Freelancing & YouTube Hacks to Build a 6-Figure Creative Business

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vipul Bindra (00:05):
David, finally we're making this happen.
Thank you for coming.
I'm excited to talk to you, Notthat we haven't done this
already.
We just weren't recording it,so I'm excited.
How have you been?

David Morefield (00:18):
Good, I have a bunch of catalogs of things that
I want to talk to you about.
When you said let's do anepisode, I was like perfect, I
can just get all this out.

That's so incredible.
Yeah, no, like I said, that'swhat I love.
Every time we've been on aflight or something, I find we
are so both creative andbusiness-focused that there's so
much we always end up justtalking about, and every time
I'm like people need to hearthis.
This is so much valuableinformation over here.
Plus.
I like that.

(00:48):
You know you think similar, butat the same time, you're going
in your unique path.
You know, to achieve what youwant.

I would say we actually it's weird because we
think similar and very differentat the same time.
Exactly, I think we both haveideas of progression, but our
ways to progress are sodrastically different.
Like just this studio is like ahuge effort.
It's a lot.

(01:15):
Yeah, it's a big purchase list,but it's very impressive and
it's very effective, whereas ifI was going to do it I'd be like
what's the most skeleton way?
We can do this Because we'reboth prioritizing the value and
the information, like you said,but it's two worlds apart.

Exactly.
But you know, at the end of theday, I think, like you said,
that's what makes people be ableto get valuable information in
two different ways.
Because your method I love,because it's like in in the
moment, it's real.
It's like look this what I'mdoing and this is from somebody
who's actually making a livingmaking video.
You're not just a youtuber.
But on the other hand, I triedfunny enough uh, I'm going on a

(02:01):
tangent already last three, fourshoots, since we've been using
the van, I literally told mario,who's going to be on the
podcast later, helped me and Itold him I was like okay, so we
need to be better on socialmedia, can you get me a few
clips?
Right?
And he hasn't worked with methat much, just him and me, and
it was so amazing we would getdone and I'd be like okay, so
where's the social media clips?
He's like we didn't have anytime.

(02:22):
So the way I work is sofast-paced and crazy that we
could never do what you're doing.
And I know how efficiently youdo it.
It's amazing.
But point is, this was the bestway I could inseminate the
knowledge that I have.
But at the end, like I said,the audience is winning right
Because they get to hear theknowledge or the things that

(02:42):
they want to hear, regardless ofthe format.

I think both parties are winning.
The audience might be gettingsome value, but obviously you're
getting value.
You're being able to one, haveconversations with some people
that you either want to haveconversations with or you would
already have conversations with.
But two, it really helpsputting yourself out there, you

(03:25):
know, in their criticisms you'relike, oh, I can see how that
could help me.
Okay, let me try to implementon the next one.
And then someone else in thecomments is saying, well, that
video helped me and it's justthis really nice back and forth.
And then, after that happens,you just start getting really
nice benefits of people say, oh,that's that guy in that market

(03:47):
and I know of a job inquirythere.
Let me connect those twobecause I already know he is
there.
So with this podcast I thinkit's going to bring a lot more
awareness to what you do becauseyou already have a successful
business.
But being more connected bringsin so much more, many more

(04:07):
benefits than I originallythought.

Yeah, so let's go into it.
I want to know what made youstart YouTube, because, funny
enough, that's how I know you.
Initially, right, we connectedand then so many other people
that I know and hired, havingdone 1099s, just, uh, you know,
a few weeks back I'm telling youa lot of people made a lot of
money that would have neverfound me, potentially, that

(04:32):
wasn't for you.
So what made you a startYouTube and at what point did
you see, oh, this is working.

I had that freelancer lull that a lot of
people are afraid of whenthey're a freelancer.
You know what if I don't getenough jobs?
That's why I need to be asalaried employee.
I'm afraid to do freelance.
I was in one of those lulls,but I've always been freelance
slash business owner for forever.

(05:00):
I had one job as a dishwasher.
I lasted three days when Ifound when I was taking a shower
and I found like mashedpotatoes behind my ears and I
was like, oh, that's not for me.
And then I worked at a skatepark for a long time surf
instructor.
But the actual like career parthas always been freelancing for

(05:20):
my own clients.
So I had already experiencedtons of ups and downs, ups and
downs and I know it's verycyclical.
So I wasn't scared of oh, maybeI'll never work again.
I was just oh, this is one ofthose months where not much is
coming in.
I have a lot of time.
I like watching these othervlogs, like David Winters, the

(05:41):
Cranky Cameraman.
I think I could do that.
It's just with my phone, it'sso not resource intensive.
I can do.
I can make one of these.
So I just made one on on ainterview shoot that I did in
Miami and it's very low energy,like not no frills, but I had
fun making it and then just keptgoing and going and and there's

(06:05):
so many points throughout thisblogging youtube process where I
can find areas to have fun.
So it in itself is very fun andthen all the benefits are very
nice to have so when did yourealize like oh, this is working
.

(06:26):
I think when people startedconnecting me to jobs that I had
no connection to, One of thecoolest ones was a guy in Alaska
connected me to a featurelength doc that was happening in
Orlando.
Wow, and I was like how do youknow what's happening?
Oh, I'm part of a newsletterwhich has these contacts and
they're asking for operators docthat was happening in Orlando.

(06:47):
Wow, and I was like how do youknow what's happening?
Oh, I'm part of a newsletterwhich has these contacts and
they're asking for operators andand he's like, yeah, just tell
them there, here's the contactinfo.
And because I know you livethere, I know you do this type
of work, I've seen you do it andthat was a really cool four day
feature length doc segment thatwe did in Orlando and I it
would have passed by.

(07:07):
Yeah, I would have had no cluethat it had happened.

That's so crazy that somebody in a different
state knew about work that washappening in our backyard.
But that happens, that happens.
There's so much work going on.
It's crazy.
I mean, um, and then so manytimes you know it's who you know
is how you get the job.
So you're essentiallyautomating your who you know,
because all these people thatare watching your vlog now
technically know you Right.

(07:31):
They have this parasocialrelationship with you and when
they're looking at a job thatmay be right up your alley,
right, they're thinking of oh,david can do it Right.

Yeah and and I think it's like that's a, that's
a happy accident benefit.
I think when you see the peoplewho use it for that it's very
obvious and you know they'rereminding everybody hey, I live
here and I do this work, so ifyou have work, get me work and

(07:59):
it's just like this isn't thatfun to watch.
This is an ad.
But if you just document whatis happening and those are the
observations that the audienceis making, then it feels way
more organic.
Like they're like oh, I want tohelp you because you're just
showing your stuff.
Now I take that to the extremeand I document the dumbest,

(08:21):
smallest micro problems, like Ijust put out a 30-minute video
of me reorganizing my interviewsetup, stands, lights, all that
stuff to be able to fit intoPelican 16.

I saw that and I love it.
Those are the videos that Ilove.

Like, I'm just in my living room, I have like
socks on.
You only care about it.
If you are interested in thatActually, I'm going to go back
on that.
There was a guy who commentedon that and he said I don't even
know why I watch your vlogs.
I'm not in the video industry,I'm in tech.
I like watching someone workthrough problems, though and

(09:02):
that's what initially drew me towatching other people's vlogs
is I like seeing here's a hurdleand give me more context for it
and then give me an attempt toget past it.
It didn't work or it did work,and here's the end conclusions,
and I think that's very fun towatch when you can see someone
work through something.

And I like.
So the way I I, why I watch itis because for me and I'm sure
other people are like me too isbecause, you know, we're in an
industry where we think acertain way and we have a
certain problem, so it's reallyneat to see someone else who's
going through similar problems.
So, for example, currently, likeI was showing you before we
started my current issue is likemaximizing the efficiency of

(09:46):
this camera cart that I have andwatching your vlog, even though
I know you're doing theopposite, you're putting in a
Pelican, I'm coming out of casesinto a camera cart, but it's
good because I'm like, oh,you're facing similar problems.
Just in an opposite way,because I'm going through how
can I um, you know, be moreefficient?
How can I grab things?

(10:07):
Because I don't want to putsomething in a bag?
Just to put in a bag, it has tohave a reason why it goes where
it goes right.
And walking you through yourproblems giving is giving me
ideas are making me also feellike that I'm not the only one
who's having this problem right,or something like that.
I don't know.
I like who's having thisproblem right or something like
that.
I don't know.
I like it.
People who are thinking similarin a similar field, going

(10:28):
through similar things, becauseyou never know what you learn
out of it, or just purely forentertainment.

Yeah, and I think that's a very common type
of like search is you know howto make an interview or you know
how to run a production, but alot of the time like the actual
time on set is eaten up bytransporting, going back to the

(10:55):
car.
Where is that thing?
You have to open up a bagwithin a bag to get there, and
it's like I already know how todo the end thing.
Why is this slowing me down?
And I think that's why a lot ofthat's why I focus on it,
because I'm like this shouldn'tbe a problem.
How do I make this be thefastest, most efficient process
possible?

Yeah, and it's amazing to, because at the end
of the day, you know we'retrying to make beautiful images.
Anything that's not letting usdo that is just a barrier, and
you know we're just trying toremove barriers.
But at the end day, like I said, I liked what you were doing
and let's talk about how weinitially met.
So here's my perspective.
I would love to hear your sideof things, because you did it.

(11:37):
I wasn't the only one hittingyou up, so I was.
I had this project, we weregoing to live stream something
and I really wanted to use a c70on a gimbal, uh, as as a
wireless operator, and I waslike uh, normally, you know, I
like to bring in, maybe I wouldsay mid to low skill level
people because I like to plan.

(11:58):
So my style is, just forreference, very much like
pre-production king, like I willgo to the detail.
I know like this is where itgoes, this setting it goes like
I don't want to have to.
You know my operators uh, needto just hit record and it should
work.
But that position requiresskill.
It's not a one where you hitrecord, right, because I'm
letting you go.
Okay, I need you to make 500angles out of this one camera.

(12:20):
So you need to be able to think, you need to be able to be
creative.
So I needed somebody highlyskilled, not the typical
operator that I'm bringing on,because usually I'm like here's
the camera, here's all thesettings, just hit record.
Yeah, so, so I'm going.
Uh, so, who, who am I going tohire?
And I'm just scrolling throughthese groups on facebook because
I'm just act, you know, likelooking, you know bored or
whatever.
I don't remember exactly and Iremember clearly you posting

(12:43):
something about.
This is how I set up my C70 atan event or whatever, something
like that.
And I'm like I see the wordOrlando C70.
And I'm like, oh, this is likefate, right, and I click on it
and it's just entertainingbecause, like you said, it was
just all about you showingsomewhere and figuring out a

(13:05):
problem and solving it.
And I was like, oh, this isperfect, because now, without me
having ever met you, knowingyou, you've demonstrated to me
exactly, as a production companyowner, what I was looking for
Somebody who can be creative andsomebody who can problem solve.
Because when we're going live,I don't have time to come to you
and solve whatever problemsyou're going to have.
And guess what?
We're going to have problems,right, that's just nature of

(13:26):
life.
So, anyway, I was like, oh,this is perfect, operator, so I
go, okay.
So I got to reach out to him and, perfectly, in your vlogs.
You had your email, your name,where are you from?
So I was like, okay, david, hey, I have a project coming up,
let's meet me for coffee.
Uh, uh, you know, I don't knowwe do this group thing.

(13:49):
So for for a minute to be realwith you, I was like I'm trying
to hire you.
Why am I gonna go meet in thegroup like that?
No, but then I was like no, no,no, hold on a minute.
It's actually a perfectopportunity.
Am I gonna meet the person Iwant to hire, plus who knows who
else, who else?
I was like no, and I had to fixmyself.
So that was my mental hurdle.
I was like no, no, no.
I got to say yes to that andI'm so glad I did, because I

(14:11):
started this long what two-yearjourney or whatever of where we
are over two years now.
So, anyway, so that was myperspective and tell me what you
were going through, because I'msure a lot of people now
started hitting you Right.

Yeah, I had some people hit me up and I'm
trying to think how can I makethis work for me?
So I had coffee with one personand I was like, oh, that was
great, got to meet someone new,got to learn about them.
They're here.
And that was I think that wasAdam Kalinowski and I was like

(14:45):
that was a great experience,cool.
I got to walk out of mydowntown apartment and go to the
cafe downstairs and very easyfor me, yeah.
And then, like six more peoplehit me up and I was like I'm not
doing it.
Yeah, I can't imagine.

I'm not doing that .

Why don't we get all six people together and
you can all meet me?
So was that your coolinfluencer moment?
Yeah, that was.
People want to meet me.
Yeah, it was pure laziness Iwas like I'm not doing, I'm not
dedicating six hours towardspeople I don't know, yeah, and I
don't have any um inkling ofwhat.
Will there be any benefit from?

(15:19):
this so I was like let's justall meet up together and, like
you said, maybe they can helpeach other out.
Yeah, I'm not the the personwho needs to receive all these
benefits.
And that was a really cool.
And that was the first, uh,filmmaker meetup.
I didn't know it was afilmmaker meetup.
I was just like, yeah, let'sjust meet up for coffee.
And then I talked about it onthe vlog and, um, I got to hear

(15:41):
you know how you found me justsearching c70s70 on YouTube and
then how the other people foundit and why they wanted to meet
up.
And then that was probably oneof the bigger turning points of
seeing like I can bring peopletogether Doesn't have to benefit
me directly, it will, but I canby connecting these people, it

(16:06):
will help everyone, like I had.
Uh, someone say do you know how?
Do you have any idea how muchmoney your, your filmmaker
meetups have generated, likegrouping people together?
Because I have an Instagramchat in Orlando for all of us.

(16:27):
I started one in Dallas withJared Phelps and then in San
Francisco with Tommy Beal.
Basically, I try to find apoint man in every city where
I'm going to go Atlanta as welland then I say I tell the point
man hey, this is going to beyour group, all these people who
came, all these 30 to 40 people.

(16:47):
You're kind of going to be thechapter head and just work on
growing this community.
And when I think about how muchmoney has been transferred
inside these groups, it'shundreds of thousands of dollars
.
Yeah.

Like, literally, last night I generated $750 for.
So, funny enough, like,literally, this is how it works.
So a lot of times, you know, asa production company owner,
people expect us to doeverything.
I am a video guy, right, butpeople expect us to do still.
So somebody a past client andthis is how it is clients hit
you up, you know, four yearslater it's like, hey, I'm in

(17:25):
Boca, I need a photographer, youknow, and I'm like, do I want
to do this?
But then, you know, the otherpart of me is like, why not get
somebody some money?
So I'm like, hey, I'm the group, can somebody do this?
Oh, you can do it.
How much is your rate?
And I'll add, you know, 10, 15%on it.
And I told the client and so,do I want to?
You know, work for a couplehundred bucks?

