Monetizing Content: Donald Manigly & Andre Saballette on Making Indie Films Profitable

Never Been Promoted Podcast with Thomas Helfrich

Andre Saballette and Donald Manigly share how they and their team at Boathouse Pictures turned their passion for storytelling into a thriving video production company. From working with major brands to helping independent creators bring their visions to life, they dive deep into the power of storytelling, the evolution of content creation, and what businesses need to know about video marketing in today’s digital landscape.

About Andre Saballette & Donald Manigly:

Andre Saballette and Donald Manigly are co-founders of Boathouse Pictures, a Philadelphia-based film and video production studio specializing in high-quality storytelling. With backgrounds in media and corporate production, Andre, Don, and their team have worked on projects ranging from corporate commercials to feature films, ensuring high-quality content at any budget. They are passionate about helping brands and businesses use video effectively to connect with audiences and grow their impact.

In this episode, Thomas, Andre, and Don discuss:

• The Power of Storytelling in Business and Film

Andre and Don explain why storytelling is the foundation of great content and how businesses can leverage it to create emotional connections with their audience.

• Building a Production Company from Scratch

Andre and Don share the journey of launching Boathouse Pictures, the lessons learned from early struggles, and how they’ve evolved into a full-service studio and distribution house.

• How to Use Video to Elevate Your Brand

From corporate video content to independent film production, they break down what makes content engaging and how companies can avoid common mistakes in video marketing.

Key Takeaways:

• Quality Video Content is an Investment, Not an Expense

Andre and Don emphasize that professional video production pays off in brand recognition, audience engagement, and conversion rates.

• You Don’t Need a Hollywood Budget to Make an Impact

Great storytelling, smart production techniques, and a clear strategy can make any budget work effectively.

• Your Brand Needs a Visual Identity

They highlight how companies that use video consistently build stronger brand awareness and deeper connections with customers.

“People remember stories, not sales pitches. If your video isn’t telling a compelling story, it’s just noise.” — Andre Saballette & Donald Manigly

CONNECT WITH ANDRE SABALLETTE, DON MANIGLY & BOATHOUSE PICTURES:

Website: https://bhpictures.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-saballette-b006054a/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-manigly/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bhpictures/

CONNECT WITH THOMAS:

X (Twitter): https://x.com/CutTheTieX 
Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/CutTheTie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cutthetiecommunity/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cutthetie
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cutthetie
LinkedIn:

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Thank you, welcome to the Never Been Promoted podcast
and YouTube channel.
I'm on a mission to help youcut the tie to all the things
that are holding you back so youcan unleash your entrepreneur.

(01:34):
Good afternoon, welcome toNever Been Promoted.
Today I'm reading from Porn forWomen.
Let me go ahead and take athink of this here.
Honey.
You pick the movie.
It's pretty good.
I don't turn them on every time.
I'm waiting for my guest tojust explode in the background
reading this, I know let's goshoe shopping.

(01:55):
Get this book for your wife,she'll love it.
Um, if you've never been herebefore, that was awkward and I
appreciate you for listening tothe following statement that we
are here to help you get betterat entrepreneurship.
And you got to have fun, uh,and you got to have a good time
and you have to understand it'sgoing to be hard as shit to be
an entrepreneur and you're goingto have to cut the ties to

(02:16):
things that are holding you back, and sometimes that's just how
you think, sometimes it's justyour attitude.
But if you're not having funwhile you're doing this man, get
out of the game because you'redoing it wrong.
So today's guest is BoathousePictures out of Philly.
It's.
Don and Andre are joining mefrom Philadelphia and we're
going to have a fun conversationabout their journey, what they
do and how they create somereally cool productions, and

(02:37):
they do it in an affordable waytoo.
So I'm looking forward to thisconversation.
Listen, if you are anentrepreneur and you're trying
to get better atentrepreneurship, listen to
these stories.
Listen to the podcast of whatwe're trying to do, because
you'll learn things from fromthe guests.
You'll learn what they did well, what they didn't do well, what
they had to get over and whatthey had to overcome to get

(02:57):
better at it.
So check out the channelyoutubecom at never been
promoted.
It's the only same as plug Ihave.
I'm going to bring these guyson now.
We got a three-way I don't havemy graphic in the background,
right for a three, three-wayhere.
Um, it's, this is the menage atrois of a podcast today.
Uh, three dudes kind of weird,but that's three of us hey, it's
guys, it's 2025, so women?

(03:19):
I know you all own this, everyone of you.
Well, it's a menage a trois ofthree dudes, and it's 2025.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
So I think we're good .

Speaker 1 (03:24):
You all own this, every one of you.
Well, thanks for having us.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
It's a menage a trois of three dudes and it's 2025,
so I think we're good.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
We're good.
I have another podcast calledSexy Voice Guy and I did a
reading of this.
It is the most downloadedepisode I have and it's like
this part one, Like severalthousand downloads.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
I mean you have a very sexy voice, thomas.
I mean it's nice baby, calmdown, don.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
When I slow it down I'm like it's nice baby, it
changes the game.
I didn't know I was going to bejoined by Clark Kent today.
Holy cow, andre, how are youdoing?
Take those glasses off.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, In my spare time I like to dress in tights
and save kittens.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Like I said, three dudes one show.
Andre, can you pronounce yourlast name for us?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
It's Sabalet, it's French and it's not as scary as
it looks.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I would have said Sabalet.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Don I keep wanting to say man, man, man, manigally.
I've heard every pronunciationin the book.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
It's manigally but I see that's why I said don and
andrex sounds like I actuallydon't know how to say your last
names and I was gonna.
I often do this that way, it'sa marketing technique, so I just
keep seeing your names over andover.
But uh, you guys found aboathouse pictures, this is like
and you're in Philadelphia andwe were talking off camera.
I've spent, I mean, more timethan most people normally would
in Philadelphia and what I foundwas I always went there in the

(04:53):
winter and so for like 15 yearsI was traveling there for work
for different companies I workfor, and I always stayed in 17th
and Sansom and there's a barcalled the Raven Lounge.
Bar called the Raven Lounge.
You know there's a nice soapytill I'd stay at and it's too
uppity up, so I'd go to thisdive bar across the street that
does like Jenga and metal, heavydeath metal music and comedy
upstairs, which was weird andand I and.
But I was always there in thewinter, friendliest people, the

(05:16):
friendliest homeless people inRittenhouse square.
I don't know why you have 20.
I'm like man, that'sprogressive.
No, sir, I'm like, okay, have agood day.
But I went there one time inthe summer and that changed my
experience of it, becausethere's a lot more to do, but it
also smells a lot worse.
But so, anyway, you guys arefrom Philadelphia.
One of you guys take this forme.

