From Corporate Grind to $300K Filmmaker—The Business Strategies That Paid Off

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vipul Bindra (00:04):
Adam, thank you for coming.
I've been looking forward tothis one man.
Thank you for taking the timeout of your schedule and showing
up as we were talking.
You know the point of this is.
I mean, I've been talking withyou for years about this.
I wanted to.
You know, we have incredibleconversations together and I was
like it'd be so cool to recordthese and share with people,
because it's knowledge afterknowledge after knowledge,

(00:25):
because we're I feel like we'rejust talking mostly about
business and strategies and, youknow, growing our craft and
growing, uh, our, um, ourrevenues, and a lot of people
listening could benefit from it.
I know I would even now talkabout years ago that could have
been game changer.
So, like I said, thanks forcoming and thanks for sharing or

(00:45):
what you're about to sharewe'll see.

Adam Kalinowski (00:47):
We're gonna find out everything.
Yeah, thanks for having me, man.
It's cool to see all theprogress you're making to learn
from you and, yeah, sharingaround thank you.

No, uh, you know, again I, like I said, I just
stumbled my way through.
I've been, I was doing videofor obviously years and finally
was like no, I gotta go all in.
And then, you know, couldn'tfind any resources or people
willing to, you know, share andhad to stumble my way through
where I am today.
Luckily, I can pay my bills, socan't complain, but you're one
of the few people, so whenpeople ask me, I'm happy to

(01:15):
share.
Right, and that's what I founda common trait when people were
successful, they were happy toshare and that helped a lot
eventually, when I finally didmeet those people.
But what's crazy is, then a lotof people will ask me hey, what
do I do?
And I'll tell them exactly whatI'm doing, like I don't hide
anything.
But then they don't do it andthey're like I'm not still
finding success.
I'll meet them a year or twolater.
You're one of the few peopleand I don't want to take any

(01:37):
credit, but what I say known younow what I think two years or
roughly and I've seen you growfrom small company to like huge,
and I think you've done it.
You've done everything.
Like every time I see you doingsomething, I'm like this is
exactly what I say people shoulddo to scale, and so, first of

(01:58):
all, I'm incredibly proud andhappy for you.
I mean to the point you hire menow.
I mean I can't complain and.
But but tell me, tell me yourprocess.
So I want to know is what madeyou do this and how have you
been able to do everything rightand scale so much faster than
most people?

Yeah, I mean I'll I wouldn't say I do
everything right.
Definitely there's a lot morethat could be done and could be
done better, but I think, likewe, like you mentioned, just
learning from other people,seeing what other people are
doing, imitating that and justtrying to make the best
decisions along the way to.
I know it's super vague andwe'll probably dive into it, but

(02:37):
yeah, we got plenty of time.
Yeah, Just just watching otherpeople succeed, asking the
questions, taking the time tolisten and actually hear them
out, hear their process, whenthey're willing to share.
You know, sometimes peoplearen't willing to share and then
actually acting on it like justtakes discipline, and that's
something that I'm constantlyworking on.

(02:57):
I am nobody perfect.
I'm not doing everything perfecthere, but I try to be
disciplined and actually takingthe action, making the decisions
.
That's something I've beentalking to a lot of people about
lately and trying to get betterat like making decisions, like
educated decisions, but a littlebit quicker so that you can
move.
Like move, take action and theniterate, iterate, iterate Act,

(03:21):
like a startup, right?

So yeah, you can move faster.
Yeah, Iterate, iterate, iterateAct like a startup right.

So yeah, you can move faster.
Yeah, that's exactly themindset I'm trying to take.
That is so much harder thanjust saying it, you know.

Yeah especially with, you know, a wife and a kid
at home.
You got to be able to make theright decisions because you
can't risk it right.
You can't make a terribledecision and go oh I fucked up,
you know.

Yeah, I mean, and just being an analytical
person that likes to thinkthrough things and I think you
like to think through things alot too I know several of our
colleagues too that have thatsame kind of little bit quicker
than maybe what I would becomfortable with and learn.

So give us an example I want to know a real
world example of that where youthought you made a decision
slower than you could have.

Oh, well, one of the biggest ones was starting
my company.
You know like if I look back tothe very beginning, I waited,
waited, waited.
I thought about it and I don'tnecessarily regret that because
I worked within a corporatemarketing department.
I got a lot of good experiencethere.
I got on my feet in the worldafter school and um.
But I I look back and then,after I started it and in my

(04:40):
first year, you know, had great,great success within the first
year, I went into that firstyear thinking, all right, how
much do I have in my savings andhow how long can I last without
making a dollar?
Cause, this I'm gonna not makeanything here.
Um, that's how, like, worked up.
I guess I got up about this.
The decision to like start myown business, uh, jump out of

(05:00):
that full-time nine to five role, um.
And then I had great successand I was like, shoot, what if I
did this sooner and justlearned a little bit quicker?
I can't say that would havebeen ideal or it was the wrong
decision to wait, but I thinkmaybe I could be a little bit
further along, um, had I madethat decision a little bit

(05:21):
quicker.
So that's, just one example oflike I guess maybe I could just
move a little bit faster.
I still, it's a.
It's a tough decision.
It's a big decision to jumpfrom that kind of nine to five
role into a like I was mostlyfreelancing to start and then
some of my own projects, but, um, that is one example.
And then, going into now, it'slike, do we try this like

(05:45):
marketing strategy or what's mybusiness strategy with this
client this year?
And I will sit and think aboutit, think about it, think about
it, learn, try to learn, andthat's good stuff.
But in all that time I have torecognize that I'm not doing it
during that time.
So I may be missing out onsomething.
I may be missing out on the,the, the learning that happens

(06:06):
from just doing it, and maybethat's a little bit quicker path
to success than, um, thinkingabout it for so long.

Yeah, Um, so that makes sense.
That's great what you say,because, uh, and I also think,
uh, and tell me if I'm wrong butI do think you have an inherent
advantage compared to otherpeople, and especially me,
because a lot of people who dothis are filmmakers first, like
we start.
You know, I love to create andI would be doing this anyway if
it was free, right, and it's notjust my thought process,

(06:34):
everyone is.
We were just trying to make apassion into a job, and business
was something we had to learnor having to force to learn.
But you know, you don't havewhat we call gas gear
acquisition syndrome.
I find that you're, you know,obviously my, my decisions are
still calculated, but on a waylike I have to have the latest
gear, no knowledge and allthat's a lot of my time and

(06:56):
energy spent on testing new gear, buying new gear, seeing how it
fits in my workflow.
But I feel like you are able tomake your purchases.
Either don't make the purchasesor able to make them
efficiently, and that is helpingyou because you're not you're,
you can put business first overcreativity.
Not saying that your videos arenot creative, they're amazing,
but you know, you're, you'rebusiness first guy, and don't
you think?
I think that helps you be ableto make better decisions than

(07:18):
most filmmakers, because you'rethinking business first.

Yeah, I definitely think it is an
advantage to start.
There's definitely a littleartist within me too that loves
the visuals and the creativity.
But I got a marketing degree.
I worked in the marketingdepartment at a global business
and that shaped who I am too andwhere my foundation came from,
and I'm self-taught inphotography and videography and

(07:45):
all that.
So I realized pretty quickly,as I was trying to build my
business and do better for myclients, that there's so many
people out there that are betterthan me at video, photo,
everything creative.
And that's not to say that Iwant to just give it all up and
let somebody else do all my workbecause I know you'll have a

(08:07):
comment on this but sittingbehind the desk and being just
the logistics coordinator ofshoots is kind of what a
producer is, but it kind ofsucks if that's all you do.
So I have very much input intothat, but yes, I just recognize
that there's people that when Ibring them in and let them do
what they're best at and whatthey're hyper focused on and

(08:27):
specialized in, it's even betterfor the clients, we get even
better results.
And yeah, man, that's no.

And that's exactly what I was talking about.
You doing the right thingbecause the way to scale and I
learned this very quicklybecause, you know, I was a
freelancer for a while too and Ihave a nine to five pretty
pretty similar and then, as soonas I made a jump, oh, I'm going
to be a production company Iwas very business minded.
I knew day one no, it's goingto be bigger than me and for me
to make good content I had to bethe director, the producer,
right.
So for years I scaled thecompany very large, but I was

(08:58):
the director, producer, and mylove is starts with you know
camera sound, you know makinggood images.
But I had to step back.
I have to hire the right peoplewith the right tools to make
that happen.
And what happened with me wasand it's funny exactly pretty
much when we met that's why Iwas even part of that meetup I
had like strict rule no, we edit, we shoot, we don't even ever
give you raw footage.

(09:19):
I don't care if it's a milliondollars Again, a million dollars
again.
Those are rules of change.
But at that time I was sostrict because I was building a
massive production company.
But then what ended uphappening is I ran out of steam.
Because now I'm like, thereason I do this is because I'm
a passionate filmmaker and I'mnot getting to be a passionate
filmmaker because I can't actlike a dp.
I can't just come here and makebeautiful image and go home.

(09:39):
Right, let somebody else worryabout the roi, the, the, you
know, the, the stuff that wewere worrying about in the
interview or whatever.
And, uh, you know making theclient, the, the video that will
make them the money.
And uh, and I was like thiscan't go on, I have to make
changes.
But at the same time I knew, ifI go to day rate, simple
business strategy, whatever yourday rate is, let's say you pick

(10:00):
thousand bucks a day times 365days in a year, and that who's
working every day?
But let's say you can, uh,that's your ceiling, right, you
can make 365k a year and that'sit.
There is no scalability, right?
Um, plus you're, you're gonnabe exhausted working that many
days, your family's gonna hateyou.
So, anyway, that was at leastthe rut that I was going through

(10:22):
.
I was like, uh, what do I do?
I don't want to go back to dayrate.
And then, the best decisionever.
And, funny enough, like I said,we met the same time.
I remember being at the David'smeetup, the first meetup,
because I just wanted to hireDavid.
I was just asking to meet himand he's like well, I'm busy,
blah, blah, blah, which at firstI was like dude.
I'm trying to pay you, but okay,but I'm doing this meetup and I

(10:43):
was like you know what I needto get out of my comfort zone,
because normally, being realwith you, I would have been like
, eh, you know what, I'm justtrying to pay you.
I just wanted to hire a C70 camop, right, that's how I even
found out about him.
But then I was like you knowwhat I should do that?
And I'm because, like I said,that's where I met you and a
bunch of other people I ended uphiring.
And that's how, you know, ourjourney started.

(11:06):
I think I hired you and I hiredDavid and then he couldn't be
available.
I think he told me to, herecommended me and obviously I
knew you.
I was like, plus, I trust hisopinion.
And then you hired me and youknow, rest is history.
But the point is and you've beena great part in that, so, and
you've been great part in that,so making that decision and then
obviously I've been able to,you know, help you on your

(11:27):
shoots has been great, becausenow I'm running my production
company, doing making good money, making revenue, helping
clients like I want to, but thenI have the side of me where I
can go on your shoot, like I wastalking about that dc shoot,
where I can go in, I can makegood images, have fun, come home
.
I'm not worried about roi, I'mnot worried about any of the
business side of it, and becausethat is important, but I have

(11:47):
you worrying about that, that'swhy you're making the big bucks.
So anyway, so, so, so, yeah, soI completely, uh see the other
side of it, where it it helpedme.
So at this point my company islike okay, so I have my
production company, but I'mhelping buddies out.
It wasn't just you I also had afew other buddies I helped
projects out on and it was thebest time of the year because I
was being creative and a balanceof both is the right approach,

(12:10):
at least for me.
So, coming back to you, do youthink?
Obviously you're, you're,you're not that far into it, so
burnout, I think, is far awayright now, but do you think
you'll a ever have that burnoutand b?

do you see doing something like that where,
where I was, and going back toa balance thing like yeah, no, I
mean, I've already acceptedthat that's probably the best
thing is, uh, to have thatbalance between freelancing,
doing some stuff, or on boots onthe ground yeah, I still am
boots on the ground, um, whetherI'm a camera op, you know
directing interviews or whateveron on a lot of my shoots, um,

(12:42):
but but yeah, that balance is ispretty key to like staying
interested and also continuingto build your skills on set.
You know, whether that's being acamera op or working sound,
your lighting skills, whateverit is.
Um, that balance a hundredpercent I'm.
I'm doing that as well.
So there's I.
I haven't done the math onexactly what portion of my work

(13:03):
is like me freelancing, jumpingin on a set for you or with
david, or whoever yeah?
um versus like my projects.
It's probably like 80 20 likemy projects, 20 freelancing,
maybe even less um.
But yeah, I definitely thinkit's important to have some of
that balance between those twoso you don't get burnt out, like

(13:24):
I said, just being the deskdesk guy at home and never
getting out, because I meanthat's that's part of the fun,
too with being a productioncompany is getting out, being on
the set, seeing the images cometogether, help and create them,
collaborate with people on setum, and seeing it come together
for me better than I ever coulddo on my own.
So I definitely like to stillget out now.

(13:44):
Having a family, having a babyat the end of last year and all
of that it's, it's now.
I got to think a little bitharder on how I balance that out
and when I can actually go dofreelance stuff and travel and
all that.

So, especially those early years, man, they're
the, they're key to theirpersonality and and just overall
, that's when you're needed themost too, cause you know, once
they get a little older, it'sokay to step away for a project
or two here and there, cause Ido that.
But yeah, definitely theseearly years are very critical.
Uh.
So how was it?
Uh, I want to know, like, howhas the first Christmas been?

(14:21):
First Thanksgiving, you'rehaving everything's first right,
first New Year's, so how's?

it going.
It's crazy, man.
It's been great.
It's been better than I couldhave ever expected.
Everybody tells you how it'sgoing to be so terrible, you're
going to be so tired and so justburnt.
And yeah, you're tired somedays for sure.
I mean, I got to give a shoutout to my wife who's taking the
brunt of the not sleeping andfeeding him overnight.

To all the significant others we can do.
Like I said, it takes someonespecial to be behind a filmmaker
, you know, because we live andbreathe this, we have to do this
24-7 as entrepreneurs.
So it does take someone special, you know, to partner with us.

