowLinkedIn, our website is
(07:21):
wwwbhpicturescom, and we alsohave our sister company, spruce
Hill Partners.
That's sprucehillpartnerscom,and that's specifically if
you're looking for commercialmarketing and advertising on
that website.
But no, but no, but I mean,basically, you know, what you
said before, thomas, was reallyimportant because it's like a
lot of people don't?
They certainly don't know whatthe next step is after they film
something.
And the reality is that in theindustry, there's a lot of
content aggregators out thereand they'll say to you, you know
(07:41):
, you know, submit your film tous for a small fee and we'll,
we'll put it out on all thesedifferent platforms.
What they don't realize is theystill need to market their
product or market their markettheir film or their series.
It's, it's just a part of theprocess.
You've got to put the work in,you've got to, you've got to get
(08:02):
eyes on the, on the, on thefinal product.
Yeah, Right.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So what we're going to talk about today a little bit
is on the challenge of salesgrowth and, specifically, you
guys have a really good product,you guys put up great the
struggles, uh, you know, on thatthat you're you're facing right
(08:31):
now.
So set up the journey a littlebit and we're going to talk
about that specific tie you'retrying to cut.
You know the metaphoric tie.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I need to get past this yeah, I mean, the biggest
struggle with being a productioncompany is that there's so much
competition.
There's a lot of independentproduction houses out there, so
it's like, how do youdifferentiate yourself from the
competition?
How do you, how do you show,showcase how unique you are,
what your services are, that youoffer?
(08:58):
And, like I said, the way ofdoing that for us is well, the
little, the little bit ofcrossover between boathouse
pictures and Spruce Hillpartners, not just focusing on
the filmmaking but also on themarketing and promotional and
distribution side.
But it's a challenge becauseconsistency is key.
You can have social mediaplatforms to showcase your work
(09:21):
and showcase your services, butif you're not consistently
hitting up that platform withnew ads, how are people going to
learn about you?
So that is one of the keysright now frequency and
consistency.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And dive into this just a little bit with me.
You guys have a coolreoccurring service you do to
help people make stuff.
How did you get that?
So you have a big client?
We don't think the client.
We have a big client.
Talk about a little what you'redoing for them and the way I'm
going to go with this is thisyou're going to talk about, this
is the ideal client andscenario we have.
Talk about how you got that bigclient and what you're kind of
(09:57):
doing for them first.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So one of us, so one of our big clients, is this
company and if you go on ourwebsite, you could see the, you
could see their logo listedthere a company called Quick
Show, and they're based insuburban Pennsylvania, not too
far from Philadelphia, andthey've been around for a good
while now.
They primarily make winterweather products, but they also
(10:20):
do some for the summer, and theway we found out about them was
through a personal referral,which is why it's really
important to build your network,because you never know when
someone that you're just friendswith might suddenly know a
business that needs marketing.
And oh, wait a second, I know amarketing company.
Let me refer you guys to sprucehill partners, slash boathouse
(10:42):
pictures.
So that's how this relationshipstarted and now they're they're
retainer client for us.
We partnered with them andwe've also partnered with a
major uh major media company aswell to get a lot of their video
ads out there.
Uh.
We've helped them a little bitwith uh, with updating their
website so that the so, the so,the links will take you directly
(11:04):
into where you can purchasetheir products.
It's there's a lot of steps inthe process, but it's been a
great relationship We've.
We've had it going for severalmonths now.
It's a.
It's going to continuethroughout the year as we get
into the summer months and thentransition back into the winter
and it, you know, it's just beena great relationship to build.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And so so what you had was a referral situation,
effectively, and and and I thinkthat's important for people to
understand.
So that's something that's hardto get, typically, when you're
um, uh, new, or you're trying toget new business, so it becomes
something that's uh, that's,that's, that's the, what we're
gonna talk about.
So to get to that point,sometimes you got to start
(11:45):
building trust on differentproducts and sets, and so you
guys do production, um, and wehad a conversation the other day
about like, hey, like I see allthese production houses selling
this stuff, and I've seen someof your guys as, why aren't you
selling this?
And, and it's like that tip aspear to build the initial
relationship with people who canafford maybe your services or
what you're doing.
