From Solo Filmmaker to Live Production Powerhouse—The Journey to Industry Success

Episode Transcript
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Vipul Bindra (00:04):
Quintin, thank you for coming.
My friend, I really appreciateyou finding the time and coming
over.
It's always fun hanging outwith you and, like we were
talking, the purpose of thispodcast I wanted to start for
years is just to talk theconversations that I want to
have with industry professionalsso I can learn more.
Hopefully you learn somethingout of it and people watching

(00:26):
will hopefully get any value outof it at least some
entertainment hearing us goofoff around for a couple hours.
So, like I said, thank you forcoming.
I'm excited.
Um, how's things been, man?

Quintin Sanders (00:38):
um, things have been good.
You know, this year.
This time of the year, rather,is really thought-provoking for
me.
You know ideas come to mind.
What do I want to do for thenext 6, 12, 15 months?
So it's a little different.

(00:59):
The past few years I haven'thad many new ideas of things I
wanted to try, but it seems liketwo months ago, everything just
do this, do this, do this, dothis.
So it's now like trying to keeptrack of everything that I
thought of and making it happen.

So what do you think made that switch?

Probably my work, the last 12 months
probably, is what you know.
What did it um?

because this last year, you know, yeah, it was
vastly different from any otheryear in fact you've been
traveling a lot doing work forthe ministry, making videos all
over the world.
I mean, it's sometimes to bereal.
I kind of get you know, I'm notjealous of that many people,
but I do get envious.
I'm like oh quentin's gettingpaid to, because you know I get
paid to travel a lot, but it'salways in the us.
You, on the other hand, I'mlike going to these countries

(01:50):
getting these new experiences.
So I got a little envious butI'm happy for you.
Man.
How was that compared toprevious years?

uh, um you know , traveling the whole world,
learning I think, um, before Iwasn't really into traveling
much.
You know I could care less whatyou know other countries are
doing.
Like I'm cool here in America,right, but going different
places and seeing how differentpeople live, how they view

(02:18):
Americans, how to interact withpeople you've never really met
before, I thought that was cool.
Doing the work is always fun.
But there was this one projectthis year that challenged me in
a different way.
So I think I told you before,but the ministry that I was

(02:41):
working with is doing somethingdifferent.
They were doing all of theirinitiatives in one place, and so
the idea was to make a doc allof it.
And so person in charge goes hey, we're going to do this and
you're going to do this, thisand this, and also, just because

(03:02):
you know the way timelinesworked out, it's like you're
going at week one or whatever.
And he goes well, could you goearlier?
Well, it was kind of both ofour ideas to go earlier.
So I'm like, yeah, I'll goearlier.
And so I'm producing, shooting,directing all of it, and I'm in

(03:25):
country for the first two and ahalf weeks by myself.
Well, with a partner with Santa.

But, I was the one in charge of which.
By the way, we know somebodynamed Santa.
His actual name is Santa, I gotto have him on the podcast.
Man, we can just talk two hours.

If you want a world traveler, he is the world
traveler.
It was very obnoxious at theairport the way he would operate
versus the way I would operate.
I'm dressed comfortably, readyto get on a 13, 14, 16-hour
flight.
He's dressed like he's going 30minutes down the road.

I guess he's used to it then, yeah.

Right, but it's not what you would think.
Two-piece suit oh wow,cummerbund.
I feel like he had on at somepoint and then when we went into
the lounges that he has accessto, he's looking for a partner
at the airport or something the,the lounges that we went into.
I could understand why he wasdressed that way.
Oh, we're talking about, likethe new centurion lounge that

(04:24):
opened up in atlanta that lounge.
I felt like I didn't makeenough to go in there, which is
crazy, because you make prettygood money yeah, yeah but but
yeah, I know, I see it.

Yeah, because the people, um, you know, I've been,
I've been told about loungeslike so much by so many people.
I don't know why.
It's just my mental state islike I just go, you know, one
stop to next stop to step top.
Maybe this year I'll try andchange my attitude and maybe
because I do have priority passand everything.
I just have never bothered toreally go to lounges and stuff.
But you know it'd be niceespecially with the amount of

(05:00):
time I spend at the airport.

I think it's Orlando's airport that doesn't
really make you want to becauseyou're so close to home.
It's like TSA pre-check, clear,all of it.
So it's like show up 30, 45minutes before your flight.
Yeah.
You walk right on through toyour gate.

And you're not worried about it.
Plus.
Plus we don't even have aCentura lounge or anything.
No, but I mean there are otherlounges at the airport.

But I think here it just doesn't make you
want to, but other places it'slike well, you got a four-hour
layover, especially like anairport like Atlanta.

It's horrible.

Yeah.

Sorry, anyone watching.

But, yeah, I hate that airport.
So going there I was like, yeah, okay, now enough of lounges.
Um, yeah, no, the travelingthis year, the things it's been,
it's been cool.
Um, seeing different places,experiencing some things,
challenging myself in differentplaces, you know, shooting on a
new camera platform that youknow.
So I think that was that wascool and yeah you, welcome to

(06:01):
the welcome to the gang.

You finally switched to fx6 there, which is
funny.
I only switched to sony a fewyears ago, but it was a massive
change and it was definitelyworthwhile for business.
Um, what was your reasoning?
Was it just a this project withthe ministry?
Or I think well or just hearingall of us talk about it, like
what made you want to finallyget one?

I realized.
I realized that sony for mostpeople is the standard these
days.
However, you know me and blackmagic, we're tight, yeah.
And so, um, I knew that sonywould probably be a good
business move we spoke about onthe phone, but I just wasn't

(06:42):
sure.
And so when this project cameup and it was like, hey, you get
the camera, it gets rented,probably pays itself off, I'm
like, well, I can't really sayno to that exactly yeah, because
money.
Money's either coming to me orsomeone else yeah exactly so.
That's why I switched.
But I realized realizedspending two months in Uganda

(07:06):
shooting that, that I don't knowof many other cameras that I
could have shot with and gotwhat I got.
You know, like sure we canshoot with anything and really
get something that looks good,but standing in the back of a
truck filming another truckgoing 80 miles an hour down the

(07:26):
road is probably not the easiestthing to do.
But sony's autofocus kind ofmade it exactly easier to do
just like everyone else.

You know, years ago I was filmmaking stops.
I was like, oh, autofocus, whoneeds that?
You know, I was very muchpanasonic at that time.
Gh4, gh5s, eva lens, allwhatever they had.
And trust me, as soon as my andthen I switched to canon, I
turned, I bought a bunch ofc200s, I'm telling you.
I turned that on and I was likewhat have I been doing?
Because it's not like the.

(07:54):
Um.
Uh, you know, autofocus has itsuse, is what I'm saying.
When I finally actually got agood working autofocus, I was
like, oh you know, this canactually be a beneficial thing.
It doesn't make it any less youknow um of you, of a filmmaker
of you.
So it's incredible.
So you would say you've gotyour roi back.
Has the camera paid for?
So, yes, and how long did youown it?

(08:15):
Hold on, hold on, we're gonnatouch that.
You've owned it for how manymonths?
uh six so in six months a sixgrand camera has paid for itself
.
I mean, that's tell hey, canyou say that for any black magic
camera?
no see, that's my point.
I don't even like and see againcontroversial take.

(08:36):
I personally don't like sonycameras.
However, switching to sony wasone of the best business
decisions because, from what Ihear, either clients don't give
a crap about what you're using,or they want Sony on the mid to
low end, or they want Alexa onthe high end.
They don't want, in thecorporate and commercial world,
reds and black magics and canonsanymore.

(08:57):
Very rarely I've had onerequest for Canon, like three
years.
You know, either they didn'tcare or they specifically were
like we want to use canon andI've never heard anyone ask for
a black magic camera.
I personally like black magicequipment.
You know I have eight time sojust sitting here.
I have nothing against blackmagic but it just doesn't make
the money.

At least that's what I found in the field that
I work in I would say, okay, notin six months did my cameras
pay themselves off.
But I'd say actually some have,and the way I operate in
procuring equipment is a littledifferent than other people and
so, yeah, most of my camera getspaid off 12, 15 months at the

(09:41):
most, because I'm not payingfull price for anything yeah,
you're probably buying used andyou're also making smart
decisions, obviously that, andwe can get into, obviously, the
business side of you, which isgood.

But what I'm saying is normally I'm very much
like buy whatever camera theyall produce about decent image,
nowadays it doesn't reallymatter.
But if you want to get hired onother productions, if it's all
your productions, it doesn'tmatter.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Buy you a big system, buy you whatever you like, who
cares?

Buy you an iPhone put in a big box, I mean, who
knows what's inside of that?
But but I do think if you aregoing to get hired in the
corporate world, fx6 is the bestinvestment you can make, and
then maybe an FX3 is a B cameraand I think you can pretty much
do most talking, hand B rolltype of rolls that you get, or
travel or conferences or any ofthat.

(10:28):
Would you say that now thatyou've used it, you think it's
versatile enough to do all that?

I mean, I'm sitting here thinking between
another FX6 and FX3.

Yeah, which is a good thought process.

Yeah, so that's where I'm at, and the only
reason I'm going back and forthbetween the two and not just
getting another FX6, which is myfirst idea is because traveling
, you know, the Ethiopianairport is not the easiest to
bring gear into.

(11:01):
Yeah, Tell me about that storybecause that was interesting to
me okay, so basically we flew inand we had, you know,
serialized all of our equipmentand we're going through so they
wanted you to do it, or you guysdid it just to safety well, the
way we got approval to bringcertain things in like a drone

(11:23):
into the country.

Oh, so you got to get approval.

So the governing body said, hey, do all
these things.
We did all those things.
We figure we're going through.
Hey, no problem, we go throughour secondary screening that you
know all airports and otherplaces do.
And they're like I'm to theside, they look through all of
our stuff.
We give them the list.
We're like I'm to the side,they look through all of our
stuff, we give them the list.

(11:46):
We're like, hey, cool, noproblem.
Letters with official seals onit, everything.
And they still take inventory.
They say, hey, we're going totake everything for the night
come back in the morning, pickit up.

Gives me nightmares thinking about
parting with my video equipment.

Now I mean it's customs.

so it's not like joe schmo, but still yes and
yeah, you don't have a choice atthat point right.

So it's like what you do, you have to do it,
and so come back the next dayand they're like oh, by the way,
uh, this is going to be 22 000,just to get 22 us yes, thousand
dollars and okay, it wasn'tjust come back the next day.
This is the amount it was.

Come back the next day, spend all day in the
airport Still didn't, and youdidn't have to shoot that day
looking right, okay Still didn'tget any answers.

I had to go back a third day, and it wasn't
until that we got everythingsituated.
Now, mind you, by that thirdday I was supposed to be already
halfway across the country.
Yeah, but I had to wait to getthis all situated, and so we
basically got half of theequipment out and were still

(12:55):
able to do everything we neededto do.

So you could only get half because you only wanted
to pay half.
That's basically.

Right, so the available money for everything
that needed to be done was likewhat makes the most sense?
Okay, ten thousand makes themost sense, so we paid that to
get production company?

obviously I know it wasn't your money, but did
the ministry or the productioncompany get the 10 grand back or
no?
Did they keep that?

last I heard they were still working on it.

Oh my goodness, let's see, this makes me not
want to complain, because I dosometimes complain.
Traveling so much makes me notwant to complain because my
worst, my problem, is theairline gonna let me pre-board
versus.
That sounds like a nightmare,uh, having to deal with plus the
the idea that you don't evenhave all the equipment you
brought there.

Uh, because they want exorbitant money to I
would say, though, that the, thedrone was definitely a red flag
for them, even though we haddifferent permissions um the
dollar amount of the equipment,because, basically they see
everything you have, they'relike oh, it's video equipment,
okay, we're gonna take it, gothrough it, yeah.
And once they looked upeverything to give me a number

(14:03):
they realized how mucheverything costs and they're
like wow yeah.

Do you think it could have been um better for
the production company or theministry to just rent equipment
locally?
Or no especially once theyfound out they needed to do all
this, extra steps to to bringthe equipment it depends on what
you can source locally, and Imean the way that they usually
do things.

It's like not sourcing anything in country,
bringing it all in so that youknow you have it yeah and most
times, most scenarios, you don'thave that many problems.
I would say, though, thatprobably the fx3 wouldn't have
given as many problems to me inthat situation, because that's
what I'm thinking about gettinginto this?
yeah, no, makes sense but thisis the first time, like we're

(14:47):
just gonna go all fx6s, why not?
Yeah um, so yeah, I meanbetween me and the person that I
traveled with we had four fx6s,okay, and the other guys who
were coming in separately alsosomebody else adam oh adam oh
Adam.
Yeah, so he had two in his case,I had two in mine.
Now I did have a Pelican caseand we know sometimes those will

(15:11):
attract unwanted attention indifferent countries, but because
I had already spent two monthswith cameras on my back in
Uganda and this trip was not toofar after I'm like I really
don't want to do that again.
Yeah cameras on my back inuganda and this trip was not too
far after.
I'm like I really don't want todo that again yeah, but should
have now.
Would that have helped?
I don't know, because thesecases all went through the same

(15:32):
x-ray machine anyway, so theymay have probably pulled you.