So yeah, yeah, and, man, my perspective changed
too.
Like you know, I just a lot ofthe time I just want to be there
and hang out with them, but I'malso passionate about the work
that I do and the business I'mbuilding Like it's.
Finding the balance betweenthose things is now like my
endeavor in figuring out how tonot miss out on either, which I
don't even know if that'spossible.

(15:21):
But, um, I think I'll be ableto do that through working with
people like you, working withother talented individuals and
building out Adam case studio tobe a little bit more
self-sufficient in certain areas.
I'll still hold the keys to youknow, key parts of it that that
I want to maintain and that Ithink uh might take a little
longer to pass on to otherpeople, but that's kind of where

(15:42):
, where I'm heading and that'sgoing to allow me to be a dad as
well as like an entrepreneur,exactly and you, you choose your
journey right, and that's thebest way to be an entrepreneur.

You, you surround yourself with the people where
you want to be, but then youchoose your own path because, at
the end of the day, uh, youwant to be happy, right, and and
uh, but that's, that's great,though, you're already thinking.
That's what I'm saying.
You're so young, you're, you're, um, you're already thinking
about, you know, how to be agood dad, you're thinking about
how to be an entrepreneur,you're thinking about how to be
a good husband, and you're doingit all at the same time.

(16:14):
I mean, come on uh hopefullynot.
But you know, I mean I got togive it to you and, funny enough
, that's what a lot of peoplehave told me.
It's so funny because I meansomehow because I guess they've
seen me on your shoots I'm likeyou know, they're like who's
this?
Adam guy?
He came out of nowhere, likeyou know, and then I'm like I'm

(16:34):
like, but no, he's doing great.
You know what I mean.
So that's great for you.
So explain to other people,because I want people to know
it's nothing crazy.
They can do it too, right.
I mean, like I said again, no,nothing taking away from your
success.
You worked hard.
I've seen it.
I've been boots on the groundfor you, you worked for me and I
know how hard you work.
But let's be real.

(16:55):
Anyone can do this right.
So I want to break it down forsomebody like, what did you do
and how can they do it?
I mean, I know it's a verybroad question, but answering
just your way, what did I do andhow did I do it um I?
I don't know if somebody comesto you today and they're like,
hey, I, I know my skill setbecause that's important.

(17:16):
Obviously you need to make goodvideos.
So they already figured it out.
They have zero revenue.
What did do and what would youtell them to do to get to where
you are?

One high level general thing would be block out
a lot of the noise.
What I mean by that is everyonetelling you all these different
things that you got to do onsocial media that you got to pay
for, and all these randomproducts services courses
agencies pay for, and all theserandom products, services
courses, agencies, all the stuffthat you got to pay for to to

(17:49):
get going.
Um, sit down, ignore all thatstuff and focus on what you want
to do create an offer and focus.
I I know this may not be thesame for everybody, but I'm
trying to kind of do things oldschool with handshakes and
coffees, like that's pretty muchthe way I like to go about it.

We think, but yeah .

I mean, I've just gotten the best return out
of doing that.
So that would be.
My advice is prioritizehandshakes and coffees Anytime
you can sit down with somebody,get in front of somebody, shake
their hand and chat with themand connect with them as a human
being first, and hear them outand be curious towards what they
do and who they are.
Um, I think that it justnaturally gets reciprocated and

(18:32):
that benefits you in the longrun.
I'm not saying be fake.
I'm saying don't think it hasto come from some crazy strategy
, social media plan or elaboratemarketing plan.
It can be as straightforward asyou want to grab a coffee and
nothing salesy in there, justchat, get to know them and then

(18:55):
you become a familiar face.
That's how I've grown mybusiness.
And it's by having coffees withpeople and then those people,
inevitably, are booked busy.
They need to pass somethingalong.
A friend asked for avideographer or a video
production company and you knowyou're top of mind because you

(19:16):
had a coffee the other month,yeah.

And and no, what you said is so incredible and
you said it very tiny in there,but it was very important Make
an offer, like you have to havesomething to offer them, uh, but
obviously go in with nothing,you know, in mind.
Right, you're just buildingrelationships, because sometimes
it takes eight, nine, you knowtimes they see you to come back,
uh, but you're coming from agenuine place, but you also have

(19:38):
to have something to offer them.
You know, if you just go inblindly and say I, I make videos
, and it's like OK, you know, sodo a million people.
I mean, we live near multipleuniversities that are churning
out hundreds of people everyyear that do the same thing, so
what is your offer?
So you got to first come upwith a solid offer.
But then I'm with you, like, weare proof, and I'm not saying

(19:58):
social media works.
I had been a couple of weeksago, great guy.
He spoke exactly how to runInstagram ads and make money, so
it can be done, but you and Iare one of those people I barely
post on social media.
You know, okay, you are so proofhow many gigs just with you I
have been on.
Did I post much about?
Any, very few, and that's themost free time I have, cause,
you know, I'm just DPing orcamera hopping for you.

(20:20):
So so we are proof that youdon't even have to do social
media marketing and again, notsaying that's the right thing,
but that's at least what we'redoing and we're somehow, you
know, making decent money yeah,so so it's not necessary, and
I'm doing the same thing.
You are just meeting people inperson, shaking hands.
You know, building theirrelationship because it always
makes money.

(20:40):
It just is not instantgratification it sometimes time,
but it's a long lastingrelationship, right.

Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent makes them a
longer lasting relationship.
And yeah, I guess what I'msaying is there's more than one
strategy when a lot of what'sout there says you know, you
need to be posting once a weekand you need to be pushing all
this content out, and that isgreat.
There are people that 100%benefit from that, and that is
great.
There are people that 100benefit from that and that is a
strategy valid enough, like itworks for some people.

(21:08):
I just think it's put out thereas like the only strategy a lot
of time and you're made tothink that it's one of the only
ways to get in front of peopleis to get on social media and
the truth is is anytime I'vedone that, I've not gotten the
same return as handshakes andcoffee because you know that is,
I think, what's yourpersonality type?

right, because that's my personality type.
I don't want to be fake,because I'd rather be genuine
and I know I'm off like I'm abehind the scenes guy.
So being on camera I'm I don'tknow if I'll be genuine.
Maybe if I tried enough I couldbe, but this is already hard
enough and I'm just having aregular conversation.
So, uh, so handshakes andcoffee, I know I can, like you
said, I can be, I know I I'mgenuine, I know I'm real, I know

(21:48):
I have a real offer for themand if they don't take it,
that's okay, because I'm notlike pushing anything.
I'm just trying to be genuinely, help them in their business.
It works, uh, but, like I said,not the only way and and that's
the point of theseconversations is to hear
different perspectives and pickwhat works with your personality
, because you also have to matchwith that, because I think the
number one thing is beinggenuine right, Whatever way that

(22:10):
you can be.

Yeah, and I think for people that actually
want like tactical answers tothat, it's business networking
groups, chamber events.

BNI.

Yeah, the BNI stuff, even trade shows.
If you're willing to pay to goto one of those, um, I go to one
every year that's local hereorlando, that my some of my
clients are out and I go, justshow face and I, you know I'm
not there to gain anything, I'mjust there to grab another touch
point real quick, say hello, um, and let them know that I'm
there to support them and learna couple things from, like,

(22:41):
maybe, some of the sessions andthat's that.
Like it doesn't have to be thatthose are the tactical things
Like we're not just throwinglofty like get handshakes with
people like that.
People will say that all thetime.
But these, those are the placeswhere you do that.

No, and also reach out One thing like.
It's at least what I found, andthere may be obvious exceptions
to this, but most people whoare successful actually are
passionate about it, becausethey do it, because they love it
.
Whether they're entrepreneursor they're video people or
there's I don't know plumbers,they're carpenter, whatever most
people that are successful aresuccessful because they've

(23:17):
they're freaking obsessed withit.
So, in my experience, if you,if you, if there's someone you
want to work with, right first aif your skills are not there,
find your local video personthat you want to be like and
let's say your skills are there,then you're like I need to find
clients.
Find the people that you wantto work with, literally say who
do I want to work with?
And reach out, just say, hey, Isaw this, what you're doing,

(23:38):
and I love it and I would loveto learn more about you.
Are you available for coffee?
You will be surprised how manypeople are willing to do that.
You know, because, guess what,we love this, and other people
who do what they do.
They love it, they're happy totalk about it, of course,
because that's their passion.
So I'm like it's not that hardto find clients, but obviously

(24:01):
be genuine about it.
If you go straight and start asales call or sales meeting,
then, uh, they're not going tobe happy about it, right.
But if you're genuinely thereto build a relationship, to
learn, do that like why aren'tyou meeting people now?
And you can straight up askthem like, hey, so what would be
an offer that somebody in yourindustry would be, you know,
interested in?
Because we know video works.
That's not even a question here.

(24:22):
The question is what's thebuy-in, what's the thing they're
looking for, their problem orwhatever.
And then now you can go solveit for other people and you have
an industry leader on your side.
But you have to make thateffort, you have to send out
that coffee and you have to beunderstanding that these people
are busy.
It may not happen the next day,it may take a month or two for
you to get on their schedule,and some people may not say yes,

(24:46):
but some will.
Right, I mean, it's doable, youjust have to put in the effort.

Definitely, and I think once you get a couple
contacts within an industry ormaybe you do work for a couple
different little companies ororganizations within an industry
you start to realize how smallthat industry is and they start
talking to each other.
Do you have any specific littleniches that have developed like
that in your portfolio?

Yeah, service-based businesses.
So on a small scale obviouslylarge scale, I like marketing
agencies.
That's where all big companieshave to go through an agency and
they all talk to each other.
But in the smaller end it'sservice-based businesses.
And guess what?
They all hang out at chambersand they all talk to each other.
But in the smaller end it'sservice-based businesses.
And guess what?
They all hang out at chambers,they all hang out at B&I groups.
They all know each other.
I mean, you think most plumbersthat are especially at the

(25:30):
higher end don't know each other.
You know.
So my strategy has been andI'll tell you my strategy.
This is my strategy Go findyour local chamber of commerce
and I would love to have, um,you know, the president of one
of my chambers come in and talk,because I I think it's
incredible partnership.
Um, join it first of all.
Right, don't just it can be aleech like, don't just go attend
the events for free or whatever.

(25:52):
Like actually join the chamberand then be active.
Right, go to these events, meetthese business owners and say
hello and build thatrelationship.
You'll be amazed how much moneyyou can make.
Now.
It's not result, right, it'snot like tomorrow you go and
somebody, I mean you could getlucky, but most people aren't
just going to go.
I want your video, let me getyour card.
You know that's not happening,right, but if you go enough, you

(26:14):
are active, you're active.
Plus, it's your community.
Usually it's where you live, soyou're part of your community,
your, your business community.
You'd be amazed six monthslater, a year later, what
happens.
And plus, my strategy is verysimple I want to be the best,
right, and I'm not saying I am,but at least it's what I strive
to be.
So when I'm at my chamber, Idon't care if they have one

(26:35):
video, 10 video, 20 video,people that are part of it.
I'm like look, I'm the best.
I want to partner with them.
So I picked their biggest event, I sponsor it.
And my sales strategy is verysimple Let me make you a video
and let's play at your biggestevent.
And let I don't even need to doa pitch Let the people because
you know we are in this big town, there's Disney, universal,
seaworld, all these bigcompanies are there.
I'm like, let them just see myvideo.

(26:55):
That's all my sales strategy.
So what I've done for years andit's worked wonders for me is to
partner with my chambers thatI'm part of, partner with them
and their signature events makea video.
Obviously it's your sponsorship.
I don't do anything for free,but I'll do some kind of cost
sharing and part of that is thatI'm the sponsor for that video.
So they play that video andobviously it's incredible.

(27:19):
The chamber looks great, but atthe end it says partner Bender
Productions.
I want people to go to thechamber like, but at the end,
you know, it says partner benderproductions.
I want people to go to theshape like who made it?
Where's bender productions?
And I don't have to even sellbecause because you know, I'm
not naturally I don't like, youknow, I don't know selling to
people like this this is forfree, like I'm not selling into,
there's no courses at the endof it.
Like you said, I don't wantpeople to go pay for this.
This is free, um.

(27:40):
But what I'm saying is thenpeople will come to me and then
they'll say, oh, I wantsomething like that, I want
something for my brand.
So that is literally mystrategy.
So simple.
It's like just be genuine anddo what you're good at.
But on the other side of it,like you said, the people that
have the money that want to buythis offer.
They want to buy this video.
You have to also be there.

(28:01):
If they don't know you exist,then there's no one to buy.
You have to also be there.
If they don't know you exist,then there's no one to buy.
Right, and it doesn't matterhow many other video people are
selling it.
As long as your product is whatthey need, they will buy it.

No, I think that's great because it's like a
backdoor way of getting peopleto just see your work, Because I
think the biggest hurdle isgetting a new client right.
Like when they don't know you,they don't know your working
style.
They don't know the quality youcan really deliver.
Maybe they've seen it on yourportfolio, but they don't know
what the whole experience islike.
That is like a way to put it infront of them.

(28:36):
Be like, yeah, this is what wedo, without having them having
to like invest in you and trustyou.
It's like you can build alittle bit of that trust by just
showing them up front and letit run from there.

Exactly, and people buy from people they know
, like and trust.
Right, you know.
It's as simple as that.
That's just the truth.
I didn't hire you just day onewe met.
You didn't hire me day one wemet.
We built that relationship overtime, and that's the same with
else.
You have to build it, you haveto nurture it and obviously
people have a need for it.
So the question is a need.

(29:08):
The question is, uh, beinggenuine about it and giving it
time and being you know, lettingit grow naturally instead of
forcing it yeah, I wanted to askyou too, like you focus a lot
on, like the client experiencetoo.

You always talk about that um, how is it that's
your?

that's one of your big differentiators, right is
the experience the clients haveas they go through the entire
process of planning a shoot togetting that final delivery I'm
so glad you asked that because,yes, so initially when I was and
again I've stumbled my way alittle bit, but initially yes,
so I was freelancing I said nineto five and and the shoots I
would be on, I would say mostpeople had terrible and that's

(29:49):
equipment's become obviously alot more accessible now than you
know, let's say, 2015 to 2018,we had like gh4s and you know
that's the type of the bestequipment you could have, with
some canon addds or whateverpoint is.
So I found most businesseswould have that low end, very,
you know, low end production,especially equipment, wasn't
that hard to find.