(17:46):
No, but at the end day, I'mlike all I did was you want this
, do you want this?
Here's the bill, here's thetransfer.
So we just generated so muchmoney because that money would
have gone to who knows who,where my company generated
revenue.
And now I'm able to passmajority of that to somebody in
your group that I wouldn't evenknow.
And that's happening all thetime.

That's my favorite thing, when I open up
one of these chats and I scrollback just a couple of messages
and I see someone say lookingfor this person on this date,
and then I go down and thisperson said I can do it.
This person says I'm availableand then within 10, 15 minutes
they already found their guy andsays I'm available, and then
within 10, 15 minutes theyalready found their guy.
It's already scheduled.
I mean, what a resource.
Because before I have like twoor three guys that I go to and

(18:32):
if they're booked I'm stretched.
Now, exactly Now, I have totake someone that I don't trust.
So that happens in all of thosegroups.
Like every day, I need someoneto cover for me or I forgot this
item.
Is anybody nearby that I canrent from?
It's a huge resource.

(18:53):
I think it has potential to bebigger.
I just don't know how to bringthe network together, because if
I add Orlando people and Dallaspeople, it's a less functional
tool.
So I don't.
There is some way where I canbring these people together.
I'm just not sure what it isand I don't know anything about

(19:17):
discord, but that's been acommon yeah, Discord or even
Facebook groups, I think can bevery effective.

That's all.
I use Facebook for I haven'tyou know, nobody really uses it
for the old way.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
I primarily you don't post that.
No, no, I don't even know.

the last time I did you don't check in after a
storm to let people know you'realive, that I'm safe.

No, I should have at Hurricane, no, but yeah.
No, nobody really uses Facebookanymore, but it is still very
functional for groups.
I actually love it.
If I have a problem I willimmediately go to you know, like
the user group, and those arevery active.
So Facebook has a place and Ithink that may be one of the

(19:57):
good places to have, like a youknow, david Moorfield, I don't
know filmmaker meetup group,something like that.
Or Discord Discord is good too,but but regardless, there's so
much money flowing in and toother people too.
This is one way to make money.
Look, facilitating people ismoney like.
This client trusts me, so theywanted to come to me and I don't

(20:19):
want to provide that service.
But it didn't take me but a fewminutes, a couple of phone
calls and a message to go sourcesomeone to do that and at the
end day, if I can make a couplehundred bucks, that's really
good and sure it's not a lot,but at the end of the year it's
going to add up plus it'spadding the revenue did.

Uh, did that job go through the other day
where you were asking me do?

I know someone in miami yeah, I hired david and
who's the first person called,by the way, because so this is
boca, near miami.
I called your guy, see, andthat's how relationships are
born.
So the story that we're talkingabout.
So we were in north carolinaand I had a at a, I had to cover
a gig in miami and then weneeded a drone pilot, but
because of lower budget whatever.

(21:02):
We had budget to hire the dronepilot, but we didn't have
budget to like take them with us.
Yes, so yeah all that traveldays, exactly.
So you, you recommended me theother, david.
Yes, uh and uh, he worked outgreat.
So now I have a connect inmiami.
So guess what first thing I dois I'm like, hey, david, uh, I
need a photographer, do you dostills?

(21:23):
And he's like, oh, I could, butmaybe I'm not the right guy
because you know, this is likean event photographer at a gig.
So he's like, yeah, I candefinitely check it out too.
So it's like resources thatwe're forming together that we
wouldn't have otherwise, oh yeah, so yeah, no, it didn't work
out.
He got work, we reconnected, sothat was really great.
And what I liked was he wasable to step up.

(21:44):
So you know, like you planahead, so like we had planned,
okay, so we'll have a dronegoing around the whole time,
because it was like a streetunveiling Point is, when we
showed up the way the layout was, we weren't going to need drone
for that much.
So and I like people like thatbecause he was immediately like,
oh no, I'm not gonna like hewas.

(22:05):
He wasn't like oh, I'm a dronepilot, so I'll sit for three
hours doing nothing.
You know he was like, hey, letme grab one of your fx6s, I'm
familiar with it and I can stillcapture your content.
So he was very effective.
He was able to be like thethird camera op uh, for most of
the ceremony because he didn'tneed a drone.
you know until the signunveiling um so point is he was
great.
Yeah, and you want to know howI met him.

Yeah, of course he.
He saw some of the YouTubevideos.
That's how he knew who I was.
And then I'm pretty sure hebooked a consultation call and
then we went through that andthen I met him for breakfast in
Miami when I was down there forsome gig and I got to see in

(22:46):
person what he's like, you know,because you can have a great
reel but your demeanor on set,how you think, like you said, he
didn't just sit by and just belike that's not my job, that's
not what I was hired for.
So I had confidence,recommending him even though I
had never worked with him, justbecause of that small connection
.

And's the to me, the trust.
So I've known you.
Now, while I've built thistrust with you, I knew you
wouldn't recommend me someone.
So that's why, when um hecalled me, I and he was trying
to share me real over I was likeI don't need it, I don't care
what you shot.
David told me you're good,you're good, let's, let's come
on board.
And that had trust in me and Iknew, like I said, like you said
, he showed up, his demeanor wasperfect.

(23:27):
He was able to, you know, jumpin and change roles or whatever
was needed.
You know, as, as the thesituation demanded, and that was
perfect.
And if I ever go back to miamior if I need somebody in miami,
I'd be happy to recommend him.
You know, that's how you build,I think, a really good network.

I want to ask you about that, about what you
were hired to do, and then nowwhat is being asked of you to do
?
So that that's a pretty umsimple example, the the one
where he is, where he pivotedand did whatever the production
required, even though he wasn't,yeah, talked to about that.
Um, what about for you whenyou're with a client and they

(24:07):
throw something in last minute,maybe on site?
Do you initially meet that witha little bit of like resistance
and saying, hold on, I justneed to express this is outside
of our discussed scope.
Or do you say I'm just going toattack it and I'll make up for

(24:28):
it in the back end?

It depends on what it is, because guess what?
Every client will throwsomething at you.
Usually it's very rare for aclient, especially most clients,
that we work with ourbusinesses.
They're not video people, sothey don't understand the scope
in general.
They just understand the finalproduct, right, because that's
what they're.
Not video people, so they don'tknow, understand the scope, uh,
in general.
Uh, they just understand thefinal product, right, because
that's what they're.
They're looking.
They don't know what it goesinto making it.

(24:50):
Now it's different.
Now you call me and you knowyou asked me to pivot.
It'd be different.
But at the same time, if I'mcoming for you, I'm working for
you, so my goal would be to makeyour life easier and if it's
something like jumping betweendrone up and cam up or sound up,
I I'm happy.
I wouldn't care, like thathappened with me.
Talk about Adam.
I remember he hired me to dothis fertilizer thing and he

(25:15):
hired me like to be this help,you know.
But then I was able to think atsome point he needed me to do
camera.
I was able to jump into camera.
I didn't right.
I'm not going to complain.
Why not to do camera?
I was able to jump into camera.
I didn't right, I'm not gonnacomplain, why not?
Like I know the skill, I'mthere, he needs the help.
Like jump up, you know we canhit record, it's not that hard.
But coming back to it, yeah,with clients it depends on the
scope.
So if they're like, hey, we, weneed this angle, this way, or

(25:38):
we need the camera here, or likewith david, uh, I said david,
sorry, adam, same talk about hisdc project.
We showed up to do adocumentary.
We had the whole thing plannedout and the client goes well, I,
the interviewer, wants to be oncamera.
Yeah, so it's like uh, nowhere's what we can do.
I know this is a high stakesproject.
Right, the stories wereimportant.
Uh, look, this is the way Iapproach the problem.

(26:01):
The problem is the client wantsto be on camera.
Clearly, I know as a, as adirector.
So I'm not the director here,I'm more like DP.
But as somebody who directsprojects, I completely know and
works with editing teams.
I know none of that will beused.
So I know anything we do hereto solve this problem is a waste

(26:21):
of time and energy.
But in my quick brain Icalculate is it worth the the
hassle?
So I have a backup camera.
I always bring an extra camera.
It was a three camera shoot yes,so you had fourth camera yes I
always bring an extra camera asa backup so this is not me, I
don't know how somebody else andI would love to know your
perspective on this in a secondbut mine was.
I have a backup camera.

(26:42):
I have a backup lens, let mejust throw it on there.
So the way I presented to thembecause they thought they would
be in the main shot, I was likeno, no, no, here's what we can
do.
We'll put a camera on you,absolutely.
So we just took a camera.
We didn't even have tripod.
We jerry-rigged the side table,put the camera on there make
sure there was a camera on themshowed it to them and I hit
record for us.
It was maybe between me andEmmanuel.

(27:04):
We spent like three minutes onit.
It was immediately like oh, soyou want it.
I texted Adam hey, this is whatthey want.
He completely was like yeah,this is not in the scope.
But at the same time I'm likethe way I'm calculating is this
is worth the hassle?
They're very much into havingthe shot be in there, and that's
okay, because they don'tunderstand the editing phase.

(27:24):
This having the shot be inthere, and that's okay, because
they don't understand theediting phase.
This is again a client thatwants to tell a story.
They don't know the process.
So is it worth me explainingthem, educating them?
No, so at that time we careabout more the story and what we
want to capture.
If that means me having tothrow another camera hitting
record is what makes them happy,then I will do it, and plus, I
had the tools to make it happen.

(27:46):
So I did.
Now clients have asked like,can we, you know, do abc?
Like can we, uh, make thisvideo at the same time?
No, no, we can't do thatbecause that's out of the scope.
So I will be like, hey, no,right now we are only prepped
for this and we only have thismuch time.
But I'd be happy to tackle thisin the future.
So I hope it hope it's aconvoluted way of saying it

(28:07):
depends on what they want.
And also if it's worth thehassle or not.
Typically, clients are payingme a lot of money, so I don't
want to be arguing or hasslingfor something simple.

The part that I hear when you're saying that is
you said yes to one of therequests, which was I want to be
on camera, but you said no tothem being in a two shot, like
this yeah, and I think thosetypes of decisions are are the
hard parts where it's like Ineed to say yes to um, you know,

(28:39):
solve the problem that you haveright now to to this person,
but I can't let it affecteverything.
I'm not going to ruin theinterview shot by having an
interviewer in there.
Yeah, and that's.
That's tough to navigate, whereyou you can't say yes and you
can't say no.

You're just trying to devise the best I think
that's where the leadershipmindset comes in right.
You have to.
To me, that's what makes you agood director.
Like I said, I wasn't thedirector in that moment, but I
knew adam well enough and I knewin my skills enough that I
could immediately.
Like I said, I didn't eventhink about it, I knew that
wasn't gonna make it into thefinal cut.
It's gonna ruin what we'retrying to do here.

(29:17):
We're trying to tell a veryemotional story, right, we don't
need an awkward interviewersitting there.
Even though though they don'tunderstand that, that takes away
from the emotion, the energy ofa family trying to tell about
their daughter's passing.

Even how you said it, like I wasn't there.
But I know some people mighthave been like we'll put a
camera on you but we're notputting you in the shot, and
that would completely put theperson back on their heels.

Yeah, would never see and that comes down to again
, uh, customer service, yeah, uh.
And again, it's not like youneed to have training, it's just
being considerate.
I don't know.
I find that is not a commonthread anymore, I don't know why
.
Uh, I don't know.
People are and I'm all aboutlike customers not always right.
I get that.
Customers are all a lot oftimes wrong.

(30:05):
So I don't have that oldmindset of like you have to give
them everything.
But at the same time, to meit's like look, you're there to
to tell a story.
Right, that's my primary goal,right, this one.
It's like we have to tell thisstory and the secondary goal is
I have to make sure the clientexperience is great.
So I I'm trying to tackle bothin the best way and, like I said

(30:27):
this, to be real, I I would.
I don't want to take too much.
I didn't take like five minutesto think about.
This was a 30 second thing.
It was like I genuinely justasked them so what do you want?
And then they're like okay, sowe want to be in the shot.
So you know, because we, I maycry, they may want my emotions.
It's important.
I was like I get it theinterviewer wanted their emotion
.
Yeah, yeah, yeah because they'repart of the you know story.

(30:47):
So um their subject.
But you know I get it not to gotoo deep.
Have you seen the documentarytrailer?

yes, so you know, okay, you know yeah yeah.

So you know, kind of get the story so, but what
I'm saying is like, at the endof the day, I'm just going look,
here's the problem.
Can I solve it?
Yes, I can, let me solve it,but at the same time, I don't
want to ruin what we'reprimarily here to do.
So I'm like okay, so here'swhat we're gonna do, we're gonna
have you sit there, they'regonna sit over here.
Here's, this camera is gonna befor you, this camera is for

(31:20):
them.
There's no conflict here.
Right, we solved, we solved it.
They're happy.
And I know now Adam has what heneeds, his editor has what he
needs, plus, he has extracontent.
If he wants to use it,something really does.
Great, come out of this extracamera, then absolutely great.
If not, worst case, it's just afew extra ones and zeros that
we have A few extra gigabytesthat he has to deal with and to

(31:46):
deal with, uh, and and I think,um, that's the way I solve
problems.
But remember, this is an easyone to solve.
You don't have to always sayyes, so I solve, based on what
the problem is, because theywill sometimes, like I said,
they'll throw crazy things atyou, like okay, I'll give you a
recent example a few days ago Iwas at a gymnastics uh location
locally and they wanted to do acommercial.
I didn't know that, right, sothey hired me like as a day
thing.
Right, you come, because theyare an agency also, they can

(32:09):
edit and everything.
So I showed up and I don't knowanything what we're doing.
Right, this is one of thosewhere you just show up, so I
show up.
They're like, okay, it's acommercial.
So to do a commercial with justme and an assistant is like
crazy already.
But then two as soon.
So they go.
First shot we want outside rightaway, you know, midday or
florida sun, it's not gonna lookpretty.