(05:38):
Tell me about why boathousepictures, why you named it.
Tell me, give me the setup ofwhat this is.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
I'll take that one.
It's winter in Philadelphia.
We're in the middle of asnowstorm.
I don't know if you can hearthe buzzsaw behind me, but they
just decided to run thesnowblower right by my window,
so I apologize.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
There is a lot of snow going on.
My kids are excited for like ahalf inch here in Atlanta.
They're like, I mean, they'relike, oh my God it might get a
half inch, Like seriously, likeit's a real thing.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
No, it's.
We're getting hit pretty hard,which personally I'm glad we are
, because we haven't seensignificant snowfall in a while.
So, but to answer your question, boathouse pictures, that's a
bit of a personal nod.
I was a rower in high schooland in college I was on the

(06:29):
rowing team at Penn StateUniversity and when it came time
to come up with a name for acompany, I wanted something that
was iconic to Philadelphia.
I wanted something that wouldnot only identify us as a
business but also pay tribute towhere we were located the bell,

(06:52):
the liberty and freedom and allof that well overdone.
What part of Philly can I justtap into that represents
everybody?
And I thought I spent so manydays on the Schuylkill River.
There's an iconic facade there,which is Boathouse Row.

(07:13):
At night the lights light up.
It's really beautiful and it'sright where you can see the
beginning of Center City.
To the one side it's likeneighborhoods and nature and on
the other side it's just like abig metropolitan area.
And I thought, wow, boathouseRow is so iconic, nobody else
has it.
Boathouse, boathouse, motionPictures, boathouse Pictures,

(07:34):
and that's where it came about.
A tribute to myself, a tributeto the city, a tribute to um
standing out among you know,like the, the noise which
Boathouse Row does.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Nice, I like that and BH pictures was available tocom
.
Let's keep that in mind.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
So funny story.
We went forboathousepicturescom and there's
a guy, I think, out of theMidwest who's a photographer who
takes pictures of boathousesand he has that domain.
So, um, we ended up going withBH pictures, which I think it's
easier.
Anyway, it's not as great.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
I agree.
It's funny, though, becausewhen you get a good name for
it's nothing, you're like, oh, Ishould check if I could ever
copyright.
And then you look and see like,oh man, something's got like a
whole world around that and it'slike, oh, it's like it's
disappointing.
But then you realize quickly,in a business it doesn't
actually matter what you call it.
It helps on a storytellingmaybe, but it's not even
necessary.
It's like it's got to meansomething to you initially, but

(08:31):
no one else like not anyone elsecares.
But it's one of thosereflective things in
entrepreneurship that peoplespend a lot of times naming
their companies or getting thelogos right, when the truth is
your story could be anythingright, like you, like you could
be like a roar.
I love this.
You could have called broke mywar on my face, picturescom, or
God it's.
You know I hate getting wet inthe boat.
Pictures.
Wet in the boat pitch rightLike all these socks in the boat

(08:53):
are the worst.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
What is soggy socks?

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Oh my God, Did you wrote down.
Now, Don Were you on crew.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
I can safely say I did not row or participate in
any sport in college.
I mean I went to the gym everynow and then, and still do, but
Andre was more like thecollegiate athlete out of our
group.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Now, how do you guys know each other before school,
during school, after?
What's your dynamic?

Speaker 2 (09:21):
We met during college .
We happened to hang around asimilar circle of friends, some
people that Andre went to highschool with, including our VP
art director, who's not on thiscall, but Mario Miele.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
What's his name, marcus?
Marcus, yeah, it's Mario Miele.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
It's the other guy we couldn't fit him on the screen,
we'd be all.
So the other guy we couldn'tfit him on the screen, we'd be
all so slithered We'd be so tinyon the screen, we'd be like
sorry, mario, you have to sit inthe back room.
When you guys were in college,a lot of entrepreneurs we have
on here are solo.
They kind of came out.
We do get a lot of foundersthat come together, usually
because they've murdered eachother.
By the time I have them on theshow and they're on their own

(10:05):
thing.
You guys have not murdered eachother yet, allegedly.
Yeah, that's the key word,right, but did you know in
college you were going to dosomething?
Were you doing fun videos,things?

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Did you have a moment where you're like we should do
this?
So I think our paths I mean soDon was doing media studies as
well in college.
We went to separate schools butwe were in similar circles, we
had similar interests.
I don't think we ever thoughtwe would be going into business

(10:39):
together.
We both through separate paths,I think realized we wanted to
go into the media business insome way or another, but really
it all happened afterwards.
I think we built a strongenough bond where we knew each
other's interests and then, whenthe time was right and it was

(11:02):
time to launch, so I startedBoathouse.
Um, I'll go back.
I actually started working forthe Walt Disney company and
that's where I began my career.
Um, and I started as an intern,then stayed with the company
for a little bit recession wasstarting and was quickly

(11:23):
learning the lack of value thatlarge corporations have for the
smaller end employees.
There was like a litany oflayoffs that happened when I
first started and then thattrend sort of continued and
eventually I was going to bepart of that trend sort of

(11:47):
continued and eventually I wasgoing to be part of that, and so
when I went into business itwasn't really like, oh, this is.
I had this big plan.
It was more of like a necessity.
I had lost my job.
I was looking for worksomewhere else.
I had all these skills that Iwanted to use.
And then I realized if I startmy own business, I can use my
skills and I won't let myselfoff, I won't lay myself off, I'm
going to look for more work.
But then, quickly, in just theprocess of building a business,

(12:09):
you realize, hey, you can't dothis alone.
And so I started surroundingmyself with people who had
similar mindsets and goals andDon actually reached out to me.
Don, you can go ahead and takefrom there.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, I was just scrolling through Facebook one
day and this was also during theGreat Recession.
I mean, I had a full-time job,but it wasn't particularly one
that I was all that excitedabout I just happened to come
across an ad for BoathousePictures on Facebook.
I clicked on it.
I said, oh, film and mediaproduction company interesting,
andre Sabalet.

(12:44):
Andre was drunk with thatreaction so the next thing, I
know I'm calling him up on thephone and and it's just one of
those hey don, how's it going?
Oh, it's good, andre, how'severything with you?
Oh, great, you know justkeeping busy and whatnot.
I said, so you have aproduction company.
I see, yeah, yeah, boathousepictures.
I said, yeah, I saw it onfacebook.
I said, um, so what do I haveto do to get in?