(30:09):
Anyway, it didn't exist.
And then the high endproduction was blocked off.
So I would find myself on a setof a good production, like
being PA or GAF or GRIP orwhatever role, and I would find
that you, you know that thoseare like gatekeep, you know like
this is it like, and a normalsmall business to medium-sized
business could never access that.
So, anyway, so my initial thingwas look, I'm gonna bring and

(30:32):
which is funny in our group,people think I'm the premium
option, but I'm like, in thepremium option, I'm the budget
option, right.
So I basically was like look,this is what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna go all in, right, andI'm gonna be bigger than me,
like it's gonna be not me, it'sgonna be my team and I'm gonna
offer them that level of quality, right, no compromises, no like
buy cheap equipment, right,that level of quality for a

(30:55):
small to medium-sized business,like I bought a bunch of c200s
which was like the best camera Iguess at that, that for those
type of businesses at that timeand I didn't buy one, remember
from never day one, I've neverbeen a single camera guy I'm
offering them multi-cam.
I'm offering them, uh, right,solutions, bringing full teams,
bts video, bts photo, whateverthe.
The idea was to give them what Ialready saw at these high end

(31:18):
scales.
So I had already been, you know, indie movies, actual movies,
tv shows.
I was part of a network, um,you know show point.
I had seen what the big thingwas.
So it wasn't that I didn't know.
So now the goal was just tobring it to my level.
So all I did was essentiallygive small to medium-sized
businesses what I wanted to givethem, like, genuinely.

(31:38):
And that made me happier, right, because I'm like I'm just
doing what I want to do.
And then, at the same time Ioffered my agency partners in
the past.
I was like, look, we're aproduction company now, because
you know, trust is a factor andthey know me, but they don't
trust my company.
It's like, hey, we can do theseshoots now at 80% of the cost
or whatever, because all I didwas in the higher end.
The production company takesabout 40%, roughly Right, that's

(32:00):
, I would say that's normal.
And I was like we'll take 20,simple as that and it's given
it's.
They know this, it's not hiddenlike with corporate clients.
You know it's kind of hidden.
But at the higher end you havea budget and production fee is a
thing.
They know what you're making.
So I was like, well, I'll justhalf it.
So nothing else changed.
I'm still hiring the same levelof people, same level of
equipment, same everything,because you know that's what

(32:22):
they expect, they haverequirements.
I'm like, hey, we will happilycharge half the production fee
and I'm happy with that andwe're gonna do same level of
quality.
Plus, I'm happy to do your ndasand give you wear your shirt,
because I'm not.
Because you know, in the filmindustry people want credit.
I was like, no, you have allthe credit, you did it, I did
nothing and so so that's beenthe great work for me.

(32:44):
I was just like, look, I'mpartners with them, I can scale
your business for you.
And here I'm scaling mybusiness for these business
owners and helping them grow andcoming back to it.
So that's why I think it grew,because guess where my business
owners are?
Why Instagram and stuff didn'twork for me.
At least the businesses that Iwas targeting were at the golf
course.
They weren't at the, you know,they weren't at the instagram is

(33:07):
what I'm saying.
So guess what they talk.
So you do help one businessowner and they don't talk about
oh, they came and they.
Obviously you have to impressthem.
They don't talk about they camewith two cameras, they came
five cameras.
No, they say, hey, I workedwith this company and they're
the best you got.
Man, my revenue went up 100K orwhatever.
Our close rate is up 5%,whatever helped them, obviously.

(33:29):
And then guess what?
The friend will go oh, I needthat Right.
And now they're calling me.
But now when I come in, it's nolonger that cold deal, because
the cold is hard, becausethey're just talking to five
people.
They don't know if this personis green, this person has 10
cameras or or I don't knowwhatever equipment or skill,
cause you know, a lot of whatwe're doing is problem solving.
If you haven't solved enoughproblems, you're probably not

(33:50):
going to succeed.
But client can't see that thatstuff is behind the scenes,
right?
So the only way I can do thatis by those warm leads and they
know, and they know and theytrust.
And obviously then you have toexecute.
The other thing I say it'seasier to keep a client than to
find a new client.

(34:11):
There's not hundreds of clientsthat are coming every month.
That's just nature of it.
So you're better off justkeeping your client and making
them happier.
So what I did do is prettysimple.
I promised them simple.
Like every production company,like you do.
Hey, you're gonna have oneproduction day or two half days
and three person crew, twocamera, right, I will always
bring an extra person, alwaysbring an extra camera.

(34:31):
And the biggest thing you knownow as a producer, it's my name
if somebody calls and it's myhead on the table.
So it helps me because ifsomebody does accidentally call
in, I still have what I promised.
But ideally people don't callin.
Now I'm beaving them more andthey know that because in the
contract I was very clear aboutwhat they're getting right.
This is your deliverables andthis is, uh, what the production

(34:52):
is going to look like.
So now they know they're like,oh, and they always get
impressed.
You bring big lights, you bringbig cameras, you bring, uh,
good sound, because what makes agood video is better lighting
and better sound, right?
So if your video sounds good,it looks good to them and it
gives them the results.
Um, you know, they're going totell all their friends about it,
so I hope that makes sense.

(35:12):
So that's why client experienceis like the key to get repeat
clients.
It may not be to get one clienthappy, but I'm not trying to
make them just happy.
I'm trying to get them to keepcoming back and I know for a
fact.
And now they can go to any othervideo guy.
I don't care who you are, youcan't compete.
Because, because I'm trying tobuild a relationship and I'm
trying to make them happy, I'mnot worried about, um, you know,

(35:35):
video to video, I'm justworried about their results.
We're not even talking aboutthat's why, funny enough, my
sales.
I don't know if your sales callis good.
I'm like, look, a lot of peopletalk about, oh, our videos are
going to be pretty.
I'm like, look, I'm going tomake you a pretty video.
You didn't come to me becauseyou don't like the quality.
It's going to be good.
Right, let's talk aboutbusiness.
Right, how, what was thesolution?
And funny enough.
And then you know what I do onmy sets like, they're going to

(35:57):
be impressed.
So it's funny, I make itnonchalant.
So they're not even expectingsomething great.
Because they're like, okay, sohe's the business guy, right.
But when you show up and you'redoing a real production and
we're not just bringing stuff tojust bring stuff, it's actually
legit production stuff they gooh, I have never had a new
client not go.
Wow, we were not expecting that.
And then they go, oh.

(36:19):
And then sometimes and it doeshappen they don't hire you again
, but I've usually had.
They'll always come back.
They go.
Yeah, we tried something else.
It didn't work out and it'susually because.
Not that the other guy was notgood.
Maybe they were, but you knowthey weren't doing what I was
doing.
I hope that makes sense.

Yeah, man, I mean I like how you saw an
opportunity to provide morevalue to the client.
I mean you're talking abouttaking less margin and bringing
more to the table for theclients and that's just that's
seeing a great opportunitywithin an industry or a market

(36:54):
and providing an answer to it.

Yeah, but at the same time, I do want to know
don't dilute the market.
So this was at the higher end,right when the numbers were up
front.
So I'm like, look, they knowwhat, what the rates are, what
the money is.
There's no hiding anything.
But on the lower end it's theopposite.
I'm making higher marginsbecause, uh, like you, day one,
I knew I can't do everything.

(37:17):
I have to account for otherpeople on my set, right and then
.
But you take a little cut offeveryone right, and then you're,
you're a little cut offeveryone right, and then you're,
you're, you're taking decentmargins out of it and then plus
you can pull 30, 40% marginseasily, 50% sometimes because
the rates are so much smaller,like in those five to 10K videos
.
That's why I tell a lot ofpeople they go, how can I be on

(37:39):
bigger sets?
I'm like, no, you're better offbecause you can pull a lot more
margins and a lot of thesesmaller clients don't care what
camera you're bringing, becauseyou don't have those high rental
fees.
You can, you know you can.
Plus, most like I think you dothe same thing.
We do more good, better pricepricing or just one pricing, so
you get to decide where thecosts go.
You don't have to tell theclient where the costs are going

(38:00):
.
So in a way, I think it's ahealthy balance of again both um
I obviously I like to be onbigger sets but.
I can pull a bigger profit onsmallers because the costs are
less right yeah, yeah.

No, I agree with you.
It's not about diluting themarket and being that guy that
goes in and does it for cheapand then affects everybody else
by bringing the rate down.

Yeah um, because most people that do it are not
good.
But you can have that one guywho's actually good.
He's like oh, I'll do it for300 bucks because I live with my
parents and I'm really good,but I don't care.
And then now you're dilutingthe market and you don't want to
do that either.

Right, yeah, that kind of kind of hurts
everybody.
It's like the opposite ofrising tide raises all ships or
whatever.

No, I want everyone to make a great living.
I know six figures doesn'treally matter that much, but I
know people hype about it, soI'm like no, I want everyone to
make over six figures and besuccessful in this business.
That's why we're doing this.
I don't want anyone to not makemoney or be that starving
artist.
We want all of us to growtogether and I'll at least
happily tell what I'm doing, andI'll at least happily tell what
I'm doing, and I'm sure you'reyou're the same way.

(39:04):
You're happy to share.
Yeah.

A hundred percent, I mean.
And also that that kind ofcircles back to what I was
saying at the beginning aboutjust trying and going.
Uh, I was afraid specificallyof being a starving artist.
Like I grew up great, had agreat childhood and I wanted to.
I knew down the road, I wantedto give that back to my family
whenever that came around.
So when I went it's when I wentto college I I was, I really

(39:27):
liked writing, I likedphotography, but I could never
do that because I would be, Iwould end up as a starving
artist especially now the chatgpd.
I mean.
Well, I didn't know any of thatback then it was just like how
could I make a real living?
Doing that stuff and I had noidea.
So I did a finance degree for alittle while.

(39:49):
that wasn't fulfilling me andthen I switched over to a
marketing degree and that was alittle more fulfilling, a little
more colorful and great, um,and that fit me a little bit
better.
But I still was like holdingonto that like artists, yeah,
like creative within me.
That wasn't being totallyfulfilled, um, but man, it now,
having been doing this for a fewyears, and, um, like having the

(40:12):
business combined with thecreative, it's like it's so
possible, it's it is so doable,um, I just was ignorant.
I guess is why I was afraid.
So I guess that's that's wherethis stuff also comes in.
Is you listen to more of this?
You hear more perspectives onhow possible these things are
and how maybe people startedfrom that same kind of mindset

(40:35):
and can evolve to, oh, like, thesky's the limit.
I mean, that's the best partabout being an entrepreneur is
you can take this as far as youwant, like you can put as much
as you want into it and, yeah,you're not capped.
That's another reason why I leftthat job too.
It's I had a new boss and shecame in and she's like you know,

(40:56):
in three to five years I can,you can probably move up to the
next level.
I'm like.

I do not have three to five years, and three
to five years they'll be like.
Your position is now redundant.

No, I'm like.
I don't have three to fiveyears to sit around and do the
same thing.
Make a tiny little raise andmaybe a tiny little bonus every
year.

Yeah, which doesn't even keep up with
inflation.
Dude, yeah, and.

I left and the first year I made I was making
60 grand there and my first yearI did just under 100 grand in
revenue in my freelance videoproduction business.
Look at that.
Be hearing that people.

First year almost six figures.
I mean pretty much six figures.

Yeah, it was like 200 bucks off.
I won't say I made 100, butbecause I feel We'll just say
100.

I like to round up so no, but that's what I'm
saying and let's stick to thebeginning.
I really love what you saidthere and this is what I wanted
to know, and I think a lot ofpeople could benefit from it.
Because here's what she didsomething incredible.
You were from arizona, right,you're doing great.
Obviously you had a job orwhatever, but you decided

(42:07):
because I think your wife uh,not wife at the time, but you
know you guys decided you wantedto move down there because,
just like my significant other,my wife, uh, she's into disney,
right, right same reasons.

Okay, similar reasons yeah yeah, similar
reasons.

So so we ended up down here.
Right, so you're, but you'redown here, you don't know anyone
, you don't have any clients,you have no money.
You're basically moving in withsome savings.
Point is I want you to and tryto be detailed if you can.
I mean but like, how, what didyou do?
Because clearly whatever youdid was right.

(42:41):
How do you go from moving to arandom city or somewhere you
don't know anyone, right?
You have no friends, you haveno family.
You move down here, maybe withsome savings.
How do you go to making fromzero to 100K?
I don't know, what did you do?

at least, yeah, well, so my first year I was
half in Arizona and I was halfin Florida.

Yeah, so what did you?

do once you get here.
So once I got here I had alittle bit of residual
connections from back in Arizona.
One thing I did when I left myjob is I didn't give them the
bird and say I'm out of here,you guys suck, because they did
treat me well.
They gave me gut opportunities.

(43:24):
I said hey, I'm leaving and I'mstarting a video production
company.
Uh, I would love to supportyour marketing efforts if you
are producing any videos.
So I left on good terms and Ileft that door open and I had
done great work for them.
I put a lot of effort in.
I make great relationshipsthere that helped me.

I got a little bit of work from there.

So it's, you know, don't burn bridges is the
lesson there, and I still dowork for them.
And then, when I got here, likewe mentioned, joined a business
networking group and I gotconnections from, or started
making relationships there.
It was a very small chapter.
I made a relationship with anagency that immediately handed

(43:58):
me a job that ended up beingworth like 10 grand I'm like you
just you got me on my feet herelike I was so, so grateful for
that.
And then I started talking topeople like you, david, meeting
people in the community andnetworking, um, going to any any
connection I had to anybodythat was in a video production,

(44:20):
photography, creative kind ofrole and saying like, hey, I'm
here and I'm ready to gowhenever.
That's what I did, and yeah,bni was a good part of that and
from there the ball just startedrolling.
It was still a lot that yearwas still a lot of freelancing
versus my own projects.

And how were you finding some of these freelance
projects?
Obviously, you talked toeveryone you knew who was in
video.
Did you meet anyone else?
Or did you do anything elseoutside of BNI and other video
people to get some freelancejobs or whatever?