Uh, you know, after ourconversation, we decided to come
(12:07):
on here and talk about this,talk about maybe that piece from
a sales standpoint of, oh, Ithink this was our problem or I
think this is the nail on thehead, kind of thing back to what
(12:30):
I said before about, uh, aboutconsistency and making sure that
you're utilizing all of yourresources to their fullest
extent.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
You know, if you want to, for instance, uh, find more
referrals through through,through LinkedIn, I mean, you
know one of the things I'velearned, just personally,
through making connections thereis, uh, you, you, almost.
When you want to get yourbusiness out there, it's very
easy to find somebody in aparticular industry and suddenly
you're like, ooh, this seemslike a good opportunity to make
a pitch.
(12:54):
But it's not that simple.
You need to build therelationship first.
You need to find out about themand their business and maybe
get an idea of what some oftheir business needs are, and
then maybe you'll start toidentify a way that you can get
your businesses foot in the doorand you can kind of build a
relationship that way.
And suddenly, hey, we're doingmarketing for the, we're doing
(13:16):
marketing for this business.
We're, uh, we're pushing theirvideo ads out there.
We've, uh, you know they'vebecome sponsors of our company.
You can see their logo on ourwebsite, which takes you into
their and takes you into theirsites.
Uh, it's a.
There's so many different stepsinvolved and it's not just as
easy, as I reach out to somebodyand I make a quick pitch and
(13:37):
we're off to the races.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Exactly, and so it takes time.
And then you have the otherpiece.
So this is the tie to cut isscale.
And in the scalers, if you'redoing it all yourself, you'll
always get grinded down to therelationship, development and
new business.
And you've hit that right.
You've hit that point.
You're like we've got to getscale and new opportunities
(14:00):
coming in.
And how are you guys thinkingabout that a bit right now?
Because this, I mean lots ofcompanies hit this right Like
you get these peaks and valuesof revenue and you have a whale
client, effectively right Likeyou're a really good client that
pays the bills and things likethat.
But if man, that one drops, weare so screwed.
And right Like in that in lots.
I'm in that spot with mycompany at times, and I know
(14:21):
others are.
What are you going to do nowdifferent that you didn't do
last week?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Well, I mean one thing thing, one thing that
we're we're just going to dodifferently, like I said, is to.
You know it is to, is to is sortof a expand our, expand our
reach a little bit.
Not just not just sort of focuson, kind of like, small to
medium-sized businesses, whichis what we were kind of, uh,
focusing on from the verybeginning.
(14:48):
Because, if you think about it,small to medium sized businesses
are going to have a limitedbudget and you know, not to
sound greedy or anything, but inorder to not just keep the
lights on, but in order to, asyou said, scale your company,
you've got to think bigger andyou've got to say, all right,
well, we've got to.
We've got to scale upwards andtry to and try to hook in some
big fish here if we want to keepgrowing as a business.
(15:12):
And the great thing is that ifyou can scale upwards and you
can offer this really expensiveprogram that the big time client
is willing to pay, thensuddenly, oh, wait, a minute,
now we've actually got a budgetto bring in more team members so
that we can divide and conquerwhen it comes to this work.
It's not just going to be, uh,you're going to fall on like a
(15:34):
team of three to complete.
Now suddenly we can expand to ateam of six or a team of 12 or
whatever the case may be, andthat's, and that's kind of how
you, how you scale you, just youhave, you have to always be
thinking upwards and bigger.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You have to, and I think that kind of realization
that comes when you're like yousee the opportunity, you see
others around you growing andyou're like, why aren't we doing
that?
It's when to take the risk too.
So talk to me a little abouthave you been here before and
you didn't take the risk, or youtried it and backed out.
Talk about your journey alittle on when to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, I think for us in many cases it wasn't that we
didn't want to take the risk,it's just we didn't think we had
the time or the capacity totake the risk in philadelphia
and we and we were basicallyhelping them do their marketing
to kind of like jumpstart this,this launch.
(16:38):
But there wasn't so much thatreally came out of that one ad.
It was kind of like a one anddone deal and now, admittedly,
that particular uh hotel groupfolded at that location and and
so and sold it off a couple ofyears later.
But while we should have struckwhile the iron was hot, as the
saying goes, we should we shouldhave kept that relationship
(17:00):
going.
We could have said hey, wehelped you film this ad for this
one location.
What about having us do some adsfor other locations that you
have?
Because this was a, this was,you know, a global hotel chain.
This wasn't just like, oh yeah,they were a local hotel group
hotel chain.
This wasn't just like, oh yeah,they were a local hotel group.