(13:06):
Do I have to know the secretpassword or is there certain?
Is it one of those first ruleof Boathouse Pictures?
You do not talk about BoathousePictures kind of things.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Unless it's a podcast .
Unless it's a podcast, then youdefinitely can, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
But yeah, it just kind of grew from there.
I started going to meetingswith Andre, with Mario, who we
mentioned earlier, and alsoAaron, who was our director of
business development when westarted the company that's Aaron
Spence, by the way and then wejust had regular meetings at
Starbucks and started to throwideas around about where we're
going to take the business throwideas around about where we're

(13:45):
going to take the business.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I always make a joke that at some point I'd like to
start a small coffee shop andlike, make it as part of our
lobby, because that's where westarted.
We started as four guys in acoffee shop, and so it would
just be like a little nod to.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
You should bring the interns in and make them change
the set so you can continuallyfilm there as like it's a new
set every time, like all rightguys, new production set, and
they just keep changing it.
Like that's why people comeback Like, oh, I wonder if the
set is this week.
Oh, star Wars theme.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
That's a good idea.
I'm going to write that down.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Then you make the interns do shit for you and you
get the benefit of newproduction lighting.
They can keep filming andthat's why people come back.
I wonder what that is.
Cool guys, you know whatentrepreneurs do?
Well, it's solicit advice.
They didn't ask, it was notasked for.
That's what we do the best.
Have you ever noticed that?

Speaker 3 (14:31):
solicit advice and go down rabbit holes that you
didn't know existed.
Right, you just hear an ideaand you just kind of run with it
.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Right.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
The next thing you're like you're hiring for it.
You're like wait, wait, wait.
We shouldn't do this.
We.
It was a thing of necessity.
But I think part of being anentrepreneur is this refusal to
conform, and it's not out ofbeing rebellious, it's not out
of, you know, being stubborn.
It's something about the wayyour brain works, where you have
all these ideas and sitting ina cubicle or sitting in like one
little box isn't enough.
You need the challenge, and mychallenge was I needed a job.

(15:37):
That's how it started.
And then, once I figured out,okay, now I'm holding myself
over what's next.
This isn't a temporary thing.
What do I do?
Where do I go from here?
And slowly I realized like Ihave all these ideas.
I have all these creativebubbles that are popping up

(16:00):
everywhere and this is myopportunity to actually get them
done.
You also have to be a littlebit crazy.
I think you have to be a littlebit willing to swim against the
stream Don did you come ingoing?

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Oh shit, what I do, did you?

Speaker 2 (16:17):
I think every entrepreneur says that in the
beginning, that they say tothemselves what, what did I get
my end?
What did I get myself into?
What am I going to do?
They say to themselves what didI get myself into?
What am I going to do?
How am I going to feed myfamily?
If you have family, in thatcase, you know it's, there's a
lot of questions in thebeginning and a lot, of, a lot
of just running around notknowing what you're going to do

(16:39):
next, and but then suddenly youmake a few connections and, ok,
now I've actually got a fewideas I can run with.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Right.
I mean, and the reason I saythat is because you guys were
probably, you know, in your 20sor so, probably when you started
this, right In your 20s.
I know we are in your lives atthe time, but that's the time to
kind of you know I can live onthe floor and eat ramen for a
month, like that's fine, youknow I can live in this office.
I'm not gonna tell anybody,right.
And and that is the time tokind of get crazy, tell me about

(17:07):
your first client, uh, that youlanded when you guys were like
you know you're maybe your firstfirst client or the one that
like, oh shit, I can't believewe just won.
That Like what was the pivotalone?
That kind of made you go oh, Icannot believe, I just we won
that I think there's one foreach.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Our very first client that we ever worked with was a
veterinary clinic, a very largeone.
It's a veterinary hospital, redBank Veterinary Hospital.
They're based out of Red Bank,new Jersey, tenton Falls, very
big and they were having aveterinary symposium discussing
like uh studies in like caninedermatology.

(17:46):
They were going to uh you know,they had people from all over
coming in, but they were alsogoing to record it and they
wanted uh, uh to uh.
At the time they they weren'tgoing to live stream it, but
they were definitely going toreproduce the symposium online
via YouTube and all thesedifferent things.

(18:07):
And they needed a productioncompany.
And it just so happened that mymentor worked for the hospital
and reached out.
That was our very first job andwhen we set off and I was like
I want to start a mediaproduction company.
I'm sitting there listeningabout like dog dandruff I was
like did I, did I make the rightdecision?

(18:28):
Is this, is this life right now?

Speaker 1 (18:32):
But then Not sexy, but pays green.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
No, it's true, it's true.
And then about, I would say,two years later, we got the gig.
That really just kind ofchanged the course of everything
.
And, uh, we got hired to do acommercial locally.
Um, the commercial was being,uh, sponsored by comcast, which
is the parent company of nbcuniversal.

(18:56):
Um, and it's a local uh, it'sheadquartered locally, and we
got the opportunity to not onlymake the commercial but we were
basically given free reign.
They gave us the budget andthey said go ahead, this is a
client, it's a local veteransorganization.

(19:16):
They have no media experience,so we're going to give it to you
and you guys are going toconsult with them and do
everything.
And we're like awesome, and weliterally I mean it was script
to screen we went, we consulted,we did everything to create the
story, shoot it, edit it andthen eventually put it on
television.
And, as of about a month ago,one of my friends called and was

(19:38):
like hey, that commercial youguys did like 10 years ago is
still on.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
That's a good use of dollars.
When you guys were firststarting out, did you?
And I know a lot ofentrepreneurs struggle with this
.
So the reason I'm asking thisis were you charging enough?
Yeah, by no means we lostmillions.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
I kind of charged 10 times that we missed that at
least on thousands, if notmillions.
But you know we tried to dowhat we thought was fair, based
on our level of experience atthe time, because we thought, oh
, we can't overcharge ourclients.
They might come back and say,well, what gives you guys the
right to charge us this much?
But then it's like when we didour research and saw what other

(20:20):
companies were charging, we werelike, wait a minute, we're
selling ourselves short hereyeah buy a lot like buy a lot.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
It wasn't even like close.
Um, I think I vividly rememberone day we had just finished
like something and then don uhin the meeting, just guys,
there's something I just want toget off my chest, we need to
charge more.
And literally that's just howthe conversation started.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
I mean, but it happens right.
So you don't realize your valueand generally if you raise
prices, you make more money.
Like you rarely out-marketyourself, especially if you have
companies with money, becausethey're not emotionally attached
to it, they're attached totheir signing authority.
Typically that's the number toknow.