Yeah, that that I have heard of stories.
I have not been through ascenario like that, but, uh,
that's what makes me very youknow, uh, about international
travel, to be real again, I'msuch a focused into corporate
and commercial work that I don'treally get that many requests.
Now I do have internationalclients, but they come from
their country here and hire meobviously, so I haven't had that

(15:57):
experience.
But that just gives me, even,like I said, thinking about it,
nightmares.
And, like I said, you don'thave that much of a choice at
that point because you knowyou're here to to make content,
you're, you know you have to dowhat you have to do, um, but
that's, that's um, you knowanyway, nightmare of a situation
but on your side, at least itwasn't your money, right?

so basically yeah, yeah, so you're not as
worried about it.

Um good, when, when you know you're the shooter
, I guess I'm at the productioncompany.
I'm like, oh, that'd be, that'dbe a nightmare, but awesome.
But at least you got a greatexperience out of it, right?
You went to all these countries.
You met all these people, triedtheir food.
Did you like it Anything?

Um, I'm not a foodie, so I really kept it safe
with the food I tried justbecause, like you said, if they
do their job, get sick you can'twork.

Yeah, exactly.
And so I kept it simple withthings that I'm familiar with
things that you can't reallymess up, no matter where you go,
you know, so Were you eatingpizza?

I did.
Here's the thing Everyone knowsby now who has gone.
I'm trying the pizza there.
I'm not expecting it to be good.
However, I'm going to try it.

That's the only thing that I experimented with
what's the weirdest thing theyhad on pizza Any topping that
you saw at least on the menuthat you were like what that
makes no sense Pepperoni.

Okay, they'd say pepperoni, but it wasn't
pepperoni.
It's whatever they decided.
Pepperoni was depending onwhere you were.

Oh wow.
So it's not even pepperoni, huhno something else.
Interesting.

Some other sliced leaf and meat that they
chose.

That just means pepperoni there, basically.
Wow, did any country give youketchup with your pizza?
I've seen that happensinternationally.
No, they give you their withyour pizza.

I've seen that happens internationally.
They know their pizza withketchup, no, but there's been
some really thin pastes that arelike barely anything, and then
there's been some really rich,you know sauce that's not really
sauce.

So so you can't even trust on your regular pizza
.
Yeah, to find safe food man atleast I would have had great
time, because I love ethiopianfood, like we're talking about.
I would have loved to um, uh,you know eat actual ethiopian
food in ethiopia, which luckilywe're in orlando, so we have
some good ethiopian restaurantswhere we can get decent, you

(18:18):
know I've tried like the, the,the meats, like steak.

I always try steak and it's usually safe
enough to eat well for my personum, so I'll always try the
steak and one or two differentthings and I'll find a few
things that work and just eatthat for the week or two that
I'm there, for the three, four,five, six, seven weeks that I'm
there, um, and I also bringsnacks.

(18:44):
You know, half my suit, half ofone suitcase, is full of snacks
.
Full of snacks.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Look at that nobody gave you customs, didn't give
you a problem.
For that they want half yourchocolates.
You know bribery I would havegiven it but I'm telling you
that's what I've learned.

You know, on as a producer side, that's exactly
what I've learned.
You know, it doesn't matterwhat you're paying anyone, if
they don't have good food orgood snacks, at the end of the
day they're not liking theproduction.
So that's just.
It is just what it is like.
I still remember, uh, the firstproduction we did together.
Julie packed the snacks becauseshe was a producer and I think
she put like, uh, uh, I don'tremember what, but you were like

(19:20):
did you pack this for your kidsor something?
I, something like that, yousaid, and I was like what?
Because you're like there'sapples and you know bananas or
whatever, like actual fruit inthere.
I thought it was healthy, butyou weren't happy about it.
Do you remember that?
It's been a while, though?
I know it was two, three, threeyears ago, maybe at least even
more.

I don't remember exactly how that went,
but sounds like something Iwould say.
And in that situation, no, Iwould have probably been fine
with it.
But it was just a littlesurprising to me, because most
guys you know when you, whenthey call you and say, hey, I
need you for a shoot, you knowyou're going, you're going to do
the shoot.
Now I have people who will buylunch after, but not bring

(19:58):
snacks for the shoot.
Um, now, that's something I liketo do myself now yeah, um, but
yeah no, there's not a lot ofpeople that do that, oh
interesting.

No, I find like, like I said, that's my
experience, if you bring snaps,people happy I'm always happy.
Now I won't bring it for like ahalf day shoot.
You know, if it's like a quickdo a talking head or like the
ones we've done like kia center,whatever, like obviously I'm
not bringing snacks, they won'tlet us take them in anyway.
But yeah, anything I'm doinglonger.
Um, I'll bring some kind ofsnacks.
Obviously belches is a you knowthing among filmmakers for some

(20:31):
reason but anyway any kind ofsnacks just because I find the
crew is happier when you havesome kind of snacks for them to
to have, especially during thedowntime, because, like you said
, food you know, can sometimesbe a rare thing, even though
obviously I'm ready.
I've planned for lunch a lot oftimes shoots are running behind
lunch is delayed or whatever,but even then I try to at least

(20:53):
when we do get to lunch, um feedeveryone, something that you
know everyone likes, because Iagain I wanted the crew to be
happy as long as you have abeverage of my choice, for me
i'm'm good, which is what?
What's your choice of beverage?
Huh Beer.
No I don't know, I'm justkidding.

I don't consume alcohol.

Oh, that's good to know.

I mean you can count.
I was thinking about it theother day.
I was like you can count,probably on one hand, the amount
of times per year that I woulddrink alcohol same thing.

Same.
Uh, that's awesome.
I didn't.
Uh, it sounds like we havesomething talked about.
But yeah, same for me.
I don't.
I don't really like to drinknow.
I will networking events.
I'll socially, yeah, sociallybut even then, I'm just walking
around with the same thing forall night you know, maybe a sip
or two, but I'm not, I don't.

I don't really like to drink either, so that's
awesome I mean, for me it's itmakes me drowsy, yeah, so I'm
like I don't want to be drowsy,so so what it was.

So what is your beverage of choice?
What makes you happy?

and said you're not sponsored.
You're not sponsored by anybody.
No, no, we don't peddleanything on this podcast.

I'm not trying to sell anything.
This is free entertainment.
Slash education for anyone, ifso, from people who are actually
I have I have.

I actually have like my preferences, but I also
also have my.
Don't give me that.
So, Zephyr Hills water, don'tgive me that?

What about Dasani?
Everyone for some reason needsDasani.
Dasani is fine for me.

I'm thinking about the bottles that are in
the stores in New York.
You know you got Poland Spring.
You know you can.
If you, if you give me a bottleof poland spring water on the
floor to shoot, I'll kiss you um, but you know the smart water,
you know well the decent.

So I've had people say water.
Look at clinton, you're like no, I don't want, just water, I
want now there's specific waterdon't give me sparkling water.

I don't do that , but I'll do a seltzer, you
know that's sweet.

I mean seltzer, that's sweet.
A little sweetness to it, umbut you know that's sweet.

I mean seltzer is that's sweet, a little
sweetness to it.
But you know, I mean Red Bullis always a welcome thing.

You know, just you know normal Coke, whatever.

But, don't give me a Coke Zero, I don't want it
.

I'm addicted to these.
I need this.

Yeah.
When you said, hey, do you wanta Coke Zero, I Do you want a
Coke Zero, I said no, I'll takewater instead.

See, it's like the hardest thing, right?
I want a Coke but I don't wantall that sugar.
That's the closest thing,because Diet Coke is not the
same thing.
I know people love it, butanyway that's the closest thing
for me and I'm kind of addicted.
I'm trying to get away fromthem, you know, but that's like
the way I get my caffeinenowadays.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Anyway enough about but drinking which we're not
even talking about real drinks,so it sounds like you had an
incredible year.

Financially, you're doing really good
comparatively to.
You know what we've talkedabout, like you're doing
incredibly.
You traveled the world, youbought the camera that has
demand and now you're also….

A lot more than that, a lot more than just the
camera.
So, since it sounds like thisis where you're also, a lot more
than that, a lot more than justthe camera.
So, since it sounds like thisis where you're going, anyway,
this year I think I've probablybought a lot of equipment that I
know won't even pay itself offfor another two years, but that
that's in mind because I knowthere's some building to the new

(24:05):
customer base that I'm lookingfor, and so I know it's not
going to happen tomorrow.

Okay.

So I have the expectation that, hey, some of
this stuff.

So, besides the FX six, what is that?
Give me some some name.

I mean, since you're not allergic to black
magic, here we go.
No, I love black magic, here wego.
No, I love black, so in totalresolve is the best.
In total now I have threebroadcast ursas.
I'm looking to get two more.
Um, I obviously have, you know,a pocket cinema camera, six
hair pro, whatever.
Um, thinking about getting afew more of those.

(24:37):
The studio space we spoke about, so I'm looking to get into
some of those studio cameras,okay, um, they're going all into
black magic I'm all in.
Yeah, I'm already.
You were already in, but nowyou're going even more in yeah,
um, on the back end, you know,different switches the
constellation before me to me soessentially all into the live

(24:58):
production anything besides livethat you bought or no this year
minus the fx6 anything else notreally

yeah, so so tell me this, uh, obviously, yes, so,
exactly where I was going, youknew it.
So you're, you're into liveproduction, right, and obviously
you're going all into that,which is amazing, by the way, I
love that, I love liveproduction.
Luckily, uh, and you know thisstory, but people haven't heard
it.
But I uh, literally before thepandemic pandemic hit well, at

(25:25):
least, uh, mainly, it hit, youknow, april when the whole
america shut down, whatever.
So in january, this is um, atleast we hadn't heard about the
pandemic in america.
So I go um to julia.
I'm like, look, you know,obviously we're doing really
great.
We started this productioncompany.
Things are getting here's nextfor us.
So you know, like you know,you're thinking something like
this year this is january,beginning of year I'm like we're

(25:47):
gonna get into live production.
Interesting, that's random.
But I'm like, yep, that's whatI'm doing.
So I called into my partner Ithink adorama was where I was
purchasing most gear at thattime.
So I called the person I, hemade a huge investment, I bought
all the equipment and, uh, youknow, obviously learned myself,
because I didn't know anythingabout live production at the
time, just watching videos andstuff, and guess what happens

(26:09):
everything shows that everythingshows up but what people need.
So, while other people were like, oh, I, I don't know what to do
, and I'm like, oh, we'rekilling because we're doing this
.
So it's kind of the timingcouldn't have been better, and
so at that year, obviously 80 ofmy work was mostly live, I
would say.
What's crazy, though, is when Ithought the demand would go
away, like the pandemic wentaway, we'll go back to regular

(26:29):
production.
We did go back to regularproduction, but live just never
went fully away.
So I still have been doing 40,45%, I would say, of my work in
live.
We still do a lot of liveevents.
So that's incredible to me.
You're going all live in live,you know, into live.
So what?
What brought your love for that, or why are you going all in?

well, why am I going all in?
Because if not now, then whenyou know you can talk about all
you want, but if you don't do it, then you're just talking about
it for the rest of sopurchasing.
This year went all in, but I'vebeen incrementally working
towards that personally withequipment.

So take me back though.
When did you start and why, orav, or whatever you want to I
think for a lot of people itstarted in church.

Uh, close to 10 years ago, you know.
Actually, yes, it started inchurch and school, high school,
um.
So you know, it was more of thetheater club thing.
Basically, tech was always athing for me.
And so when getting involved inthe tech at the school um, you

(27:40):
know, learning how to use lights, you're learning how to do
audio and everything in theschool and auditorium there's
only a few of us that knew howto do it.
So basically we were defaultfor any events.
And so when theater club waslike they're doing a performance
this year, the person in chargewas like you guys are now part
of the theater group.
I was like, no, we're not.

(28:00):
I was like, yeah, no, you are,because you are the only ones
who can do this.
And I was like, yeah, no, youare because you are the only
ones who can do this.
And so that kind of got meinterested into live event tech.
And then, you know, I forgotwhat phone it was at the time,
but you know, I had a camera andI'm like, okay, I'm going to
put this camera in the back ofthe church, I'm going to film it
, and so I did that and that gotme interested.

(28:21):
Then, at the same time, I'mlike, okay, like, okay, you know
, this is the year I want to buya camera, and the t3i was maybe
like this was 2014, 2014, andso t3i was old at that point
already, but it was still decentenough.
And so I'm like, okay, I thinkI want a t3i.
At the time, everyone on youtubewas saying buy a t3i.