So we should have kind ofcontinued to push with that and
(17:20):
said you know, what did you guysthink of the final product?
Were you happy?
Would you hire us again?
We'd really like to continueworking with you.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
For the marketing standpoint.
You helped a hotel chain exitthrough ads, just didn't say how
.
But they did exit.
It wasn't our effort thatcaused them to exit the way they
did.
All right, so moving forwardhere, tell me a bit about kind
of I guess you know it's the how.
(17:49):
What is the next step you'regoing to take to make this
happen?
Like you know, is itorganization?
Are you going to take to makethis happen, like you know from
is it organization?
Are you going to change your,your offer, like, what's the how
?
Are you going to go find 10clients that could become that
next one that has retainer?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
That is the ultimate.
The ultimate question is alwaysthe how for every company that's
looking, that's looking toscale up, and and right now, in
addition to using our, inaddition to using our current
network, we need to increase ourvisibility.
And I think, going to moreevents in the future and I'm not
talking virtual events, I'mtalking like in person, as in
(18:27):
let me talk to these people, letme give them my business card,
you know, let me build that, letme build that relationship,
because that's the only way youreally build relationships with
people are face to face.
Only so much of a connectioncan be formed when you're, when
you're talking to somebody, youknow, through a video screen,
it's like any business.
So it's definitely going tomore events.
(18:49):
You know, I mentioned we're afilm company, so you know, going
to more like film festivals andfilm markets is another way to
do that.
Finding more conferences, youknow, for people who work in
like the technology andmarketing space, that's going to
be another opportunity for us.
So, yeah, it's all aboutincreasing that visibility is
(19:11):
going to be the how.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I love it.
Alright.
Shameless plug time for youagain.
Who should get a hold of youright now and how are you going
to be the how I love it Allright.
Shameless plug time for youagain.
Who should get a hold of youright now and how are you going
to?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
do it?
Great question, no.
So right now, on our film side,we're definitely looking for
more independent filmmakers whohave completed projects, who are
looking for distribution,because we have a lot of
connections in that space,whether it's on streaming,
whether it's on broadcast linearTV or whether it's in
theatrical space, definitelylooking to expand our library of
(19:46):
completed projects.
And I would definitely say thatbusinesses who are looking to
scale similar to how we arelooking to scale and you're
trying to figure out yourlong-term marketing strategy
they should reach out to us aswell.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
You guys are in the Philadelphia area.
I would even say specificallylocal businesses who want to get
their story out there in a verycinematic way should be out
there talking to you, becauseit's really cool what you guys
can do and it's high value andreally high quality stuff and
it's not like um I.
I I've seen different studiohouses.
Some are better than others.
(20:23):
I say it that way.
You guys are very attentive todetail, so I love that.
Uh Don, thanks for jumping inhere today with me.
I appreciate it.
Happy to be here, thomas,appreciate it.
Listen, get out there.
If you're still listening andthis is your first time here I
hope you come back.
It's the first of many.
If you've been here before,thanks for being supportive of
the show.
Get out there, go cut a tie tosomething holding you back.
(20:44):
Go define some success that youknow you can go achieve and
then go define something youdon't think you should and go.
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I'm your host, thomas Helfrich.
I'm on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back from success,and I hope you define that
success for yourself, because ifyou didn't, you're chasing
somebody else's dream, so makesure you do that.
Today's guest, don Mangling Lee.
I did it intentionally so youcould repronounce it, so we get
as much marketing as possibly.
(00:20):
But you're a maniac?
I doubt it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You're a maniac, thank God for asking your name
correctly, so we can really getthe marketing effect of
repetition.
So the name is pronounced DonManigly.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That's Manigly not Man-ing-ly or Man-gely.
I mean, I've heard it.
Well, not time, we'll have ourseven.
We'll have our seven, Manigly.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Got it.
Most people think I'm relatedto the uh, the famous baseball
player and coach, they, theythink they think it's Mattingly
and I'm, and I have to correctthem.
I said no, no, no, it's notMattingly.
There's no relation there.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I wish I had his money and fame, but all right,
before we get into the detailshere, someone has hey, here's a
million dollar check to hire you.
I just just absolutely loveyour uncle baseball player.
Are you going to be like me too, and you're just going to let
it go at that point.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I mean, at that point you're throwing a million
dollar.
Check my way.