(21:04):
Here's an entrepreneuriallesson I think you guys will
agree with Know what the signingauthority is, the person you're
talking to.
If it's 50K, you should bearound 48.9 when you go and
price something because that waythey can go there, you go, go
do it because because that'sthat's the, that's the level
that matters is like, how muchpeople can sign for uh, what?
How did you what?

(21:25):
What is your sweet spot from aproduction standpoint?
Like, what do you guys dobetter than anyone?
And and really, did you mean tofind it or did it find you?

Speaker 3 (21:32):
so, um, I think to answer that question, we really
have to go back, um to like whatwe are right.
When we started off, we weremerely a production services
company.
We provide production servicesfor television, for commercials,
for, um, industrial videos,like business training videos.

(21:52):
Um, we were a productioncompany and that was our sole
focus.
What we did well was we hadprofessional grade production
sorry production staff, like.
We had guys who worked on filmthat knew how to run a smooth
production and we did itefficiently, and we were able to

(22:15):
do it at a limited budget, insmall scale, but really produce
something that looked like itwas a lot larger than it was.
Fast forward, we realized whatwe really set out to do in the
beginning.
What really brought us alltogether is the love of film,
the love of storytelling, and sothat's when we started
reshaping everything and we saidlisten, do we just want to be a

(22:36):
production company for hire, ordo we want to be what we
eventually are now, which is astudio, film production studio

(22:59):
and now a distribution house,and that's what we've managed to
thrive in the indie film marketas such?
Do we still get hired?
Yes, the bread and butter ofwhat we do is getting hired by
other productions.
We get brought in and we have atalented team that we can scale
depending on the size of theproduction, and so our sweet
spot continues to be producinghigh quality work at an

(23:20):
affordable price and at scale,and that's something that at
least on the East coast I mean,california has has a bunch of
those, but on the East coast,especially in Philadelphia, you
don't have a lot of that, andthat's where we thrive.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
So so it's to for me, like I'm on, I'm a little
familiar with it just becauseI've done reality shows.
I've been on the talent side ofit that's a loose term for me
but on the B film side of it.
But also we film things likecorporate events, things like
that as part of my marketingagency.
I'm the one coordinating.

(23:51):
I don't produce it, I bring ina crew like you guys to go do it
, the difference being issomeone could send you stuff
that's filmed and you produce it.
That's a production services,particularly like you can say
hey, there's this, here's allthe social, here's all your cuts
, here's blah, blah, blah blah.
The studio is, let's say, I wasgoing to go do a two day
entrepreneurial reality show andI could have everyone show up

(24:13):
to your studio and you can dothe filming, we can make the
interactions, you can doeverything on site, on set,
right there, get the set builtthe way you need to make it look
cool and it's all done.
That would be the differencebetween the two.
Would that be fair?

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yes, and two, I would add an additional layer.
We can come to you so we, ifyou're shooting on location, we
can coordinate.
We'll have a productioncoordinator coordinating the
crew, the travel, the logisticsand all of that.
We'll get boots on the ground,we'll get the trucks, we'll do
all the research to find thelocal vendors that will provide

(24:47):
the equipment and everything andwe will do a full-scale
production.
And it could be something assimple as hey, this is a small
video for a company and it'sonly $10,000.
Or it could be 10 million um,and really 10 million is
preferred.
So, if you're listening, uh, weprefer 10 million um, but it
could be at that scale.

(25:07):
We we have the experience where, um, we've worked on large
format movies and we've alsoshot short little videos that go
for on YouTube for a smallbusiness, which gets us into
like our newest phase.
But we can discuss that later.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, the reason I ask is because, like you know,
as I look at some things we'regoing to do with, you know, cut
the tie of the community is oneof the things we want to do.
Is is a an entrepreneurial kindof reality show, if you will,
of like a two day competition ofsome sort, like do this, do
that, learn that, go, do that.
It's just something fun, right,and the whole idea would be

(25:45):
produced for YouTube.
So you, you do it, the idea ofwe know what's going on, you do
the little side interviews andjust create like a 50 minute
video of this and there's awinner at the end.
But that's like the next videoor, like you know, it's like
whatever it is, like you knowcoming out and to do that, like
my mind goes, no idea, I couldbe the host, I could be on the
talent side of that kind ofdriving it and get the vision.

(26:10):
But I think if anybody has anidea I'm trying to delineate,
they'd hire a company like youto be like hey, we're going to
have to charge this, which meansyou need to charge your
contestants that to get it done,and so you can back.
Because that's where I'm kindof like I don't know where the
location is.
Is it easier for me just to doit in Philadelphia?
So, is it easier for me to flysomewhere or fly you guys in.
The point is that's where aproduction, a full production

(26:30):
services company, comes in theycan help you with.
Okay, to do that, we'll needthese shots, these interviews,
this storyline, these angles,these mics, these lightings,
this much time.
I think it takes two days.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Part of what we bring to the table is the knowledge
of, like you said, what it takesand being able to do the
research for you.
Like you said, you have thisidea, how do I execute it?
And half the time we just gothrough a checklist and say, all
right, well, what are yourthoughts on this?

Speaker 1 (27:02):
this, and most of the time people are like, oh, I
didn't even think about thatwell, because I think this one's
like okay, I think if I had theright crew that said, hey,
we're going to do this and we'regoing to create this production
and to do the ad for it to getthe right people interested,
you're going to have to almostcreate a bullshit version of
that that we're doing it likewe've done it before and it
might just be like three peopleand you're just kind of shooting

(27:22):
it like this you come join theawesomeness with the flashy
whatever.
There's a pre-sequence thatneeds to happen to get people
interested and paying money togo do it, and then you have to
actually film the shit and useit.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, and I think another key part not to cut you
off is like no, I just it's fun.
No-transcript.

(28:04):
So that way the people, thecreative minds behind the show,
can just focus on the finalexecution and not worry so much
about, well, we've got toassemble crew, we've got to get
locations?
Nope, we'll take care of allthat for you.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Do you guys add in like hey, you should really have
like a local influencer, likeso we're in atlanta, like hey,
you're having this, come in, wehave a connection to fill in the
blank rapper that's up andcoming is looking for some more
opportunities.
You bring them in to dosomething like do you guys give
that kind of input as well, thatwe can, we can bring in other
people, or does that for sure?