(28:42):
So I'm like, okay, I'm gonnaget a t3i.
And so I time, everyone onYouTube was saying buy a T3i.
So I'm like, okay, I'm gonnaget a T3i.
And so I had two jobs thatsummer and I was saving, and a
friend of mine who is a drummerand was also in tech and
everything else.
His brother had an extra camerathat he wasn't using and so his
brother, let me borrow thatcamera.
It was a Panasonic Handycam,but it had a 4k what year was it

(29:07):
?
2014 oh he gave me the cameraand the tripod, didn't ask any
questions.
I said here, you can use it.
He didn't tell me two weeks,three weeks, he just said here,
use it.
So I was using that.
And then I bought a t3i so Ihad two cameras.
Um, just using it, practicingwith it and, you know, trying to

(29:29):
film anything I could get myhands on.
You know, dancing, church stuff,whatever yeah and, um, going to
live concert stuff, I'm like,okay, I want to do that, now I
want to be the guy behind thatcamera, so, working on finding
you know, how do I get to bethat guy?
Um, and then getting to thatpoint where I was that guy and

(29:52):
doing those, um, you know,different corporate conferences
and different events, and thenI'm like, okay, I'm gonna be
that guy now, the guy who'sdirecting.
So how do I get to be that guy?
I the guy who's directing.
So how do I get to be that guy?
I'm like, well, now I got tofigure out how to be that guy
and so that's kind of the wayI've operated is I want to do
this.
How do I do this?

Yeah.

Work to doing this.

Essentially, that's an incredible journey,
though, by the way, my firstCanon camera 2012 T4i you know,
I remember how expensive thatwas to me.
At that time I was like, oh,you know, I also had a job, so
this was a side freelance thing.
So I was like, oh, this is,it's so expensive.
And now that I think about itthat's like come on uh, but you
know again time but it wasincredible that's.

(30:36):
That's where I learned all theautofocus, all the stuff, and
then I left it, obviouslybecause it wasn't that good back
in the day, and then penasonic.
But uh though, that'sincredible, man, hearing your
journey and makes sense why youwould be into life, because
that's what got you into it umyou're one of the few people
that I know that's like all inalive, so that's incredible.
So what's your?

(30:56):
What's next for you?
So I know you told me you'replanning to build a space.
You're planning to build thisvan.
How, how did that come about,like you know?
Tell me your future vision.
How are you envisioning?

So I realized that everything I want to do can
be done.
The question is, can I do itall myself?
And I was like, yeah, I can,but it might take longer, or I
can pull people in.
And so, you know, doing what Ido, I meet different.
We meet all types of differentpeople.

(31:29):
But doing corporate AV, liveevent type stuff, I noticed that
usually I'm like the only blackdude there, and so I'm like, eh
, I need to meet more people.
And so I met this one dude onone event and it was a little

(31:50):
different because it was likethere was two of us.
And so we got to talking and werealized we had a lot of
similar interests in what wewanted to do.
And so we thought of this ideaof coming up with a
nonprofit-profit teaching highschool students live broadcast
production, right, um.
And so it was just an idea atthe time.

(32:10):
He kind of went with it and hestarted, you know, doing things
to make that happen, and whileI'm also doing things to make
other things happen, and we'relike what if we had a vehicle?
And so that was always the idea.
But he's always traveling forwork, like the things he's
directing.
You know people see it, theyjust don't know who's doing it.

When you say vehicle, you're thinking like a
broadcasting van yes, Not likewhat I have, which is like a
driven production van Now yeah,so a broadcast vehicle, and so
we're like it'd be cool if weget one.
That's next for me, so I don'tneed it anymore.
If you build it, I could justget yours.
There you go, so we spent.

We spent eight.
We spent eight months goingback and forth talking about
this, that and the third seeingwhat the budget could be, and so
he just one day decided to.
He bought a bus at auction.

Like a school bus, no just a passenger bus.
A passenger bus.

Okay, Like the type you would see like
handicapped disabled people use.
So he bought one of those andwe're just going to retrofit it,
deck it out.

Ooh, that's a new one.
I've not seen that.
Right?
So you're going to retrofitlike a bus.
That was like an accessible bus.
Right, you're going to convertit to like a broadcast van.
That's because I live vieweverything you know.
Whatever you need fiber.
Yes, oh, that sounds exciting.

So at the same time that we're doing that,
someone he connected me with hada space that came available,
and so we're also in the processof outfitting that space to
become a a broad a broadcastspace that people can come and
film podcasts and stuff likethat, okay and at the same time

(33:57):
there's a separate space thatcan be used for photography or
anything you want but no, you're, so you're going the studio
route have you run any roicalculations?

or like, hey, here's what we need to do to
make this work, or whatever.
Like are you, are you lookingat the business side of it?
Or you're just like, hey, wegot the space, we're gonna make
it work.
Like, have you?
I'm trying to get to like downto the numbers.
Have you worked any numberswith this space, or no?

um, this was a a thing that came available that
was like, if we don't do it,it's just going to sit anyway.
And so now the the numberbreakdown, we haven't fully went
into because this is not goingto be a long-term uh thing yet
this is a second test this is atest to see if if it could work,

(34:43):
because I really didn't haveany interest of doing any yeah
owning or operating a studiophysical space.
But I'm like, okay, we have 12months of this space.
Can we make this work, yes orno?
Okay, and it's like you can gofor it and try it, or you can
say in 12 months, man, I wish Ijust would have done it.
Yeah, exactly, and so why?

not same thing.
You know, for years I've triedto have my space and I could
make the numbers work.
So when this opportunity came,I was like, no, I gotta do space
.
And look, now we're having thispodcast together and we wouldn't
be had I just, you know, againbeen like, oh, it's not the
space I want.
So, no, that's incredible, man,I'm excited and I what I love
is that you went for it.
That's that's what it's about,you know, because, same thing,

(35:22):
like, it took me years to go forit, but when I did, it was the
best decision ever.
I will not go back and you know, like I said, that's one of the
best decisions in my life wasto go all full time into video
and, uh, that's incredible thatyou know you're on this new
journey.
Um, why, why is such a pivot,though?
Like, uh, why are you doingthis now?

(35:43):
Like, because you, like I saidyou had great time traveling the
world, making money.
Why not continue that?
Why come back to live again?
What would you like?
Obviously, I know I get that,but what else?
There has to be something more.

There's.
I have a list of things that Iwant to do right.

In production.

No, I mean okay , list of things that I want to
do right in production, inproduction.
No, I mean okay, it's so like,for example, going back, it was
like, hey, I want to be the guybehind the camera, I want to be
the guy directing fine um,there's still some types of
events that I want to do moreoften.
Um, like this last year I was ona show that I was a camera op
for and the guy had a broadcasttrailer and I'm like, okay, I

(36:28):
want to get a broadcast vehicleNow.
I've been wanting that forabout two years now, but I'm
always patient and recognizingthat I can't rush into it, but I
don't want to take forevereither.
So when the right opportunitycomes, take it.
So, when the right opportunitycomes, take it.
And so when this came about andwe were all talking, it was
like, yeah, let's go for it now.
We may not have it all figuredout, but if we don't do it now,

(36:53):
when?
So?
That's kind of my new mantra Ifnot now, then when?
So it's not a large investmentthat needs to be put into it
either.

These are just low-cost things.

I mean low cost could be relative.
You already have all thebroadcast government right.

You've been for years building.
I've seen your photos of yourracks and everything.
They're incredible and they'rehyper focused to the type of
work you want to do.
So you just have to put it in aplace, make it just put it into
work, yeah so that's incredible,but it seems like, um,
obviously the other part of thisthat I want to touch on is I'm
obviously wary of partnerships,like I have awesome friends that
you know feel, talk, whatever,it's the same thing, but when

(37:31):
you go into a businessrelationship, it's different
than friendship, right?
So how are you structuring this, or do you have any thoughts on
this or whatever, like goinginto actual business?

with somebody you know.
So, technically, if we, if weseparate all of it, um, the
broadcast vehicle was purchasedby one person and so at this
point it's a.
It's a mutually beneficialpartnership in the sense that

(38:04):
most of the equipment that'sputting that will be put onto.
It is mine, the vehicle is his,and so when you break down the
numbers, the investment into thevehicle is less than the
equipment that we're puttinginto it.
So it's it's almost a 50-50split.
But this vehicle is going to beused for mostly nonprofit

(38:27):
reasons.
So we worked it out so thateventually this, that vehicle,
will be run specifically by thenonprofit itself, and so there
will be no cost to operate it,maintain it or anything like
that, because the idea is tohave grants providing all of
that for the vehicle, and that'sthe thing that we'd be doing as
that service.
Um, and when it's not doingthat, then yes, we can use it

(38:51):
for other things.
But this is really a good testrun to see what the next
platform is for the ob vehicle.
And so this first one is yes,let's do it, and let's do it for
the reasons we wanted to, andit wasn't business, it was a
passion.
Let's do it, and let's do itfor the reasons we wanted to,
and it wasn't business, it was apassion of let's teach this to
high school students, and sothat's the money we invested

(39:13):
into it is for that reason.
So this is not a business.
First idea the bus, the OBvehicle.
Now the next one will be.
This first one is let's do it.

Make it happen.

Let's make it happen and let's put it out
there and do what we said wewere going to do, which is teach
high school students broadcast.

Yeah exactly.

So let's do it While we're sitting here talking
about it.
Let's do it, and then, in theprocess of doing that, we're
going to use that to help usrefine what we want in an actual
business broadcast vehicle.
Not to say that we couldn't useit for business now, but that
one is not, yeah, necessarily100 intended for that purpose.

(39:57):
Now, us putting all the workinto it, we can use it for that
yeah, are you going um.

So are you going to just focus on this?
Are you going to still continueto do, obviously, freelance?
Oh yeah or travel and all that.

So all the all the other things are still being
done, but these are just, yeah,more things that are coming up
and it's like I haven't.
I've been super focused on justone or two things a year, but
this year I'm like I'm going forall of it.
You know like yeah, exactlybecause you know, as, as I
thought about, like how Istarted, where I started, I'm

(40:32):
like it's been about 10 years.
So I'm like what do I want thenext 10 to be like?
And I wouldn't try all thesethings to see where I want the
next 10 years to be.

Exactly.
And what I love is like I sayyou're going for it instead of
you going thinking about it.
You know calculating, whateveryou're just going for.
It seems like you also have theperfect partnership because you
have someone who has, like yousaid, the vehicle.
You have the equipment, youhave a.
You know something to do withit because you know you could go
teach high school kids how todo it.
So you have a, you knowaudience.

(41:06):
You have b, you know theequipment.
C you have the vehicle to do.
You have everything, like Isaid in front of you.

So had you not taken the opportunity, it would
have been a big mess and youknow the the goal is to get
grants to operate that thingright.
So in order to get grants, theytell us they want to see that
nonprofit in work already.
They want to see the initialinvestment already made.
Okay.
And so that's what we're done.
That's what we have done Now.

(41:32):
We've done it.
We've done the program itselfon a small scale it's like 10,
12, 15 kids but this will allowus to do more.

So is this a new nonprofit or is this one already
existing?

I mean it's new relatively in how I mean it's
new.
It's only been technicallyincorporated in operation for a
year, okay, but half of thatyear has been spent developing
the processes, the teachings andhow we want to do everything.

(42:08):
And so we have students fromtwo local churches that we're
doing programming with, but theidea is to have it all put
together in another six monthsso that we can do it in schools
and different places.

More people in the industry.

I love that and that's why the space that came
available makes sense, becauseyou can tie it all together
right, yeah, you know, you caneven bring students to your
space, right?
That's exactly yeah, that's so.
It's all come, it's alltogether and it's like we could
go in six months.
Man, we wish we had done thatpart, so it's just going for all

(42:46):
of it and you know I mean,what's the worst that could
happen?

yeah, well, here's the worst that I'll talk about
next.
How do you manage time?
Because you're talking aboutrunning a like helping this
non-profit, running a livebusiness, running travel video
business, running, you know yourfreelance business, your media
company and you have a family.
How do you manage it all?
You have a kid, right.
So how do you manage it all, uh, and still stay sane.

(43:14):
That's why time management.

That's why working with others is important
.
Um you know it as well asanyone else that you can't do
everything yourself.
Yeah, no, you can't do anythingyourself, and so just having
different people that can helpand it's pushed me to think in a
different way.
It's pushed me to think moreoperationally, more analytically
.
In certain areas, like I'm verytech, you know, as a live video

(43:40):
engineer, I'm like I'm thinkingyou big.
But this has made me reallythink about certain details of
very small things that I reallydon't really care about, but I
have to now to make it work.
So that's, that's the plan onhow to make it work, how to
balance everything.
I don't know, I don't um,there's times where I'm I'm out

(44:06):
to 10, 12, 1am, you know 2.
I get home.
There's times where I was outof the country for two months,
then another four weeks, anotherthree weeks.
How do you balance it all?