I just have to go legallychange my last name.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I would just be like, listen, and I'm so glad that
you trust us to do your videowhere editing a boathouse
pictures, because, you know,regardless of my background,
just make it very clear thatyou're hiring me for what we can
do, not just because of my name.
And he says yes.
Then you're like, hey, I, Isubbed that up legally.
You were hiring us for ourtalent, not, you know, just
throwing that out there.
(01:42):
Um, um, take a minute to uh,just, uh, just quickly introduce
yourself, your company and whatit is you do well.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I'm don managley, vp, director of creative
development at boathousepictures.
We are an independent motionpicture studio.
We specialize in film and tvproduction, and that's narrative
and documentary projects, andwe also work on the marketing
and advertising side.
So if you have everythingcovered from a production
(02:11):
perspective but you're stilllooking to market your project
and distribute it, we are thecompany to talk to.
We've been in existence now for13 years, if you can believe it
, and honestly, there's nostopping our momentum.
We've gained a lot of ground inthe last two years.
We're very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So I think something you said there is unique, that
you actually have thedistribution side on it too.
So I think the marketing you'rereferring to is getting on the
prime video, the bigger channels.
It's one thing, just to film it, then it's a now, what right?
And we could dive into thathere in a short.
But I think from, and the nextquestion is always like hey, why
, why pick you?
Let's say you're as just goodas anybody.
(02:52):
You just you know table stakesfor video.
Let's just say that was thecase.
Having the distribution readyto go is a huge value, and if
you're listening to this you maynot understand that, so I'm
going to have Don explain it.
Why is that so important?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's something that many independent filmmakers and
I'm an independent filmmakermyself, so I get it Many
independent filmmakers don'tthink about it.
They just think about I got toget the movie made and I got to
put it out there.
And, yes, you can do that.
You can make the film and youcan submit it to film festivals
or just put it up on YouTube andmaybe you'll get a lot of
traffic.
But wouldn't it be nice if thathard work actually brought some
(03:29):
money back into your pocket atthe end of the day?
And that's why you've alwaysgot to think about marketing and
distribution.
You know, it's one thing, likeI said, to make it, but then how
am I going to get it out to thebiggest audience possible?
How am I going to extend myreach?
It's a very important part offilmmaking.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I'll give you an analogy that came to mind and
when we started talking, just soeveryone's aware, we've done an
interview before, but I wantedto catch up with Don on some
cool things they're dealing with, on the cut the tie idea that I
think is really relevant to theaudience.
But let me set up what he'sjust saying just from an analogy
.
Let's say you live in a smalltown, outside of a large town
that you can see.
Let's say you can see LA, butyou're far enough away or you're
(04:11):
still in a small little town.
That's impossible.
But let's say that You've nowsaid I'm going to go buy a
Ferrari because I want to getsome attention, I want people to
notice me.
You buy the Ferrari, you don'tget it out.
You're like, oh well, I'll goput it on just YouTube myself or
post on LinkedIn occasionally.
So you just drive it aroundyour little town.
Few people who know you see it.
Some are impressed, some arelike show off whatever.
(04:34):
To get it bigger, you're goingto have to make sure you time
the event in the big placeswhere people are.
Drive it in front of the rightpeople so they actually know the
people who care that you haveit.
Otherwise you just spend a lotof money on a Ferrari that might
as well just sit in a garage soyou don't kind of make those
around you jealous.
And I think you got to get outthere and you got to know did
(04:54):
you even need a Ferrari first ofall, could you just?
But I think the idea is, if youhave something really of a high
value asset that's like reallyawesome to look at and you just
stick it in the garage or youdon't know where to go drive it,
you've wasted your money.
And I think that is so importantbecause when you and I were
talking, I was like I have thisidea for this.
You know this, uh, reality showand you're, and I was like I'm
just planning on making it partof my youtube channel.
(05:16):
And you guys were like that'sone place.
What about you know amazonprime?
What about netflix?
I'm like never thought of thatwas possible.
And so you know Amazon prime.
What about Netflix?
I'm like never thought of thatwas possible.
And and so, uh, I, I, I can'tstress, you know that is such a
unique piece to have both ofthose equations when they work
with you.
That it's.
And this listen, this is a freepodcast.
He's not paying to be here.
People are funny.
Uh, did my knowledge hold trueor did I miss something?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
No, I think, I think you're totally right about that.
I mean it's you know, when youthink about the value that you
bring to every project you workon, it's like don't let that
value go to waste.