Speaker 3 (28:33):
and I think it depends on the production, like,
obviously, uh, something thatwould benefit if you're, if
you're trying to market, say inatlanta, and you have an event
that would, uh, benefit thecommunity and there's a local
influencer, local rapper, thatis really popular.
We can synergize the two andsay like, yeah, you should
definitely do this, and thatit's not always the case that,

(28:54):
like you need a big celebrity.
Sometimes we say like, hey, whydon't we like pump the brakes
and go more organic, like letpeople know who you really are?
And it really depends on thestory that you want to tell, and
that's what that's.
I think, again, part of ourmission is we want to tell your
story, whether it's a narrativefiction that you wrote and it's

(29:16):
a screenplay, or it's the reallife story of how you started
your business.
At the end of the day, yourstory, the human experience, is
what matters, and so sometimesthe influencer is great, but
sometimes the influencer is justlike and what I'm getting to is
that I have a vision ofwhatever it is.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
I think a really solid partner is the one that
goes I wouldn't do that becauseand I would do this because and
you've ever considered doing Xand the truth is because I don't
know your world at all, I havea vision of something that has
it's tied to a different goal,and understanding what that
vehicle is to get there is justone of the steps.
So.
So the point is, I think, whereI'm trying to show you guys as

(29:58):
a value is you've even said likeI wouldn't do that always.
The truth is that you don'twant them to say yes to your
ideas, cause it'll probably comeout like it's like you want
something who knows how to makesomething great that people
actually will watch, and that'sI mean when you're doing videos
and then watch it again andshare that shit and be like and
then I want to be a part of that.
That's the emotion you wantfrom that stuff.
Not like cool, we executed hisidea, but it sucked Like, even

(30:21):
like that's like.
You don't want that.
You don't want your brand onthat either.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Well, at the end of the day, it reflects our work
too, and I think that'ssomething that everyone that I
can think of and Don.
You'll know Joe Kramer.
He's one of our longest runningcollaborators.
He and I work on like adifferent variety of different
projects and including like ashow that runs on Bloomberg.

(30:46):
I won't name it because I don'twant to plug other things, but
you can One thing Shamed plugsare strongly encouraged on the
show.
It's called World's Greatest.
Oh, I can't believe you said it.
So one thing that I will saythat I think and he does very

(31:08):
well, because a lot of timeswe're interviewing these
businesses and they have thisidea oh, I want to do this shot.
He's very good at saying likethat's not going to work and
like I'll do it if that's whatyou want, but it's going to look
bad.
And that's what you want, butit's going to look bad.
And if that's what you want,fine, but just remember, when it
looks bad, it's because youwanted it and like it sounds
kind of like blunt and like Iwant to say like standoffish,

(31:29):
but at the end of the day,sometimes you need to be like
hey, listen, we have these shotsbecause these are the shots
that we know from experiencethat people want to see, and
we'll do what you want, becauseyou're paying us to provide a
service for you.
But, at the end of the day,what you're paying us to do is
to make you look good, and so ifyou want us to make you look
good, let us do our thing.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
So this is an entrepreneurial trap and, like I
told you, I think sometimes Ipull these things out where and
somebody who owns a marketingagency that's focused primarily,
let's say, on LinkedIn or somecontent and social media.
We run into this a lot where wehave people who say hey, I
really want you to do this orthis, and we're like I don't
recommend it because you'regoing to come across as spammy,

(32:11):
you're going to come across asthis or come across as salesy,
and they say do it.
And then it didn't work.
And they get pissed at you andyou're like this is because it
doesn't work.
And they're like but I don'twant to do that.
Like, well, to make that workyou got to do.
And and when you're out there,if you're so hell bent on what
you want, then just go do ityourself, because you're just
going to blame everybody elsewhen it doesn't work.
If you, if you hire somebodywho's a professional, you got to
trust their opinion on it andhold them accountable for it.

(32:32):
Right, I mean in, and I thinkthat's where I love to hear that
you guys, you do need to pushback and you and I think, as
entrepreneurs, you got to acceptthat someone's going to call
your baby maybe not ugly, butit's dressed ugly and you might
want to redress it.
Some babies are ugly.
Let's be fair.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
We have you've all seen it.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Like they're pushing it.
You're like, well, is that arat?
What is it?
Is that a rat, what?

Speaker 3 (32:55):
is it and Don, you can attest to this?
Because I think one of thefirst jobs that we got, we got
pushback and I think the ladysaid like I don't like the way
this looks, and Don was in themeeting.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
Don was fuming.
I was literally just going tosay that one of the very first
jobs we did after the Red BankVeterinary Hospital was filming
a high school production ofGrease and it was actually my
old high school and they weredoing us a big favor by hiring
us to do the job.
So I was really excited aboutit and we attended the
rehearsals, figured out thecamera setup and everything

(33:30):
beforehand.
We said, all right, this isgoing to be great Two cameras on
each side, one dead center,plenty of options to cut back
and forth.
Well, when we get to the day ofthe first performance, we're
suddenly told that one of thecameras can't go to the far.
It was either the left or theright side, because that's where
some of the ensemble are goingto enter.
And we're looking at them like,well, that's going to impact

(33:53):
the quality of how it's going tolook when it's edited together.
But they were like, well, yeah,but you just you can't put the
camera there no-transcriptrehearsals.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
We did all this stuff and at the dress rehearsal we
asked, hey, is this what thelighting is going to look like
on the day?
And then they were like, yeah.
And then we're like, okay, cool, so nothing's going to change.
This is, this is the lightingsetup.
And they were like, yeah,everything that you see here,
this cool, so nothing's going tochange.
This is, this is the lightingsetup.
And they were like, yeah,everything that you see here,
this is exactly how it's goingto go.
We're like, okay, and then weset up the cameras.
We did all the things.
It was going to look like amovie based off of, like our

(34:53):
dress rehearsal, like we, we hadthe right angles to get zooms
on, like specific lines andeverything.
Like we were going to work withspotlight.
It was perfect.
Yeah, on the day, not only didthey move our cameras, they told
us we couldn't be on a certainthing, so now we had to find the
setup on the fly.
But then, when the show went tostart, the lighting was
completely different.
It was just like night and day.
They like turned off lightsthat we were expecting to have

(35:17):
on, and so one of the cameraswent black, just because, yeah,
I mean if you pre-lit it forwhatever it means exposure-wise.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
But this is a good point, right?
So in this scenario right, thisis, I think, a good metaphor
for a lot of people is are youmaking this production for the
audience or for the video?
And you have to decidesometimes You're going to lose
100 people or are you going togain to 10,000?
Because, yes, the 100 peoplemay like that lighting better,

(35:45):
but the 10 or 20,000 that we'resupposed to see it are going to
hate it and they're not going tosee it now.
And so sometimes you have tomake these hard decisions of
what are you really choosing todo here?
Or it would have been smarterjust do the rehearsal and we'll
film the rehearsal and then justdo the live thing.
We won't film it live becausewe could just we can put in the