(32:31):
So you go.
The thing is now I have a van,I have 12 by 12s, eight bites.
Technically I can do that shotcorrectly, but we don't have
time.
We have an hour to get thewhole script done right there.
Their students are gonna be inhere.
We can't.
So it's like the.
The solution is look, hey, thisis how it's going to look.
What do you think right?
And uh, first we set up a boomand I was like, oh, they were

(32:53):
like no, no, we want to reallywatch.
I'm going to show how big thebuilding is.
So the story element is moreimportant than the audio quality
.
That's the truth.
The story is that they'retrying to remember they did.
The creative on this commercialis how big.
Look how big.
We have the largest facility inall of florida.
So that is way more importantthan me being forced like no

(33:13):
boom.
Audio is better, right so Idon't, it doesn't matter, I have
a three thousand dollar chef'smic.
You know, okay, I told my uhmario, I was like, look, 86, the
, the boom put the road mic onput, the put the lab on which,
to be real, we had a Koss 11D,but still it wasn't.
You know, it's a really good lavmic, but not in comparison.
Point is throw a lav mic on, goas wide as possible.

(33:35):
She still has harsh sunlight onher, she still.
You know, it is what it is, butthat's the shot and that's what
we can get in the five, tenminutes.
We have to get the primary shot.
And, uh, can I solve it better?
Yes, well, am I going to know?
Because by the time I'm donesolving it, our whole day is
over.
The client's not going to behappy, so kind of like that.

(33:55):
So the best thing I was able totell them was like, hey, yeah,
this is how we're going to do.
Since we want the shot to be sowide and her to be so far away,
I cannot get a boom in thereand I cannot get a um like a
normal reflector to hover herthe.
The way I can do that is butlike it's setting a 12 by 12 and
we don't have a team for thatright or time for that.
And they were like yeah,absolutely, this is good.

(34:15):
You know, I'm saying so.
You have to, you have to solveum.
And then the other thing wasthey were like, oh, we want to
do a walk and talk you, and I'mlike, sure we can do it, we have
a gimbal here, but they want ateleprompter.
I was like, well, we're not setup.
I could build a rig, but we'renot set up for that.
So I was like, here's what wecan do.
We can do a walk and talk andthey will have to memorize the

(34:38):
script, or we can do a shot withthe teleprompter.
That's what we were preparedfor.
You pick and then they pickwhat they wanted to do.
Some lines we did where theymemorized them, some lines they
did where they didn't walk.
So I hope that makes sense.
The point is we're just tryingto always problem solve and you
do this all the time, as why Ilove your vlogs.
You go into a shoot, you seesomething client throws

(35:00):
something at you and then you'rejust going okay, how do I best
capture?

this Sometimes I make the problems myself.

I think your Sony thing was mostly you.
But yes, we all do that.
For example, I had a fullworking setup that I had
mastered from my truck how to dointerviews, and here I am fully
unraveling it to make a wholenew setup.
Now I'm here sitting months andmonths planning how to perfect
this cart setup when I had asetup that was working.

(35:27):
But I think we do do that asfilmmakers.

Yeah, I've created a lot of problems in the
last two weeks by trying toswitch up workflows.
The attempt is I'm going toimprove it.
Yeah, but the consequences ofthe transition, of learning the
changes is uh, where is that?
Oh, it's in the other thing,that it was always in that spot.

(35:51):
But now that I've switched itit didn't carry over.
Or you know, I'm still figuringit out and the last two, three
weeks have been like that.
Yeah, but my girlfriend nowknows that when I leave, don't
do anything, because in about 15minutes she's gonna get a call
that says can you go look forwhere the battery charger is?

(36:13):
I forgot to switch it from thisbag to another, like yeah, yeah
, I know, I totally feel you.

No, I, this happened to me.
Uh, so I learning because we'rein a van.
Now things shake off.
So my audio bag I've used itfor years now Mixed Basics 2,
you know, fully rigged out audiobag.
It works perfectly, never aproblem.
And then the other day I go ina shoot and it wouldn't turn on
and I'm like this is veryexpensive here, first of all, so

(36:42):
not to turn on Plus, and I'mlike this is very expensive gear
first of all, so not to turnoff Plus.
I'm not used to, I don't likeputting my microphone in the
camera.
So the good thing is FX6 has anXLR, so for time being I was
able to just plug into thecamera recording camera.
We got the audio so fine.
I come home and I realize, oh,because of the vibration the
battery plays, so we have an NPstyle audio batteries that go in
, and so we have an NP-styleaudio batteries that go in.

(37:04):
The battery plate that plugs atthe bottom had just come loose.
So now I know for future whatto check if that happens.
But point is, I was like thatproblem that never happened for
five years generated itselfbecause I decided to change the
whole setup from this to this.
So, yes, I completely get you.

(37:28):
Uh, it happens, um, but why solet's?
Let's go back to your.
I know why I'm doing it, right,uh, but why?
What about you?
Why change something that wasalready working?

um, I can never be satisfied, and I'm.
I have a on ongoing, alwaysworking brain it.
It doesn't matter what theproblem is, I just need to be
tinkering with something.

Do you think that's a good thing or a bad
thing?
Because once you have at somepoint let's say which I don't
think it'll ever happen, becausevideo production is changing
all the time let's say you'vehypothetically mastered and you
have the perfect setup.
I'm really close, yeah, but I'msaying I don't you think in six
months you'll have somethingelse that you'll want to change,
right?

(38:10):
No, I mean I, I will it's aflaw in our characters, it's a
characteristic yeah um for sure,because my girlfriend has
noticed it.

She's like that's part of your personality.
It's it's not that like, oh,you'll never be happy.
It's just I always like to befiguring something out, um, but
then I have the other side of methat's like oh, I want to fix
this, so I don't have to doanything.
So it's like it's both and itcan be what type of stands am I

(38:44):
using?
It could be what's my powersupply solution for a camera?
Recently it's been.
Can I get a rental property inPuerto Rico and use it as a
cash-flowing vacation rental anda surf house that I can go to
whenever I want?
Before that it was maybe Ishould get a house here.

(39:05):
You know.
Before that it was what car doI get?
And it's just hyper fixation onsomething and you get it's.
I enjoy it because you getreally deep and you learn about
a certain subject and you havedecent knowledge about whatever
that is which can help later.
But it's.
You jump around a lot and forme, a lot of times I will get

(39:31):
very close to figuring it out,like maybe like 75%, 80%, or I
find a solution that is 80%close and then I'll oh, what's
that?
Oh, let me work on that yeah,you know it's add yeah, I've
never been um gone in for likediagnosis or something.

(39:53):
But it's very apparent that I Ikind of like to hyper focus,
hyper fixate on things and thengo through that a lot and then
quickly jump to another one.

Yeah, snorkeling, surfing, skating same thing
never been diagnosed.
I don't know if we're all justadding personally, like we have
this, but no, I'm the same way,very obsessive.
Personality like this is whatwe're gonna do and I will hyper
fixate on that and I will knoweverything about it and then you
know.
Once you know everything aboutit, and then you know.
Once you know everything aboutit, you go okay, now what?

(40:26):
And then you find something elseright and then you hyperfixate
on that.
The good thing is, thankgoodness.
For me, one thing hasn'tchanged is video production in
general, because otherwise it'dbe very expensive.
Tomorrow is like ah, I want todo something else.

Hobby switching is very expensive.

Yeah, thank goodness it's a career, not a
hobby, otherwise, yeah, it wouldbe a nightmare to have to
switch this.
So tell me a little bit abouthow is your girlfriend dealing
with this, because I can imaginesomebody who's not into video,
who doesn't have this obsession,and you're every you know, I
don't know every day getting acall.
Can you check this?
Can you check this?
And she's probably going.

(41:01):
I have no idea what you'retalking about.
So how is she dealing with it?
I don't know.

Yeah, I think, as a let's loosely just say
you're a business owner andfreelancer, so I think that adds
a completely different layer toany relationship, whether
they're your girlfriend or yourwife or whoever any relationship
, whether they're yourgirlfriend or your wife or

(41:28):
whoever.
When, uh, we met during 2020,so we weren't doing much um,
business wise, traveling wiseand I was letting her know like,
hey, I'm here right now, butnormally I'm not here.
I'm always on a flight, I'malways in a hotel at a state,
moving around, moving around.
So, like, once business picksback up again.
That's what it's going to belike and that is what it's like.

(41:51):
It's, I think, very tough foryou to find a partner who is
cool with you, always leaving,always jumping around.
Like, especially if you are abusiness owner, it doesn't
necessarily mean you're going totravel a lot, but it means
you're always going to be doingthings like I just came back
from uh, a trip I don't evenremember where, and then

(42:13):
yesterday I had a 6 30 am calltime for a job that was
connected to me through youtube.
Some guy saw my stuff and waslike, hey, I have a job that was
connected to me through YouTube.
Some guy saw my stuff and waslike, hey, I have a job in
Orlando, can you do it?
Did it, and then last night Iwas like I'm finally going to be
able to catch up on sleep and Iwas like, hold on, let me just

(42:36):
check my calendar.
I got a podcast with Fipple inthe morning when 10.
All right, all right, so I'llcatch up a little bit on sleep.

And then I have the orlando filmmaker meet up
after this.
Yeah, and you have a job.
Yeah, I have a shoot.
So you have three things.

Yeah this shoot and so I think it's.
If you can find a partner whois cool with this chaotic
lifestyle, um, then you're luckyand um it's, it's not like it's
just a year of this, and thenit goes to the easy street it's
like it's this all the time.

(43:11):
But that is where I start tothink and and I want to know if
you start to think of, do Ialways want to do this?
How can I get more money fromdoing less?
What other diversification canI have that can cash flow?
And that's kind of what broughtme into thinking of other
things.
The most recent one has justbeen the YouTube thing where I

(43:37):
am noticing the more I put intothat, the more it gives back and
it's nice's.
It's not like it.
It's more fun than than, um,contributing to a stock account.
Right, it's way more fun.
Every vlog that I make has thesame effect as that, but it's
just way more fun because of theuh connection I get.

(43:59):
Yeah to people.

Exactly, I think it depends on you have to have a
certain type of personality,obviously to be a YouTuber, but
as long as you're connectingwith it, it's giving you your
return, then why not follow itright?
To me, the biggest thing islike have somebody who did have
a job right, and how miserable Iwas while it paid well, the

(44:23):
only thing I can tell in life isand I think you and I think
alike on that is like I'd ratherwork more, but for myself than
for someone else.
You know, I don't want anyoneto control, excuse me, my
calendar or my life, or who cantell me when I can go on
vacation or when I can spendtime with my kids.

And that drives me at least um to, you know, to
do even better and to do moreof what we do, but it's not um,
all of roses at the same timeeither, you know I mean I, I
definitely feel like I have avery privileged journey white
dude growing up in Florida,america, born Like there's just

(45:07):
so many things where it's likedude, you have a lot stacked in
your favor, you shouldn't bestruggling, and but I, so I
understand that side of it.
But the other side of it is Itry to rationalize everything as
like a game, like if I put thisin here, what comes out of it,

(45:30):
what's the equation here?
Rather than I did this and itmessed up, it's me.
I'm horrible.
No, no, it's just that equationdidn't work.
Switch it up.

See if something else changes and talk about this
.
It's just that equation didn'twork.
Yeah, switch it up, see if, seeif something else changes and
talk about this.
I did have a conversation withyou know a few people about this
who are like you know, like, israce a factor or is you know
this keeping me down or what?
Look, I'm not an expert.
I'm a video person, videoproduction expert.
I'm not an expert on biases ofpeople.
I can tell you, yes, most ofthe people that I deal with are

(46:05):
older white CEOs, right?
So I'm pretty sure, if you'renot white or if you're a female
or whatever, you have adisadvantage.
But at the end of the day, look,you have privilege that you're
white, or you're from Florida oryou're from America.
I maybe have privilege, ormaybe don't have privilege that
I'm not white or whatever.
At the end of the day, we allhave our privileges or we don't

(46:28):
have our privileges.
Like I got this gig with theIACC, the Indian community,
because I'm Indian, you know.
So everyone has their ownprivileges, or somebody may be
black or whatever.
At the end of the day, look,it's good to be, to have
gratitude, like, hey, this iswho I am and I know I have it
easy because you want to begrounded, but at the same time,
I feel like people need to stop,because a lot of people use it

(46:49):
as a crutch, like, hey, I amthis, so that's why I'm going to
be.
It's going to be hard for me.
Look, it's easy or it's hard.
It is what it is In business.
You can sit here and complain.
I'm talking to people right, oryou could just go out and do it.
If somebody is not your client,they're not your client, you
know.
But most people I'll tell youone thing business owners speak

(47:11):
one language and that's languageof money.
You know, if you show up, theymay be biased, they may be like
oh, I only work with whitepeople.
But as soon as you give them anoffer that they cannot refuse,
they will work with you.
So at the end of the day, Ithink people need to also stop
holding behind crutches like Iam this or I'm that, or I'm that

(47:32):
.
That's why I won't find success, or this is what's holding me
back?
At the end of the day, look,it's good to recognize that,
like hey, that I have a hardtime, or whatever.
But I think next is just moveon from that time or whatever.
But I think next is just moveon from that.
Like, stop having race ormarital status or economic
status holding you back orgender, or whatever your, your

(47:53):
mental biases.
Uh, you know you need to justgo out there and actually do
business, because that's whatyou're here to do and I feel
like as long as you go dobusiness, it's not that hard to
find your five, 10 clients,which is where I want to go next
, because here's the truth Mostof your money comes from
majority of your small clients.
Right, it's not?

(48:13):
You don't need 500 clients tolike you.
You only need a very smallamount of clients to like you,
right?
So talk about how youdiscovered your retainer client,
cause that's majority of yourincome now, right?
Do you want to speak on that?

Yeah, I do want to touch on the previous thing,
which is, I think it justdepends on how do you paint it,
how do you see it in your head,because if you see it all as
hurdles, it's going to be allhurdles, yeah.
But if you see it like I, Ihave this delusion that I think
is real, and my delusion iseverything works out for David

(48:55):
and like I say that all the timeand then when?
something doesn't work out, I'mlike, oh, that doesn't, that
wasn't part of it.
So I proactively negate a lotof the things that could pull me
back and I focus on the thingsthat are pushing me forward and
and it eventually it feels like,oh, the universe is like

(49:18):
working together to help me,yeah, even though it's not yeah.
But if I think like that, thenit it's this like
instrumentational, I don't know,just mindset that's just yeah,
like you only acknowledge thegood things to push you forward.
Of course you have toacknowledge the things that are

(49:39):
slowing you down, but thosearen't going to hold you exactly
.