It's like why limit yourself asfar as how you're going to get
it out there?
It's like just go big or gohome.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I say Well, you have one life to live.
Go big or go home.
I say, well, you have one lifeto live, and the people that are
on Netflix you've never seenbefore, that are now household
names that have made their thing.
They did that.
They just said screw it.
I'm going to be that person andI've seen other brands where
I'm like they're selling thisstuff around this and you're
like, oh, he's so cool.
Anyway, I'm not going to saythe name, but the point is I'm
(06:22):
like I had no idea who thatperson was until you contacted
me, which is interesting.
He's like oh, he's actuallypretty interesting, you
presented it.
Anyway, I'm not referring.
I'm referring to a veryspecific person, a persona that
has made a brand for themselvesand now is selling a bunch of
stuff around the brand.
You could do the same thing aswell, all right, so tell me
about Boathouse a little bit, soyou guys target who's kind of
(06:44):
like.
Well, first of all, people arelistening, so you can go stalk
Don properly.
Tell them how to get a hold ofyou.
You know, shameless plug kindof time, so they can at least
stalk you while they listen toyou talk.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, we're on all major social media platforms, so
you can find us on Facebook,instagram, twitter or X,
whatever it's called nowLinkedIn, our website is
(07:21):
wwwbhpicturescom, and we alsohave our sister company, spruce
Hill Partners.
That's sprucehillpartnerscom,and that's specifically if
you're looking for commercialmarketing and advertising on
that website.
But no, but no, but I mean,basically, you know, what you
said before, thomas, was reallyimportant because it's like a
lot of people don't?
They certainly don't know whatthe next step is after they film
something.
And the reality is that in theindustry, there's a lot of
content aggregators out thereand they'll say to you, you know
(07:41):
, you know, submit your film tous for a small fee and we'll,
we'll put it out on all thesedifferent platforms.
What they don't realize is theystill need to market their
product or market their markettheir film or their series.
It's, it's just a part of theprocess.
You've got to put the work in,you've got to, you've got to get
(08:02):
eyes on the, on the, on thefinal product.
Yeah, Right.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So what we're going to talk about today a little bit
is on the challenge of salesgrowth and, specifically, you
guys have a really good product,you guys put up great the
struggles, uh, you know, on thatthat you're you're facing right
(08:31):
now.
So set up the journey a littlebit and we're going to talk
about that specific tie you'retrying to cut.
You know the metaphoric tie.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I need to get past this yeah, I mean, the biggest
struggle with being a productioncompany is that there's so much
competition.
There's a lot of independentproduction houses out there, so
it's like, how do youdifferentiate yourself from the
competition?
How do you, how do you show,showcase how unique you are,
what your services are, that youoffer?
(08:58):
And, like I said, the way ofdoing that for us is well, the
little, the little bit ofcrossover between boathouse
pictures and Spruce Hillpartners, not just focusing on
the filmmaking but also on themarketing and promotional and
distribution side.
But it's a challenge becauseconsistency is key.
You can have social mediaplatforms to showcase your work
(09:21):
and showcase your services, butif you're not consistently
hitting up that platform withnew ads, how are people going to
learn about you?
So that is one of the keysright now frequency and
consistency.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And dive into this just a little bit with me.
You guys have a coolreoccurring service you do to
help people make stuff.
How did you get that?
So you have a big client?
We don't think the client.
We have a big client.
Talk about a little what you'redoing for them and the way I'm
going to go with this is thisyou're going to talk about, this
is the ideal client andscenario we have.
Talk about how you got that bigclient and what you're kind of
(09:57):
doing for them first.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So one of us, so one of our big clients, is this
company and if you go on ourwebsite, you could see the, you
could see their logo listedthere a company called Quick
Show, and they're based insuburban Pennsylvania, not too
far from Philadelphia, andthey've been around for a good
while now.
They primarily make winterweather products, but they also
(10:20):
do some for the summer, and theway we found out about them was
through a personal referral,which is why it's really
important to build your network,because you never know when
someone that you're just friendswith might suddenly know a
business that needs marketing.
And oh, wait a second, I know amarketing company.
Let me refer you guys to sprucehill partners, slash boathouse
(10:42):
pictures.
So that's how this relationshipstarted and now they're they're
retainer client for us.
We partnered with them andwe've also partnered with a
major uh major media company aswell to get a lot of their video
ads out there.