Yeah, I mean it all sprinkled in from random
places.
But Production Hub grabbed twoor three jobs from there, which
was nice to see that return.
What else did we do?
A little bit of random editingwork type stuff for other
buddies that I knew back inPhoenix that had production
companies.
I was like, hey, I'm editing,I'm doing anything you, I'm

(45:16):
doing, anything, you know whichyeah a little cringy, but that's
what you do at the start is youjust you scrape it all together
and every time I just took theperspective of I'm getting paid
to learn right now and I'mgetting paid to become a better
editor if I'm the editor on thisproject or I'm getting paid but
you don't edit anymore, rightnot really, sometimes I do.
I'm using that as a balancing,a juggling kind of act now with

(45:41):
the baby and stuff, because if Ican edit some projects, I can
be home, I can capture that partof the project.
And you know that is one keypoint about what I build into my
budgeting is I budget for me toedit it, and then I'll pay
someone, an editor, what theywant to get paid to edit it, but
obviously it's, it's less.

(46:02):
So that way I'm never stuckLike, say, my editor fails or
something happens where theycan't edit it, or I can't find
somebody to edit it and I haveto.
Then I'm never stuck feelinglike, oh man, I'm getting burnt
on this one I'm losing out.
So yeah, sometimes I'll still dosome editing and it's helping
me stay at home a little bitmore, especially towards the end

(46:23):
of last year.
The baby was new and stuff, soit's nice to have that
flexibility.
I mean that's your prerogativeas the business owner, right?
You can do it in any part ofthe work you want to do at any
point.

I mean, in the beginning you're doing
everything and then slowly youstart to delegate Right, but no,
I love and, to summarize, Ithink this is incredible.
Again, this may not work forall personality types and that's
why we have the Benz podcast togo listen to, to do the ad
format, but I think, and like Isaid, our personalities match,
because I couldn't do that, butI can do this and this is
exactly what I did.
I think the best thing is, itdoesn Doesn't matter if you're

(46:55):
in your own market or somebodyelse's market.
Just go join a networking grouplike BNI or whatever.
Go join your chamber, go meetevery video and photo or
whatever creative agency thatyou can, and then join
Production Hub and if you do allthat and you genuinely go out
and try to make connections,making a living and starting on

(47:17):
this is not hard.
And obviously in the beginningyou're doing everything take
editing, take shooting, takewhatever and until you probably
even have to find what you'regood at because not everyone
wants to be a production companyowner, like we know david um
between us, who doesn't wantthis, who wants to be a dp, and
that's good too.
You can make a great livingdoing that.
Less investment less cost, sohigher profit, so you don't have

(47:39):
to make as much.
So there's different paths, butyou have to first find
obviously what you like and whatyou enjoy, but this is a
straightforward path that weknow works.
There's two examples that havedone it and it worked for both
of us.

And I can't even take credit for figuring
that out because I didn't.
I got the advice from a buddy,from having a conversation with
a buddy that has a productioncompany in Phoenix and he said
when you get there, join a B&Igroup, make sure there's a good
web designer in the group andyou'll be good.
And I did and I'm good.
It wasn't even an original idea.

(48:11):
How did he?

think of that Dude ?

this is like no .

And if you didn't have that buddy which is awesome
for your buddy to tell you that, because you know he saved you
again a lot of struggle uh, andand that's what I'm saying I
don't, if you don't have anyoneto give you this advice, this is
exactly what you follow, and uh, and then getting it right here
, yeah, right, yeah, if youdon't know that.
This is exactly what you do.

I'm happy to tell these are the answers,
people.
I mean, come on, yeah and it'snot that expensive.

Obviously, a B&I in chambers costs money, but
it's not that much, whatever theannual price is, because you'll
know within a year if it's foryou or not.
But you have to obviously putin your time and effort and
energy to do it, and that's whatI'm saying.
This is right here.
This is exactly what I did.
I think this is what you justsaid you did, and it worked for

(49:00):
both of us.
So why aren't we able to do it?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, do it if you want to.
Obviously, if you want to be aproduction company, especially,
but I think this will even workfor DP, because a lot of these
B&Is and chambers have marketingagencies and stuff.
You can just go be a cam operafor, a camera operator for or

(49:21):
just in general, just networkand find gigs.
And production hub is great.
Go be active on that.
You know I know you have to belike refreshing and responding
as fast as possible because youknow everyone's on there, but
it's still a good resource andyou can find at least get your
money back that you're you'repaying for the membership.

Yeah, definitely, at least get your
money back that you're payingfor the membership.
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
That's definitely worked out interms of an ROI.
Yeah, I do think it's differentfor freelancers, because I'm
sure there'll be a fair amountof freelancers listening to this
.
I definitely think it stillboils down to networking and
it's who you know.

Yeah, that is true as a freelancer.

I mean, you don't even have to be the best,
you don't have to have the bestequipment.
It's who trusts you and they'regoing to call you.

Yeah, and I would hire any day somebody I trust,
because here's the thing whenyou're a production company
owner, you have to think fromtheir mindset.
It's not about finding thecheapest person because you know
people will do it for free, soit's not about cost.
It's about our reputation,because you work really hard to
find your client right.

Yeah.

You really work hard to maintain that
relationship.
You cannot have go anyone thereA just not do a good job, but
worse, talk about or saysomething to a client that ruins
your relationship with them.
Or you know, because anywaythey may be desperate, they try
to steal your client or whatever.
Either way, what I'm saying isit's not good for your business.
So you'd rather send somebodyand I know I would who you trust

(50:45):
, who's going to maintain thatrelationship, who's going to
maintain that quality orwhatever right, not instead harm
your business.

Number one rule at Adam K Studio is don't be a
weirdo on set, and that's themantra.
That's the mantra If you are aweirdo, risk you're not coming
Period.
That's the most important thingto me.
I don't even care about like.
Obviously, I want you to begood at what you do.
But above all, if you're goodat what you do but you're weird,

(51:14):
yeah, it doesn't matter, I'drather have half as good.

and and you wouldn't be amazed how many
emails.
I don't know if you've startedto get these emails, uh, but I
get so many emails like I'm agraduate from this school or I'm
about to graduate, I would loveinternship or whatever, blah,
blah, blah, and I'm like itdoesn't matter how good you are,
I can't have you on set becauseI don't know you.
Yeah, the best way is to get tomeet me on coffee or meet at
one of these david's events orsomewhere where I can meet you

(51:39):
in person.
I could gauge your personalitybecause I don't mind.
I don't mind bringing peopleyou can be a pa.
You can, um, you know, be um, Idon't know a bts photographer or
shooter, whatever.
But again, I have to gauge yourpersonality first.
I have to know that you knowyou're not gonna f up right our
productions or whatever, so sotry to that.

(52:00):
That's why the power of meetingin person is so important.
Uh, because people have togauge your personality and make
sure that you know you're notgoing to be a weirdo on set, as
adam said.

Yep and there's so much.
We, everybody's inundated withso much noise every day in their
inbox, in their text, socialmedia, everywhere, like there's
no way I can actually get yourpersonality through.
Yeah, an email or a random dmlike it's got to be.
Like don't, you can't I mean atleast for me.

(52:33):
You don't ever expect that towork out like it's it's 100.
I need to see that you're, youknow, going to be a good person
and you care about it and youreally want to do good work.
And you want to learn yougenuinely want to learn.
I mean the same thing that wedo for our clients.
I want to see that you want tocome add value to what we're
doing and make what we're doingbetter.

Like that's the mission.
We Show me how you plug intothat and make it easy for me,
yeah, and plus, my advice is so,if that happened, you were
successful.
Adam said yes to come to hisset, to be PA or whatever,
please, we already know.
You don't know how to set uphalf the things, that's okay.
Just don't go in front of theclient and talk to Adam and say
I don't know how to set up thislight, can you come show it to
me?
Because that makes Adam lookbad, or me, because we know it
already.
Right, so we are already theright we're.

(53:23):
We already know the limitationthat we are.
It's okay, you don't know.
I've had and I brought peopleand I've had such a great time
where they were honest, like,look, this is what I know, this
is what I don't know.
I'm like that's cool, just dowhat you know.
That's cool.
And if you don't know something, learn.
That's the whole point of beingthere.
But don't say in front of theclient because what happens is
they don't know ourunderstanding that I'm helping
you learn.

(53:44):
They think we're an amateursomehow don't know how to set up
a slide or a stand or whatever.
Right, don't you agree?
Because, yeah, that will makeyou look bad, even though that
person's learning.
Now you have to do anexplanation thing.
Oh, he's just learning theirtraining or whatever.
And clients like.
That's not what I paid for.
I paid for premium serviceright not people to come be
students um didn't tell meyou're bringing the b team yeah,

(54:05):
we want the a team.
Yeah, um, exactly, yeah, so sojust just be mindful of, I guess
, your surroundings, right?
Um, but that's, that's awesome,man.
Like I said, I've beenfollowing your journey because I
think I've been a part of it,man man.
Yeah, Cause we met essentiallywhen you were new in this area
right, if I'm correct.

Okay, so yeah, one of the first coffees that I
went and grabbed with people.

So I'm so glad man David did that and I'm so glad
I step out of to work witheveryone on that table.
So it's crazy, I think, exceptfor one.
What's his name?
I think he was doing realestate, I don't know, really
successful real estate.

Oh, john, john.

Anyway, but he's doing his own thing, yeah, and
he's successful in that.
But I'm saying outside thatI've hired so many people you
know or been hired, and we'vehad such a great time together.
It's built like a littlenetwork and I love it because
it's a good resource to go andyou know, just find solutions or
whatever.
And here we are right.

(55:10):
You're the living proof.
So let's get into numbers now.
I want to know so you've beendoing this, how many years?

I never remember the exact year time.

Let's say like, no , like half the year or whatever
.
Four four years, three, four,okay, and obviously we know you
said first, full year, you didabout 100k.
What did?
And again, you don't have toshare your exact numbers, we can
round them up or whatever whatdid you end your last year on,
sir?
My last year, which is 2024?

my last year on , sir.
My last year, 2024 my last yearit was, I think, like 325.

Look at that, look at that four years you can go
from zero 325, and that's withhaving a baby.
Not because you would haveprobably generated more profit
anyway if you, you know, putyourself out more, even because
you had to take time with yourfamily and be with your wife and
your kid.
So having a new kid and stillbe able to pull 325 in a year,

(56:08):
commendable right.
So that is the power of whatwe're doing here, and that's
crazy.
Going for 500 this year.
I don't see why that wouldn'tbe possible.
I think that the key is and I'msure you noticed that, because
my my, you know humans be likepattern recognition I found
everyone who's doing sevenfigures, so half a second

(56:29):
figures would be 500 or more.
The most of the revenue comesfrom those four to five top
clients that you're bringing in.
Enough over and over again,because you can't keep
realistically be finding 15 newclients every month.
It's just not realistic.
So I think the goal for youwould be just to nurture the
relationship you have, maybe adda few more that are repeat and
that way you can just keep doingit, uh, keep killing it for

(56:50):
them, right?
Is that the strategy, or what?
What other strategies are youthinking about to get there?
yeah, I mean it's um, it's avery conservative goal to be
real, to go from 325 to 500.
I'm saying low 300 to 500 isnot that I'm saying.

Yeah, well, I mean it's.
I like to set reasonable goalsfor myself and know I have a
little bit of an idea of whatthat will take, having gone
through the last couple of yearsand knowing that I need to
balance it out with family and Iwant to balance it out with
family.
Um, you know I I didn't expectto double every year for the

(57:26):
first three years, like I haveUm, but you know I didn't set my
goals to double.
So I can set my goalsreasonable, achieve them and
then everything after that isextra and that's great.

No.

I feel good about that.
So I do think, you know,obviously 500 is not a double of
325, but it is a attainablegoal.
Um, and some of the key thingsthat I want to do to get there
is, yes, nurture existingclients.
I'm reaching out to all myexisting clients that I like
that treat me well and pay ontime and all that good stuff.

(57:59):
Yeah, Um, and seeing what elsewe can do to support them,
offering some suggestions andideas on how they can continue
to, to leverage video andstories to to build their
business.
Um, that will dovetail into adirect ask for a referral to
anybody else, which I haven'tdone yet, but I'm going to do.

That's sort of a good thing.

So, going from existing client, already have
trust to give me a warm lead, ifyou can to someone.
So there's already a little bitof trust there from that
referral and then from therewould be trying to find new
clients.

Thank you, Any strategies to find new clients?
I mean because I completelyagree with their nurturing the
existing relationship strategyand asking for referrals.
So what's your plan for findingnew clients?

Actually it's do more of the same things,
which is I'm going to go to mybusiness network chapter and I'm
going to put a lot more timeinto that.
Last year I did not.
I was traveling and working andbouncing around to different.

Don't you have to send someone instead of you?
Can you skip the meetings?
You do have to send a sub.
Yeah, so were you able to sendsubs?

Yeah, I sent subs.
I got leave for when he had thebaby and stuff they're cool
about that.
But yeah, yeah, this kind oftouches on something.
That, or a key element thatmaybe you can comment on too.
Here is do what works, do itagain yeah, please don't stop
doing what works.

Do it again, yeah, do it again, and then do it
again until it stops workinglike yeah, it doesn't I.

I have to stop myself with the my marketing,
marketing, brain and marketingdegree from jumping into all
these other strategies,marketing opportunities Like oh,
maybe I should run these socialmedia ads and maybe I should be
having targeted LinkedIn DMsand hire this agency to do that.
Or maybe I should build a wholenew website and have a SEO

(59:58):
campaign running.
Like, wait, why don't I just dowhat works right now, do it
again and until that's tapped,then yeah, which I don't know
why it would be.

Vipul Bindra (01:00:11):
I don't know where that taps out, but you know, no
, and nothing stops you from andactually that's a very good
marketing strategy.
You know, nothing stops youfrom trying new avenues.
You could still do LinkedIn ads, you could still do Instagram
ads, but why stop what'sactually working?
That's like the most terriblestrategy somebody could do.
Be like okay, so I've gotten to300K meeting people by shaking

(01:00:35):
hands, but now I want to dosomething different.
Let me now start marketing adsand I'll just stop.
And you know that's justhurting your business.
But you know, like you said,you can slowly maybe integrate
some new other ideas, but youdon't have to.
What works, never quit until itstops working.
Obviously which, again, usuallyif it works for a reason, it's
going to continue to work.