Just try to have people who understand and people
who you like working with.
Yeah, really at this point, uh,how do you?
Handle that with your, withyour kid because you know that's
the hardest thing for me, youknow, and is just traveling.
You know leaving your familylike leaving my kids and
especially I don't know if yourkid does it.
But my girls are like daddydon't go.
And then that, you know, thatkind of melts my heart.
I'm like, uh, you know how muchI love video production.
Obviously there's part of methat you know obviously wants to

(44:50):
go to these cool shoots.
But then the other part of meis like, oh, you know, I don't
want to disappoint my kids, so Itry to pay obviously a lot of
attention when I am home, youknow, taking them to the
obviously we live inentertainment capital of the
country taking them to themeparks, going out to e or
whatever you know.
So how you handling that, isyour kid like that?
Or, if not, like, how are youmanaging being a good dad while

(45:14):
you know, somehow managing allthe stuff that you're you're
doing?

so how do I manage it?
That's a good question.
I don't know if I'm doing thebest job ever, but I think for
our family one, my son hasautism and so it's a little
different.
He's nonverbal, so he's notgoing to be saying hey, don't
leave, he's not going to sayanything.
So that's a catch-22, becauseyou want that as a parent, you

(45:46):
know, but you don't get it.
So that's one thing.
Two, being gone is a littledifficult, also because you know
faith's time is a thing now.
It wasn't 20, 30 years ago.
But even then it's stilldifficult because, yeah, we're
looking at each other yeah he'snot saying much um so it's just

(46:08):
having a good family thatunderstands that.

Yeah, it's funny.
It's not funny, but I've knownyou three years.
I didn't know about that, thatyour son was autistic, so that's
crazy that you're then thatmakes it even harder, I think,
you leaving so that's crazy, man, I'm really, like I said, I'm
really, like I said, amazed thatyou're doing this, because I
know how hard it is for me to dothis and you're doing more than

(46:31):
I am, I think.

So it's that and you know.
You know when I'm home OK, I'mnot going to say when I'm home
I'm home, because when I'm homeI'm always thinking about other
things also.
But you know, I recognize afterreading a bunch of Facebook
groups that, like, autisticadults don't have it easy.
So I'm like, okay, I need to bedoing as much as possible to

(46:56):
make that easy in 20 years, andme sitting at home all the time
is not the way to do it at themoment, you know, because a lot
of work comes from other places,so I don't know, it's it's
difficult.
Um, having a good partner helps, you know, because a lot of
work comes from other places, soI don't know, it's difficult.
Having a good partner helps, youknow, she understands work
needs to happen and because I'mworking, she gets to be with him

(47:19):
all the time.
So it's like you can't have itboth ways.
I don't think, at least rightnow.
For me you can't have it bothways.
But that's another reason whyI'm trying all these different
things, because the more thingsyou're trying, the more chances
you have of those things workingout.
The more things you have in thepot, the less time you may have

(47:40):
to be on a plane right, so Imean that's.

That's another reason so you're trying to say,
is your ultimate goal retirement?
Is that?

Yes, I mean well no, because I love what I
do and so I plan to, like I,meet dudes out on shows and
events that are like in theirearly 60s.

I'm like man, I want to be so you're like me,
Because I'm like I want to dothis as long as I can do it.
I love it, Right, which?

is why I don't do certain things.
I'm not going to be the dudethat's lifting up all this
weight Like, don't worry, I gotit.
No slow down.
Yeah, you know, 40 years ago,the dummies who did that.

Yeah, they are the ones who need to retire, right.

And so stuff like that.
I'm trying to work smarter, notharder, so that I can do this a
long time, um, but also do itso that there's enough available
.
So as my son grows up, it's notgoing to be as difficult for

(48:46):
for him to maneuver and operate,because it seems like things
aren't going to get any easierfor anybody?
Yeah, and so there needs to besomething there to make it
manageable so that they seemslike things aren't going to get
any easier for anybody.
Yeah, and so there needs to besomething there to make it
manageable so that they all theoutput that we do as as people
you know, he doesn't have to dothat much.
Yeah, you know 50, 60, 70%, butat least he has that extra 30%
that's there to help, yeah, Um,so that's that's why I'm doing

(49:08):
everything I'm doing at thefrequency I'm doing.
I think I could be doing morehonestly Wow, and so you know
that's.
That's why.

It makes me I thought I was working a lot.
You make me feel like I'm late.

I mean, but you are working a lot so.

Yeah, but, man, I feel like you're doing more than
me.
But that's no.
I'm actually very happy.
I love people.
You know I'm very familyFamily's first for me, and
obviously my love for videoproduction.
But I'm so glad you're thinkingahead.
You're thinking about thefuture of your kid and you know
what the needs are going to benow, because that's exactly the
approach that you need to take.

(49:46):
I'm amazed when I hear so manyparents who are like you know,
didn't think about that, andthen you know it's too late.

So you're thinking now and when you have
time and you can, you knowprepare, yeah, but I mean, I
don't know, I only have one kidso I can only think one way.
But I would assume that kids,that who don't have certain
disabilities, they're like yeah,no, they'll figure it out.
Like your kid is okay.
Okay, being relative, yeah, ifyour kid can do most things,

(50:18):
they'll be fine.
Yeah, you just teach them.

You say that, yeah , but I find the system, now
that I'm looking at it, likeagain two kids.
I watched the education they'regetting and everything, and they
go to supposedly really niceschool, but what I'm seeing is,
you know, the system's designedto, like, make worker bees.
You know they're designed forpeople to get out, get jobs, you
know provide, you know paytaxes and all that.

(50:42):
And I'm like, no, they're notteaching anything but
entrepreneurship.
And so I think parents do haveto be very involved, especially
if you want your kids to do uh,what we do, because you know,
sure, obviously, like you said,there will be spark in some who
will just go chase it no matterwhat, but there could be more
entrepreneurs, more peopleinventing things if, uh, you
know, because the schools aren'tdoing it, if the parents pay
attention and focus on you know,putting that, that a spark in

(51:05):
their kid, like, no, you can godo something, you can build
something or I don't know, youcan create something or at least
put a team together who can doit.
You know, because you can be aleader too, either way.
What I'm saying is that thatnow comes down to, obviously,
the parents, and so there is alot that parents have to do um
to get their kids to be likethat.

(51:27):
You know, I don't know.
That's at least what I'm seeing.

Yeah, like I said it comes down to, in my
opinion, it comes down to theteaching of the parents.
But for me, growing up, Iwanted to do one thing I was six
and that was be a cop.
Right, that was the thing.
You look at me in high school,you're like, definitely To the
extent that you know, junior,senior year.

(51:52):
You like donuts Junior andsenior year.

I'm joking.

When recruiters would come to the school, the
thing that they would do is askother students who else do you
think could be interested?
And there's, I kid you not,there's at least 10 people who
gave the recruiter my name.
He's like yeah, I had a bunchof kids.
Tell me, come talk to you.
I'm like yeah, but afterrealizing I should probably do

(52:23):
college to get me to the endgoal of being a cop instead of
doing the military.
Um, then I went to college andI was like I don't want to do
this either.

Um but what made you not want to be a cop?
When I moved here it seems likea lot of people thought you
would be good yeah, no, my son.
Basically, that was the thingthat made me decide not to do it
um but yeah, interesting, yousay that I think, from what I've
heard again, I I don't thatthat.
I think, uh, from what I'veheard again, I I don't that many
cops, but uh, from what I'veheard, that they have good
insurance.

(52:53):
So that would have been, Iguess.

Yeah, but that's not what I was thinking
about.
I was thinking about theclimate in which we live and,
yes, growing up, where I grew up, uh, no one really cares about
cops anyway where did you growup?

new york oh, okay queens, new york, you know,
south japan if anyone wants toknow yeah, um, but yeah so
they're the friendly ones though, at least whenever I get my
experiences again travelingthere.
But new york cops are we.
I don't know if we.

I don't think, I don't think we have enough
time to go into all that.
Yeah, let's not do that, but Iwas a little different.
I was 100% yes, that's what Iwant to do, but also recognizing
everything that happens andeverything that's involved in
that profession.
And so, even though I knoweverything about it from both
sides, I still want to do it.
But after moving here, I alwayshad it in my mind that that

(53:48):
could be my.

What brought you to Orlando again, or Florida in
general?
This is where Let me just Ooh,I feel like I hit a nerve or
something.

I didn't want to move At first.
I didn't want to move.
Oh, you can talk shit aboutFlorida.

No, at first I didn't want to move that first I
didn't want to move.

Oh, you're going to talk shit about Florida
.
No, At first I didn't want tomove.
That's why I didn't answer that.
But to show you she wanted tomove here because she grew up
here.
Okay, and you know this is theway she said.
The school system here is great.

The education is great.
I don't know.
Okay, I love Orlando, but Idon't know if I would go there.

And so that's why we moved here.
Well, she moved back, and Ijust came.

Oh, so you followed yeah.
And that's just because growingup in New York is like you
don't want to move anywhere else.

growing up in New York is like you don't want
to move anywhere else, but umyeah.
So now coming here and Irealized these years later that
I think it's probably Floridawho's that's gotten me to this
place, just because it's moreinviting to self-employed,
entrepreneurial people.
Now, being a wanting to be acop, I had no want, need or

(55:08):
desire to be entrepreneurial,right like I'm cool, living
within system, operating, youknow, cam up and being a cop,
directing whatever, that's stilla system and ultimately you're
working for someone else anyway.
Yeah.
So, I'm cool with that, but thisyear totally different.

So has your opinion changed in Florida?
Because I know people havecrazy, crazy opinions of Florida
.
What do you think about Floridanow, all these years later that
you've been here?
Now you are a Floridian.

I'm not.
You're not a Floridian Relaxednow.

I mean your driver's license is Florida.
I still have a New York licensealso, oh what I keep that thing
tucked away, just in case, okay, your expired license.

I can renew it anytime, you know.
But my thoughts of Florida, Imean, it's a decent place to
live.
I suppose when I moved herepeople were like, yeah, things
are going to be cheap.
No, no, I was place to live.
I suppose when I moved herepeople like yeah things are
gonna be cheap.

I was further from the truth.
Um, first time I went to newyork everyone was like I'll be
ready, things are.
But again, to be real, I livein you know touristy, you know
orlando, whatever.
But they everyone's like, oh,it's gonna be so expensive, like
blah, blah blah.
I went there and I was likethis is about the same or even
slightly cheaper, because youknow, orlando prices are absurd,
or central florida in general.
So yeah, no, I don't think it'sany cheaper I thought it'd be

(56:33):
cheaper the other year.

It's gonna be cheaper now.
They lied to me so it is whatit is.

I mean, maybe the rest of florida, I mean a lot of
florida is rural or you know,not the same, like we live in a
bubble.
I think central florida, Idon't know I've been to miami
and I'm like oh man, see, see,you're talking about miami.

That, that's another ball game but but living
grew growing up.
Where I grew up, I don't thinkI'd want to live certain places,
like I don't think I couldsurvive in alabama forever.
I don't think I could live inrural america I have to be
somewhere close to a center, andso this made sense.
Um, miami I heard bad thingsabout, so I said I'm going to go

(57:14):
in.
Um, and northern orland,northern florida, was like it's
the same thing as alabama, yeah,so don't go there, so I'm like
I'm not going there either um.
So I mean, at this point I'mcool with florida.
Will I go back to new york?
Probably not.
Um, will I move somewhere else?

maybe just depends , so you're not like bound
basically.

So I mean at this point I'm cool with Florida
.
Will I go back to New York?
Probably not, Will I?

move somewhere else?
Maybe Just depends.
So you're not like bound.
Basically no, until I do whatyou did and buy a house, yeah, I
know, don't get me started onthat, but that's amongst other
reasons.

That's why I haven't really put much effort
into doing that yet, because I'mlike this may not be where I
want to stay.

But I thought I mean from your meetup well,
let's go there now.
I mean you threw in anincredible meetup, but at your
meetup you also said and we'llget into the meetup in a second
you said your goal was to buy ahouse.

It seems like you're interested in buying a
house.
I am interested.
I am interested to buy a house.
It seems like you're interestedin buying I, I am interested.
I am interested um, but I'm not100 okay on it being here.

Yeah, that's the thing I'm interested and that's
fine.
I mean, it doesn't have to be.
So let's, let's go on a meet up.
I mean, the most coolest thingyou've done recently.
Um, so you, you called me out ofnowhere, which is good, thank
goodness you did, because I was.
I just went, so went about thehouse.
I wanted to build a space.
I just went awol because I waseither working or literally here
, sleep, barely sleep, because,uh, you know building the space,
and so you know, I'm sorryabout that, but I wasn't

(58:41):
reaching out to anyone because Iwas just so distracted.
So I appreciate you reachingout.
But then you call me and like,hey, you had this incredible
idea.
And as soon as you said it, Iwas like this is, this is
amazing, because I need to getout of here and I need to go
meet other fellow people.
Because what I love aboutmeetups is that's where you get
to have these conversations,which is where I get to learn

(59:01):
what's happening, what I canchange, what I can do better,
and maybe some people can learnsomething from me, but also
where I can find other people tohire, you know, because, as
doing my own productions, I needto hire crews.
I would I like to meet peoplein person instead of, you know,
online, because I don't, I can't, uh, you know, vet them that
way.
So that sounded like anincredible you know thing, plus

(59:23):
what I.
What I liked about your meetupwas you didn't want to just do a
networking event, you wanted tobring education into it, which
was also different, but alsovery important, because people
don't value, you know, theeducation aspect of it.
So bring me about your thoughtprocess.
What made you go to that andhow was that whole experience?