Uh.
We've helped them a little bitwith uh, with updating their
website so that the so, the so,the links will take you directly
(11:04):
into where you can purchasetheir products.
It's there's a lot of steps inthe process, but it's been a
great relationship We've.
We've had it going for severalmonths now.
It's a.
It's going to continuethroughout the year as we get
into the summer months and thentransition back into the winter
and it, you know, it's just beena great relationship to build.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And so so what you had was a referral situation,
effectively, and and and I thinkthat's important for people to
understand.
So that's something that's hardto get, typically, when you're
um, uh, new, or you're trying toget new business, so it becomes
something that's uh, that's,that's, that's the, what we're
gonna talk about.
So to get to that point,sometimes you got to start
(11:45):
building trust on differentproducts and sets, and so you
guys do production, um, and wehad a conversation the other day
about like, hey, like I see allthese production houses selling
this stuff, and I've seen someof your guys as, why aren't you
selling this?
And, and it's like that tip aspear to build the initial
relationship with people who canafford maybe your services or
what you're doing.
Uh, you know, after ourconversation, we decided to come
(12:07):
on here and talk about this,talk about maybe that piece from
a sales standpoint of, oh, Ithink this was our problem or I
think this is the nail on thehead, kind of thing back to what
(12:30):
I said before about, uh, aboutconsistency and making sure that
you're utilizing all of yourresources to their fullest
extent.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
You know, if you want to, for instance, uh, find more
referrals through through,through LinkedIn, I mean, you
know one of the things I'velearned, just personally,
through making connections thereis, uh, you, you, almost.
When you want to get yourbusiness out there, it's very
easy to find somebody in aparticular industry and suddenly
you're like, ooh, this seemslike a good opportunity to make
a pitch.
(12:54):
But it's not that simple.
You need to build therelationship first.
You need to find out about themand their business and maybe
get an idea of what some oftheir business needs are, and
then maybe you'll start toidentify a way that you can get
your businesses foot in the doorand you can kind of build a
relationship that way.
And suddenly, hey, we're doingmarketing for the, we're doing
(13:16):
marketing for this business.
We're, uh, we're pushing theirvideo ads out there.
We've, uh, you know they'vebecome sponsors of our company.
You can see their logo on ourwebsite, which takes you into
their and takes you into theirsites.
Uh, it's a.
There's so many different stepsinvolved and it's not just as
easy, as I reach out to somebodyand I make a quick pitch and
(13:37):
we're off to the races.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Exactly, and so it takes time.
And then you have the otherpiece.
So this is the tie to cut isscale.
And in the scalers, if you'redoing it all yourself, you'll
always get grinded down to therelationship, development and
new business.
And you've hit that right.
You've hit that point.
You're like we've got to getscale and new opportunities
(14:00):
coming in.
And how are you guys thinkingabout that a bit right now?
Because this, I mean lots ofcompanies hit this right Like
you get these peaks and valuesof revenue and you have a whale
client, effectively right Likeyou're a really good client that
pays the bills and things likethat.
But if man, that one drops, weare so screwed.
And right Like in that in lots.
I'm in that spot with mycompany at times, and I know
(14:21):
others are.
What are you going to do nowdifferent that you didn't do
last week?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Well, I mean one thing thing, one thing that
we're we're just going to dodifferently, like I said, is to.
You know it is to, is to is sortof a expand our, expand our
reach a little bit.
Not just not just sort of focuson, kind of like, small to
medium-sized businesses, whichis what we were kind of, uh,
focusing on from the verybeginning.
(14:48):
Because, if you think about it,small to medium sized businesses
are going to have a limitedbudget and you know, not to
sound greedy or anything, but inorder to not just keep the
lights on, but in order to, asyou said, scale your company,
you've got to think bigger andyou've got to say, all right,
well, we've got to.
We've got to scale upwards andtry to and try to hook in some
big fish here if we want to keepgrowing as a business.
(15:12):
And the great thing is that ifyou can scale upwards and you
can offer this really expensiveprogram that the big time client
is willing to pay, thensuddenly, oh, wait, a minute,
now we've actually got a budgetto bring in more team members so
that we can divide and conquerwhen it comes to this work.
It's not just going to be, uh,you're going to fall on like a
(15:34):
team of three to complete.