Adam Kalinowski (01:00:55):
Our ad gurus out there are definitely
thinking that's not scalable,can't scale that because you're
only one person, you only haveso much time.
You're 100% right.
I am not denying that I willneed to find other ways to
generate leads versus me sittingdown for coffees because, no,
it's not scalable.
However, it is a betterrelationship return and it's

(01:01:16):
more of a I would say qualityover quantity in terms of leads
or new clients but I do seelong-term needing to have a
different source.

That doesn't, you know, require me sitting down,
or exactly but but to be real,until you get to like a million
dollars a month, you, you can doit.

it only gets a million dollars a month.
Yeah, no, a month A month, no.

Until you know I'm doing more of that by myself.
So what I'm saying is you knowit takes what I'm saying in my
business knowledge.
Again, I'm not everything.
Listen to a bunch of people.
But until you get to like amillion dollars a month, like 12

(01:02:00):
million a year revenue, thenyou do need a sales team and a
bigger you know a different wayapproach.
But until then, you know, Ithink you can do it by yourself
because, yes, it's agreeable,there's a scalability limit, but
not until then, because youknow, I mean in video business,
like I'm telling you and again,prove me wrong, you're one of
the few people who can, so be myguest, but I don't think you
can find enough new business todo a million dollars in sales

(01:02:23):
with new clients, right, theonly way that I've met people
and I would love to meetsomebody who's like again doing
lots of new clients is to buildrelationships, is to continue,
and the only way you can do thatis you.
I haven't yet met a salespersonwho'll come and then build
these relationships.
You know and do them reallywell On the video side, what I'm
saying, that you can, and it'snot that hard to get to that

(01:02:46):
number.
It sounds, again crazy, butit's not hard to get number
because it's just a bunch ofrelationships that you are
continuing.
I hope that makes sense.

Do you think I'm wrong or what's your opinion
?
No, I think it dovetails intothe like what's the goal?
The goal isn't to have 500clients.

Yeah, you know Plus, it's unrealistic.
You know, yeah, especially newclients.

Yeah, the goal is to have a couple good ones,
Like it's, and over time youfeel out who's good, who's not,
who's going to come back, who'sgoing to be a good partner with
your company and collaboratewith you on on your efforts.
It's not about how many can Ibring in the door Like.
That's not my business goal.
It may not be your businessgoal.
Some people's business goal ishow many can I bring in?

(01:03:28):
The more people we can service,the more money we can make and
the bigger the scripts.
That's.
That's not my goal.
I would like a couple good onesthat allow me to have a life
and run a good business, um, andcreate opportunities for other
people to do what they love.

Yeah and once you get to that stage where you
can't maintain the relationships, that's when you bring in and a
team.
The thing is they have to buildnew relationships because it's
very hard to hand off yourrelationship.
Let's say you build thisrelationship with a company you
know, know the owner and youknow you guys are tight, gives
you enough work.
And then now you're like, hey,it's one thing to bring in a

(01:04:05):
shooter or somebody, that'sthat's different.
But I'm saying to be like hey,so from now on I'm going to be
in the background.
Here's my buddy, this ABC likein start.
New relationships, like yousaid, slowly take over, but you
still have to maintain unlessyou just want to let them go
your existing clients, becausethe relationship is you and them
right it's the people.

(01:04:26):
It's a tough one.
Yeah, exactly, uh, but, but I'msaying you have a long ways to
to go there right now, I think,to do that, um, uh.
But the other thing also is uh,this is not like a typical
business.
We don't have a product to sell, right, we don't.
We're not plumbers like aservice, like plumbing.
This is a very, very creativespace as in, like, the video

(01:04:46):
that you're making, right, isnot the video that I'm making,
and then it's not the videosanyone else is making.
It's our creative vision howwe're solving their problems.
Obviously, client cares that itgets solved.
They don't care about thecreative vision.
But also, once you start to letgo of that creative control,
it's no longer your video.
So it's very hard to maintain.
Because it's one thing to belike, okay, we'll go shoot this,

(01:05:08):
this is the shot list or thisis what I want, yeah, fine.
But to be like, fully ripple,here you go, here's a budget,
you are, you handle the crew,you handle everything, and as
somebody who does that from timeto time, you have to let go
full control, because now you'reno longer building a crew
building the shot, whatever,right, you're just saying, as
Adam K Studio.

(01:05:28):
We're bringing in this muchrevenue.
This is our cut, this is theproduction cost.
They go do it.
Obviously, you have to do it ata certain quality, but you're
saying you have to let go, whichis very different, because now
it's no longer.
Uh, you know your video, butit's your video and you have to
keep creative control, which ishard to do when you're scaling
that large.

(01:05:48):
I don't know, have you thoughtof that problem, or is it too
far out right now to even worryabout it?
I've let go of that earlybecause, like what I said
earlier is uh yeah, you're gonnago so far because I'm like it
gives me nightmares, thinkingabout letting go of control, but
yes, I, I mean, I still havesome control over it but it's.

There's so many people like you and many others
in this community that arebetter than me at shooting
lighting, sound, all this goodstuff.
So I am.
You know, whether it's myvision or my creative vision or
not, that's I'm good likeputting that to the side because
it becomes like our vision, andthat's even more rewarding for

(01:06:32):
me.
When you've contributed tosomething, I've contributed to
something, editors in on it, theclient has some input, input,
then it's our vision togetherand I know that that's stronger
and better than anything I coulddo on my own.
I definitely like to do my owncreative endeavors, but that's
going to be for me like sideprojects passion and like stuff.

(01:06:54):
If I want to like I don't knowsomething I'd like to do more is
go spend some more time out innature and film some stuff out
in nature.
That's just for me and becauseI enjoy being outside and doing
that kind of stuff.
That's my vision.
That's me showing the worldthrough through my lens, when
it's a client of adam k studio.
It's our vision together.

(01:07:14):
And how do we make it all cometogether?
Because, dude, after a shootsometimes I don't even look at
the interviews.

Welcome to the world.
I've had so many times shootersgo how was my footage?
And I was like I didn't see it.
And it's not like being mean,it's the skin.

It was good If I actually didn't see it.

That means you're good.

Yeah, it means I didn't feel like I had to.
Yeah, yeah, no, sometimes Idon't look at the interviews at
all, I just say this isSometimes it can be beneficial.
Here we go.

Don't watch Emmanuel's podcast, 100%.
We were talking about your DCshoot.
Something funny happened in it.
I'm not even going to tell you,but we were talking about the
DC shoot and one of the weirdthings was happening.
So I can't wait for you to nowgo back and listen and then
we'll talk about it after.
But things that you don'tnotice, it's so funny to be on
the other side.

(01:08:07):
Yeah, the challenges that comeup on set and then we have to
resolve them.
We have to figure them out.
While we made sure the clienthad no idea what's happening.
Right, the client has no idea,and I had even completely
forgotten about it until when hecame over and we talked about
it and came up.

(01:08:27):
So I'm so curious.
Um, yeah, I would love to, yeah, I would love to, uh, hear your
perspective, as now the ownerwho hired two people and they
were having these technicalissues.
so it'd be fun to yeah hey, butthe client didn't know and we
got the shot.
The shots were incredible, sothat's what matters, yeah, but
anyway, so I yeah, that's theother side of it, right, that
you're not, you know, privy to,I guess yeah, yeah, definitely.

And so I you know I was saying is I just
sometimes I don't even look atthe interviews, I don't listen.
All right, I do try to listento them, um a little bit, when
I'm getting a gauge for what'sgoing to be good, and then I'll
send it over to the editor.
Um other times I'm literallytranscribing the whole thing,
printing it out and I'mhighlighting stuff.
If it's, if it's that kind ofproject where it gets that kind

(01:09:06):
of effort.
We have a um and my editorbrought this to me from a
production company she workedfor before.
It's a tiered system within um,our post-production process,
which we rank projects Tier one,tier two, tier three.
Tier three is let's just getthis done.
That probably means it's alower budget and we're just

(01:09:30):
getting something done quickly.
Tier two is like where mostprojects land, which is let's do
this well and efficient.
Tier one is put your heart intoit.
This is going to be a portfoliopiece and we want to showcase
what we can do here.

The budget's there .
I'm still sharing this withJulie.

Yeah, you should, and my editor was like
we need to start a tier system.

Do it.

It's super helpful in terms of setting the
expectations with an editor, Forthose of you out there too,
that are looking to hire aneditor.
This conversation's alreadybeen worth it, but, yes,
continue yes, I mean that thathelps, like a lot of like I said
a lot of times, it's tier twoum, but yeah, the dc one was
tier one because there's a lotof um.
Yeah, plus the story we'retelling is so story's valuable

(01:10:13):
the budget.

I've never wanted to buy an ad more.
You have no idea I can't waitpeople to obviously watch that.
But yeah, I need to buy an adEDmore.
You have no idea, I can't waitfor people to obviously watch
that, but, dude, I need to buyan AED and I never thought about
that in my life.
That's what I'm saying.
The stories that we cover andprojects that we do it can make
a personal difference.
Because, not only, like I said,we made great images, we're
telling an incredible story.
We had fun in DC in fallweather, Can't complain but

(01:10:38):
we're learning things that wewould have never learned
otherwise and that the wholeworld needs to know.
So hopefully we'll make a realimpact in the world.
So thanks for bringing me intoit.

No, I mean that's where I want my work to
go is to be on projects that areactually creating change.
You know, because we do a lotof marketing and advertising
stuff that's like the changewe're creating is often like
Money Top and advertising stuff.

That's like the change we're creating is often
like money top line money, yeahgood yeah, or or bring more
staff and whatever that whateverthe goal is I mean that's so
money in the way.

But yes, yes, yeah, different projects that
are more meaningful in terms ofmaking the world a better place,
which is, I think, like one ofthe great powers that we do hold
.
As creatives, artists, videoproduction people um, we can,
through stories, make the worldbetter, and I mean I wish like

(01:11:30):
brands grabbed onto that andrealized the, the potential
there, um to utilize story andstill weave your brand into it.
Get your little brandrecognition out of it, but like
you can create real change andreally affect people with good
stories.
I mean, maybe what's yourvision for that in the future,

(01:11:51):
like how organizations will usethat, because I see that
becoming more important.

Yes, so I'd get to do a few of those every year.
So, like I said, documentary ismy favorite part when we get to
do a few of those every year.
So, like I said, documentary ismy favorite part when we get to
tell a real story.
I love it when brands go wewant to tell a story 30 minutes,
short documentary, 45 minutesor whatever.
But here's the budget, go do it.
I love the freedom Because then, funny enough, they get better
ROI from me out of it, because Ican now squeeze, and I'm even

(01:12:16):
happy to ask a friend like, hey,and you know we will do it for
each other.
We're like, hey, can you takeslight less rate?
You know I'll give you maybe anextra day or whatever.
Here let's go do better forthis client because the stories
that we're telling are impactful.
But yes.
So coming back to it, yes, theshort, I would say corporate
documentaries.
Where it's not.
And again, I love my brandstory videos, all the
testimonials.

(01:12:36):
I'm not letting the those go'msaying, yes, that is the most
rewarding work we can do in thiscorporate and commercial field.
Are you know where we can tellthese long form stories, where
we can take, you know, pauses?
We can give the story the timeit needs.
It doesn't have to be all hyperrushed, because you know client
, you know people will not watchmore than a two minute long

(01:12:57):
video, so, but when you createthese, the stories that you can
tell, not only impact you knowtheir business like we're trying
to.
It also fulfills you, yourcreativity, and then they get a
better product at the end and weall get to do what we are all
trying to do, right, make greatart without being starving
artists.
And so you know, I see morecorporate document because you

(01:13:18):
know I see more corporatedocuments because you know.
Now I see what's happening.
This became accessible, soeveryone is starting to have
brand videos and testimonials.
So, slowly, I see what's goingto happen is plus, ai is making
our job easier.
So what's going to, I think,happen is everyone's going to go
in a few years like the samenoise.

(01:13:40):
Right before it was like how dowe step out from social media?
Then was this.
Now it's going to be like oh,everyone has a brand video,
right, how do we pick now?
Now, how do our clients pick us, right?
So I think it's going to bethese long form, longer form.
It may not be full in documentbut longer form, documentary-ish
, I think, projects is where Isee saying because, at the end
of the day again, like we saidbefore, people buy from people
they like, know and trust.

(01:14:00):
And if a business has a storyto be told and a story that can
be told that long because it'sboring, I think people will
watch it.
Especially, you're trying tocreate those promoters, the
top-end customers, that they notonly buy from you, they go to
every friend they know and ifyou can create that relationship
, I think it's best for thebrand, it's best for, obviously,

(01:14:23):
us as creatives.
So, yeah, I see more and more.
I've already done a few ofthose these year, this year and,
um, a bunch of people have beenon podcasts that helped me make
some of those.
So um point is yes, I see morelong-form documentaries being
done by brands, which is lessnow, because that's the way
they're going to be able to notput themselves apart from their

(01:14:45):
competitors when they havesimilar content.

I hope that's not just us validating what we
want to do, but I mean, hey,that's great.

To be real in 2024 , I was actually paid, and
pretty good money to do that, soa few times over.
It wasn't even just a flukelike oh there was a one-off.
So I clearly see that moving.
But yes, obviously I'm wishingtoo on the other side because
that's what we want to do, right, I love, I mean how much I like
two-hour go interview, b-roll,hey, make a project, make good

(01:15:16):
money doing that.
You know I do like that.
I'm not taking that away, butas a creative person, as
somebody who wants to tellimpactful stories or just tell a
better story, because you knowyou need time it pauses.
You need breaks, you need morecharacters.
You can't do that in 90 secondsto two minutes, the average
length video that I'm targeting.
That's all people watch basedon studies.