Exactly.
No, you said it very well.
So essentially you know it'sgood to reflect, because if
you're giving poor service andeveryone doesn't, like you then
you know you're better off notignoring that and realizing
where the flaw is.
But at the same time, ifsomebody's holding you back
because of things that don'tmatter, I think you're better

(50:03):
off just being positive about itand, to be real, I'm human too.
It affects me because I knowsometimes I lose a gig where
it's just because they went withsomebody who's you know.

just I don't know, whatever, whatever it is,
it doesn't matter why they wentwith someone else.

Yeah it doesn't who cares.
You know, you move on and youfind, know your clients.
At the end day, I'm running avery successful business and
that's all that matters.
I just need to find my clientswho value what I bring to the
table, right and and and.
To be real, what I do is my, mystrategy, that I recommend
people.
Look, I'm very passionate aboutvideo, so if I'm feeling ever
down because you know, and I'mnot surrounded, my family

(50:40):
doesn't care about video, I'lljust call, I'll call uh, I'll
call adam, or I'll call uh, youknow man, or you or people.
I just surround myself withpeople that think like me and
that, um, you know, bring me joy.
That means, uh, I can, uh, Ican just get out of that.
You know that rut or whatever.
I start to feel if that everhappens, because then I, I know,

(51:01):
like we can talk about businessstrategy or whatever and then
be like, oh, that's what I'mthinking about.
I don't need to focus on thisone negative small thing that
happened, but I think it also isa personal thing you have to.
It is, you have to choose that.
Because, it's very easy to benegative.
It's very hard to be positive.
You have to make that effort,but I do think.

tell me if I'm wrong when you think positive
even if it's not like oh now,60% good things are happening to
me and 40% bad things.
Even if it's 50-50, if youthink like that, this 50% feels
heavier.
So yeah, it's just kind ofthinking that this is another

(51:48):
step, that's all it is.
Yeah, it's not like the end.
It's not, uh, cripplingproblems, it's not whatever,
it's just.
This is one step.
Did I get bad feedback from itor did I get good feedback from
it?
Okay, I'll just take that andmove forward, but I'm gonna.
I'm gonna progress because I'mgonna try something exactly.

And here's one thing I'll tell take that and
move forward.
But I'm going to.
I'm going to progress becauseI'm going to try something
Exactly.
And here's one thing I'll tellyou, that's what motivated I
think I've helped a few businessowners with.
Look, most businesses shut downin the first five years of
business.
So if you just make it pastfive years, you're more
successful than most businessesthat started.
So if you look at it positively, like, look, I'm just trying to
make it five years, I'm justtrying to make it five years and

(52:32):
don't give up, You're going tofind success.
Because as long as you don'tfocus on the negative, because
you're just focused on hey, Igot to make it past five years,
You're going to focus on thatlong journey instead of the
short term.
Because most businesses shutdown, because most businesses
have hurdles and they give up.
Just don't give up and keepdoing it.
Eventually you'll find success.

I can't even think five years into the future
.
I am very microscopic.
So I just think how do I maketoday's job go as well as I have
the capability to make it gowell?
And you know, I think someother people are very more
long-term oriented and they'resaying well, I have today's job

(53:16):
and then I have my goals forthis year and the goals for five
years and 10 years, and I needto, you know, to walk that,
climb that ladder.
But for me I don't think likethat for better or for worse.
I mean at, but for me I don'tthink like that for better or
for worse.

I mean at the end of the day.
That's why I want you to behere so people can hear both
perspectives, because I'm saying, look long-term and make sure
you make it past that five years, and you're saying, look at
that microscopic level, which Icompletely get it, because if
you do good today, your futurewill automatically be great.
And I think, just pick ifsomebody's listening, even one
person, we can help.
Just pick what motivates you Atthe end of the day.

(53:51):
I think you just have to lookwithin right and pick what's
motivating me today to go outand do it and whatever.
That is just cling on to that.

That sounds very fluffy Look within, but
really it's just saying what areyou drawn to?
Are you drawn towards microresults?
Are you drawn towards long-termresults?
Because, whichever one you'redrawn to, that's what you're
gonna do.
Yeah, so focus on your strengthand um, just like.
That is how you will feel goodabout the progress if it's

(54:25):
something that you already enjoy.

Yeah, and I'm very much a physical type of guy.
I I hate like people who get somuch in theory too, and and
again this is going to so manytangents.
But you know, like I'm allabout sitting down, planning, I
have a call, like a whole coffeewith adam tomorrow where I'm
gonna sit down and give him mywhole plan.
So you're gonna talk to himtonight yeah yeah, yeah and then
tomorrow but, like I havegenuine like all things planned

(54:49):
out, like hey, here's the, the,because you know I'm doing a lot
of new things with this uhrebrand.
But the point is like, genuinely, we want to run by like ideas
of.
So what I'm saying is, at thesame time, I can be theoretical,
but I'm very much like, uh,like, I prefer people who like
physically actually go do things, because you can sit and plan
on paper everything like this,that, whatever, but if you don't

(55:13):
actually go do it, you knowlike, like imagine reading a
whole book on how to be aYouTuber versus actually going
and doing the YouTube videos,like making them.
I feel you would learn way moremaking the videos than reading
a you know thick ass techtextbook textbook, no matter how
knowledgeable it is.
Nothing against books.
But I'm also saying is Ipersonally like people who just

(55:36):
go do it, and if you don't knowhow to do it, surround yourself
with people who know how to doit, and I don't think it's that
complicated.

That's one of my biggest flaws is inaction,
because I want to have the mosteducated decision.
I want to know why am I makingthis decision and I'm going to
do this one because it has thehighest probability of success.
But that just leads toparalysis by analysis, just

(56:06):
overthinking everything.
And on one side it's goodbecause you're not grabbing a
hot pan and someone's like didyou even think that the pan
might be hot?
And you're like, no, I justtook action.
And then it's like OK, well, Ilooked at what temperatures were
and that temperature would giveyou a third degree burn, so I
didn't do it.
And both of them are rightessentially.

Yeah, I think a good balance, right, a good
balance yeah but, like I'll tellyou so on my video business, I
like the gear purchases.
I know people think I buy a lotof gear, which I do, but I
actually think like I, everytime I add things to my list I'm
like, okay, how is this goingto help my business, how is this
going to like overthinking it,like you said, to the point of
solution.
But then when I was buildingthe studio, it would have never

(56:53):
gotten built.
We were literally at Home Depotlooking at 500 floors.
At some point I'm like this,this, this, this, this, this and
let's just go.
And the disadvantage to thatwas, yes, we ended up with
things that we didn't use orthat were extra.
But guess what, you go to thehome depot and you return it,

(57:16):
but it to me, the only way thestudio got done was because we
were able to just buy, like,let's just get what we think we
need and then we won't use it,then we'll return it.
Versus if I sit here and Iperfectly find the exact same
trim and this piece or thatpiece or whatever, then it would
, it would never get done.
So, having taken both you knowways, I could tell you they both

(57:36):
have their, their flaws.
At the end day, I think a good,healthy balance.
And then I go like you said, itsounds like fluff is the best
way to go.
You have to take eachindividual decision like and and
take that like is this worth mespending hours on it?
Then sure, spend it like.
If you're buying a camera,right, and you're investing five

(57:56):
grand, I get it.
Invest like the research, findthe right tool.
But if you're just buying Idon't know a small memory card
on it, I don't think you need tospend 10 hours or two hours
sorry, two days researching thebest memory card.
Just buy a freaking memory card.
Do you see what I'm saying?

to me that yeah , I'm sorry, I hear you.

Yeah, can't do that, yeah and see something,
but and that's okay, that's yourflaw and as long as you're
self-aware of it, that's okay.

You know, you know it, you know yeah, it is
what it is, you know.
Yeah, it pretty much is.
It is what it is, and and thatthat type of inaction, like said
, has prevented me from a lot ofthings, but it's also prevented
me from a lot of good things,but it's also prevented me from
a lot of bad things, and it'sjust a thought process that I

(58:41):
know I have to deal with.
So let's just use that tool tohopefully get good results.

But, jumping back to the retainer question that
you asked, yeah, because I thinkthat's really cool for people
to hear.
So I remember this is mycontext of you very strongly
telling me I don't know if itwas in Vegas or somewhere I was
having this conversation, butyou started like, no, I am a DP.

I think it was in Vegas airport.

Yeah, yeah, I think you were like no, I am a
DP, I have perfected, you know,this is what I want to do and I
have ADD or whatever, somethinglike that.
You remember saying that to me.
Like I cannot, you know, do onething over and over again.
I have to do different jobs, soanyway.
So you were like very pro whatyou were doing, which was DP

(59:26):
finding new gigs freelance youwere doing, which was dp,
finding new gigs, freelance andall of a sudden I find out like
you've got this retainer clientwhich obviously financially
seems like it did really wondersfor you.
But I want to just know, is a?
Uh, you know we can go indetails, but I would right now
just general want to know is howdid that change come about?
Because it was very not what Ithought david would want, right

(59:48):
it's not what I thought davidwould do do.

It's not what I thought David would do.
It's because it was a veryorganic evolution and
technically it's not a retainerand I can get into that.
But it was a referral from acontact that I've had for years
and she was like hey, thiscompany used to work under our
agency.
They left, they asked me for arecommendation, I recommended

(01:00:13):
you.
So already I was like wait,they were hiring an agency and
now they want to hire a person.
Like I don't know if that'sgoing to meet their expectations
.
And it was.
Yeah.

(01:00:33):
The crew call was like I'venever seen this.
A director and two PAs.
Like well, that doesn't reallywork, nothing's getting done.

Vipul Bindra (01:00:38):
Yeah, they're probably thinking swings, but
they use the word PA, right yeah?

David Morefield (01:00:42):
So I was like all right.
And I was the basically all thevideo production part of that.
And then the other role was aPA and I just brought my
girlfriend in.
So I was like this is cool, alittle bit of money for her, we
get to hang out.
It's a good rate, sure, andthat was November of 2023.

(01:01:06):
And we did good.
It was just a couple of dayrates for everybody Nice, and we
did good.
It was just, um, you know, acouple day rates for everybody
nice.
And then they called back infebruary of 24 march ish, and
they said, hey, we want to doanother shoot, okay, cool.
And then we did another one,and then they said we would like
to get a contract for aretainer status.

(01:01:30):
And, yeah, the first thing I gois no, my time I have to commit
to something.
I don't want to commit toanything.
And so I asked them why do youwant a retainer?
Why do you think you want aretainer?
Is it because you want days onthe calendar?
Is it because you think therewill be a discount for a bulk

(01:01:51):
order?
Is it?
What is it?
And they said, oh, it's justdays on the calendar, because we
have to pre-produce all thesescripts and we want to know when
they're going to get filmed.
And if we can have days alreadydesignated with you, we can
organize when our deliverableswill come in.
Okay, that makes sense.
Yeah, it totally makes sense,our deliverables will come in.
Okay, that makes sense.

(01:02:11):
Yeah, it totally makes sense.
And I think a lot of peoplethink retainer contract is just
this one thing and it's not.
It's whatever is the bestrelationship for that client and
you.
So this one I was like.
So I told them there's notgoing to be a contract and I
know a lot of people wouldadvise against that as just a

(01:02:33):
business practice where youdon't have any um uh, you don't
have any recourse forcancellations, you don't have
any.
You know anything like that.
Like I said, it was such anorganic evolution that it it
never really got brought in, butthe relationship was so good
with them, the communication wason point that we could talk

(01:02:53):
about any problem.
Hey, there was a cancellation.
I know we haven't previouslydiscussed this, but the crew
members did block out thesecalendar dates, so those days
need to be paid for.
Luckily, they received it welland okay.
Well, now that's that standard.
So it went from getting a callevery month or so to we want to

(01:03:23):
do biweekly shoots.
They're in South Florida, I'min Orlando, so we need to travel
in do the shoots.
We're reducing it to just twoday shoots and then travel back,
and that is probably when Istarted asking you how do I

(01:03:43):
charge for this?
Because I am.
I know I'm doing a lot ofeffort, I'm booking hotels, I'm
traveling, I'm doing all thisand I'm getting a day rate.
And then they're getting a dayrate.
This is not great I could dothis day rate, 20 minutes from

(01:04:05):
my house, and now it's takingall this time and that's where I
was very, very glad that youwere transparent with some of
the business.
Well, that covers one.
It could just be emergencies,it could be pure profit, it

(01:04:34):
could be unexpected things.
It just gives you padding and Iwas like I can't just say this
line item is profit.

Technically, there is a word for it, it's called
production fee.
Yes, but no, anyway.

So yeah, and you let me know that.
Yeah, I was like oh take notes.
Let me see production fee andum.
Eventually I worked into a umproduction company pricing which
is very different than afreelancer pricing and that

(01:05:13):
astronomically grew my financeslast year to the point where I
was like I don't want to do thisall the time.
I can do one retainerconnection.

Yeah, because bi-weekly already is taking so
much of your time.
It's taking a lot of time.

Yeah, because bi-weekly already is taking so
much of your time.
It's taking a lot of time, butit's been really nice to have
had the insight from otherpeople, because if I had this
relationship without that typeof pricing, I wouldn't have the
same rose-colored glasseslooking at it, I would just be.
It's taking all my time,exactly, and that's very

(01:05:49):
important.

Look, I would just be mistaken all my time,
exactly, and that's veryimportant.
Look, you're committing so muchof your time, plus, you're
tailoring solutions to what theyneed exactly, which is why they
want to work with you, right,because you're making sure this
works for them.
Then you deserve to be paidwhat you deserve to be paid, and
I don't think you'reunreasonable.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
I think your costs are pretty, pretty fair they're
probably under yeah, actuallyyeah, what you should be
charging.

So let's, let's, uh, what I want to know here is
the biggest thing is you uppedyour rates?
How did you have thatconversation and how did that go
?
Did you just send that in, ordid you have to explain to them
why the rates were going to be?
I had to explain so, and so, bythe way, you work with an
agency, or directly with theclient or somebody in between.

I work with the end client and then they have
an agency that they work withfor reproducing all of the
scripts and things that we'regoing to be doing that day.
Okay, retainer relationship Ithink most people think it's

(01:06:51):
we're going to be A to Z, we'regoing to devise everything,
we're going to get the scripts,we're going to shoot, we're
going to edit, we're going todeliver.
It doesn't have to be.
It doesn't have to be if youhave the right clientele.
So this one was end clientagency and the agency is
connecting with the end clientand then they are saying, hey,

(01:07:15):
this is our production leg.
The agency is thepre-production and
post-production.
So my retainer relationship isshooting and handing off the
exact same thing I do as afreelance videographer.
That's the type of retainerrelationship.