(36:07):
noise and the clapping and allthe other stuff later, because
you don't see the audience whenyou do these things it's like
you're just anyway.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
it would have been better to let us like, hey, let
us shoot a show with no one inthe audience, right and and and
that way, like we can actuallycut and say like, hey, can you
do that line over again and wecan like control the environment
of the show.
Um, but at the time we wereyoung, we were new at this, we
were trying to just like, please, everybody.
And it was not long after thatthat we started realizing look,

(36:32):
if we're going to do somethingand we're going to if it's going
to reflect our work, we need togive pushback and we need to be
like no, this is how we'regoing to do it or we won't do it
.
Like the idea of firing aclient was something we learned
early on.
Just because they're yourclient doesn't mean you have to
do work for them.
You can give them their moneyback and just part ways.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Right, yeah, I've definitely fired a client.
He was racist though.
Yeah, we don't.
I played Don for that, by theway, just so you know.
He got mad in the meeting.
It was his fault.
He should have gotten madearlier, don.
You guys said you're makingsome direction changes.
Are you moving into more ofbigger production, Mr Beast,
types of things, or what's thedirection change for you?

Speaker 2 (37:09):
So well, what's interesting there?
I'd say at this point.
It's now been about two yearsago.
We had a team meeting and wekind of said to ourselves all
right, what are we doing wronghere?
Are we just not focusing on theright target audience?
Are we, you know, are we justnot focusing on the right target
audience?
Are we producing the wrong typeof videos?
Do we need to revamp ourwebsite or social media?

(37:31):
The answer was kind of like allof the above.
We need to just hone in andfocus a little more here so that
people understand who we areand what our goals are as a
company.
And I remember we sat in themeeting and our director of
business developments keptsaying to Andre what is
Boathouse?

(37:51):
And Andre would explain sort ofgive one of our messages that
we all sort of memorized in ourhead Well, boathouse is a full
service media production companythat does X, y and Z.
And he would ask again what isBoathouse?
And then it would turn intowell, what is Boathouse's
primary purpose?

(38:11):
And again, oh well, we want tobring work to the Philadelphia
area, we want to help thecommunity.
And he would say wrong, thenumber one purpose of Boathouse
is to make money.
And that's not because we'retrying to be slaves to money or
we're trying to be power hungryor greedy.
It's because, in order for abusiness to thrive, what do you

(38:31):
have to do?
You have to turn a profit.
So our decision was all right.
We can still market ourselvesas a production company.
But what if we were to go intodistribution?
What if we were to help some ofthese independent filmmakers
who, a lot like us, are tryingto find platforms for their

(38:53):
projects?
Because, as Andre and I havediscussed many times, anyone
could submit their film toAmazon Prime or to FilmHub or
anything like that, but itdoesn't mean people,
unfortunately, are going towatch it.
So, with a company like usbehind them, not only are we
going to help you distributeyour completed film, but we're
also going to provide you withmarketing and promotional

(39:15):
support.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
I like that and are you are explain distribution
then.
So you have channels.
Are these personal relationshipchannels to get you explain how
that works?
Because I don't think, ifyou're not from this world like
this is like huh, like I justturn on amazon.
I don't know how stuff getsthere, who watches it, or why
explain that a little bit.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
So in in film you have different phases, and
distribution is how you get yourfilm.
You just finish your product.
You have a finished movie.
How do audiences see it?
The audience can see it becausea distribution company takes
the, the, the movie, licenses itand then sells it to either a
theater, um a network, astreaming channel or has, or all

(39:57):
of the above.
Generally, it's all of theabove.
You want it to go on as manyplatforms as possible because
you want as many eyes aspossible to see it.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
So the distribution company is the one that makes it
consider it like a publisherfor the percentage of what the
sale is, and the original persongets a chunk of it as well, and
it's not a middleman, but it'sa middleman with connections
that can get it done and,generally speaking, in order to
distribute something on anythingthat's credible, you need uh an
agent to represent the project.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
A lot of uh first-time filmmakers, small
indie filmmakers they don't havethat um.
But because of what we've done,because of our, our network and
in our years of experience atthis point, we've been doing
this for over 10 years uh, we dohave uh an agent, we do have
people that we work with and wecan get people to see it that
would otherwise just if you, ifyou send something like I have a

(40:49):
finished movie and I send it tolike a24, unless an agent
reached out, unless a lawyerreached out, they're going to be
like, who is sending this?
And it's just going to gostraight into the garbage.
Like it could be the best oscarnomination, uh like oscar
worthy film that you ever make,but it's unsolicited.
They're not even going to watchit.
So you have to be able to do itthe right way, and that's where

(41:18):
we are now uh projects that umeither came to us in like a
script form and now we'reworking with the uh writer to
develop their script, orprojects that uh we've had in
our coffers for a while thatwe're now starting to develop
that have gained legs, um, butthen we also have projects, like
Don said, other indiefilmmakers have made really good
films that need eyes and we'rehelping them.

(41:41):
Uh, get them out there.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
So what I wonder sometimes too, is if you make a
good film and the idea is eyesright, so you can get money,
because at the end of the day,like you said, it's money.
So if you make a good film,there's good talent, good
storytelling, good direction,and why not just put it on
YouTube and use advertising onYouTube and just get, say, we
got 10 million views on it.
Then someone sees it and goesyeah, they seem to know what
they're doing.

(42:04):
You'll monetize that for sure,may not where you would have on
the other pieces, but at leastyou own all the content.
So tell me about where thatworks and doesn't work, maybe
for independent filmmakers,because to me I'm like put the
show on YouTube for free andadvertise through it.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
I think that's a good and I think that's a good
outlet and I think that's a verygreat point to start from and I
think we encourage it.
Sometimes we definitely getsubmissions and we go hey,
listen, I think your story isgood, I think it's something
that you can put on YouTube andyou'll definitely get traction.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
It might go viral and you'll get ad money from that
If you put a two-hour video outthere, that's actually a movie.
I'll watch it.
Shit, I mean it's good, no it's.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
There's definitely an outlet for that.
I think where it separates ishow much do you want to grow as
far as like?
Because YouTube will only pushit to a certain amount and you
really have to get itorganically Like it has to start
doing well organically forYouTube to start pushing it well
organically, like it has tostart doing well organically for

(43:06):
YouTube to start pushing it.
Once you go onto a platform,the platform's out to make money
and the platform itself sayit's Hulu or Apple TV Plus.
They want content that theywant to market because they want
to get it into the millions ofpeople.
But that's also going torequire high quality.
It's going to require a levelof professionalism that suddenly

(43:29):
the red tape starts gettingthicker, whereas YouTube you can
do whatever you want and youcan have a very low budget
production that you put onYouTube and someone says, oh,
that's really good, and then youget work from that.
Someone might say like, oh, thisdirector did this.
I saw him on a YouTube video,it's really good.
I think they would be very goodto direct this project.
So I think the two can worktogether.