(01:15:38):
So I don't know.
I I love that I'm targeting.
That's all people watch basedon studies.
So I don't know, I love that.
I'm just hoping there's more ofit.
I just see those climbing everyyear.
It started from one, now two,last year four, so that, and
then obviously I enjoycommercials, though they're
becoming less and less budgets.
I love making scripted, youknow actors, directing actors,

(01:15:59):
it's so fun to me building sets.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like what you said.
There is, everybody will havethe same noise and then you'll
have to be innovative on how youstand out from the crowd, and I
think quality of storiessurrounding a brand will be a
differentiator going forward.
I mean you can look at the topbrands in the world that are

(01:16:24):
using stories.
Adidas does great stories ontheir athletes and their
backgrounds.
Yeti is a good one, where theygo feature people out in the
world, like out in their naturalenvironment, that they love fly
fishing or mountain biking orwhatever.
There's some subtle brand inthere, of course, but those
stories like where you'reselling like the human

(01:16:46):
connection, not like selling it,but you're making people
connect with the human being andyou're making them relate on a
human level, while also likeinching that connection close to
the brand as well, is I thinkthat's top notch exactly, and I
think that's why people wouldbuy it, because obviously if you
just wanted an insulated cooler, there's enough inter imported,

(01:17:07):
you know, cheap chinese ones onon the market, on amazon you
could buy hundreds.

So you buy a yeti because you connect with those
emotional reactions and thatbrand and and you want to
support that brand, you want tosupport what they stand for.
Um, that's the same with a lotof things like patagonia is
another example so there'sthere's a lot of brands like
that and I think that's how it'smoving, but I'm also thinking
that's moving hyper local.
It is currently the brands.
I think that needs to be andthat's what I'm trying to do, at

(01:17:34):
least is I think local brandsneed to embrace that, because it
works again.
Again, let these big companiesspend time and money researching
and making, figuring out, thenwhy can't local, not companies?
Because I think it needs to behyper-local.
Like, hey, this is who we are,this is how much impact we're
making locally.
Like we're a local coffee shop,this is you know how much
impact we're making in ourcommunity, or whatever.

(01:18:05):
I think those type of stories,like you said, making that brand
elevate just like Yeti is, justlike Adidas is, or whatever
these bigger brands are I thinkthat needs to now become
hyper-local and I think that'swhere I see us moving and I
would love to.
I love helping small businesses.
Hopefully they have the budgetsto do that, but I think that's
another way they can embrace itand bring it hyper Like, hey,
look at my local coffee shop,look at my local flower shop, or
whatever.
They have stories too, insteadof just a typical brand video or

(01:18:29):
whatever.
Right, do you see that or no?

Yeah, I think what you maybe think there was
about personalization ofmarketing.

Yeah, just making it bigger than just the flowers
or the coffee or the you know,you know what I mean, but but at
a hyper local level, instead ofnot this ginormous brand,
because you know, like, again,yeti, they're making insulated
coolers.
Let's make it simple whatthey're actually doing.
But the brand is bigger thanthat, right, the stories and
stuff.
So I'm saying what shouldn'tsmall businesses be doing that?

(01:18:57):
Because they can have the sameimpact.
Why is their flower just aflower?
They should have a story wherethe flower is picked and if it's
hyperlocal, it's like look, I'mgrowing in my backyard these
flowers, or I have this supplierwho's local or whatever.
Whatever the story is, whetherwe're in Florida or citrus farms
or whatever it is, I think itneeds to be told in a similar

(01:19:19):
way and obviously, as a creative, I would love to help them and
I think they would get huge ROIout of it, because you're no
longer just a flower shop, right, I think the branding overall
needs to increase everywhere andespecially, like you said, so
much noise.
You got to stand out.

Yeah, those, the ones that leverage story at
least this is how I discuss withmy clients.
The ones that leverage storeare the ones that leverage story
at least this is how I discusswith my clients to.
The ones that leverage storeare the ones that stand out, the
ones that build that brandequity and that are going to
last.
Yeah, right, and why?
Why does one?
Why do you buy one water bottlefor a dollar and one for five,
like we would say that this fivedollar bottle has four dollars

(01:19:54):
of brand equity.

So that's.
I had somebody on the podcastwho's like it has to be smart
water.
What?

you gotta provide yeah understand.

Otherwise I'm not happy now I'm just see that has
a whole yeah, yeah.
But you see what's the area?
That's branding pay more yeah.

So I mean that's successful for a lot of
different businesses, buildingthat brand equity standing out.
Um, there's some quote that'slike a product or service
without a story is just acommodity.
So if you're here, that waterbottle is water.
You got no story, it's got nolabel on it.

It's got no like the smart water it's got the
goldfish in it or whatever it'sgot nothing like that.

You know, not specifically talking about
packaging.
It just says no story behind it.
This is packaging and she saysno story behind it.
This is this is water, drinkwater, h2o.
You know that's a, that's acommodity, and if you're selling
a commodity, then you'recompeting on price every time
and that's straight to thebottom exactly and also, I think
it's who you're targeting.

So now, uh, you know again, if you're making you
know, um, I don't know furjackets or whatever, like you
know something, winter clothing,you're trying to market it to
Florida.
It ain't going to work.
So it also, I think, is againlocalized who your audience is.
You have to have a story andthen it has to be relevant, I

(01:21:10):
think.
And that's exactly where we areright.
We're here to help them do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, in one format, uh usually
yeah um yeah, it's, it's, it'dbe.
It'll be interesting to see how, like the corporate knowledge
of the value of storytellingevolves over the next like five
ten years or so um, you know,because I would say generally
still you run into what maybeyou experience this too if

(01:21:38):
you're working with a largeorganization or a corporation.
A lot of the times that mostpeople you're gonna, you run
into walls where people just donot get it they do not cannot
grasp the value of a story andhow it connects people and
builds trust and credibilityespecially when they have
shareholders, because the issueis, shareholders want instant

(01:22:00):
return.

The thing is and we all know this, I mean this is
not a hidden secret um, tobuild brand, to build wealth,
it's a long-term play.
Right, you have to go okay,this is the product we're going
to develop.
It's going to take us 12 monthsto develop, six, you know, I
don't know six months to test,then another six months to
market or whatever, and the, theceo, or whatever, the, the
pressure on the ceo and themarketing.
No, no, we need money now andright.

(01:22:22):
So so that creates, I think, uh, that issue where they don't
get it because they don't seethe long-term play with these
storytelling, because you'rebringing building brand value on
our side, at least what we'redoing, and, uh, sometimes they
don't get it, or maybe theydon't want to get it because
they're so hyper-focused on,like, if I don't bring return
this quarter you know it's not3% or whatever 5%, whatever

(01:22:45):
their targets are, it's not overyear, over year Then I look bad
.
Then if I look bad, then youknow the company looks bad, then
my job's in a lot of trouble.
There's a lot more yeah to itthan it needs to be Right,
because, ultimately, yeah to itthan it needs to be right
because, uh, ultimately thenyou'll see, then they'll fire
the ceo, they'll hire a new onewho goes, oh yeah, I can fix
this, but it'll take me two,three years and they'll
implement exactly what wasneeded to be implemented.

(01:23:07):
Because it's a long-term playusually right.
Short-term plays generallydon't.
They may give you instantreturn for a little bit, then
they don't.
They don't last that long.
Um, but yeah, so that's whatI'm saying.
Like I, that's what I do.
Like about small businesses.
As somebody who who works withlarge agencies and then small,
small ones, uh, small businessescan be nimble I find it so much

(01:23:28):
easier when you can hop in aphone call and straight up talk
to the owner, or at least thelead marketing director,
whatever, and be like look, thisis it, this is what we can do,
this is what your idea is, whatdo you think?
And you can instantly get yes,no, whatever.
Or you can get their buy-in bytelling them hey, look, this
brand is doing this, you know,blah, blah, blah.
Whatever the strategy is, it'sa lot easier because now you're

(01:23:50):
talking to the decision maker.
When you find people in there,I think sometimes the the
message can get lost too.
Yeah, because the first personmay have full buy-in and they
understood it because you knowyou explained it to them.
But by the time it gottranslated like the game of
telephone right.
Yeah.

By the time they got the CEO.
That's not what I was talkingabout.

Yeah, the CEO's like what?
And then sometimes you even getapproval and you get the
message and they're like, oh, sowe want to do this.
And you're like, where did thatthat change?

the scope of work went from this to this and
okay, well, we gotta redraft thecontract, and you know blah,
blah, blah you know, you know,how that is yeah, man, I yeah,
so I I just, I guess I justwanted to get your angle on,
like how you see that kind ofevolving uh no, this is when you
yeah, when you are, youprobably do this too.
You're trying to align with thethe evolution of what's
happening to video productionbusinesses and how they're going

(01:24:44):
to stand out and how you'regoing to be relevant in the
future.
I'm trying to think a little bitahead to how does this look and
what?
How do people think in a coupleyears?
Why?

I'm.
I'm I diverse, diversified myincome.
Right, remember it was justproduction company.
Here's what I see.
I, having done this now for 14,15 years, I figured out, you
know.
I had to sit down and askmyself what do I enjoy?
The truth is, I'm an artist.
I want to be on big sets makinggood content, helping
businesses grow and tell betterbrand stories.

(01:25:14):
And the truth is me, at least.
This may not apply to you andother people.
It was simple, as I cannot beeverywhere.
I'm one person.
I cannot maintain all sets, Icannot maintain all
relationships, I cannot go befriends with every brand.
So I had to start this thing,like I did with you, is

(01:25:36):
partnership.
I so my goal is obviously I'mgoing to continue my
relationships, give them greatcontent, but for me and my
personal happiness, I'm goodwhere I'm revenue wise.
Obviously, we all want to growand I want to grow, but the goal
this year for me has been and Ithink I shared that with the
group is just simply to be onmore sets.
I want to be on your sets and Iwant to be on David, which

(01:25:59):
David is DP, but you knowsomebody else's production
company and their set.
And other people said because,and and still obviously not
discount my production company,uh, but the, the reason being is
because that makes me happy.
Right, it makes me happy.
It's like, for example, againcome back to that dc shoot.
It made me happy telling thatstory and being even a tiny part
of it, being able to say thoseare my images, even though it's

(01:26:21):
about the story, but I could go,my images, you know, helped
adam and the, the other, therest of the team, tell this
massively monumental story.
Yeah, and I couldn't have donethat because, guess what, I
could have easily been like adamI'm busy building a studio, I
don't have time.
Sorry, adam, and you go to melike that's cool.
Five other people, all right,we'll do it.

(01:26:43):
Right, it may not have lookedthe same, they might have looked
different, but what I'm sayingis technical, is not expertise,
and not that hard to find.
It's, you know, point I'mtrying to make is I had to put
myself out there.
So, anyway, anyway, my goalpersonal has been this that I
understand that right for me tobe able to be part of amazing
stories and obviously we tellgreat stories with our clients

(01:27:04):
is to be able to open myself up.
Bring be the dp again be thethe gaffer again, be whatever
role.
I can help in other people'sproduction, especially when I'm
available right and plus.
The best thing with us is whatwe do is behind the scenes.
We're are there, especiallywhen I'm the production company
owner.
We are the guy behind the table.
All I'm doing is booking people, booking flies, booking travel.

(01:27:27):
You know what I mean?
It's the producer aspect of it.
I can do that anywhere.
I still remember I did a gigfor you what was it?
Red Cross or something and youwere like dude, are you okay?
And I was, are you okay?
And I was like you're, like youhave a production company and
it's funny, I was editing theirthing and I was doing that at
the same time, I was handling acouple of rental requests.

I'm like dude, I'm running my production what
are you talking about?

so I'm happy to be here exactly, and that's what
and I've done that many times.
Like, there was, I think, aproject I did somewhere, um,
with you I think it washollywood or rivers and my buddy
was like, oh, you gotta come tofreaking philadelphia or
whatever.
It's like, yeah, look, I willcome.
You gotta fly me from hollywoodbecause that's where I am gonna
be and and for me also,commitment is very important.
I told you, yes, that means yes, plus, I wanted to be there.

(01:28:08):
We love that client, um, so,anyway, uh, you know, uh point
is he was able to make thathappen and, like you said, in a
way, double dip, but I made youhappy and I made that guy happy
and I got to be on two cool sets.

Yeah, I couldn't complain you know what
I mean.
So sometimes yeah, yeah,exactly that's winning.

And then, um, you know, obviously, uh, that's not
gonna be able to sustain at thispoint, my cost.
So that's why I gotta obviouslygo do my production stuff on
the side and be able to make therevenue that I and, and that's
just, this is how it is anywayso at least that's the revenue
that I want to make and that'sjust how it is, anyway.
So at least that's the path thatI am on where I want to be on
more sets.
Stop being this guy that I'mjust this production company.

(01:28:47):
I am bigger than that.
I am an individual who likes tobe on sets, but I'm also this
production company owner.
So I'm separating the two.
If that makes sense and I thinkit's worked great for me in
2024, so if that makes sense andI think it's worked great for
me in 2024, so I want to justcontinue that in 2025.
At least that's the path thatI'm on.

That's awesome man Definitely can do and will
definitely use you yeah,whenever it works.

Obviously, whenever it works.
And the good thing is I make myown schedule so I can do
whatever I want to do.
It just comes down to is beingable to be on cool sets.
Anyway, let's pivot.
I want to go to the stuff thatpeople want to know from you.
They don't want to.
So what's your average ticket,you'd say.
And obviously projects vary.
You know, like my projects varyhugely in top to bottom.

(01:29:33):
What would you say is youraverage nowadays?
Or a project that you're aimingfor or you're getting?
Actually, that'd be morerealistic.

Yeah, I would say last year, probably averaged
in the 8 to 12 range.

That's pretty good for corporate and commercial
yeah it's solid.

Those are usually two people on set,
whether it's me, you or me andDavid, or whoever is Al, you and
Manuel, or David and me.

Or David and you.
That happened too.

So that's yeah, that's the goal.
A couple good ones that were 20, 30.
Those are great.
You know there's a lot morework, a lot longer of a process
to deliver on those and moreelaborate projects.
But yeah, that's kind of wesqueaked out the revenue that we

(01:30:30):
made with yeah eight to 12.