That's a pretty good retainer.
So how did you have thisconversation?
And I'm guessing now that meansyou had this conversation
directly with the end client,correct, right?
So how did you handle that?
Because I think this is a veryimportant thing for people to
know.

I started to feeling like I'm getting the
short end of the stick here, andhow many weeks had you done it?

roughly?

you'd say maybe two months, two months so so,
yeah, a couple shoots, maybe alittle more okay, maybe like
five or six shoots okay.
And then I was, and then justthings kind of started to to to
pull over to my side where theythey said, hey, we were booking
your hotels.
We're a little busy.
Can you book your hotels andinvoice us?
And.
I was like, ah, do it this once.

(01:08:12):
And then later I found out howvaluable that could be when I
started getting the right creditcard which could be an excess
of points and establish greatcredit for the business.
I was just like all theseproblems actually could be
benefits.
It's like all these problemsactually could be benefits, but

(01:08:36):
essentially, a lot of theworkload had changed from day
one.
This is another time where Ihad to put my foot down is they
said they gave us all thesescripts and I have my PA and me
trying to run all of production.
And I said, guys like I can'tcheck if we said the right line,
if we have to go back, we needa producer.

(01:08:59):
And they were open to it.
And they're like well, you knowwhat does that look like?
So I hired someone from mynetwork that I had worked with
previously, because I know theydo great work and they care.
It's kind of like what you weresaying before about you were
seeing me work through smallproblems.
It's like, oh, he cares, yeah,I need someone who cares.
And so I found someone, a great, great producer.

(01:09:20):
And then I was booking herhotels and then, you know,
dealing with her invoices, and Iwas like I'm a production
company, why am I not gettingpaid like a production company?
So I went to the client and Isaid, hey, all of these things
are now at this point and I needto charge as a full service.

(01:09:43):
It's not full service, but as aproduction company.
And again, having the rightclients can make all the
difference in the world.
They said the scope has greatlychanged and we see that, so
that can be reflected in theinvoice.
Oh, thank goodness.
Yeah, I thought this was goingto be a bad conversation, and
that could be.

Guys, you have to take a risk, right.
You have to stand up for whatyou think is right, as long as
you're fair, what I think isright, as long as you're fair,
what I think is you were fair.
You were like, look, the scopehas changed a lot, so, so we're
gonna have to, you know, changethe the cost right, or the yeah,
the investment, yeah right andand it's.

It was a very obvious thing.
It didn't feel like, oh,david's trying to work in in
this extra fee.
It's like he's taking off a lotof the workload now so that
cost has to go somewhere exactly.
Somebody needs to pay for itand I just feel so blessed that

(01:10:41):
I got such a understandingclient and also that I was
referred this client, becausewhat was a one-off yeah turned
into became like your majoritywork yeah.
I want to say 70% of my income.

(01:11:05):
Wow, which, which is?
Which is don't put all youreggs in one basket.

I have 10 eggs in one basket, and I understand
that.

I did have a situation in 2018 where I had
one agency that I wasfreelancing for and their two to
three biggest clients.
Like you were saying, there's afew clients who provide the
bulk of your income.
That was the situation for thisagency and they didn't renew
contracts.
And that agency told me, hey,I'm sorry, but there's going to

(01:11:42):
be a lot less work, and I wasleft like, oh my gosh.
I had a 40% reduction in incomefrom that which is a huge
reduction especially like whenyou're not making that much and
you're like more learning, andso that taught me at that point
the value of I need to have myown clients.
Even if I'm a freelancer, Ineed to have my clients.

(01:12:07):
It could even just be usualclients, but I can't depend
solely on on a entity that isgetting me work.

Yeah, that is um a recipe for risk which you are
taking again now, though,because you have, like you said,
70 of your income, but at leastthere isn't a degree in between
.

There's no middleman so in this sense
there's no agency who is tryingto find me work.
It's me and end client, so Ican foster that relationship.
You can control it, I cancontrol it and I can mess it up.
So if it goes wrong, I know whyand I know I'm aware of
everything that's happening, butit's such a good relationship

(01:12:54):
that I'm okay with prioritizingit because it's very, very
beneficial yeah, exactly to bothparties seems like because you
fully get it.

Having seen some of your vlogs, you fully get
what they want.
You're tailoring solutions totheir needs, so I think that's
why it's valuable to them.
And then obviously, it'svaluable to you because they're
you're tailoring solutions totheir needs, so I think that's
why it's valuable to them.
And then obviously it'svaluable to you because they're
giving you money in return.
You know and good money.
So talk about how you do theinvoice.
Do you just write one amount orare you still breaking it down?

No, I'm not breaking it down anymore because
I asked you about that.
Yeah, so smart.

So you're just putting what do you say?

just fee or cost, or whatever, I am so used
to line iteming as a freelanceDP, which I think is the right
way to go.
You have to say this was my dayrate, this was my fuel rate,
this was additional rentals,this is my per diem.
There needs to be no room forargument.

(01:13:50):
The client wants to just seewhat are we being charged for?
And as a freelancer that is theway to do it.
There's no.
You're not trying to hide costs, sneak things under, Because
you have to show receipts a lotof times.
So hold on, I got off track.

(01:14:13):
You were saying line items.
Yeah, so for this one I wasdoing that because that's how I
had done it in the past, Like 25line items.
Wow Breakfast this day rate,blah, blah, blah, all that stuff
, and then I slowly started tojust consolidate lots of lines.

(01:14:37):
That's all part of a productioncost, so that includes all of
our crew, all of the rentals allof that let's call that
production costs.
And then I just started groupingtogether all the travel costs,

(01:14:57):
so all the hotels, fuel, travel,day rates, everything.
That was another one, that wasanother one, and then that kind
of padding is called the I thinkI call it production fee and

(01:15:21):
that is a way of saying youcould hire, you could get this
travel if you wanted to.
You could book that, you couldhire these rates with other
people, kind of like, this isthe cost of working with this
company and honestly, I think itcould be one line item for all
of those.
You could combine it, you couldjust combine it, but it's still

(01:15:42):
not bad.

It's not bad.

Yeah, and I do want to give them just a little
bit of delineation between whatis what?

What was what?
Okay, so that was all theproduction costs, and what?

type of fee?
Are you charging?
20, 40, what number did?
Um, roughly and you don't haveto give exact.
Yeah, you told me to chargevery high and I was so
uncomfortable doing that.
Um, you were saying you youseparated pad and profit.
Yeah, you said we need a $20pad for contingencies and stuff
and then $20 profit on that LasVegas job.
And I remember the reason youtold me this is because we had

(01:16:20):
to switch from Ubers to a rentalcar.

Yeah, and I didn't bother the client once.

And I was like okay, hold on.
So I know that this rental caris going to be a different
number, whether it's more orless, and it's 11 pm at night.
We just got from the airport Doyou have to call someone to
approve this additional expense?
And you were like oh David,we're not calling anybody.

(01:16:45):
I am not going to be anannoying vendor.
This is going to come out froma pad.
What's a pad?
like it's to cover things likethis yeah, so I, um, I, I don't
have the pad and the profit,it's just one one thing, and I
did 15, 15 that's fair, becausethat's yeah that's.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
That's actually low much confidence, as I yeah, I
was like and that's okay,because that's as much
confidence as I ever had.
I was like dude, I can't do 40%and I'll tell you people why.

Look, you can break it down and to be real on
our hiring jobs, we have to doproduction fees separately.
I give clients one number andI'll tell you why.
Because then I get to decidewhat flight is good, what flight
is bad.
And if small things changehotels, I can change that.
I don't have to go back andexplain to the client.

(01:17:33):
It's easier for them and easierfor me.
So here, for example, they werelike okay, we're going to do a
hotel in the Strip, perfect, gotit.
It's right there by the airport.
We can just take an Uber.
End of story.
That's what I accounted for.
And then it's like, oh, we'regoing to go do this new resort,
which is very nice, but it'slike 15, 20 minutes off the

(01:17:53):
strip.
It's like, oh, we can't do that.
Uber is going to be veryexpensive.
But that also means we need tobe able to travel back to the
strip do whatever.
Right Point is we need a rentalcar now.
So that's an additional expense.
Okay, how much is it?

(01:18:16):
Like?
$200 plus gas, plus other feesand insurance, whatever Point is
.
It sounds like a lot of money.
But on the grand scheme ofthings, when I'm doing a $15,
$20, $30k project, that'snothing and I don't want to go
to my client and bother them oralso just be adjusting costs and
sending another separateinvoice.
It's just not worth it.
I'd rather have the power to beable to make these small
changes.
Or, for example, the time youcouldn't make it, I got Adam to
come do your role.
He had a flight that wasdelayed.

(01:18:36):
That was very costly for me.
I think we ended up having tolike rebook him a flight.
Southwest didn't give me arefund, but then they did.
It was in points and all Pointis it was like an almost $600,
$700 loss and I still didn't goback to the client.
And to have that power now, yes,did I want to eat that cost?
No, right.
But at the end of the day,again, I had to value them.

(01:18:58):
Like, look, am I going to goback to the client and be like
look, there's a hurricane.
I have to get this guy here.
I need an additional $700.
I was like, no, look, I toldAdam the same thing.
I was like, no, just dowhatever.
Get here, that's all thatmatters right now.
You need to be here and we willdeal with this situation once

(01:19:18):
we account it.
And then, once I got hisinvoice.
I was like you know what, he'sbeing fair with me because he
had receipts, obviously.
And I was like you know what,what I don't need to go back to
the client, but I could have ifI wanted to right the contract
clearly what's the cost of youbeing annoying and going back to
?

the client and trying to get more money plus.

I'm like they're a repeat client.
This is fine, this isn't.
I can absorb that.
I've made enough profit.
That extra five, six hundredbucks isn't like gonna be a deal
breaker.
And, to be real, like I said, Idid get some of it was just in
points.
So we had to fly with Southwestin the future, so it was offset
.
It wasn't that big of a deal.
Point is that's the freedomthat makes you a better vendor,

(01:19:57):
that makes your life easier,that makes your client's life
easier.
Like with this, again, the ideaisn't that you're going to
always be spending this money,but I'm pretty sure if your car
broke down or something randomhappened, now you can get a
rental car or you can get adifferent meal or a different
hotel.
You're not bound by.
You have to do this becausethat's what you put as a line.

It gives you a lot more freedom.
Yeah, sometimes it's a trap.
You're putting around yourselfby saying I'm submitting the
quote right now and I'm lookingup the prices right now for
flights and they're $300 each.
Sometimes it takes a week toget that proposal approved.

(01:20:39):
Now flights are $450 each andyour quote is inaccurate.
So it's yeah, on one side, thatis possible on this level of
clientele.
On a lower level of clientele,there is not room to move around

(01:20:59):
like that.
So I feel very fortunate to belike oh, I've got one client
like this where they move atthis speed, this level, yeah, um
, and that is a, a goal now, oror a level.
That's like I like operatingwith these in this type of

(01:21:20):
circle yeah, I mean it's.

It's really nice as a production company, but you
take a risk.
For example, uh, I don't know.
Let's hypothetically say youget sick, you're, you're,
obviously it's your girlfriend,but your pa doesn't show, or
whatever.
Right, you're on the hook forit.
Yeah, because you have to makesure you have to be there and
everything you promise has to bethere and the shoe has to go
flawless.
So it's good for the client tohire you as production, because

(01:21:45):
you're fully responsible.
But that's why you can chargemore, because guess what?
If somebody calls in orsomebody doesn't show up, I'm
still on the hook to make surethat shoot goes as planned and
all the people I promised arethere.
So there's a cost basis forthat too.

Yeah, and that is usually what scares me out of
wanting to be a productioncompany.
Like you said, where the clientcame to you the other day and
said do you do photos?
You said where the client cameto you the other day and said,
do you do photos?
You said no, and then you saidlet me find someone.
Well, that finding someonecould ruin everything.
For you.
And I don't like that.
I just I'm just not comfortablewith it.

(01:22:21):
Although I have done it to acouple people that I fully trust
, they've knocked it out of thepark every time, so it's a good
relationship for them becausethey are getting jobs that they
are not connected to.
I am getting these jobs andhanding it to them.
It's great for both parties.
But as a full productioncompany, I don't like being on

(01:22:43):
the hook for a lot of otherpeople's liabilities, especially
if I'm not going to be there.
If I'm there, I'll figure itout, yeah.

But I'm telling you it's the best feeling.
Now, yes, it's not for everyone, but I love it.
Like, my favorite shoots arewhere I will literally plan
everything.
I love this whiteboard.
I have to still do that in thisstudio but, like, I will
literally plan out this persongoes here, gear this, there,
this, whatever.
Plan out a whole gig.
I'll hire a whole team and thenI'm not there and when it's

(01:23:15):
fully executed and I go see btsor some photos and it looks
exactly how you planned it.
It's a different type ofcreative feeling when you are
like a creative professional andyou see the footage and it
looks my footage because youremember everyone, everyone has
their own style.
So it's like so incrediblewhere it's like I made that
happen but I wasn't evenphysically there.
But, like you said, you have tobe very careful because you

(01:23:37):
have to have the right people,because a million things can go
wrong and if you don't havepeople there who can solve those
problems and execute it how youtold them to execute, you're on
the hook, because my name isyou know who the client is
working with but I say those aresome of my favorite gigs is
where I'm somewhere else makingmoney and the gigs are just

(01:23:58):
happening and I don't know itjust makes me happy.
It's a different type offulfillment Exactly and it
depends on who you are.
Like I said, I'm a DP at heart.
I love operating a camera, butwhen I get beat to be a director
producer, it's a completelydifferent type of fulfillment.
It's a different opening hit,for me at least, and I like both
.
That was where I found out withyou, which was what I was going
through.

(01:24:18):
So 2022 was a very weird yearfor me where I was struggling
with I was only a productioncompany only.
I was only directing producingfor four years, which is so
crazy to go from being afreelancer to a straight
director producer.
And then I, when I met you, Iwas like going through that, um,
pretty much thing where I waslike I can't do this anymore.

(01:24:39):
I have to open myself up.
And now I'm very happy becauseI've basically doing both.
I'm basically being dp um, youknow, and helping other people's
projects, but also doing minesure takes I have to work extra
days.
I'm working more, uh, you know,and helping other people's
projects, but also doing minesure takes I have to work extra
days.
I'm working more, you know, forless money, but at the end of
the day, it makes me happy and Ithink that's very important to
be able to find both thosefulfillment.