Now suddenly we can expand to ateam of six or a team of 12 or
whatever the case may be, andthat's, and that's kind of how
you, how you scale you, just youhave, you have to always be
thinking upwards and bigger.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You have to, and I think that kind of realization
that comes when you're like yousee the opportunity, you see
others around you growing andyou're like, why aren't we doing
that?
It's when to take the risk too.
So talk to me a little abouthave you been here before and
you didn't take the risk, or youtried it and backed out.
Talk about your journey alittle on when to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, I think for us in many cases it wasn't that we
didn't want to take the risk,it's just we didn't think we had
the time or the capacity totake the risk in philadelphia
and we and we were basicallyhelping them do their marketing
to kind of like jumpstart this,this launch.
(16:38):
But there wasn't so much thatreally came out of that one ad.
It was kind of like a one anddone deal and now, admittedly,
that particular uh hotel groupfolded at that location and and
so and sold it off a couple ofyears later.
But while we should have struckwhile the iron was hot, as the
saying goes, we should we shouldhave kept that relationship
(17:00):
going.
We could have said hey, wehelped you film this ad for this
one location.
What about having us do some adsfor other locations that you
have?
Because this was a, this was,you know, a global hotel chain.
This wasn't just like, oh yeah,they were a local hotel group
hotel chain.
This wasn't just like, oh yeah,they were a local hotel group.
So we should have kind ofcontinued to push with that and
(17:20):
said you know, what did you guysthink of the final product?
Were you happy?
Would you hire us again?
We'd really like to continueworking with you.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
For the marketing standpoint.
You helped a hotel chain exitthrough ads, just didn't say how
.
But they did exit.
It wasn't our effort thatcaused them to exit the way they
did.
All right, so moving forwardhere, tell me a bit about kind
of I guess you know it's the how.
(17:49):
What is the next step you'regoing to take to make this
happen?
Like you know, is itorganization?
Are you going to take to makethis happen, like you know from
is it organization?
Are you going to change your,your offer, like, what's the how
?
Are you going to go find 10clients that could become that
next one that has retainer?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
That is the ultimate.
The ultimate question is alwaysthe how for every company that's
looking, that's looking toscale up, and and right now, in
addition to using our, inaddition to using our current
network, we need to increase ourvisibility.
And I think, going to moreevents in the future and I'm not
talking virtual events, I'mtalking like in person, as in
(18:27):
let me talk to these people, letme give them my business card,
you know, let me build that, letme build that relationship,
because that's the only way youreally build relationships with
people are face to face.
Only so much of a connectioncan be formed when you're, when
you're talking to somebody, youknow, through a video screen,
it's like any business.
So it's definitely going tomore events.
(18:49):
You know, I mentioned we're afilm company, so you know, going
to more like film festivals andfilm markets is another way to
do that.
Finding more conferences, youknow, for people who work in
like the technology andmarketing space, that's going to
be another opportunity for us.
So, yeah, it's all aboutincreasing that visibility is
(19:11):
going to be the how.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I love it.
Alright.
Shameless plug time for youagain.
Who should get a hold of youright now and how are you going
to be the how I love it Allright.
Shameless plug time for youagain.
Who should get a hold of youright now and how are you going
to?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
do it?
Great question, no.
So right now, on our film side,we're definitely looking for
more independent filmmakers whohave completed projects, who are
looking for distribution,because we have a lot of
connections in that space,whether it's on streaming,
whether it's on broadcast linearTV or whether it's in
theatrical space, definitelylooking to expand our library of
(19:46):
completed projects.
And I would definitely say thatbusinesses who are looking to
scale similar to how we arelooking to scale and you're
trying to figure out yourlong-term marketing strategy
they should reach out to us aswell.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
You guys are in the Philadelphia area.
I would even say specificallylocal businesses who want to get
their story out there in a verycinematic way should be out
there talking to you, becauseit's really cool what you guys
can do and it's high value andreally high quality stuff and
it's not like um I.
I I've seen different studiohouses.
Some are better than others.
(20:23):
I say it that way.
You guys are very attentive todetail, so I love that.
Uh Don, thanks for jumping inhere today with me.
I appreciate it.
Happy to be here, thomas,appreciate it.
Listen, get out there.
If you're still listening andthis is your first time here I
hope you come back.
It's the first of many.
If you've been here before,thanks for being supportive of
the show.
Get out there, go cut a tie tosomething holding you back.
(20:44):
Go define some success that youknow you can go achieve and
then go define something youdon't think you should and go.
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