And that's pretty good range, and mostly your work
is actually corporate, notreally commercial, right.
Have you done any commercial orno, you stick to corporate
right, I think that andcorporate docs and stuff like
that right Is that documentarycorporate Yep, am I missing
anything?

No, I mean some of I mean the Red Cross stuff
is more like it's stillcorporate-y.
But it's like news-y type stuff.

Yeah, news-y, I would say when you're cutting
the B-roll package and sendingit over.

Yeah, it's mostly corporate.

That's pretty interesting too, yeah, but no.
So 8 to 12, which is prettygood.
You know what type of you canround up, you don't have to give
your exact numbers.
But I want to know, like, whatis the profit percentage that
you're aiming for?
Like, if you have a 12 grandproject or, let's simplify, 10
grand project, what is theprofit that you're aiming to

(01:31:21):
make for the company, not you?

the company.
What is is how fast that goes,you know like when I say costs,
I mean mostly paying my, thefreelancers.
An editor, um you know,charging a day rate for myself
if I'm on the set, um chargingfor the pre-production time, um,
that leftover margin gets spentpretty quick, yeah, whether

(01:31:58):
that's little pieces ofequipment, it's subscriptions,
it's um you know phone, internetanother thing you brought up
that was so great like we havesome costs that we are not
accounting for, but we shouldlike storage costs right, you
talked about um, you know andrental costs or whatever
equipment causes so much.
Yeah, stock music, stock mediauh it just, it gets eaten up so

(01:32:21):
quick and then you look at your,your accounts, you're like wait
, I thought I was making a goodpart yeah, I mean, and then the
last year, and for you as well,um was an expensive personal
year with house and baby andstuff.
So it's like you know, numberssound fancy at the top.
Of course, I will say one numberthat I am even more proud of

(01:32:43):
than my top number is the amountI spent on contract labor,
which is all my freelancers.
I think it was about $110,000 Ispent on freelancers last year,
do you?

know how much of that was me.

Probably half.

Because I need to do.
Funny enough, I did all mynumbers but I didn't do specific
like what I got from you.

Yeah, but it's probably half of it.
But that to me is even coolerBecause from my efforts Of
starting Adam K Studio, gettingthese clients 110 grand, I mean,
that's like Two to three decentjobs From my efforts of
starting Adam K Studio, gettingthese clients 110 grand, I mean
that's like two to three decentjobs.
Call it two, two decent jobs,salary jobs.

(01:33:23):
But I'm not looking to hirepeople on salary, I'm just
saying that's like what you hearin the news or whatever.

Small businesses create opportunities for America
.

It's like wait, yeah, I am one of those little
guys that's making a job for acouple people, and it's you and
it's other freelancers that getto do what they love and get
paid, mostly what they want toget paid.
Yeah, and same thing for me.

I'm like excited 1099 is a good thing.
I, like you know, because I'mare.
I mean we are creatingopportunities.
I mean, uh, that's exactly whatit is.
But we couldn't do it byourselves.
Like you said, I couldn't dowhat I do without any of the
people I hire, because at theend day, when I it's my set, I'm
directing.

I don't want to be.

You know, obviously I'll make some inputs
on the camera and stuff, but Iwant to be focused on the client
and the result and the story,because that's far more
important than the technicalaspects of it.
And so I couldn't do anythingwithout the people that I hired.
But I'm hyper obsessive.
Thank goodness to you again,that's what I'm saying.
Working with you is so greatbecause you're not like me,
because I'm like, before I showup, I've already decided what

(01:34:26):
the aperture is going to be,what the shutter angle is going
to be, what the frame rate isgoing to be.
So free my freelancers.
They get like very creativelimitation, as in like this is
it?
You can control the lighting,you can't.
You know, cameras already set,because that's the look that I'm
going for.
Um, a point I'm trying to makeis, like you know it's, it's uh.
I couldn't do anyway what I'mdoing without the people that I

(01:34:47):
hire that who are able to comein and help me tell the stories
that I'm trying to tell, uh, butat the end of the day, you're
right, we're creating, you know,money, we're supporting so many
companies and we're supportinguh all the way from equipment to
retailers like bnh and adorama,to uh, you know, to freelancers
like me and you and I mean Idon't know, I mean.

(01:35:08):
So in the end, we aresupporting the economy.

Yeah, 100%.
Part of it, A tiny little spotin it.
And when I look through myreport at the end of the year in
QuickBooks and I see thatnumber and I think how do I
improve my business, how do Igrow my business?
How do I grow my bottom line?
Because bottom line is a littlemore important.
Well, I guess it depends onwhere you are in your business

(01:35:38):
At this point.
It a little more important.
Well, I guess it depends onwhere you are in your business
at this point.

It's becoming more important to me.

How do I improve that.
That's one area where I'm likeI will not cut like but that
number.
That number will only go up forme because I want to pay people
what they want to get paid.
I want to pay the right peoplethat are experienced and are
going to do it right the firsttime and also not take your
clients or ruin yourrelationship.

But the other thing I was going to say is you
can't.
I know people who've startedproduction companies and hired
people, and nothing wrong withhiring people, but you know as
having been an employee, becauseguess what happens when you
hire people, at least in myexperience.
I'm not again against hiringpeople.
Yeah, they leave.
They also.
They need PTO, they need timeoff, they get sick, which is
human, but they need healthcare,which is massive, massive on

(01:36:19):
top of the salary.
Plus.
Now you're on the hook for theequipment.
Guess what, when you bring inDavid, if his FX6 breaks or
whatever, he's on the hook.
Or me to have the separatecamera, whatever.
You're not on the hook, versusif you're providing the FX6 and
they drop it or whatever, likethey're on the hook for you know
what I mean.
So you're not only on the hookfor them, you're on the hook for

(01:36:40):
their benefits and they call in, which they have a right to.
Now what Versus with afreelancer?
You know they're coming becauseI'm coming.
I'm not getting paid, if youknow I don't show up, so so
there is inherent advantage.
Obviously it wouldn't work if,uh, you know you were hiring me
365 days of the year.
Now you're like that doesn'tmake sense, obviously.
But if you know, it's how it is, which normally it is for

(01:37:02):
shooters, because we're notshooting every single day.
For me at least, it doesn'tmake sense to hire and I've seen
people, companies, go out ofbusiness because then they'll
hire someone and they'll ask thesame person to edit because you
want to use their timeefficiently and then they're not
as good at editing, or they'renot good at shooting.
At least that's what I've seen.
I don't know.
Obviously you haven't done it,so you know I mean which is why
I've like every year I go, Iwould love to have a full-time

(01:37:24):
person here, especially now thatI have a space.
But then I'm like, what arethey gonna do?
And do I want them to multitask?
Because then they're not goodat everything.
Right, they're not.
Yeah.

Yeah, and I think it's just like decreasing
your liability when you'retrying to grow your business.
Like I have a buddy that hasseveral employees and is a
production company and they dogreat and, yeah, it works great
for him.
They got a good amount ofrevenue coming in recurring
revenue, which is key when youhave employees and uh, they got

(01:37:55):
some funding from a?
Uh partner and uh, so they'reable to sustain that.
I have another buddy that's uh,maybe a small step behind where
I am in terms of revenue andhe's like dude, I got to hire a
salesperson.
I'm like dude, don't hire asalesperson.
Like I got to hire asalesperson, I'm like dude,
don't hire a salesperson.
I've gone through the samethought process.

(01:38:16):
I'm like I need to have someoneto take this on, especially
when you go through a busyperiod.
You're like dude, I can't doall this.
I need somebody to take this on.
Like dude, just contractsomebody.
That's what I did end of lastyear to just get this ball
rolling, as I contracted aproject manager part-time to
help me keep up with all thedetails and communications and

(01:38:39):
start building out processeswithin my business so that can
be a little more efficient and Ican hand over some stuff to her
.
I didn't have to sign anemployment agreement, I just
said hey, here you, 20 hours amonth max, and let me know when
you're getting close and we'llstart working on these things.
You know, I have no commitmentI can leave.

(01:39:01):
You know exactly I my goal isthat she be.
I work her up to 40 hours andshe's happy with it and, um, we
have we get enough value out ofthat.
If she ever wanted to take thatstep further, great.
If not, then that's cool.

You know, like I'm .

I'm comfortable with people being where they
tell me they want to be, um, andI'm going to wait to hire
people until I can absolutelysay yes.
Paying this salary equals, um,you know, 1.5x that salary and
revenue.
Whatever the formula is, thatmakes sense to get a return on

(01:39:37):
that hire.

Yeah, you want it more than that.

But yes, that's a, whatever the formula is yeah
, like it's, you got to bepretty big to get to that point.
Right, you have to be able tobe efficient.

My whole thing is, and it's so good to hear.
That's why I'm like having thisconversation If somebody is
working it, because, like I said, my experience it's hard to be
good at both, like I said,editing and shooting and all
that you know it's, it's true,it's different art forms and uh
so, uh so.
So making that work seemsharder to me.
Plus, like I said, you have tohave extra people on staff now

(01:40:06):
because if they call in whateveron a shoot day, you have to be
able to make sure you can coverthat shoot or whatever.
Right, there's a lot to it andobviously nothing wrong with
hiring.
I know huge agencies that havehuge people on staff.
Obviously, funny enough, theystill hire me.
So but, yeah, I mean so.
Obviously there's manydifferent ways to obviously work

(01:40:29):
this out.
But that's good to hear yourperspective on it, what you're
thinking and stuff like thatyeah, man, we, we get hired by
large organizations that havein-house video production teams
too, so it's like they're doingit like you know, but it's hard
to say that it's wrong yeah, andand just the thing is the same
thing.
that's why they hire outside,because it's really hard to keep

(01:40:49):
them trained, keep them withthe right equipment, with the
right benefits and the costs.
It's really expensive becausepart of my business is providing
marketing and we've talkedabout this marketing agency with
the people that they can shootfor them and edit for them, and
all that and that's the reasonwhy it made sense for them to go

(01:41:10):
through me.
Because guess what?
If one of them calls in, I cansend another freelancer and
they'll never be out of that tohave that issue.
It's that liability that theydon't want.
Plus, if the equipment gets old, broken, whatever, it's on me.
But then on my side it's like,hey, I can make good revenue off
of this because I have theequipment, I have all the
expertise, I have thesefreelancers with me that I can

(01:41:32):
send over to get whatever theywant done.
So it's like I guess it'sbeneficial for them to do it
that way.
It's beneficial for me to do itthis way, so we're all winning
at the end.
That's all that matters.

That's why, where I was thinking about this
recently, that's why I think weand other freelancers and small
production companies are wellpositioned for the future,
because having employees is veryexpensive and, uh, large
organizations are you alwayshear about laying off all these
employees, cutting all thesepeople, eliminating this
department?
Um, you know, I, I think in,even in like an economic turn

(01:42:08):
turn down, like a slow economicperiod, companies look to cut
costs.
Yeah, maybe that means they cutout some of those large
agencies.
Like a slow economic period,companies look to cut costs.
Maybe that means they cut outsome of those large agencies,
huge production teams that arebringing 40, 50 people out onto
their set that we can do withlike 10.
Exactly, and get you 90% of thequality, I think we're well

(01:42:28):
positioned for that, as well asbeing freelancers and operating
outside of the organization, sothat the cost of you know,
health insurance 401k planspayroll all that stuff is like
gone, like.
Why don't you just eliminatethat?
Pay me the rate that I want toget paid, you'll save.
Yeah, we'll win, everybody winsI think we're positioned well

(01:42:51):
in that sense for the future.

You absolutely said it, especially when it's
actually the economy takes adownturn, video is even more
important because people arebuying less.
You need the more reason to buy.
And, funny enough, you say thatI've done that where a large
agency has reported.
Oh, these talking heads will beon the higher end level, be
like quarter of a million orwhatever.
And I've been able to come inand I'm like I can do the exact

(01:43:16):
same thing.
And this is not to undercut,it's just I'm looking at my
costs.
I have my own formula, right, Ihave my production fee, I have
my director's fee, and then I'mlike oh yeah, we can bring two,
uh, uh, arri, alexa, lfs and theyou know can do it for 50k.
And they go whoa, you know whatI mean.

(01:43:37):
And and I'm making good moneyI'm like I have no idea how much
their margins are and maybethey need to be higher because,
again, they need to pay for theemployees wages and you know all
the extra thing.
So, like you said, we are waymore lean with it because you
know we don't have those likethat production designer isn't
sitting in my team, they're thefreelancer I'm gonna hire.
And that gaffer is, again, I'mgonna hire.

(01:43:58):
They're not like on my team, soI have no cost.
Like, once they come in, I paythem their day rate.
They go and work, so we can, um, I guess, separate the cost for
all our clients, right, uh, andsomehow at the end we win.
But they win, everyone wins andthe client gets the look and
the feel and the content thatthey wanted, but which is great.

(01:44:19):
Like I said, at the end we areall winning, which is why, like
I said, it was great partneringwith you last year and so many
of your projects where I couldhelp in.
I guess David wasn't available,so you're like let me reach out
to my backup guy.
But no, you, you're part of it.
The funny thing is, like I said, the cost went so high.
So normally I'm I'd be.
Even though people think I'vespent a lot of money, I'm very

(01:44:39):
efficient.
I have formulas like this isbusiness, how I'm running costs.
It's just, you know, thanks toyour inspiration, I was like
okay, I gotta buy this house.
And then you know I was reallyyou know once you vision it.
I know what's worst financialdecision, because it's one thing
.
To buy for rental, that's adifferent.
Real estate can be a greatinvestment, but when you're
buying for yourself, it's notreally an investment, it's a

(01:45:00):
place to live.
So worst cost thing everBecause I'm not thinking about
selling this right.
So there's no return on thisinvestment Anyway.
So now I'm putting all thismoney into it.
It's taking time for my shootsand my production company on top
of that.
Now I've emotionally investedCause I'm like I need the space
and now I see where I can parkmy man, cause that was the issue
with the last place.