(01:25:00):
You cannot limit yourself toone, because, at least for me,
it didn't work out.

Yeah, and I think that that kind of opens up
your brain to to just thinkingof how can I capitalize on this,
or what type of investmentsmake more money, what type of
efforts make more money.
And I know you recently gotyour your house, you built out
this studio and right before wewere recording, you're showing

(01:25:26):
me everything that you've doneand you were saying, um, you
know, a house isn't it's not acash flowing type of asset the
cash sucking.
It's a cash yeah yeah um, butyou know what?
What type types of things areyou looking in the future to

(01:25:47):
generate more money?
Is it more of the same?
Is it something completelydifferent?
Where do you see anything?

So for me, you know, when I started this, like
I said, I had this one sole goalof this certain revenue number.
And then, when I finallyreached it last year that's
where I literally say thatthat's exactly what I went
through I was like okay, nowwhat's next for?
Me.
And I think what was next for meis this this is exactly what I
want to do next for me, and Ithink what was next for me is
this this is exactly what I wantto do.
So the goal is now which was tobe real, what I started in 2018

(01:26:16):
.
So, uh, when I started thiscompany, you know things weren't
as accessible.
We didn't have such goodequipment.
Then point is, corporate videosucked.
It's like either reallyhigh-end or cheap content.
That was like cheap cameras.
You know it wasn't good.
So I was like we're gonna bringhollywood to my clients and I
felt like we did that.
But now anyone can do that fx6sand these big lights that are.

(01:26:39):
Aperture makes it veryaccessible.
So equipment is no longer thefactor right.
So what I am basically goingfor is now we're trying to bring
our clients success.
I just had a client report tome that they made more money in
their last Q4 of 2024 than theydid the first three quarters,
and they said videos werelargely part of that and that's

(01:27:01):
like a multi-billion dollarcompany.
So you know that our videosgenerated a billion dollars plus
for a client.
It's an incredible feeling tohave Now again what space.
Are they in Finance, obviously,but the point I'm trying to make
is people can make so muchmoney from these videos.
So at the end of the day, whatI'm trying to do is use that.

(01:27:22):
So the two formats that I wantto be more efficient this year
is A I want to do morecollaborations, want to be a dp
on more gigs.
But my self-fulfillment I wantto be dp, gaffer, sound, um, and
that's for my extra days.
Then I'm gonna now save on preptime because, as I showed you,
I have no prep time.
Usually used to be a whole dayfor prep, I would say hours.

(01:27:44):
So just charge the batteries,roll the card in.
So all those days then I'mgonna now save, let's say, 30
days extra that I have just wasjust lost in prep last year.
Now I can go be and collaboratemore in projects.
That's extra revenue that Iwouldn't have had.
Plus, I'm helping other peoplebecause I've set my rates really
low, like you couldn't even getmy sound package, for you know

(01:28:05):
for what I'm charging and I'mbringing.
You know for your rates don'tmake sense yeah, I know, but
remember, this is only because Ihave my own clients, like where
I charge the production company, and that's what part of the
meetup, what I want to sharewith people, is like look, uh,
I'm bringing you literallyeverything and you can either
just use the grip, just use thelighting, just use cameras, just
use sound, and it'll makefinancial sense, because I was

(01:28:26):
charging that for myself.
Anyway.
You're getting the the gear forfree, but if you use everything
, this is like oh really killerlate.
And now you can tell yourclients you're a huge production
company without zero investment.
So that's that side of it.
Obviously, the primary thing ismore production company and
what we're doing, which is whatI want to discuss with Adam
tomorrow.
I'm trying to go.
I've been very boutique company, right.

(01:28:48):
A client comes to me.
They tell my problem, likeearlier, before we started the
podcast, I'm building a quote,right, we're doing estimates
based on the job, but I'm I'mplanning to have some kind of um
retainer models.
So that's where I'm thinkingabout doing.
This year is where its clientsare going to be like okay, we
want this many podcasts or do wewant this many videos per month
?
And they could sign up withBender Productions.

(01:29:09):
So I ultimately bringing a fullcircle, making it bigger than
me, and that was the part ofrebrand.
Obviously, I haven't gotten anew shirt yet, but we're going
to change the logo.
You know, six years later, it'sso crazy.
You know how my logo waswhipped up.
I looked at Julia.
I said, okay, I'm was whippedup.

(01:29:34):
I looked at julia, said, okay,I'm starting this production
company, throw me somethingtogether.
She did in 30 seconds.
We didn't even care what thered was.
It's like I want red and whiteand black.
Right, those are my colors.
So we didn't even account.
You know how you you have torecord the, the pantone or
whatever the color.
We didn't care, we were justlike.
You know, it was such likestartup mode and then we
literally had to scramble amonth later like what was the
code, what's the color code,what's the standardized font?
we picked yeah but now it's likeit's been such a process
because it's like, oh, now wehave a legacy, my logo is put

(01:29:57):
next to companies like we'rejust about to do an event where
we're going to be next to, likeduke energy or whatever, or
advent health it's like hugenames locally, so you know so
anyway.
So it's a process, so that's'swhere I am.
I've rebranded where Bindra isgoing to be huge, reducing the
size of productions, because youknow we don't want to focus on
production.
We want to focus on Bindra.
What do you get with Bindra?

(01:30:18):
You get quality, you getreliability.
If I say I'm going to be there,I'm going to be there.
If I say there's going to befour people there know, I said
three cameras, gonna be fourcameras.
So you know what I mean.
We over deliver.
Uh, we do a good job.
You've seen our quality.
I think we make good images forthe price point that I charge

(01:30:39):
at that price point.
Plus, there's not that manyproduction companies out there
who can, tomorrow, shoot a bigproduction with 50 people, with
alexis and you know signaturebrands and whatever, but then on
the other day you can do atalking head with two fx.
You see, I'm saying thescalability that I have, uh, and
plus we specialize, we just do,you know, corporate.
I hope that makes sense anyway.
So the idea is to just bring itfull circle back, make it, uh,

(01:31:03):
more automated, hopefully, bringin more people, uh, anyway,
that's at least my goal.
Who knows what will happen, butlast year's I achieved them.
So I'm happy, because last yearwas to just build this
production van and build astudio, buy this home.
So now that it's been done, Iknow I can do it, so we'll see,
but at least that's what I'mtrying.
What do you think?

(01:31:23):
I would love to know yourthoughts on just retainer models
and packages and and being ableto just outreach plus with this
van, I feel like we can alsotake on reality shows that are
coming to town, because this isa standardized two-ton vehicle
and there's not that manypart-based two-ton vehicles out
here, so it'll be easy for themto rent it to and implement into

(01:31:43):
their production yeah, I thinkthink the lower effort retainer
clients aren't worth it becausethey still take up so much time.

So I would personally prioritize retainer
relationships only for thelarger companies, just because
they both take the same amountof time.
That's kind of what I would say, um, that that's kind of what I
would say, um, you know it's,there is something nice to have

(01:32:19):
free time, just just to knowthat like my calendar isn't
locked completely, like that isa very nice psychological thing
and that that's what drew me tothe whole I want to be a
freelancer thing in general islike I don't want anybody to
tell me you have to come in forwork and you'll leave when I
allow you, and that's myfavorite thing about what I've
been able to build is I only goto shoots.

I want to.
You know why?
Because I can always go.
Do I want to do this?
Technically, I could have goneto Boca and done the stills.
Right, I can do stills andevent photography is in that
hard.
I have flashes.
Funny enough.
Again, not a photographer,don't want to be one.
And same thing.
It was like I don't want to bea photographer, I don't want to
go do still.
So here you go, so being ableto pass that off.

(01:33:01):
So my calendar is alwaysavailable.
Like it's so funny, adam has.
I helped him a ton.
Last year.
He said supposedly I made like55 grand from him, which is
great.
Point is, but he was like Ihope I'm not stopping your
business.
I'm like, no, my business isgoing, because if I'm here that
doesn't mean I don't have shootshappening.
I just hire people to go do thatwas so funny.

(01:33:22):
And I'm like, yes, and that'sthe freedom of being able to be
more than you, right, becauseit's not me.
When they hire, it's likehiring my company.
I can plan out a lightingdiagram from anywhere.
I can plan out the camerasettings from anywhere.
I already know what ISO, thisaperture, this the look I'm
going to get, so I can tell mypeople like I want this, this,

(01:33:45):
this, this, and they can execute.
You know a good DP, like you,if I told you this is the
settings I want, this is thelook I want, this is the frame.
You can execute, anyone canexecute.
And it looked like mine becauseI gave you the reference.

There's only a couple clients that I have where
I feel set up for success.
When I arrive and I'm the onlyperson there and no one from the
hiring company is there,there's only a couple of them.
I remember when I did whateverthe first job for you running
live Gimble for one of thoseevents, you were like I was like

(01:34:19):
, oh, when do I need to be downthere?
Because we were in a hotel andyou said we're going to be down
there at this time, you canarrive at this time.
I was like, great, you need meto do anything.
You're like, nope, just arrive.
So it felt so unnatural to walkdown there.
I think I had headphones,because it's like all right, I
have headphones, walked in and Iwas like all right, let's start

(01:34:43):
getting stuff going.
And you're like everything'sready set up, we've already
tested feeds, all theconnections, everything is ready
to go.
And like nothing, likeliterally you don't have to do
anything.
And I was kind of asking myself.
I was like, um, I, I didn'tthink does he not trust me at

(01:35:06):
all.
I didn't think that, yeah, but Iwas like, um, is this a new
level of camera operatingposition?
Is this how he operates?

I think that's how I operate, is he?

wanting to remove a lot of issues.
Yeah, because he already knowshow it's done.
I don't think you mind comingthere two hours early.
It's going to take longer if Ihave to set it up and I have to
ask you where every piece of thegimbal is Exactly.

Where it goes, why it goes, what settings I need
all that, yeah.

So that's kind of what we were talking about
before was like leaning into thethings that you are drawn to.
You're drawn to, let me have itall set up and then you jump in
.
Yeah, that's a great system foryou yeah, and it works for me.

Now it may not work for everyone, which is why,
like, anyone asks me like, oh,what cameras do I buy?
Like they want to copy me, andI'm like, hey, first of all,
please, I'm telling, I'mliterally start telling you on
this vlog exactly what I do, orthis podcast, please copy,
because it's not that whatdoesn't make my productions
anyone can buy equipment,especially now it's so cheap.
Like you know what I mean.
What, to me at least, felt likeI tell me I'm wrong, because

(01:36:14):
you know it's hard to internallyreflect is because, to me, my
image is my image, because thesettings I'm choosing, the frame
I'm choosing all that and theso if I've already chosen that,
that's how it's mine, and so I'mvery hyper, obsessed over that
and the look, the feel, thestorytelling, because at the end

(01:36:34):
of the day, that's what we'redoing, right.
We're just telling a story orwe're telling the message that
the client wants to tell.
So if, um, I want to tell ithow I would tell it, which would
be different than you.
Telling it doesn't mean one isright.
But when they're hiring me,they've looked at my examples,
they know this is what I can, Ican do.
They want that type of storytold, right, like all these

(01:36:55):
clients are like we love bendervendors, the best, hey, which
put the hair, but they don'tmean that we have the best
images or we have the bestcamera or we have the best light
or whatever.
Literally anytime you ask them,I'm like, oh, perfect, thank
you, I appreciate that.
What do you mean by that?
And they're always like oh,because the story, the messaging
or the whatever, like we lovethe end result.
Right, they're loving whateverstory that we're telling and

(01:37:17):
that story, being truth, is, atthis point, is captured by me,
told by julie.
That is the final.
So no video goes out until Ihave, visually, you know,
confirmed look and julie'sconfirmed the editing.
It is what makes a bindra video.
Bindra video.
I've tried numerous othereditors, numerous other shooters

(01:37:37):
where I give them freedom andit doesn't look like my video
and I think that's what clientsare expecting.
And, at the end of the day,it's easy for me because, like I
said, it's very easy for me tojust know at this point I don't
have to think about it the lookI want and I'm, I'm saying and
now from your side, dp side, Ithink it's a lot easier when I'm

(01:37:57):
like here's the package, here'swhat you need.
It makes it a lot easier for youto succeed in what you're
succeeding in because at the endthey, you know, you did what,
what was expected of you, and ifyou had less work means you
have more time to focus on whatyou needed to focus on, which
was to be creative and get usthe shots that we needed right
those are where I think theeffort should go into thinking

(01:38:21):
of those things.

Yeah, client perception is propaganda because
, like you said, so much gear isaccessible and it's usually not
the difference maker.
What is the difference maker isis not having a client who is
on set walk up to the camera andsay, oh, that's a big camera.

(01:38:43):
The client perception startsway back from the initial
outreach on the email.
How well did you communicate?
How effective were you to setup agreed upon expectations?
Did you arrive on time?
Were you wearing nice,presentable clothes?
Was your load-in process easyfor them?

(01:39:04):
Did they have to keep unlockingdoors to keep getting you back
in because you had to loop backfive times?
And then, if we're talkingabout the actual products on set
, the size of the camera is onepiece of the puzzle.
If I am, if you have this exactsetup where you have a big key

(01:39:25):
light right here, you have ahair light behind each of us on
boom stands um tripod, you havethe desk, you have the mics, I'm
not gonna think this is notgood.

If the camera was smaller, yeah, the whole thing
is part of it exactly, you saidit perfectly and the whole
overall experience and and, andit goes beyond the products that
you're using.
It's also the people, becauseif your, your, your crew is
talking about their girlfriendsor boyfriends or the fight they
had yeah, or the food they had.
You know, I don't know, it justtakes away from the experience.

(01:40:00):
Uh, rather, instead you shouldbe having fun with the client
and and it's.
It's okay to talk, but it's youknow, I don't know you should
talk about them and theirexperience or their company or
whatever I don't know.
Oh yeah, I think that that'slike conversational tactics.

One-on-one is is like I'm not just going to
talk about me, me, me, me, me.
I want to involve you and Iwant you to know that your take
is valid and it goes.
The client perception is moreso the client experience.
That is where all the value is,from start to finish.

(01:40:33):
And then, when you did finishthe job, how quickly did you
follow back up?
How quickly did they get thedeliverables?
Or was the footage uploaded?
Or did the invoice come laterthat week?
Or did it come four monthslater?
And now it's a huge issue forthem to go back into accounting
for jobs that had already beenclosed.
That's client perception.

And at the end day , we want people to look good.
So the gig that you did for me,clients loved you because we
executed it so well and at theend day, you looking good to the
client because you were upfront.
Remember, you're right therewith the CEOs or whoever the
main guys.
We're in the back right.
So your perception was myperception and you, looking good
, made me look good right.