First thing I was like, hey, it'd be cool If
another meetup happened.
I haven't been to one and overa year just because I was gone a
lot.
Um, so like there's people Ihaven't seen in a while.
Um, then on that instagramgroup, I see there's new people
in there, there's new peopleclicking up and I'm just like,
okay, I've been out of the loop,so need to jump back in.
So that was one thing.

(01:00:08):
The other thing was years agosomeone said to me, no matter
how high you get or where you go, don't forget to pull someone
else up with you.
And so I've kind of operatedoff of that premise and always
try to have someone who isn'tnecessarily as experienced as I

(01:00:31):
am.
And you know, we're justworking and they're learning
from me and I'm learning fromthem.
I get help, they get experience, stuff like that.
Even down to the point where wewere at the Kia Center last
year and that girl stopped usand was like, hey, yeah, and
that was so amazing.

Vipul Bindra (01:00:48):
I saw the, the other side of you, where you
were like genuinely wanting tohelp her you know, and that's
awesome, I mean, like I said,which is why, uh, bringing back
to your non-profit idea, I lovethat because I think you are the
right person to do it, becauseyou're not gonna do it just to
do it, you're gonna do itbecause you actually want to do
it and there's, there's a there,and so, no, I totally believe

(01:01:08):
in that.
Which is why I knew when youcalled me, that there was not
that much of an ulterior motivebehind it.
You genuinely wanted to catchup with people.
You wanted to meet these people.
Point is you know you're anhonest guy.
So that's why I was like, look,obviously it's your meetup, but

(01:01:28):
any way I can help, I'm happyto, because you know that sounds
an incredible idea.

Quintin Sanders (01:01:29):
So the idea was like, hey, you know, this
should be an event.
Then people I've been talkingto her like, hey, you know, I
wish I could learn this, or Icould learn that, or I want to
know this.
I want to know that questionsthat are coming in and people

(01:01:49):
not really getting answers theway they want, or people are
afraid to ask those questions inthe group for whatever reason.
And I'm like what if there wasa place where people could ask
you face to face, get an answerthat day and feel better about
the decision they're trying tomake?
And I'm like, okay, so weshould do a meetup, there should
be one.
But then I'm like, if, who'sgonna do it?

(01:02:10):
I'm like, well, clearly, onehasn't been done lately.
So that's when I called you andwas like, hey, let's, let's just
do it.
And then I called your otherpeople, like hey, would you help
?
Like yeah, of course.
And then I called people whoare less experienced, like hey,
would you come?

(01:02:30):
And then I'm okay, it's goingto happen.
Now it's about where, when, how.
And then that's when we got tospeaking about the how.
Um, because I had the where,and then, you know, the people
gave me ideas on the how and soit came together and I think it

(01:02:52):
was helpful.
People said during and after itwas great.
They learned some new things.

Incredible time that was.
You know, they learned some newthings.
Rather, it was so crazy.
It was the longest meetup and Istill felt like didn't have
enough time because I didn'tstill get to say hi to everyone.
So that's what I'm talkingabout.
It's it's anyway.
It was great.

So and that's the type of meetup that I wish
had already existed, because I'mlike it's great when you get to
meet new people, but I reallydon't feel like talking to a
bunch of people for two, threehours, one not being able to
hear them all the way because ofwhere we are, and not really
digging deep, because it seemslike those networking events are

(01:03:32):
surface level and you may getdeep with two, three people.
Yeah, that's about it, butthere's not enough time to get
deeper with a lot more people.

Especially, for example, people like me, even
though I'm good with thisconversation because I know you,
but I'm an introvert, so it'sreally hard for me to move from
one group to the other, to theother, and that's what's kind of
needed in networking event,cause you know it's weird to
butt in and be like, hey, sowhat?
You guys talking?
About you know.
And some people are really goodat it, so good for them those
events.
But and for me I'm, like youknow, not comfortable doing that

(01:04:07):
.
So I like the setting, the wayyou did it.
I liked also the topic that youpicked and yeah, like I said,
the whole thing.
Anthony was nice to you know,order pizza and then charge
everyone for it, but I mean hey.

Well, I mean, we spoke afterwards about that
and I was like man, I recognizethat that was a thing that could
have been used, but I've neverdone an event or anything like
that.

No, that's fine and that's okay, cause I was
literally thinking when thathappened.
I was like Ooh, since I washelping you anyway which again I
don't want to take any credit,it was all you.

But I'm saying I wouldn't mind you know it's
just pizza, um uh, but anywaythat, yeah, I think that was the
only thing that somebody elsedid, which I mean that was good
too.
Yeah, so him, him bringing itup and asking me um, what do I
think about?
I was like you know, it was agood idea.
And I was like thanks forpushing me to do it, because I
was like, ah, it was a thought,but we had so many other things
already in motion that day thatI was like ah you maybe the next
time.

(01:05:09):
But I mean, pulling the triggeron it was a good idea and
hopefully the next one will begood too.
I have an idea.

Oh, you want to talk about it here, or no?
Yeah, sure.

This won't be out for a while anyway.

No this is live, sir, this is live.

Yeah.

Yeah, everyone's hearing what you're saying.
Oh, you're gonna talk about it.
No, it's okay, we don't know.

No, no no, okay , so it's for.
It's for people who like toshoot more than just cameras.
Okay, um, the idea is to domeet up an event or whatever
that people get to shoot morethan just cameras okay that
makes sense.

I know this is going to be on shoot more than
cameras, so what does that mean?

well, it depends on your filter for
youtube here um there's nofilter.
Okay, cool, um, okay, whateverso the idea is to put cameras
and guns together okay, that'sinteresting because after that
last meetup I know that thereare people who like to shoot
cameras and then people like wholike to shoot guns.

(01:06:14):
Yeah, and so if there could befunny enough.

You say I had justin on the podcast and you
know he's one of the only peopleI know who actually shoots for
a gun company yeah, video, yeah,so that's incredible you're the
second person to bring that up.

And I'm not saying necessarily shooting
people shooting guns.
I'm saying doing an event wherepeople get to put hands on to
different types of cameras andequipment but also enjoy the
range.
Oh, so a meetup at a range withcamera nerds, that's actually
very interesting Because we alllike to show off our cameras,

(01:06:51):
but I'm sure we're proud of ourguns also do you think that
would be limiting?

because again, obviously this is not the topic
I talk about with you know, justanyone uh, like enough.
People are gonna have enoughlike into.
Are you gonna be into guns orwhatever it may not be as large
scale, because this one you hadlike what?
20, 30 people, 30 people?
Did you do a final count?
Do you know how many peopleshowed up?

There's about 35 altogether, that's what I'm
saying.

That's a lot of people.
Do you think this next one willhave that many?

The first one in my mind initially was
supposed to be people that Iknow anyway, so just 10, 15 at
the max, before the ideaexpanded.
And so well, this one could be10 people, I don't care, okay,
but you know, just putting thetwo together it seems like a fun
idea.

No, that's very interesting.
I would be down for it.
How many conversations?
As long as it's outdoors,though not indoors?

How many conversations have we had about
guns while we were shooting?

Yeah, but that's just because we have similar
thoughts on that and we can't bethe only ones, yeah.
Well, I mean, I know two peoplenow you and Justin so we would
have to, but, like I said, Iwould be curious about that, so
that's a pretty cool idea.

And the person doesn't necessarily have to own
a gun, but they could have fungoing to the range every now and
then.

Yeah, it's a safe environment too, so that's
pretty good and so that's theidea.

When it will happen, who knows?

yeah, no, that's, that's pretty, but that's the
idea in the back of my head forfor one eventually, okay, but I
think, um, the next big, big,big event will be the mastermind
that we're, that we're puttingtogether yes, there's got to be
one again, not trying to sell, Ido want to, at least I know I
want to do one where you know Iwant to go with people who are

(01:08:31):
like production company ownersand just trying to, you know,
pool our resources together,essentially grow together, um,
and and I love these meetups,but there's a wide variety of
people, so I have to, at leastwhen I've been able to speak or
learn, you know it's, it's ait's wide scale.
You're like, hey, if you want togrow to six figures or whatever
, now you want to go to this,you know.
So it's like.
But I'm saying, if you did amastermind, where it's all

(01:08:53):
people like, okay, we alreadyhave the basics right, we're not
struggling to pay the bills.
Now how can we make big moneyor how can we grow bigger from
people who are already, you know, that level or higher?
I think, would be an incredibleresource for everyone, because
then everyone benefits from it.
I would love to put somethinglike that together, but again,

(01:09:14):
time is such crazy.
But I know you're interested insomething like that too, right.

Yeah, and I realized, you know, for me I
have to really dedicate thebrain power to do it, and so
I've already decided, like thebeginning of last, the ending of
2022, when I knew what wascoming for 2023, I said, okay,
I'm going to dedicate to doingthose things.
And so I did it.
So I think you know it shouldbe the same thing.

Yeah, I've already you just got to do it right.

Otherwise it's never going to get done.
I've already I've alreadydecided there was a few things I
want to do this year.
I'm already doing some of them.
Um, I have some other ideasthat are only business specific
okay that have come to mindafter the last two years of
doing production that I've seenout in the world that I want to
do, but those are businessspecific products that I want to
provide Ooh, that's coolAnything you can share with us.

(01:10:13):
No.

Are they not fleshed yet?

Okay, that's okay, take your time, we'll have
you back.
They're flushed, they justhaven't fully been done yet.
Okay, and that is a competitivething.
Okay.
So it's like not something thatI feel like will take tons and
tons of effort to do, but couldprovide a lot of value to the

(01:10:39):
customer base and profit.

And so I'm making me and anyone listening curious.

now, well, just , based on the market that we
live in.
Okay, and the service that'savailable for it doesn't really
exist locally.
Okay, now, there are companiesthat are providing that service
countrywide, but there isn'tmuch locally.

Stop talking.
You're making me curious.
If you can't say it, then sayit.

Yeah, so, but it doesn't the barrier to entry
is not extremely high for it,yeah, and so it's still in the
production space, still in thelive space, and so I'm
implementing it for the businessI'm building.
For the live side.
I'm like, okay, this could alsobut service other people.

So, which is what I was going to ask you, but I
guess I don't know.
If you want to tell me, then,how are you going to do outreach
for that, for that ob van thatyou're building?
Is there, uh, like, do you havea plan in mind or is that what
you're talking about?
How you're gonna do outreach?
How are you gonna get the newclients?

um, I'm for the ob event specifically.
I the plan is to one do the nonside of it, which is servicing
no schools and everything butthat involves sports.
You don't do high schoolwithout sports and stuff like
that.
So within that sports space I amthinking about expanding to

(01:12:01):
doing college level sports andproviding that service.
And providing that service.
So the idea is to interact withthe networks that are
sponsoring and giving airtime tothose events, seeing what the
requirements are.
I know what the requirementsare for ESPN, so building the OB

(01:12:22):
van in a way that is enticingto them, that's important.

Oh, so you're going for the big sports
broadcast stuff not the bigsports, but the medium sports.

Okay, the medium.

Okay, because I don't medium-sized colleges like
you're not gonna target, likealabama or anything you're.
You're trying to go for whatsmaller, smaller schools that
have a football or other sportsprogram volleyball, maybe,
that's a big one.
Um, that, that would be perfect, your man for right yeah, so
you're thinking some yes and um.

so that's on the sports side of it and
networking network broadcastside of things, making the
vehicle industry standard enoughso that it can be hired as any
other OB vehicle that exists,because there's a certain
barrier to entry when it comesto a professional standard

(01:13:15):
vehicle and the things that isexpected inside that vehicle.
And so I think the thing I'veseen a lot is people who are
coming up with custom solutionsthat aren't industry standard
and then hiring an industrystandard professional to run it,
it just doesn't work, and soyou end up having to operate
yourselves, but you're onlylimited to your experience up

(01:13:36):
until that point, and so itdoesn't seem like there's a way
to grow past it.

Yeah, no, that I completely agree with, because
I've told people all the time mybiggest lesson learned in video
production was not buyingindustry-standard stuff Because
you know, when you're new you go, oh well, this product exists.
For example, you know Teradek,oh, there's Teradek, but I can
buy XYZ wireless system forcheaper.
And you know, guess what?
If you're just doing your ownthing, it's fine.

(01:14:03):
But as soon as you start towork with crews but as soon as
you start to work with crews, itbecomes very difficult and it's
a loss of money.
Essentially, how many equipmentI've had to sell or whatever
dispose of because it wouldn'tfit?
Because it's one thing for youto have it, and I can assure,
operate it or know it, but assoon as I bring in crew, when
it's an industry standard, I canjust tell anyone hey, here's a

(01:14:24):
Bolt 500, whatever, go activateit and most professionals can
operate it.
But when you have somethingspecific or a custom solution
that you main, they they'll belike, uh, how do I do this, how
do I do that, and that's, that'sa loss of efficiency and, um,
you know, you can't have that onpro set.
So the lesson I learned was youknow very quickly, like, just

(01:14:44):
buy the right stuff the firsttime.
It always pays off buying cheap.
Unless it's just you one personband, then it's fine, you know,
whatever, just have it, it'snot going to, you know, go well.