(43:49):
You can build uh from YouTube.
Um, I mean, just look at uhright now.
Cobra Kai started as a YouTubeshow, um.
The production quality was veryhigh, but it was for YouTube TV
.
It was one that, like whenYouTube TV launched, that was
one of the shows that theybrought on.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
Well, that's what I was thinking Like.
Instead of doing your fullfeature, maybe you do the
20-minute pilot with thecliffhanger that goes into
whatever you think it could be,like hey, this is our promo
video.
We did, you know, a millionnatural.
And then we advertised and gotanother four million on time.
People would take notice.
They're advertise.
I got another four million ontime, people would take notice
and I think we'll produce likethat at least gives you legs to
go to an agent so they can shopit right, like and that's

(44:26):
actually part of a break-in.
I mean it has to be rightbecause there's so much good
content that's out there.
Um, and and I, and, but whatthat's?
Let me leave you with thatbecause I just conscious of time
, because I could do thisconversation forever.
This is so interesting.
Um is what separates?
Is it just the network?
Does it come back to who knowswho?
Because, you know, is there areal difference in content

(44:49):
sometimes?

Speaker 2 (44:51):
There is In our industry.
I'm not going to beat aroundthe bush.
It does many times come down towho you know.
Connections are very important.
I always tell people who arestarting out in the industry you
have to network as much as youpossibly can.
You may not be able to use thisconnection right this minute,
but a year from now you mightsuddenly shoot this person a
LinkedIn message and they'reinterested in talking to you.

(45:13):
You know, maybe you've beenputting together a pitch deck
for a film you've been workingon and they say, just out of
curiosity hey, why don't yousend me your pitch deck?
I'll take a look at it.
They might really like it andthey might know people who have
money and might want to investin your project.
So, never, never, ever, never,ever, you know, not focus on

(45:36):
networking.
It's very important and I meanand I'm sorry, second part of
the question was how much moneydo you want to?
Give me today.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
The other question it's all about money, people.
No, it was what makes good fromgreat, and my assumption is you
have to have a fundamental likeyou can play the game and
everyone knows.
Like you can only go so farwith limited resources, right,
but if you're good, the networkmatters next most.
So you got to hit something.
You can suck.
Well, you could suck with agreat network.

(46:06):
You probably still opportunityonce.
But if you're okay and good togreat and have a network or have
the network of people that areworking for you, you're probably
going to be all right.
You're gonna have to put yourtime in for sure.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, the reality, the reality is you're not making
the content for you, and I hateto say that.
But like, yes, you want to tella story that you're passionate
about, but you're not making thecontent for you, and I hate to
say that.
But yes, you want to tell astory that you're passionate
about, but you're making thecontent for the widest audience
possible.
That's what you've always gotto keep in mind.
You have to understand themarket.
You have to understand youraudience.

(46:38):
What is my demographic?
Are we talking about 18 to 35year old males, or are we
talking about 40 plus females?
I mean, if it's a romanticcomedy, it's probably going to
lean more towards a femaleaudience.
If it's if it's an action movie, it's going to be more, it's
probably probably going toappeal to male audiences more
often.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
And I would say like to piggyback on that.
Not only do you want to makesure you know know the audience
that you're trying to build for,but also know the quality of
what they expect.
Everyone knows what a cinematicmovie looks like, even if you
can't describe it, and so whenyou go to the movies, when you
go to watch a movie, that's whatyou expect and you can get that

(47:18):
quality without having to breakthe bank.
If you're an independentfilmmaker, you might not have
the resources to do a $10million budget movie, but you
can get um equipment that it'snot the top tier equipment but
it's good enough to get you thatcinematic quality.
Get you the right uhtechnicians that are skilled
enough to get you that look thatyou need.

(47:40):
And suddenly you made a moviefor $15,000 that someone watches
and they go wait, how much didthis cost?

Speaker 1 (47:46):
And um that's like a good YouTube video.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Yeah, and it's one of those things where, like,
people are like impressed by thework you did and then that
drives people to watch the storythat you did.
That is catered to thataudience.
And I think, to go back to thenetworking thing, um, a mentor
once told me it's not about whoyou know, it's about who knows
you.
So when you're building thoseconnections, you want to really
okay, I'm really good at thisone thing Don't be complacent

(48:27):
and just being good at that onething, be an extra at that one
thing and then learn anotherskill.
And then, if you can't learnthat other skill, say, hey look,
I know this guy who's reallygood at that thing and we work
together.
So if you're going to hire me,you have to hire him and
suddenly that will build thebrand and your brand will
supersede you, like, your brandwill lead you in, because

(48:48):
they're like, oh, those guys Idon't know who is behind it, but
I know the name and they dogood quality work.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Well, it's like.
So, like you know, we're aYouTube channel, we're a podcast
and we advertised and we got amillion subscribers but our
engagement's really not thatgreat.
But I'm like we are just apodcast.
We could have relative to mostmillion subscribed channels.
But I'm also like listen guys,youtube 8%, look for business.
So we're not like thisentertainment show.

(49:16):
Our goal is on the podcast side.
Our goal is to get heard andthere's a video component
because I believe you fastforward 10 years.
We're early with YouTube, soyou know, even like so when I
look, you should know yourmarket and your your thing.
We don't cater everybody becauseI'm carrying into that
entrepreneur that wants to learnand that might be 10,000 people
at any given time, but that10,000 really gives a shit in

(49:37):
that moment.
If you're making a movie, youbetter be bigger than 10,000.
Like, if you're going to spenda lot of money on a production
and it could be like no, we area car enthusiast that love Ford,
that's fine, but make sure thatyou have the business dynamics
of I'm going to be running adsfor Ford Mustang parts through
this thing and it's going tomake that because otherwise it's

(49:59):
still too small and I thinkthat's what sometimes people
listen to, like theirexpectations.
Like I don't expect to get amillion views on any video ever,
but I would think if you'redoing a movie that's supposed to
be like like a rom-com orsomething, you better expect
something bigger and betterappeal to it.
So I think I think some peoplegot to understand where they are
and what they're actually doingand I think a production
company like yours can say thisisn't big enough, this isn't

(50:22):
going to hit enough ideas.
And do you guys run into thatwhere you're like this isn't big
enough, it's not worth themoney.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
I would say sometimes , when you run into this isn't
big enough, you need to thinkbigger.
And sometimes it's hey, I thinkyou're thinking too big and I
think your niche, like you said,you're trying to cater to the
entrepreneur.
So the 10,000, it might seemsmall because it's only 10,000,
but it's 10,000 engaged peoplewho are going to interact and
that's what we want to do.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Exactly so let's let's go back to my example of
like I want to do thisentrepreneurial kind of reality
show, but you know, I was on onecalled the blocks.
I got a good like that's myidea because but it's like a
week long thing and I'm there, ILike, and I think we could in a
different format.
But the idea is that might atbest break even.
What you want from that are thepeople to go join your
community, and that's where therevenue comes from.