(01:45:21):
You know HOAs and stuff.
You can't just park productionranches anywhere.
So I was like, well, I can, I'mtalking about.
So anyway, and I think it wasyour Red Cross gig that was so
freaking incredibly helpful,because I think the hurricanes
was delaying this process, andso it was great to be able to
just take my mind off things andwhile these other people,

(01:45:44):
whoever figured out how to makethis work and to be able to take
my mind off.
So at that time it wasn't justthat it was a gig, it was also
time off, cause if it was a homeI would have been dealing with
you know all these people likewhat's going on.
Well, let's say I'm distracted,I'm looking at people's homes
just gone.
I'm like, okay, I'm not thatbad I'm, but technically you are

(01:46:16):
kind of responsible partly.
I mean, I would say what one domath?
$150,000.
No, you're $55,000 B of myrevenue.
Anyway, I guess you'reresponsible for this plant.
You can take this tree home.

Your revenue paid for this.

I mean, but it was definitely helpful and what I
do like I do want to tell people, which is why our friend David
is, you know, dp.
There is an inherent advantage.
I don't want people to thinkthere's total negative of
working for other people,because guess what, when I
charge, sure I could chargepeople $30,000, $50,000, $10,000
, whatever $8,000.
For projects we have costs.
So our profit may only be threeon a, let's say, 10 grand

(01:46:55):
project.
Like you said, three, four,five grand profit and much, even
less percent wise on a 50 grandprofit may only be like 10
grand.
Uh point I'm trying to make isversus uh, sure, I'm not making
that much on your project, butthat's all profit right, I miss
that.

Yeah, being a freelancer.

So there's nothing wrong if that's the path that I
think helps somebody, becausefood is provided, planes are
provided, hotel is provided.
At the end your costs are beingcovered by the production
company, which hurts when you'rethe production company doing it
, but it's really good whenyou're the freelancer.
And then, whatever your ratesare and your equipment rentals

(01:47:36):
are, if you can build that in,at the end day it's 100 profit
right, so that money can be very, very lucrative too.
Sure, the top line revenuedoesn't look that nice, but it's
all profit right.
So there is an inherentadvantage to being a freelancer
too if that's something somebodyis interested in.
Obviously I wouldn't want to dothat full time, but it doesn't

(01:47:57):
hurt to have that extra revenueon the side.

Yeah, no, that that helps me a couple of things
there it's.
It's profit in the sense thatyou, it all goes into your, your
bank account.
You know you don't have thoseliabilities of like I got to pay
this camera off, I got to paythis PA, whatever Um, you still
got your costs and your expensesof course.
So your profit, your net profit, is a little different than
that that day rate Um, unlessyou're padding in, unless you're

(01:48:22):
a freelancer, padding in moreon top of that to build your,
your business, which most aren't, because they think that
probably prices them out.
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, depends on where you're at Um.
I think it's a great model tobe a freelancer and the amount
of the mental load offreelancing um in in terms of

(01:48:45):
the, the actual work, is lower,uh, than being the production
company where you've got tocoordinate multiple people,
you've got to handlepost-production.
It's way more drawn out.
You've got to do all thatinvoicing.
You know the mental load offreelancing, the shoot it and
boot it kind of deal where youshoot, you hand off cards and
you're done and you wipe thatoff your mind.

(01:49:06):
It's like dude.
I envy that sometimes for sure.
I envy that sometimes for sure.
The second thing I was going tosay on that is yes, freelancing,
balancing out freelancing withmy own projects helps out a lot
because it is immediate cashflow injected into my business.

(01:49:27):
So a lot of projects that I'mworking on, there's maybe a
deposit and then a final invoicethat could be net 30.
It can get delayed.
A final invoice that could benet 30.
It can get delayed.
I had one recently that wassent to my old address and then
flagged as a duplicate and Ijust finally got it like 61 days
later and it's like dude,you're on the hook until you get
that.

Especially as a production company, I like to
pay my freelancers like the dayof the shoot.
So sometimes you have to floatthat cash, Right.
But I mean, typically I try tocharge my clients all upfront.
I used to do 50 long time ago,50 deposit and then 50 ad
delivery.
I changed that.
Now most of my big clients willjust pay 100% upfront.
That helps a lot, but even thepeople who want to split it

(01:50:07):
which is okay, 50% upfront and Ido 50% before shoot.
And the advantage of that isthat now you're no longer having
to float that, because in thepast I've had to do that.
Where you're floating from yourbank account because I expect I
at least like to pay myshooters like, hey, you're done
with the shoot, here you go,here's your Zelle or whatever,
but again you don't want to befloating out of your own money.

(01:50:29):
So if you're waiting on a check, that can be a pain.

Yeah, I'd really try not to do that.
I know we had one.

You were sitting on one from me that I was also
sitting on, I did end upactually just Adam, how dare you
.

Well, I did just end up floating that
because it is so important to meto have good relationships,
which I appreciate you.

you didn't need to because we're cool.
And again, I just want everyoneto know you can't do that to me
.
This is Adam.
We've worked enough and youknow we know each other.
I would call you a friend now,so I'm not worried about you.
Know, a few thousand dollarshere.
I mean it's fine, it's not theend of the world, it's okay yes,

(01:51:13):
I do get it.

You don't want to be floating, yeah, yeah, and
that's that's why you know, mostof the time my deposit covers
all of my costs, uh, in terms offreelancers.
Um, sometimes it, if it's asmaller budget thing, maybe the
the uh, the bill for the editingis like worked into that second
half, but most of the time Itry to have all of my freelancer
costs covered up front.

(01:51:35):
So that way, no matter what, ifsomebody does work for me,
they're never out, they're nevergoing to be in a position where
they're not getting paid.
Like I might not get paid if,like, that client disappears or
something, or something randomhappens.

That is a risk you're taking as a production
company.

Obviously Right , so I try a production company
obviously yeah, right, so I tryto try to make sure like pay
obsessively on time and bill atleast enough to cover all my
costs up front, so that nobody'sever out, because your
relationships with yourcontractors and your freelancers
are so valuable and important.

You know exactly, because you know you get
priority to, at least for me,when I'm hiring people, I've
noticed that, uh, when you havethat relationship and they know
that they can expect to getpayment immediately, they're
more likely to want to you knowwork with you over others.
So you have an advantage ofgetting dates and other things.
At least that's what I found.

(01:52:26):
Obviously, buying the houseprocess was a pain, and then
again that's where therelationship comes in.
Where people were patient,they're like no worries when it
closes, you know we'll happily,you know, get paid then and so
and that's exactly what it'sabout same thing with us.
You were like, hey, it's notcoming.
I was like, that's cool.
whenever you can, that's fineit'll be nice but not necessary.
And and that's that's where,again, same thing with clients

(01:52:50):
comes down to your contractorsjust having a good relationship.
And that's why working withpeople you like know and trust,
you know, um, you know, ifsomebody just hires me, I'm like
okay.
So who you are, what do youwant?
You know, blah, blah, blah.
You're like, hey, you want togo here.
I'm like sure, because I knowwhat to expect you know, I hope
that makes sense.
Yeah and I hope that's the samewith the other people you're
hiring, and at least that's thesame when I'm hiring people too,

(01:53:12):
because you're built inrelationship.
It gets very sometimes I have tohire a production and I like to
hire owner operators like mebecause it reduces risk.
But I'll find an owner operator, I don't know, in some town and
I'm like okay, first let mebuild this relationship.
Can we hop on a call?
Because I want to know that ifone of your guys calls in, you

(01:53:34):
know you'll have another guywith you Because at the end of
the day you're stillrepresenting Bindra Productions
and I can't have.
You know, terrible, but that'swhat I'm saying.
You have to start now thatrelationship from scratch,
versus being able to send inpeople I know or being able to
go by myself, but sometimes youjust don't have the budget to go
travel, you know.

Yeah, yeah, the budget to go travel, you know,
yeah, yeah, definitely, man,yeah, that's just just one way
to to roll.
And, yeah, keep your, keep yourcash flowing and keep your
people happy.
And yeah, again, just want tolike enable people to do what
they are best at and what theylike to do and um, that's one of
the most rewarding things, forsure is yeah, you can bring
friends on and that's that'slike.
My peak is like friends workingtogether, hanging, hanging out
doing good work, having a goodtime getting paid.

well, it makes the time go by faster when you're
hanging out with people that youlike.
It makes the set go muchsmoother, but then also you can
provide clients a better result.
And also, at least for me, Ifind that you want to work
harder.
So, for example, that Red Cross, and also, at least for me, I
find that you want to workharder.
So, for example, that red crossthing, at least for me it was

(01:54:36):
like, hey, I'm there and I'mtalking to these people, but I'm
representing you.
So I'm like doing what I wouldnormally do.
I'm like so what do you do, youknow?
And then I find out, oh, they,they do this event where they
need a video person.
I'm like, oh, so how do you?
Who do you have a video team?
Yes, or oh, why, oh, why isn'tAdam and I?
doing it you know, I'm like and,and, and, and, and I'm like
already trying to find a leadfor you.
Cause, cause, why wouldn't I?

(01:54:57):
I mean, I have that time anyway.
We're doing a freaking hourlong, multi hour long drives
every day going through thesedisaster zones and again because
when I leave, the set.
I'm done, but it doesn't hurt tothen look out for my buddy
because I'm like, instead ofsitting here and being on my
phone, I might as well, plus,get to know the person I'm

(01:55:19):
hanging out with.
But what I'm saying is it canresult in better output at the
end because it's like, hey, oh,you need video people.
Huh, well, adam's here, right,and we're here, so let us be,
let us give it a shot, orwhatever.
I don't know, I'm saying itjust and I've had that happen.
You know, sometimes uh, it'srare sometimes you can bring a
stranger and they try to talk toyour client or whatever, versus

(01:55:41):
you bring friends and who aretrying to, um, talk about a man
who I've been on sets with him,where the client's like what's
your number?
And he points to my stickerlike there's a number right and
that's what you want you don'twant the guy to go.

Let me give you my number, come you know what I
mean.

That's what?
Because at that time you'reworking for bindra, you're not
right.

So, and that's very important, uh oh yeah, it's
small, but not everybody, noteverybody does yeah, but those
people don't come back, at leastfor me.

I don't know about you yeah anyway.
Uh, all right, man, it's timeto almost wrap up.
So before we finish, I can'tbelieve it went by so fast, uh,
and I have so many morequestions uh you know yeah I
know that's the good thing aboutI love about this uh format
that you know this goes great.
Obviously I'm just doing thisbecause I've already learned

(01:56:24):
this.
Value enough for me.
Hopefully other people willfind value in this and uh, if it
goes great, we'll do anotherseason and then you're welcome
to come back uh anytime,obviously, and I like to have
enough detailed question that Icould ask you.
That I think will help peopleand me, uh, but before we wrap
up anything else, you want toadd anything new you learned
this year or I don't know whatyou want to tell people um, I

(01:56:48):
would just say I'm proud of youseeing you uh charge on with
everything that you've committedto doing with the van and the
studio and the house and thebusiness.
Like, just got to give you anod for this Like I think.

I walked in here and I said holy like dude,
what have you been doing?

This is why I've been off the.
But you know, to be real, I'mdone being the construction work
.
I'm a filmmaker.
I want to go back to being afilmmaker and a business guy.
So for a few months I had to goback, you know, to to and
juggle all this.
This was happening while I wason shoots with you and other
people and other companies andhandling rentals.
Point is so glad it's over.
I'm so glad we have this space.
But, to be real, the goal wasthis isn't really a public space

(01:57:28):
, but you know we've talkedabout it I just wanted to have
space where we can come havethis a conversation.
Obviously we're recording it,but they don't have to be all
recorded.
Now we have a place where wecan just hang out, where it's
like, hey, um, you know, adam,come on, let's have a drink or
let's just talk, or whatever,you know.
Uh, and now we have a spacewhere and then also I have work
life separation, you knowbecause now I I have kids.

(01:57:50):
You know this now.
So for years there was no worklike separation.
Now it's like I cross the store, here's where the cut man is,
there's the work, and if I goover there, obviously I'll still
do some computer work, butoutside of that, that's home,
right, yeah, and I think this isincredible.
Plus, it saves me time.
I hated doing rentals in thepast.
I just did it to help peoplebecause you know I had to go to

(01:58:10):
my office and load and wait.
People are never on time.
Now, just like they come to me.
If you want it, come here, getit, go out of here.
So, yes, so finally, I'mexcited and I'm excited just
have a have a space for us tocome chat and talk and like this
.
Already I'm like the type ofconversations I'm having.
Man, it's it's been incrediblethe amount I've learned and in

(01:58:32):
the past few weeks, just doingsome of these episodes is just
crazy.
So, like I said again, you'rewelcome back anytime you have so
much knowledge.
Before you go, please sharepeople your Instagram so they
can go follow you or whatever.

Yeah, at Adam K Studio on Instagram and I'm one
of those people that's tryingto be on LinkedIn this year.
So Adam Casey, who on there too, yeah, seriously reach out
anytime, like little tangentconversations.

LinkedIn, if you're trying to be a production
company, is where the where isthe tat?
You know, trust me, that'swhere the money's at, because
the people that we're trying tofind are on LinkedIn, so that's
that's great, that's great, yeah, be on LinkedIn, man.
That's more money, more workfor me, you know.
Let's put the man to work right.

Let's put it to work, all right.

Adam, I really appreciate you coming.
My friend, this has been greatand you're welcome back anytime.
Hopefully we'll run this again.
And audience if somebody islistening, I can guarantee it.

Anybody's out there?
Please anyone out there?

write questions and I want detailed stuff.
I'm pretty sure you're like me.
We're happy to share actualnumbers, actual details, because
, at the end of the day, if thiscan help even one person, why
not?
It's not going to hurt ourbusiness.
And so if you want to know anyspecific things from Adam, I
would love to bring you back andthen we can run over specific,
because here's the questionsthat I had that we didn't get to

(01:59:54):
go over.
Like you know, how do you runclient meetings, how do you run,
how do you get clients?
And now people are going to belike, why didn't you ask that?
But you know, but this is justthe first one.
How do you get actual clients?
And then you know, how do youyou know with them for future
leads, stuff like that.
So there's a lot we can touchon.
So we definitely have to runthis again, but again, for now

(02:00:15):
this is enough.

So thank you, it's very cool.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Thank you for coming, man.

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