I think there is different levels to the
industry standard when it comesto broadcasting and all that
stuff.
But years ago black magiccouldn't be the standard, they
just weren't there yet.
However, I think they are veryclose to being the standard for
a certain level, and so the wayeverything operates is pretty
much close to industry standardto an extent, depending on the

(01:15:19):
item.
The switches, they're veryclose.
The cameras, on the other hand,depends on which one you're
talking about aren't there yet.
The Broadcast Ursa G2s formfactor pretty standard to an
extent.
Their workflow to an extent.
Color-wise controlling thatremotely less standard, but

(01:15:42):
still doable.

Yeah, especially if you're using their switchers
Right.

Less standard, as you know from your experience
, but still close enough that aprofessional can use it, because
it's all there yeah and see,this is why I stay away from.

Obviously I'm not trying to be in live as, like
you are, exactly.
I don't go into those higherend events because that's not
the space I'm in personally forme.
I'm in that corporatecommercial space and I've live
streamed tons and tons ofconferences and events and
Blackmagic gear has served me sowell.
It paid itself long, long, youknow, you know hundreds of times

(01:16:16):
over.
So at that point.
So I love Blackmagic for that,but I do completely get it.
Now I wouldn't take my livestreaming kit to personally to
ESPN and be like, yeah, let me,let me host your boxing
tournament or whatever, but you,on the other hand, obviously
are building a setup that candefinitely do like at least
medium size events right, that'swhat you're getting.

So the the form factor of that camera platform
is pretty similar to standardbroadcast setups, you know, even
down to the fiber solutions,pretty much the same, and so I
think that's the closest we'regoing to get for the price point
, and these days, not as manypeople are caring about the

(01:17:02):
camera platform you're using,but just providing the service.
And so that's where I want tolive and, like I said, a lot of
that live and, like I said, alot of that equipment is
becoming standard for a lot ofthings like music festivals yeah
and stuff like that.
There's tons of music festivalsthat you watch all the time that
are using that camera yeah,that's true.

I've done some music festivals, so funny enough
.
What is the price point they'retrying to hit?
Is there a number?
I mean like, hey, this pricepoint, this gear is good or
anything beyond this.
Not so much Like what is theprice point People can know if
that's something they want topursue.
How much money is there?

In terms of what I'm going after or how much
I'm charging.

No, what are you going after?
Like, what will this man, orwhatever the system that you'll
be able to, this medium-sizedlive streaming setup, be able to
get?
I mean, what is the price range?
I mean you can give us a range.

I think.
See, I'm not necessarilybuilding this system to have a
limit.

Oh, so there's no limit.

'm building what's the minimum I'm building
the system that is availablenext day okay there's.
In this world, everyone rentseverything anyway.
Like I haven't done a corporateshow where half the stuff isn't
rented from a different companyanyway.
So there's not a limit.

(01:18:29):
You can get whatever you needto get yeah, but on hand next
day, two hour notice, building avery good system okay if that
makes sense no, it does so.

Uh, so give us that's what I'm saying.
Um like sure, I call you.
Two hours later I have a musicfestival.
What is the kind of rangepeople can expect to learn?
Because the people I'm thinkingwho are listening to this are
either into it, maybe beginner,or they're thinking about
getting into it.
I just want them to know,because I can talk all day about
my level of production, but I'mnot trying to do sports.

(01:19:04):
What is the money that they canmake?
Is it worth?
It Is the point I'm trying toget?

what do you expect to be able to charge?
I'm expecting, like, let's say,a large size concert for music
festivals specifically where I'mtargeting.
I think I'm expecting to tobegin on the 15 000 dollar range
that's pretty good $15,000, onemusic festival.
Do you think?

per day or the whole festival.

I think it's the scope of work.
I think as a company I want itto be $15,000 walking away with
and that's after expenses.
That's after expenses for crew.

Oh so it's going to be more.
So $15,000 is your profit.
So that crew?
Oh so it's going to be more.
So, right, so 15 is your profit.
So that means what it's goingto be, what?

30, 40 grand at least yeah, the top number
right, and that's cheap.
And that's cheap.
Yeah, that's on the lower end,that's on the lower end, yeah so
that's pretty good money,though somebody's thinking about
it.

Um that you can, you know, do a music festival on
a lower end charge.
Maybe climb 40 grand40,000,walk away with $15,000.
That's a pretty good profitrange, yeah.

Yeah, and I think you know, just being
around the space operating,knowing the crew sizes that I'm
working with, like, hey, I showup to a gig and I'm one out of
five operators for a camera, andthat doesn't even take into
account everyone else behind thecameras.
Knowing stage hands, you know.

(01:20:30):
Knowing and knowing what I'mcharging per day for my rate and
knowing everyone else isprobably very similar in the
ballpark.

You just do the math yeah, exactly which, and I
think that exactly what.
Thank you for bringing this up?
Uh, because so many people.
Again, I'm all like don'tinvest in the equipment, because
you know people want to startin video.
And they go what camera can Ibuy?
And that's what all theseyoutubers are peddling.
And I'm like, no, you don'tneed anything because, guess
what, as long as you know,obviously you're skilled um, you

(01:21:00):
can go be an av camera operatorand usually you don't even need
to bring any equipment right.
They provide everything.
You just have to go operate it.
And what kind of day rates canpeople expect?

um, there's been some crying and about
different numbers okay, give usan average.

What's an average day rate?
Um between 450 650 that'spretty good day rate.
Look, zero investment, making450 to 650.
I mean that's not bad,especially if you're new.
Just hang out with somebodylike you, learn a little skill.
Obviously you need to know whatyou're doing, but once you get
there, that's a pretty good dayrate.

(01:21:37):
I mean zero investment, I meancan't beat it right, yeah.
And usually it's not one day,usually.
What?
How many days is average?
Usually it's three, five daysgive or take three to five days
you're walking with a fewthousand dollars and most of it
is profit now minus.
Obviously you know taxes andeverything, but not bad most of

(01:21:59):
it's in your pocket exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
There's no expenses like I gas, but gas and, like
any job, what I'm saying isthere's none.
You had to invest right offthis equipment and you know,
like any job.
You know what I'm saying islike there's none.

You had to invest this right off, this equipment,
this camera, this sd card nowthere's battery.

There are people who have their
preferences on what they certainthings like chairs for instance
.
I have my preference on thechair, so I have my own chair
okay, well, that's your choice,right?
Yeah, otherwise they'll provideyou a chair, okay you know,
like just bringing, there arecertain things that you could
have yourself.

Which I know you have pulled it on my set, so I
know you that stool.
Is that what you're talkingabout?

No, no, no, no, no, that's the stool.
Okay, so it's different.

Oh, I haven't seen the chair.

That's the stool.

I have a chair when I'm directing, okay, or is
this different?

No, no, no, the cam op chair is close to a
director's chair.
The video directing chair forlive events is a Herman Miller.

Oh yeah, but it makes sense.

Yeah, long days and so like, but that's a
personal investment.

You wanted to make Personal investment the main
thing I want to know is liketell people is like come on, I'm
tired of people being broke inthis industry.
There's so much money to bemade and there's so many
different avenues to make money,man.
We've already talked aboutthree, four different ways, but
I what I love about av is likeit's zero investment route.
As long as you get skilled andyou network, you don't require
any investment outside of whatyou may want to do anyway, like

(01:23:23):
for your own now there isthere's there is a level of
investment when it comes toeducation, because different
training and certificationsrequire money.
Exactly, yeah, nothing replaceseducation.

The only person paying for that is you.
So there's certain things youneed to pay for, like, for
example, you don't need to haveyour own headset, but I try to
tell people there are things youdon't need, and there are
things you do need.

Okay, so what do they need?

So, like, let's say, camera Operator decides
when we jump into that, havingyour own headset is really nice
to have, okay, because you willbe able to hear more clearly.

Yeah, that's what they give you is good.
It's still fine, the typical.

Speaker 3 (01:24:07):
Motorola stuff that you, stuff that you put on your
ear.

No, no, broadcast headsets you know that
plug into the cameras.
The ones they give you are fine, but sometimes the pressure
could be a lot or sometimes thecable may be going bad Sure.

It's not just your big head Sometimes maybe but
sometimes the I'm joking.

The headsets could be either really strong on
your ears or the cable could begoing bad or whatever.
And having your own, neverexcuse why you can't hear.
You don't want to be the guywho has to come up with excuses.

Yeah, please don't make excuses.
Like you said, if you don'tlike it, definitely I go by your
headset, obviously, if somebodyis being unreasonable's
different than yes please speakup, but otherwise you know you
don't want to be the guy comingup with excuses.
It's very easy to again getblacklisted, not get hired again
, right?

yes, and people who do that, who are in that
space.
They are already bringing tonsof stuff that they're not
charging for but just elevatesthe service that they can
provide.
The better service you provide,the more chances they'll call
you back, show after show aftershow.

Exactly See.
It's the people, it's therelationship it comes down to
all of this bad, but investmentis not necessary.
That's my main point.

It's not.

Yeah, you can be in this industry.
You can make money.
You can make good money.
Um, it's just all aboutrelationships and again, if you
want to meet someone who's doingwhat you want to do, just reach
out.
I'm sure you have a quentin inyour town or whatever.
Or at least if you're in thecentral florida area, I would
say and tell me if I'm wrong ifsomebody just sent you an email

(01:25:45):
or said hey, quentin, I lovewhat you're doing.
I I would love to learn more.
Can I please grab a cup ofcoffee?
Would you say no, no, no,that's what I'm saying.
You're going to make yourselfaccessible, just like I would.
I find anyone in this fieldwho's successful is generally
open to helping anyone.
You know who wants, you knowwho wants to learn.
As long as you know you're notpestering, you're just being

(01:26:10):
genuine about it, I'm sure you'dbe happy to take an hour out of
your time and have a coffee.
Be nice, buy Quentin coffee.
Obviously, don't let Quentinpay for it when you want to meet
him, but you know what?
I mean, I get the idea.
This doesn't have to be you.
There's people out there whoare willing to share and help
people get into it and make aliving out of it there's.

I think years ago there was a.
I had to do this the hard waydue to I'm not going to really
tell you I think that wholemindset gone, even when it comes
down to traditional film.
I don't think it's that wayanymore from people I've spoken
to who operate in both spacesyeah, I mean, there's still

(01:26:54):
politics in hollywood, but let'snot get there.
That's why I'm talking about ona, on a, just a day-to-day
person to person.
One man on a crew.
I'm saying people aren't likegatekeeping as yeah, they used
to, and in the av space peoplearen't gatekeeping how they used
to and the live event spacepeople aren't gatekeeping like

(01:27:14):
they used to, at least on thelower ends, where you're just a
guy who wants to get on.
Yeah.
And you're the guy in someone'smind when they need an extra
person.

Yeah, that's the person to call and here's the
thing If you find somebody youknow who is that type, then hang
up the phone, go find somebodyelse.
There's always going to besomebody nice who's willing to,
like you said, who's notgatekeeping, who's willing to
share, because at the end of theday, you know you're not asking
for something unreasonable.
You're not just saying, hey,take me on a set, take me on a
set.
You know.
All you're saying is, hey,teach me or tell me how to do

(01:27:46):
this.
Obviously, the effort lies onthe person.
They have to still go learn andwhatever, or you know, move
their way up.
But what I'm trying to say isuh, I'm pretty sure you and
other people like you would behappy to, uh, you know, share
your knowledge at least.
Uh and um, you know, notgatekeep and be like no, no, no,
I'm not telling you.
I don't think that exists, andif it does exist, it's a

(01:28:09):
nowadays.
At least there's a limitedamount of people, and those
people are out of the way anywaybecause it's you know they're
dinosaurs.
That's not how it works now.

You said taking on set.
Now I think what some peopledon't understand is there's
practical and there'simpractical.
It's impractical for me to takeyou with me to certain things,
because I'm just another guydoing a thing.

No, that's why I said you won't take them to set,
but you'll be happy to sharethat.
Because, yeah, I don't, I don'tdo the same thing.
I'm not just meeting you and belike, oh sure, come to my set.
Now it's different.
If I'm, at least for me, I'vebuilt a relationship.
I'm happy to bring it and alsofor me, referrals, for example.
Um, uh, the way we got togetheris because I called alex you
know a friend of mine and andyou're obviously great friends

(01:28:56):
with him and I was like, hey, Iwant you to come help out.
I need one more person you knowwho could come do sound.
And he was like, oh, I know mybuddy quentin.
He's great and and you know,normally if somebody just told
me anyone I wouldn't just hirethem, but I trusted alex opinion
and as soon as he was like Itrust him there you go that's it
sometimes, that how you can,you can be on set.
And now obviously we've beenfriends for a year and I've

(01:29:17):
hired independently of Alex manytimes.
So just in general we talk.
So what I'm saying is that thatgoes a long way and if you've
met someone enough times thatyou trust them and you can vet
their skill, I'm sure if youwere on a show and they're like,
hey, I mean some operatorcalled in or whatever, like we
need an operator, you'd be happyto suggest the name of someone

(01:29:39):
you trust, right.