(51:10):
Is that people now, likethey've spent a thousand bucks
here where they spend 3000 to gojoin this community now and
you're using it as a tip ofspirit to be like that was lots
of value, that was lots of fun.
I want to be a part of thatcommunity to do that they go,
and so understand your ownbusiness model of why you create
content or video andspecifically, or what or how
video is used to make peoplefeel special.
That's a big thing, right?
Well, we've done videos where,like we'll put up extra lighting

(51:31):
, huge boxes and we'll even getone of those big old cameras,
though it's not even running.
We're using like the smalllittle, like Insta links, like
right, they're the one cause,they're, they're better and
you're like, but they look cooland it draws attention and
there's extra lights that aregoing in no direction particular
, Just you know what I'm talkingabout.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
You're making you're, you're creating the, the,
you're creating the environment,and that's that's important.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
It's for the image of the set itself.
Like you're actually, you'residelighting, just so the image
looks better when you take apicture of the back.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
I mean it's.
There's so much that goes intotelling your story, whether it's
a small podcast or whether it'sa large scale production.
Those little details are soimportant because you, at the
end of the day, you are creatinga world that the audience is
going to be connecting with, sothe last thing you want is
someone to watch your video andjust be bored, because we're

(52:21):
especially now, we're in an eraof instant gratification, like
um, which is why going back tolike starting on YouTube, I
think starting on YouTube isgreat, but I would even go one
step further and say, like, ifyou're a content creator, uh, if
you're creative unfortunately,I don't know what the future is
of the app, but, like, apps likeTik TOK and Instagram are very

(52:42):
good mediums for getting an ideaout.
You can you can do somethingreally well and format it to
like a two to three minute videothat sets up your pilot, that
sets up your, your proof ofconcept.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Well, you know it's, I can't remember the name of it.
This guy did a.
I've seen this.
I can't.
It's escaped me.
This is 49 years old in mythird podcast today, but um the
uh, it's it.
He did like three minute videos, but they were all cliffhangers
for the next one, and I'm likeman, that's like a short mini
series on Tik TOK, and I can'tremember.
It was just comedy based, buthe's like what's going to happen

(53:19):
next?
And then they go in the nextone, and I'm like I have no idea
what you're selling, though,and so I'm kind of like eh, but
um, uh, but okay, listen,conscious of time, guys.
Um, who should get ahold of you?
Why should they get ahold ofyou, and where do they go do
that?
Who's going to take that one?

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Well, I'll start off.
I mean, uh, you know, we, asAndre said, we have tons of
projects in development rightnow and obviously these projects
are not going to fundthemselves.
So we're obviously interestedin speaking to investors, but we
also, as I mentioned before, wework on the marketing and
advertising side as well.
Andre and myself have bothworked in the agency world for a

(53:56):
number of years.
We know how to make somethingthat's very eye-catching and
that's going to connect with anaudience, and we would love to
work with more commercialclients in 2025 and help them
take their services or theirbusiness, especially if they're
a small to medium sized business.
We want to help take them tothe next level.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Yeah, if you're an agency and you need a production
vendor, we are your guys.
Like, we can definitely helpyour clients get to that next
level that you want.
And then I think, movingforward, 2025 and beyond, we're
using our skill sets to not onlycreate new, dynamic projects

(54:41):
that we want people to engagewith, but we also want to give
back.
And so giving back to those,whether it's an independent
filmmaker or a small business ora community organization that
needs quality work forstorytelling and really like
getting their ideas out there,that's who we want to help.
So, yeah, if you're a smallbusiness, if you're an investor

(55:04):
or whether you're a nonprofitthat just really needs to get
your voice out there, we're hereto help, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
You know, I would say , if you're small businesses
should and they don't do thisenough, they need to leverage
cinematic storytelling to talkabout their brand.
And even if your brand is themost boring thing in the planet
like we make pencils and we'vebeen doing it exactly the same
way for a thousand years beforepencils were pencils If you
could do it in nice gold printlike kind of some panning, it

(55:32):
looks better I want to buy yourpencils in.
So my point is use somecinematic storytelling to tell
who you are as a company.
It matters.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
I was going to go one step further.
You make good quality pencils.
That's great.
Everybody knows your product.
Why should they buy yourpencils?
How did you start makingpencils?
What you know?
Where do you resource yourmaterials for your pencils?
Those are all things that drivepeople to knowing like, oh man,
now I really like those pencils.
Now I connected with thosepencils and I only buy those

(56:01):
pencils.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Every time I buy a pencil, I'm saving a child in
Africa.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
That's.
I mean, there are businessesthat do that, but unless you
tell that story, no one's goingto know.
And so, um, sarah McLaughlin'splaying.
At the end of the day, you canget a pencil anywhere.
I can go to CVS and get apencil but if I really am like
conscious of like the qualitywork that went behind it, like
it's a family owned business mygrandfather started this in his
garage and now he's makingpencils for all over the world.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Those are the stories .

Speaker 3 (56:28):
And.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Coke habit and I'm running out of cash.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Yeah, even that, even that All right, guys.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Thank you, by the way .
So much coming.
I'm going to put you in theperiwinkle room.
I'll be right back with you.
Thank you so much for coming ontoday.
You guys, I love what you'rebuilding there.
I love that you're still youngand you're fired up and you're,
you're, you're.
There's nothing stopping you,except snow today, which is good
.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah Well, thanks for having us, it was really a
pleasure.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
I'll be right back, Don't.
Don't drop off.
I'm going been promoted.
We know all about helping youcut ties to stuff holding you
back in your life andentrepreneurship.
So until we meet again, get outthere, go unleash your
entrepreneur.
Thanks for listening, Thank you.