(01:41:17):
And then the client goes oh wow,this is pretty cool.
We can like see live who'scoming or what's happening or
whatever on the screen.
And, like I said, I thinkthere's more to it.
But client perception isimportant.
Client experience is veryimportant.
There is nothing more importantuntil the deliverable Obviously
deliverable jumps everything,because that's why they hired

(01:41:38):
you.
But I'm saying, up until thepoint, you deliver the final
video and that's if you even dozero dp.
You may not always do that.
Um, I think the clientexperience is everything and as
a dp, that's like everythingbecause, again, that's all
they're judging you on.
You're not doing the post,you're not doing anything.
At least I have a way in post tomake look good, because if a

(01:41:59):
shot isn't good or whatever,we're shooting in log where, uh,
you know we have enough dynamicrange, we're using good lights,
that we have the ability to,I'm saying, fix some mistakes
that a cam op does.
But you don't even have that.
You're like what you'reshooting is what you're being
judged on.
So, as a dp, I think you shouldfocus even more on a client
experience, because that's allthey're judging you on.

(01:42:20):
And to me it's very importantwhen a camera operator shows up,
they know what they're doing,they get on the job and they're
not afraid to ask questions.
That, to me, is actually a goodtrait, because I'd rather you
ask me Vipul, are you sure Idon't need to do anything else?
Then just purposefully go andstart changing things just
because you're like I'll, I'mused to it versus I was.

(01:42:43):
I'm like no, no no, yeah, david,everything's that.
Just go do your thing right.
It's okay to ask questionsbecause at the end day, we're
all on the same team on theproduction company side and then
on the client side.
You need to come across as theexpert and if you're asking 500
questions and they may go uh,who did I hire?
Why am I paying this much?
It doesn't matter how big theequipment is right so it's the

(01:43:05):
overall thing.
I think big camera is could be apart of it, but it's not the
most important part of it it's.
It's maybe very, very tinyparts, so you could rather have
a small camera.

As long as everything else is good, then
the camera size doesn't matteryeah, and I will have comments
on the youtube videos that wouldsay um, you know, an fx6 or
something is not required forthis.
Uh, you could do it with thisand this.
And it's like, yeah, some ofthe decisions are made for my
benefit.
I don't want to screw, screw onND filters because I'm losing

(01:43:38):
time and they might be over inmy bag over there and I don't
have them with me, so some of itis for me, the other part of it
Plus they always have a colorcast.

I don't care what this is, it's two polarizers.
You cannot make it withoutcolor casting.

With a yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So the difference is when theproduction requires a certain
level of product.
That's even better.
I don't have to make anydecisions.
If you are freelancing, therewill be so many times where your

(01:44:12):
product choices are notincluded.
The products have already beenchosen by the pre-production.
That was done earlier.
You are being given this camerato operate Okay.
So does that have anything todo with client perception?
No, this was already apre-discussed decision and it

(01:44:32):
has nothing to do with someonefrom the client side coming over
and saying, oh, that's prettycool, that's impressive.
Yeah, yeah, thank you.
It's the level that thisproduction scope required.
So if you are in that level ofjob where the tools are being
required, this tool is beingrequired, this tool is being

(01:44:55):
required, right?
If you are below that, which Iwould say I typically am, then
it's what works best for me.
If I can charge for it, thatwould be great, but I'm going
towards what makes my jobeasiest to complete, and a lot
of times it's this tool or thattool.

And that is the perfect, I think, way to invest
in gear or even just choose thetools that are right for the job
, not because a certain YouTubertold you or a certain way you
feel about it, because at theend day, you know we're just
trying to.
It's like you know.
Let's say, you're building ahouse.

(01:45:37):
You know you pick the besthammer.
You don't pick a hammer becauseit's a certain brand.
That would be silly.
You know, just pick the besttool and as long as you pick the
best tool, that will help youachieve that final result.
I think that's all that matters.

I have had an analogy that I've used like that
before, where if the plumberwas being called for a leak in
the sink and he was spending allhis time telling you about how
this press it wrench is thestrongest, yeah, and it's shiny,
and it's plated and it's nevergoing to break a rust, and the

(01:46:14):
client's listening, watching theleak continue to leak and
they're like I don't care.
Yeah, just fix the leak.
Watching the leak continue toleak and they're like I don't
care.

Yeah, just fix the leak, Just fix the leak.

That's why you're here.
No, no, no.
There is still some clientperception on that side, if,
let's say, he pulled up in ajunker van With a G arrested.
Yeah, like a really I'd be likeis your business not successful,
meaning your work is notsuccessful?
Now I feel a little uneasy.
Same reason a real estate agentwould show up in a nice car

(01:46:44):
part of the client perceptionbut it's not make or break.
And there are clients who willlean more to one side.
They are saying, no, I want himto show up with the nice
production van, I want it to dothis and this and this because
that's the level of operationthat we are comfortable working

(01:47:09):
with.
And then there are others whoare saying we are very
deliverable focused.
That's where our conversationstarts and ends deliverable,
focused um we are.

That's where our conversation starts and ends.
That's why I pick your toolsthat help you deliver better
deliverables and better clientexperience, because that's, I
think, the key at the end of theday.
I don't think nothing elsematters.
The rest is, I think, in ourhead.
Uh.
But also I want you to talkabout the power of youtube
because, in the end, here's whatI'll tell you.
It changed my perspective, soyou, so you know, having done
that, like I said, I had done itwhat?

(01:47:40):
Four or five years when you didmy first job, and that was the
first time somebody blogged perse on my gig, and it was so
interesting to seeing it back,the first one.
Now I'm kind of I've seenenough, but like the first time
I saw it, it was such aninteresting, interesting
perspective I'd never seen andit changed my view.

(01:48:01):
Before then I was like, oh,youtube is fine, everyone should
make YouTube, but that's cool.
But then I saw it and I waslike, oh, this is because I was
seeing the gig from myperspective right, like what I
planned out, this is what I want, this is how I want to go.
And then, when it did, perfectmove okay, next, I'm already
thinking next gig.
But then when I saw your vlog,it put me in your perspective
and you're seeing like, oh, thisis how I need to make a
transition, this is why I'malready thinking next gig.
But then, when I saw your vlog,it put me in your perspective
and you're seeing like, oh, thisis how I need to make a
transition, this is why I'mgetting the shot and this is

(01:48:22):
what I'm doing.
And it just was like this iswonderful.
I didn't even know this.
All this thought process wasgoing into making this so
incredible.
So it was great to see you knowhow you helped.
You know make bring that eventalive.
But also, I was never out there, if you remember where we did
the b-roll and everything.
So to see what was evenhappening out there, I would

(01:48:43):
have never known, right, I wasjust like, you know, here you go
and man, oh, like, just goexecute and you did great.
But I wouldn't have known whatwas happening out there, how you
guys were making decision, howyou were getting the sound bites
all of that went into.
Uh, you know you executing howyou did.
But to be able to see that notonly made me, like I said trust.

(01:49:04):
The way we built trust is likethat, because I was like, oh, I
see how David made decisions andthat is exactly how I want
somebody to be making decisions.
So, anyway, it opened my eyes.
Like you know, everyone who'sdoing it, this high level should
be making this content becausehow much more work they would
get.
Because, trust me, the amountof people I've had trouble with
getting interviews bitessimplest thing to get they

(01:49:27):
struggle with because they don'tknow the questions or they get
awkward or or the bites that weget are not right, versus with
somebody like you, at your level.
They're what we want right atthe end date.
That's.
All that matters is that we getthe content from a production
company side that we want, and Icould see those decisions.
So how many people I'm likelook, go, look david's vlog,
learn what he was doing at thethis gig so you can do the same

(01:49:51):
thing, because you have to thinkthat way.

That was the coolest thing is you.
You.
You said, hey, we got anothergig, uh, like to bring you in.
And I said I'm booked.
I really wish I could, and itwas cool to hear later that you
said so.
I just sent the new guy yourvlog and said this is exactly
what you're gonna have to do.
Prep yourself like they're notprep yourself, but you.

You are going to be able to see exactly what is
going to be expected of you Idon't need to be telling you
like, go here here maybe once ortwice, but, like in the two
hour man, you, you got to beable to execute and to show your
perspective on like oh, I'mtired, now let me put on the
speaker.
It's still a good angle so Ican take a break, or whatever
things like that.
Somebody needs to be able tounderstand how they can take a

(01:50:33):
break.
Don't put the camera down righton the floor, like put it on an
angle or something so we canstill use it.
And that was so cool becauseyou know, I don't know, it was
just a lot easier to some gosomebody like watch this, yeah,
this is what I'm expecting ofyou and made it a lot easier
than having to explain that fromscratch.
And I may not even think ofthat, right, right, because I
wasn't in your position.

(01:50:54):
I was in my position at theback of the stage.

So yeah, that is an unexpected benefit that is
just added to the laundry listof unexpected benefits of doing.
YouTube so I would recommendYouTube if you enjoy it.
I have a lot of people who sayI need to get on, that I'm

(01:51:18):
trying to do some vlogs too, andblah, blah, blah.
I'm just getting backlogged andI don't have time for it and
I'm like if you wanted to do it,you would do it, or you're
trying to make it way toodifficult.
So it's either one of the two.
Either your expectations forthis are you're like I got to do

(01:51:39):
the perfect setup with thetalking head in my YouTube and
then I'm going to go throughB-roll and then I'm going to
edit this all together and it'sgoing to be a beautiful piece,
and that level of production isslowing you down because you
don't have time for that.
That's one, and then the otherone is you're just not drawn to
it.
So I think both of those arewrong.

(01:52:06):
If you might be drawn to doingthe high-level production piece
on YouTube, and that's fine, butyou just have to understand
where your level of wanting todo that is and what that means
for how frequent you're going toupload.
Just know that if I had to openup a computer and offload

(01:52:26):
footage and then open up atimeline, I'm never doing it.
I'm never getting to that, soyou have to do it the way you do
it on your cell phone.
And I like it.

In the past.
Like I said, uh, thanks forputting me to cranky camber man.
I had seen his videos becauseyou know I looked up like
production man or whatever Iremember seeing him and then, uh
, you know, like going back tonow, following all these, I was
like, oh, I know this guy thanksto your vlogs.
I was like, well, let me followhim on a regular basis and it's
so great to be able to seesomebody else's thought process.

(01:52:59):
And if that means the only waythey can do that is with a cell
phone, I don't mind, because Iknow how to make good images and
I know this person knows how tomake good images.
I'm not judging you on thequality of the vlog.
I'm judging you on what you'regoing through, what you're
learning, or this whole thingabout the retainer model, or or,
um, you know how you're solvingyour your bag problem or

(01:53:21):
whatever any of these randomthings, because I'm going
through the same thing, you know, or it's just pure
entertainment.

I'm driving, you know, to miami, or whatever,
and this is the perfect I Iwouldn't expect the quality of
your vlog to be as good as thequality of the work that you're
producing on a job.
That would make no sense.
Yeah, because that means you'redetracting from one side.
So, as long as your job'sfulfillments are getting

(01:53:51):
satisfied, I don't care what thedocumentation looks like.
Yeah, exactly, and I would hopethat your documentation would
not detract in any way from thejob you're getting paid for.
Now, if, if you are like I, Ionly want to put myself out on
YouTube with polished lookingpieces, it's, that's fine,

(01:54:15):
that's fine.
However, you are able to dothat with whatever frequency you
know.
It's just the equation.
Are you able to like?
If you had it here, thatactually would be very easy?
Yeah, because it's already setup.
Because it's automated.
If you don't have this set up,it might take a long time to set
up every time and that mightdeter you the next time from

(01:54:37):
doing it, because you're likeit's going to take an hour yeah,
then I could actually do thething and then I have to break
down and then I have to edit.

Yeah, so it's like the tour video.
So last I used to have atrailer set up right before the
van, believe it or not.
I filmed it and by the time Iedited it and did the a-roll for
it.
It took me a year.
Most of my trailer setup lookedcompletely different when I did
that video.
So this time we just shot thevideo for the van.
I literally gave it to someone.
I was like, okay, you edited.

(01:55:04):
Now does that make me uneasybecause they're making me say
and do things that you know Iwouldn't probably choose because
you know I'm the one on frontof the camera.
But I was like it'll never getdone because if I have to sit
here, do a roll, make sureeverything is correct, because
you know I'm sure I said inthings incorrect in the moment,
uh, it'll never get done.
So I'd rather somebody just comein and edit it and get it out,

(01:55:26):
and that works for me.
So I think it's also pickingwhat's best for you.
Yeah, because for you works isbeing on your cell phone so you
can, because you can then do it.
You're not waiting to transferthis footage, putting on a
timeline, and if that for methat means having somebody else
edit it, I think at the end theyjust get the content out there.
People want to see it and ifyou're not making it, people

(01:55:47):
aren't seeing it so getting itmade is the key then, uh, all
this hyper focused things thatwe get on, uh, but to me, to be
real at the end day, like I said, is the thing that opened me is
perspective of, um, you know,seeing it because it makes you
better and I think if you canhelp other people be better,
then why not?

(01:56:08):
because, just the this.
The another one that was reallygood for me to watch was the
the one you did for jacksonville, because I do so many talking
heads, literally sometimes, likeI said, 10 in a day, one after
the other.
We haven't done a talking headoutside of that one.
I mean, I guess we did that one.
But point is so I've soperfected this talking head

(01:56:28):
setup but I never see it fromthe outside perspective.
So going to Jacksonville andsetting up a talking head, then
seeing your perspective on how Iwas doing it Because I PA'd on
it yeah.

Yeah, just so they have context.

Yeah so you were there and it was for Adam at the
Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium,right, and what I loved was
funny enough.
You were showing how my setupwas and I'm just looking.
Oh, I could change that.
Oh, I could change that, but Inever saw it from that
perspective because I'm so hyper, so hyper focused, so this
works for me.
But then I was like, oh, biggerpicture, why did we do this?
Why did we do that?

(01:57:00):
Why?
Why did we have that?
So I'm saying that and thathelped me improve my, and I was
like I would have been able todo that sooner had I already
been documenting that, or havingsomebody document me, because I
do talking.
It's literally all day.
Every day I'm about to do one,like I said after this.
Okay so, but I never got thatperspective until I saw your
vlog.