Yeah, and a couple of quick examples of that
.
So Alex was on the show,wherever it was don't remember
the hotel, but he was, you know,he was switching the show and
they were like, hey, our, youknow he was switching the show
and they were like, hey, ourcamera operator didn't show up.
We need a camera operator.
He calls me, puts me on thephone with the guy in charge and

(01:30:02):
I'll be honest, there arecertain times of the year where
you're busy enough where it'slike I don't even want to do
this.
Yeah, that was one of thosetimes.
I I had a hammer drill in myhand mounting a TV.
I did not want to go and I hadjust got back and I did not want
to go and operate a camera forthe next three days.

(01:30:25):
But I was like money talks,finished what I was doing and
went and, you know, did thething.
But that's just an example ofyou know.
It's also about who you knowdid the thing.

But that's just an example of you know.
It's also about who you know.
Simple, like if alex knew youand obviously you guys are
friends so he would call you.
But that's what I'm saying you.
It's also who you know, and theonly way you'll get to know
people is by getting out of yourhome and going out and
networking.

But also being good enough to do the job.

Yeah, skills is first.

Because, you know, like the first initial way
we met, I was brought in to dosound.
I wouldn't consider myself asound person.
However, I was passionateenough, understood what needed
to be done and did it.

Yeah, you did a great job.

But for some people, you know, if you're not
confident enough to say yes tothat job.
Yet me personally, I don'tthink you should say yes to it.

No, I completely agree.
Please don't say yes, becausehad that sound not been good, I
would have been really, reallyreally not, not happy and we
would have not had years you.
You wouldn't have been happywith me and you wouldn't have
been happy with alex yes,exactly, and it would have
ruined my relationship that Ihad with alex at the time.
Right, because the only reasonat that time because, like I
said, I didn't know youpersonally, then you were there

(01:31:52):
was because alex said to you andbut that's what I'm saying, if
somebody asked me to bringsomebody on set, if I'm
recommending them, I'm puttingmy name on the line.
So same thing.
Like you said, you couldn't havesaid it better.
Only say yes if you'reconfident, because, believe me,
you're not blacklisted forsaying no.
If you just say hey, yeah, Idon't think I'm confident as a

(01:32:21):
sound guy, but I'm happy to dobe a cam op or whatever,
whatever the the point is, youwill not be blacklisted.
But or forget blacklist just ingeneral, you're not souring the
relationship.
But if you do, um screw up, notonly are you ruining the shoot,
you're also making sure that uh, you know you're not getting
hired again.
Plus, now you're ruining myfriendship with someone else.
Obviously you didn't do that.
You did great.
Everything is fantastic.
I brought you back as a soundguy again because you know that
is on me also.
Don did great.
Everything is fantastic.
I brought you back as a soundguy again because you know that
is on me also.
Don't pigeonhole people becauseI met you as a sound guy.
So I'm like, oh, he's a soundguy.

(01:32:43):
And then I brought you anotherthing on another gig and then we
got to talking and you're likeI'm not just a sound guy, I'm
like crap, I gotta stop, youknow.
And then obviously now I knowyou're navy, you know your video
and everything.
So now I've obviously broughtyou um, we've worked as a you
know, a camera guy too, but samething, you know, don't
pigeonhole, pigeonhole people,and but also don't say yes if

(01:33:03):
you're not confident.
Uh, but if you are obviously,getting to network and meet
people is great because that'show, like that, I met you and I
wouldn't have met you, uh, if itwasn't for that whole thing and
uh, which I'm excited to have,alex I'm gonna have him in a few
weeks, so I'm excited to havehim.
Um, you know, on the podcasttoo, uh, but yeah, no, that,

(01:33:25):
like I said, get out, you knownot, that's not for you.
I'm just saying anyonelistening who's not again, maybe
at uh, making money from thisor making enough money from this
?

I think just go out and just say hi, just meet
people for coffee, and I'm surea lot of people are more than
happy to I think, it accommodateyou if you're reasonable if
we're talking starting out likeI've, I've done video work
part-time at the beginning andso I can remember driving the

(01:33:59):
truck.
I was driving for the company Iwas working for driving through
Manhattan or driving throughNew York in general.
Like you have this idea ofwhere you want to be and however
, however amount of time thatyou have five, 10 years,
whatever but I remember like man, if only, if only, if only
because you're driving pastproductions that are shooting.

(01:34:21):
You're driving past evenproduction-related vehicles.
Yeah, that's a lot in New York.
You're driving past trailers,you're driving past production
trucks, you're driving past aset, you're driving past picture
vehicles actually being filmedon, and it's just like, if only

(01:34:42):
um and I think at that point,even watching youtube at the
same time, while driving.
Watching youtube, whatever, um,oh my goodness, don't do that
but, but even like just drivingand watching people and driving
past the things happening at thesame time, it was just like
crap, I wish, I wish, I wish.
And it was only because of theconstant going for it that you

(01:35:05):
get there.

Yeah, no, no, I'm with you, not to sound preachy,
but exactly, you know, for yearsI was like, oh, I'd rather be
doing video, I'd rather be doingvideo, but you, know, it's,
this is just passion, right,this is not.
You know, this is in full time,whatever.
You know just like that,especially um, being indian.
You know, doctor, engineer,you're just a failure.
This is how you, at least I wasraised up.
So I'm just like um, but Idon't want to do that.

(01:35:28):
You know, this is what I wantto do and um, anyway, the taking
that leap of faith was thehardest thing, but, like you
said, actually doing it is is soincredible, um, I think the the
best thing you can do isactually just do it, you know
not to be confused with quittingtomorrow and going for it.

I mean why, not because people got bills to pay
.

Okay, yeah obviously don't do that if you
got.

But I mean I mean develop developing a plan
to make it happen and making ithappen in a certain reasonable
amount of time, and not sayingI'm going to make it happen for
the next 10 years and don't makeit happen no, absolutely.

I know very, very well, said quentin yeah, I don't
.
I don't want anyone to not beable to pay their bills, not
just listen to this and go like,oh, these people are making six
figures, seven figures.
Whatever they're making, I wantto do that too, so I quit my
job.
Um, you, you want to be able toobviously pay bills.
This works great if you're, youknow, already student, living
their parents or whatever, um,then you know you can.

(01:36:27):
You can do that.
But if you're not, then samething I was saying earlier then
go meet the people who are inthe industry.
Obviously get to a stage whereit automatically becomes
independent, because you know,once you've been on enough gigs
and you're already pulling inenough revenue that you can pay
your bills, it'll be a loteasier to obviously quit your
full-time job.

No, thank you for saying that.
I don't mean that I've stoppedlooking at how other people are
running their race because noone else is in my specific
position, you know.
So I don't.
I try not to be envious ofother people and go I wish, I
wish, I wish anymore, because Irecognize I'm running my race.

(01:37:09):
Yeah, and the only personrunning that race is me.

So you know and the good thing is there's enough
work.
Yeah, please, uh like again, mything is I don't want to be
envious of anyone, uh, because,um, like you said, uh a, I think
it just makes you happier, andthen b, there is so much work,
man, everyone needs video every.
Uh, there's so much work, sowhy be envious?

(01:37:34):
Rather learn.
Learn If somebody's doing greatif I see something that
somebody's doing and I like it,instead of me going, oh, I wish
I was doing that.
I was like, hey, how did youget it?
Like, exactly.
I'm like how'd you get it?
That was awesome.
You know what was the connect?
How'd you get it?
You know blah, blah, blah, blah, sulking, you know.
I think that social media hasdone that.
I'm very techie, like I said,I'm very forward um of social

(01:37:57):
media since the beginning, butat the same time, I do see the
drawback, where what happens iseveryone shares five, ten
minutes of their best life on itand then, when you're scrolling
past 10 minutes everyone's bestlife you start to think that's
all their life is.
Everyone has problems in theirlife.
Everyone has.
You know that 10 minutes wasn'ttheir whole day is what I'm

(01:38:18):
saying.
So you can use it two ways,right?
You can either scroll throughand be like this is what I want
to do, I'm.
It motivates you, right.
You get out of the bed.
You're like, okay, this is theset I want to be on, this is the
shoot I want to be on.
That's one way to look at itand social media is awesome.
The other side is, for somepeople.
It's like they scroll and theylook at it like, oh, that
person's not even good enough,or why do they have that set,

(01:38:40):
and then you're just negativeand not doing anything about it.
Uh, I think it can be harmful.
So I think it's just you haveto choose how it is, and
hopefully it's the number oneway, and if it's not it, then I
think you should just quitsocial media for a while and
actually go work on, like yousaid, just being happy and just
working on your skills there's.

There's a certain level of like going back
to just scrolling and saying,hey, that person's work isn't as
good anyway.
How are they doing?
And I'm not.
I'm like it's full of thisworld, is full of people like
that that just happen to be inthe right place at the right
time, or just a little bit ofluck, or they knew that one

(01:39:20):
person yeah, or to give anotherside.

I mean what you're saying is correct.
Yes, there's a lot of peopleagain who you know matters,
right, like Alex gave you a call.
There's a lot of that happening, as in they will call the
person they know.
I'm saying that you sitting athome, that they don't know, uh,
the the other thing is you don'tknow what the circumstances
they were in, because a lot ofmy shoots sometimes and you've
been on enough corporate shootswith me where it's like no,

(01:39:45):
you've 10 minutes to set up, oryou know hey, or like the key
isn't to travel, they're likerun, you know, like we want you
here and you know the center isso big you can't be there.
And then they're, you know,they're like, oh, the camera guy
didn't make it.
It's what I'm trying to say islike you don't know the
circumstance also of what washappening in that moment.
Maybe they only had five minutesyes, maybe they are really good

(01:40:07):
and what you're seeing is whatthey can do in five minutes and
not five hours.
Right, and you at home andyou're practicing your lighting
or whatever and you're like lookmine's better.
Well, maybe you had, I don'tknow, I'm not saying maybe they
are bad but what I'm saying isyou also don't know what was the
situation, so stop being judgyof other people and I don't know
.
At least for me, it made mehappier where I don't try to do

(01:40:31):
social media that much and whenI do do it I am more oh, I want
to do that, more of that.
So I'm like looking at it likehey, let me connect with this
person or let me ask them in apositive way because I want to
do that and there's enough workout for out there for me to do
that, and I just need to knowhow they did it.
Like I would love to learn asmore of an education thing than

(01:40:52):
more of an emotional thing thereare three.

Well, there are about four instagram pages, um,
of people who are doing exactlywhere I want to be and I am.
I'm all over anytime they postum.
Anytime there's a story, I'mwatching it and I'm just looking
for details, looking for isthere something there that

(01:41:18):
they're doing in their process,like they're taking a picture of
their their engineering rack,for example, like in their
vehicle?
What is that?
How are they using it?

why do they have it?
Yeah, why do they have it?

what show are they doing?
Um, so there's a couple of guyslike that who have big
companies in different countries.
I recognize they're in othercountries, like Brazil and
Mexico and a place in Europe,but there are a few different
companies that are doing thatstuff and I'm all over their
Instagrams.
I'm like, okay, what are youusing?
You're using the same stuff I'musing.

(01:41:53):
Okay, how are you using itdifferently?
So there's a couple channelslike that.
There's a couple guys that Ifollowed.
I'm like, okay, I want to bedoing this also, just in a
different way.
How are they doing?
So that's how I use socialmedia.

That's very good.
You know, I did the same thingwhen I was building my, you know
, grip and production man, I wasall over the youtube.
There's a youtube not youtubefacebook group and all other
places.
And you know, like, like yousaid, you're zooming in, you're
like why do they have it?
Why is it?
You know what's the use casefor it?
Um, and you know, making youknow that that's good, that's,
that's the best way of using.

(01:42:28):
You know, I think social mediais, and I'm pretty sure those
people you know most likelydon't have any issue with it,
because that's how we grow.
You know, we learn from eachother and find efficiencies and
and ways to uh, make our workbetter.
Right at the end, they, you,you're building these racks or
whatever to to make your jobeasier.
You don't have the stuff justto have it right.
Um, and if somebody else canhelp you get there or make you

(01:42:52):
do, at least get there betterand faster, why wouldn't you?
And you know again, and I'mpretty sure most people are
happy to again, like, share thateducation.
But social media is so amazing.
You can get a lot of times forfree and you can get it quickly.
Because you know, I loveyoutube, um, because sometimes I
have this oddly specificquestion.

(01:43:12):
But you know, in a normal worldyou'd be like I'm the only one
having this problem.
But you never know, and there'susually some some video with
not that many views.
If somebody had that issue andthey've resolved it and that can
save you hours of time becauseI can just put the solution in,
move on, and so youtube is greatfor that.
But obviously there's anegative side to it.
There's so much noise.