I was like oh, yeah, you know there's okay.
There's a couple things that Iwant to touch on, um.
One was your original questionwas you know what is the benefit
of doing youtube was the impact.
And one it's very fun.
I, I really, really enjoyputting up a video, making a fun

(01:57:40):
title, putting up the thumbnailand just seeing the views go up
or seeing the views go down andbeing like I wonder why.
And then talking to a bunch ofpeople.
I have, like now, consistentconversations with the same
people in the comments every nowand then, or sometimes I feel
like it's the same people in thecomments every now and then, or
sometimes I feel like it's thesame people in the comments, but
then, like, the views are goingup, the subscribers are slowly

(01:58:03):
going up and I'm like, oh,there's actually way more people
who know about this now than acouple months ago.
Um, there's a financial side toit.
It's uh, it's notgroundbreaking but it's welcomed
.
Yeah, like a couple extrahundred bucks a month from uh me
doing something that I alreadyenjoy doing.
You know some uh, affiliatelink money.

(01:58:26):
Uh, amazon is like 175 a month.
Bnh is like two to threehundred, um, and, and I think
there's one more.
But oh, youtube itself is abouttwo to three hundred and it's
like, yeah, that's, that's greatyeah, put it in my bank account
.

(01:58:46):
That's great yeah, um.

So not only are you getting money from just gigs
, you're also making otheraffiliate revenue yeah, sources
yeah, and I don't do too many uhaffiliates with like companies
um yeah, no, I try to offer you,even though, like I said,
there's no revenue in it.
I was like, okay, so I want toshare this messaging with a lot
more people because, like I said, my whole thing was I don't

(01:59:08):
want to peddle anything here, soit doesn't really make sense,
uh, to make roi from this.
But I was like I want maximumamount of people to hear this.
The podcast, yeah, the podcast,yeah.
So I was like, oh, the best waywould be your audience, because
they're filmmakers and maybethey'll benefit from this.
And I was like, oh, maybe Icould sponsor you something.
They're like oh, no, I don'tneed it.

I was like this is incredible you're saying no
to money because it's it's uhone.
You're a buddy.
I don't mind just showing somestuff.
This is very organic.
I'm coming here anyways.
So, like I said, I would liketo do some type of like tour
studio with you, or or grip fantour yeah.

(01:59:46):
Studio tour or grip fan tour, orjust mention it whatever.
Just you know, once there'sexpectations from a client,
which is what you would becomeLike, I don't like this.
Yeah, I don't want any type oflike oh, that's not what I was
expecting and actually can we dochanges?

(02:00:07):
I thought you would be likethat.

I was just like do whatever, here's some money.

Yeah, I'd rather just yeah, just do it for
free, and it doesn't Just do itfor free and it's not an ad for
the person watching Because now, yeah, there's genuinely what
you say.

I want to see all the.

You have tons of gear here and I would like to
hear more info of.
I chose this, I chose that.
Why did I do this?
So, yeah, it's just, it's veryorganic.
And that is leading me to thenext one, which is the
connection and networkingopportunities that come with
YouTube.
Unexpected as well, I didn't doit to be like this will be a

(02:00:47):
network expanding proposition.
I feel like that is the wrongway to do any of the social
media platforms, Because nowthey're more so documentation.
It's let me jump into yourbrain to see how you see this
and that will give me insightfor how I see it.
And that's fun, it's organic,it's not a cell and um.

(02:01:11):
The networking opportunitiesthat come from it are also very
welcome, and some people want tohelp out, Some people want to
connect.
I do the consultation calls andthat was for people who were
like can I get like a deep diveon my situation to get more of

(02:01:33):
your insight?
Because I see your insight onwhat you're doing Can I get your
insight on what I'm doing?
I didn't think I was going tohave so much fun with those
Going into people's situationsand seeing you know how you
would solve it.

How would I?

solve it, Because what they're saying is
these are my puzzle pieces.
Like you're saying before, youmight have things about you that
could detract or help you in asituation.
So what are your puzzle pieces?
And a lot of times they'refocusing on the wrong things.
I'm not going to say that Iknow how to fix a solution for

(02:02:10):
every person, but I can give theinsight on what I see and, just
like you were saying for meproviding a vlog as an operator,
you didn't have that perceptionbefore, and now that helps you
hire the next guy.
So for the consultation calls,it's like I can tell you how I
see your situation and also Iknow quite a few people who have

(02:02:33):
done it different ways.
This is how it worked out forthem, good or bad.
The consultation calls arereally fun and it's just it's
growing more networking.
And then the filmmaker meetups,yeah, where it was very organic
um, but they've gonetremendously.

I mean, we're about to do one after this and
it's going to be what?
Like almost 40 people thereyeah, um, and I had to cap it
because I was like, because wecan't yeah, sold out extremely
fast.

And then I have guys around the US who are like
we've seen you do these meetups, can you do them over us, do
them over near us?
And I'm like, yeah, probably,maybe.
So I have New York as apotential I want to do.
I already have the guy lined up.
I have San Diego as potential.
I already got the guy lined up.

(02:03:20):
I have San Diego as potential,I already got the guy lined up.
And, um, chicago, uh, I havethe guy lined up.
He came from a consultationcall, so it's nice Cause.
I'm like, oh, I get to like seewho you are.
And then the other two peoplewere because they were putting
themselves out on YouTube andyou are partnering with them or
you can partner with them.
I can yeah, because I am seeinghow they present themselves on

(02:03:42):
YouTube in a very you know,clear, not polished way.
So I say, oh, that's who youare as a person, that's who you
are, but no one would beconnected if none of us put
ourselves out there.
Exactly.

And I'm so glad you did that because I'll tell
you from an outside perspectivehow much your meetup helped me.
So number one thing for me isI'm a very you know, like you
said hyper-focused, hyper-videoguy, and you know we think a
certain way.
But then a lot of part of beinga filmmaker is you feel lonely
because you go, oh, you know,people around me are business

(02:04:18):
owners and they think abouttheir problems and nobody's
thinking about the problems thatI'm having, or so sometimes you
know, before in the past I'msaying in like 2022, for example
, I was like nobody else ishaving these problems.
Am I even legit to have theseproblems?
You know, right, you get intoyour head and then so it's
incredible to know 30, 40 otherpeople locally in your area

(02:04:39):
because now you can bounce offideas and you go, oh, I'm not
the only one, hundreds of otherpeople, or at least tens of
other people around me arehaving these similar issues or
whatever.
So and then so it gives youresource to bounce your ideas
off of, but also makes you feel,you know, not alone.
Because you're not alone.
It's just we feel that waybecause my clients are other

(02:05:01):
companies, not video peopletypically, so I'm not
surrounding myself with videopeople and when I'm hiring them
we come to do a collective taskand we go away.
We don't get to sit andstrategize business strategies.
But now, through yournetworking, I've been able to
meet enough people who are doingat a similar level as me so we
can sit and talk strategy.
Or just in that North Carolinagig it was so fun that we were

(02:05:22):
able to sit down and just talkand understand what your
perspective was on the wholeretainer thing.
Yeah, we had a drink in front ofthe fireplace, exactly, I know,
and it was so cool and I wouldhave done that had I not been to
your network, hadn't openedmyself to come help adam because
, like I said, he needed helpwith gear and then also, um,
stills, which again, normally Iwouldn't do it, but for adam I

(02:05:45):
would.
I was like, hey, this is a goodopportunity for us to hang out
and help him, why not?
Even though I think you evenasked me.
You're like so how does it feel, uh, where you're not, you know
either leading, or whatever andI was like weird, but in a way
good, because I'm learning.
I'm like, how would David solvethis?
And this is incredible to learnbecause if I just kept doing
things my way, it may not alwaysbe right.

(02:06:08):
So the point I'm trying tobring is your simple vlogs and
meetup helped a lot.
And now again, I don't want tosay I'm giving lifetime income,
but five, six grand for 10people is 50 grand of additional
revenue that I put into thegroup.
Yeah, that I wouldn't haveotherwise.
That's a lot of money that justI'm putting.

(02:06:28):
And then, uh, what I was ableto make off, like I said, from
adam, uh, because he's like themain one I helped from your
group.

Um, so, you know, point is the money flow
towards me money flew out fromme which wouldn't have happened
had you not done what you did.
It's a very cool activation of acommunity where I don't need to
have my hands in everything,but I can activate it.
I can have people like you whoare hiring other people, people

(02:06:56):
like Adam who are hiring people,and it's very cool from my
perspective to know that I had alittle bit to do with that.
I did bring certain peopletogether at certain meetups who
created much longer, deeperrelationships than I had with
them and it's working great forthem and I really like that

(02:07:18):
networking aspect of it.
So there's cities I want to doit in the US.
There's cities I want to do itinternationally, in Europe.
There is a business retreatidea that I want to implement,
maybe this year, where I bringyou probably film these and I

(02:07:39):
film these too, where you gofilm a mastermind somewhere.
Yeah, business retreat,whatever you want to call it,
I've been wanting to do that forso long.

Maybe I'll do because I'm lazy.
I think about it, but I haven'tdone it so maybe I'll join
yours.

Well, we got to get you on a surfboard, like I
told you.

Oh, I don't know, because that's how we're
different.
See, we're similar.

But then I'm like water and me are not, not.
So my, my idea is let me gotowards the things I like.
Yeah, right, that's where myaction will be.
Yeah, I will have inaction onthe things I don't like.
What do I want to do?
I want to talk with my buddieswho has businesses and get
really into the weeds, just likewe're doing now, um, and I want
to have some conversations thatspark new ideas that I haven't

(02:08:25):
had before or I need moreclarification on.
But I want to do it in asmaller setting compared to the
filmmaker meetups, um, so if Ibring a couple of guys who like
to surf and we can do it in asurf location and I can have
these education sessions in themorning and then these breakout

(02:08:45):
sessions later and maybe acouple surf sessions in between
team building exercise, if youwant to call it Like I film
these things for other people,so I can do this myself.
I need to ask my CPA.

What's the tax?
How possible?

is this.
But, like I said, othercompanies are doing this and
they are benefiting from itbecause they are circulating
ideas by putting people together, and I would love to do the
same thing.
So that is another level up inthe networking and connection
that has come from YouTube thatI would love to do the same
thing.
So that is another level up inthe networking and connection
that has come from YouTube thatI would never have expected

(02:09:25):
would have come from YouTube,because YouTube has actually
made me more of an extrovertedperson in a cheat way, because
my extrovertedness is actuallyme talking to a phone.
So it happens to be seen bydifferent people, but my

(02:09:47):
comfortability is like I don'twant too many people around.
I don't want to feel like Ihave to direct the circus, which
is why when I have thesemeetups like we're going to go
to today, I did set it up, butyou found the venue.
John ruse is going to talkabout how he uses automations to
scale his company.
We're going to have a 30 minuteQ and a on that.

(02:10:09):
You are demoing your grip vanand a lot of people, I think,
would like to see what is in agrip van.
And then you're sponsoring thepizza.
Yeah, people, I think, wouldlike to see what is in a grip
van and then you're sponsoringthe pizza.
Yeah, I think we should havebeer there.
We haven't confirmed yet.
Yeah.

But I think we should.

We should.
So I didn't have to do thatmuch.
Yeah, you just brought, Ibrought the people together,
which has its own value.
And if I can find other peoplelike yourself, like John, like
the studio owner, who are like,yeah, I would like to be
involved in something happeningand it takes a lot of the
workload off of me and I canenjoy it too.

Yeah, by the way, we're going to have John for a
two hour on the podcast, episode19.
I hate to be pitching it, butpeople need to listen full how
to fully automate what he'sgoing to talk about.
We're going to have him also onthe podcast talking two to
listen full how to fullyautomate what he's going to talk
about.
We're going to have him also onthe podcast talking two hours
fully about how to scale yourbusiness.

I think that's going to be a very valuable one
because when I'm was moving toorlando I don't know how I
connected with him, but I didand I was freelancing for him
doing some real estate photo andvideo and drone and I was very
impressed at how he was runninghis business.
I think he's roughly my age and, um, he is going to.

(02:11:27):
He's on the short list ofpeople that I want to bring out
to that.
Yeah, this business, surfer treeoh, look at that and and, uh, I
think he has a ton of knowledge, and there's so many people
around me that I didn't knowexisted, that have this
knowledge that now I'm gettingaccess to in a reciprocal way,

(02:11:47):
exactly because he's doingsomething different.

We're all trying to go to the same journey, but
we're following different pathsand I think it's important for
people to hear from differentideas, from people who it worked
for.
You can find what works for you.
And what's crazy, david, we'repast our time and I can't
believe it's already been twohours, because I could freaking
keep talking to you for hours.
We didn't even touch half thetopics in my brain, but that's

(02:12:12):
what happens, right, we can dothis forever and ever.
So, before we go, tell peoplewhere they can find you Anything
.

Last thoughts you want to add yeah, you can
find me on YouTube, just searchmy name, david Moorfield.
And yeah, last thoughts wouldjust be I enjoy going towards
the things that I'm alreadygravitating towards and I find
that it inspires inspires memore, it makes me feel more

(02:12:39):
productive because I like to doit, and there's a lot of
unexpected benefits that come.
So, whether that's for me, foryou, for who, whoever is
watching, um, if you lean thatdirection, I think you will get
more progress and think.

For me, the biggest thing I want to tell
people is if it's right for you,it's not for everyone.
Like I said, I couldn't do ablog, so I'm doing podcasts.
But put yourself out there,share your ideas, share your
problems.
You'd be amazed how it not onlyhelps you, but it'll help other
people around you.
And the most important thing isnetworking, and this is one of

(02:13:20):
the best way to reach otherpeople.
Um, I don't know.
Like I said you're, you're justsimple.
Vlogs and meetups havefacilitated so much indirectly,
just for me, and I'm just onepiece of that puzzle, you know.
So I can only imagine the grand, grand impact that you've had
from such a you know small thingthat you've done.

(02:13:41):
That's part of your you know,because it's not what you do for
work.
So it's incredible.
I just recommend people putthemselves out there and reach
out to other people, because younever know where it leads up.

I agree.
Yeah, my favorite quote thatI've seen keep using more and
more and more is just actionbrings action.
The more things that happen,the more things that connect you
to more things that arehappening.

Well, David, I appreciate you.
Sir, Thank you, we're going todefinitely have you back in
season two.
Thank you for listeningeveryone.
It was fun.

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On Purpose with Jay Shetty

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Freelancing & YouTube Hacks to Build a 6-Figure Creative Business

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

The Breakfast Club

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

Freelancing & YouTube Hacks to Build a 6-Figure Creative Business

On Purpose with Jay Shetty