(01:43:32):
If you just type a broadquestion, there's hundreds of
videos coming up and a lot ofpeople are not even experts,
they're just making the videosso they can make a living off
youtube.
That you have to be verycareful of, because then now
that education isn't actuallyvalid because those people
businesses and what they'retalking about is to actually be
on youtube.
So there's a balance to it, Ithink and again it comes under

(01:43:54):
the personal approach right, youhave to use social media
however it works best for you.
At the end of the day, I justwant more people in the industry
.
I want more people to make ahealthy living from it and find
success, because I think it'svery easy.
You just have to do it theright way and you have to do it
positively.
Then you know, buy a bunch ofthese courses and somehow go.

(01:44:16):
Why isn't it working for me?

I know a few different people who have bought
courses and, like man, I'm juststill not understanding all of
it and I'm like I'm not sayingall courses are bad.

Obviously, education, like you said
yourself, education is some ofthe best thing you know, for the
best thing you know for theworld, for for you, for your
personal growth.
But I'm saying there's so muchnoise, right, some of these
courses are just there to makemoney, like the person who's
selling you the course, theirentire business model is to sell
you.
It's funny you say that, becauseyou know it's one thing that an

(01:44:52):
industry expert goes hey, um,I'm the best plumber ever, I
want to teach you how to be aplumber.
But then when I'm done withthis course sure, it's a side
business, which is okay forpeople to make money I'm back to
being a plumber, building newchains of plumbing or whatever.
That's great.
Learn from that guy, becausehe's in the trenches building a

(01:45:14):
plumbing business.
But now here comes the guy.
He's like hey, you know aplumbing business.
But now here comes the guy.
He's like hey, I'm a plumbingexpert and you learned?
They just did it for six monthsand they quit.
Now they're an influencer inplumbing, but they actually
don't know anything.
They don't know how to businessscales, uh, what the real
problems are when you're at thatscale or whatever I'm just
saying and then you're going tofollow that.
Usually you won't find success,because what they're talking
about is not relevant to thereal problems you have in the

(01:45:36):
field, and I think that's a lotwith video.
It's especially sprouted, Ithink, the last few years
because the industry sprouted.

So many new courses popped up and that's
terrible.
You know, I was watchingsomeone's podcast the other day
and he's a video professionaland he's a video professional.
I try not to classify people asDP, cinematographer, whatever,
because those things don't seemto be as separate anymore.

(01:46:07):
Everyone's bringing them alltogether.
So I just call people videobusiness professionals or video
professionals.
Okay, because at this pointwe're operating in the space
that we're supposed to beprofessional and we do video.
Video is a vast term, butbecause I'm in so many different

(01:46:29):
spaces and I know so manydifferent people, I kind of just
say he's a video professional.
When people ask me, what do Ido, I'm just like I'm a video
professional at this point.
Because me sitting here saying,hey, I'm a video director, yes,
I am, and I do that, but I Itry to do so many other things
also because of so manydifferent interests.
Yeah, so the right thing.

(01:46:51):
You know, an event with acouple hundred thousand people
in nigeria one week and thendesigning a system for someone
else the next week it's so funnyyou just glossed over hundreds
of thousands of people yeah,it's crazy that's a big, that's
a large eventyes, but I I try to tell people,

(01:47:12):
don't think about that, becausethe job itself is the same.
Just how you're doing it mayscale.
Learning the fundamentals ofone thing will always work.
Just you may have to do it at alarger scale, and the only

(01:47:33):
analogy I can ever think of forthat is like an audio console,
like you have the channel strip.
It's like once you learn how touse the effects and the EQ of
that one channel, you know howto use the entire board.
For me it's the same thing withall the video.
Once you learn the specifics ofthis, one thing, it's just
about scaling it.

(01:47:53):
And so, yeah, it's that event,whatever you know.
One thing, it's just aboutscaling it, yeah, and so, yes,
that event, whatever you know,but you know doing that one week
and then designing a system forsomeone else the next week.

That's very good said, but you know, you know and
I'm the, I'm the guy it's likebut also the challenges, though
on a 300 to 400 000 a personevent would be far greater than
yes a small, you shoot yes, youknow and most you're like you've
little equipment.
Then you know, oh, maybe thehdmi broke or whatever I don't
know.
But that's a small, you knowissue.

(01:48:22):
Versus that, the issues theyprobably encounter are on a
bigger scale and the only wayyou can learn those is by being
on shoots that size right yes, Ithink, yes, yes to that, but
still don't let that take youout of reality and just focusing

(01:48:43):
on your thing, get yourfundamentals right, because that
environment.

Your job is only your job, anyway.
Yeah true, so trying to thinktoo large into other people's
roles isn't going to helpanything anyway, unless you have
a perspective to help to show.

Or you're trying to be the guy who's in charge.
Yes, so it depends on the roleyou're trying to get into, but
absolutely no.
You hit the nail on the headthere like that.
Get your fundamentals right.
You'd be amazed how many peopleI meet again who are like you
don't know a lack of videoproduction and they want to run
a video production company.
It's possible as long as youhire professionals and you're a

(01:49:22):
good sales guy.
But if you're trying to also dothe creative part of it and
it's not working out, it mayjust be because you didn't try
to get your fundamentals rightand it's not hard Again.
Just be on set Again.
All I can tell people is like um, you know, nowadays it's you
don't need school or anything,you just need to be on set.

(01:49:44):
You just need to be on the setwith people who know what
they're doing and they'llhappily bring you, you know, as
a pa or whatever, as long as youbuild that relationship first.
And you know, because most,like you said, people aren't
gatekeeping anymore.
People are happy to share.
Plus, what I love is mostpeople doing this are passionate
about it.
Very few people are in thisjust for the money.
Obviously people want money,but most people are passionate

(01:50:06):
about whatever, like you aregoing to live, because you're
passionate about it.
Right, I do corporate and andyou know, commercial video
because I love it and I'mpassionate about it and those
people generally will happilytalk about it because that's
what they love, yeah, exactly.
Because that's what we want todo, so why wouldn't we want to
share it with anyone?
So there's no gatekeeping goingon here.
Rather, you know, you'refulfilling that internal thing

(01:50:29):
to talk about what you love, anda lot of our spouses are just
like please stop talking aboutit Anyway.
So it's, they're just likeplease stop talking about it
anyway.
So that's like you did whattoday.
Oh great, cool, yeah, exactly,yeah, we don't want to know
about black magic.

What time will you be home?
That's all I really care aboutexactly so.
So just, I think it's just moreis just reaching the approaching
um and and genuinely you knowasking, and I'm pretty sure
you'll be happy to find thatinformation and go to where
whatever role, like you said,you want to be um, but also yes,
and not being afraid to reachout yeah because, for example, I

(01:51:02):
didn't know many people inorlando at that time when I
reached out to alex and the onlyreason why I reached out to him
was because I was watching ayoutube video on a GH5 or
whatever and he made one, andthen another YouTube channel was

(01:51:25):
doing a podcast type thingwhere he had people virtually
and Alex was on there and hesaid he was in Orlando.
And I'm like, well, I need toreach out.
And you know, I reached out toa few people that said they were
in in town and, um, yeah, wejust got over the hump of just
reaching out to new people.

Um, that was the thing.
But see, you did that and look,he obviously accepted, which is
why you know he knew you and itwas a little weird, oh, really,
and it was a little weird.

Oh really, what was the weird?
I want to know this story.

So I reached out to him on instagram or whatever,
and you know he kind ofresponded how many years have
you known him?
Um since 2020 okay so aboutfour or five years so you're a
year earlier than me, because Ibelieve it was 21 when I met you
.
So yeah, a year before then,okay so reached out to him.

You know, he kind of was like, yeah, yeah,
cool, because you know, I saidthis I am, this is what I do,
this is who I am, whatever,whatever.
He was like, yeah, sounds good.
Um, and I was like, yeah, let'syou know we should meet up,
whatever.
And he was like, yeah, let meget back to you on a date.
Okay, cool, then I'm going toto best buy to get a hard drive.

(01:52:39):
He's in best buy and he'sonline.
And it was funny because I wassitting in the car about to go
inside and I seen his companyshirt on his back, but I didn't
know it was him.
I was like, I've seen thatthat's his company.
So I'm like, okay, and as I'mgoing in the store, I was like,

(01:53:01):
wait, that is him.
And then I was like, well,shoot, now do I go over there?
Do I wait till he responds tome on instagram?
Because I'm like I don't wantto be a stalker, you know like,
you know just normal people, um.
But I was like, yeah, why notgo over, introduce myself?

and um, yeah, and that was it that was it.

I was just like , okay, getting out of my own
way yeah, no, because we're notcelebrities.

It'd be one thing you have somebody who's like
online influence or whatever,then they'd be like uh no, but
we're video people, you know,like.

So if you just say hi, I'm pretty sure but
there's a certain disconnectbetween watching someone's video
online and yeah.
The real person it's not thesame thing when it wasn't
planned.
Yeah, especially.
Yeah, you just got to be nice.

Hey, oh, I just noticed.
Aren't you, alex, somethinglike that right, wouldn't you?
That's what?
I would just say that, oh, Ithink I reached out on instagram
, yeah perfect something likethat and then just be genuine
about it.

Don't be weird, obviously yeah, and you know,
just using that process to reachout to more people, and that
snowballed to other people,which snowballs to other people.
So it's just like just goingfor it and not being afraid to
to fail a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, because get used to know,
because again some people willnot respond, and that's okay,
you know, this one like don'tgive up on one person, you know,
try, try a few, you know andyou never know again.
People are busy because you haveto understand if at least you
know, like people who areactually doing this, they're
busy, they're like you know,they're actually working

(01:54:33):
professionals.
That's what you're trying toreach them.
So you know, time is obviouslyimportant.
But again, I would bepersonally at least I can speak
for myself.
I'd be happy to share myinformation, like, uh, my, any
information I have.
It just may be like, hey, I'mtraveling right now, but let me
get back to you, or, or whydon't you reach out?
Usually I'll tell them becauseI know I'll forget about it and
I don't want to be the theperson because you know my
priorities are video and family.

(01:54:55):
I know everything about myproject, but that's it.
You know I'm not thinking aboutthe rest.
So I'll be like reach out to mein two weeks and I will happily
.
And then, when they do and youknow, I'm happy to meet them.
Point I'm trying to make is Iam, I'm happy to share and
everyone I've tried to meet,especially people who are doing
well, they're happy to meet andthey're happy to share and
that's the knowledge.
Or, like I said, hopefully youknow that's the point I'm trying

(01:55:21):
to serve with this podcast isget people information, you know
, straight away, while they'redriving or whatever.
So it's free, you know, andeven if they learn a little bit,
like today.
For me it's like you know howmuch money is there in freaking
AV and you know, if they don'tknow that, then you know you
wouldn't even pursue it, rightCause when you think video,
you're thinking you know thisvideo like live is part of video

(01:55:46):
.

But we're talking from a operator's
perspective, not an owner's.

Yeah.
Because, as an operator, yeahyou can make pretty good money.
I mean and I'm just one guy andthat's not my full-time Well,
you're going to be an ownerthough.

I mean, you are an owner, right, right right,
but I'm saying, up until acertain point I was just an
operator and so just being hiredby other companies and you know
, as that person, as theoperator, knowing what other
people making, um, that aredoing it full-time, I'm
splitting my time.
You know, video production, uh,av, focusing on trying to break

(01:56:24):
into owning and operating alive event equipment company and
all these different things.
Those guys who are in it 24, 7,tons of guys, of guys who are
doing $100,000, $150,000 a yearjust doing that.
Yeah.
But the caveat is you are goinga lot, you're always busy.

(01:56:47):
Yeah.
There's not a lot of downtime,but when you give yourself
downtime it's good.
You can kind of do whatever youwant.
Exactly the thing that I don'twant to get to is being the guy
I met, a guy who owns a soundcompany, and there was a couple
of the older guys sitting aroundtalking after we were already

(01:57:08):
set up, and we're talking abouthow they used to travel seas and
you know, going for this amountof time doing tours and whatnot
, and how the relationship withtheir kids suck, and I'm like,
well, I don't want that to be.
Yeah.
And so I'm always thinking aboutthat also, trying not to be
those people.
Because one their bodies arejacked up.

(01:57:30):
Yeah.
And two, the relationship withtheir families are jacked up.
Yeah.
But they make tons of money andthey're doing what they enjoy
yeah, obviously your level ofobsession can can can vary.

Um, yeah, no, it's very important, like what?
What you're talking about ismaintaining a family and you
know, work, work, familyrelationship of balance,
basically because at the endthey sure, like you, love this
and you're passionate about it.
But you shouldn't consume you,you know you should still take
some time, you know, hang outwith the people who love you,

(01:58:08):
who care about you.
Uh, so, you know, so you have ahealthy balance of both and you
can still make enough money, Ithink.
You know.
I don't know specific to eachspecific AV industry, but I
think you can make enough moneyand still pay some attention to
your family.
Yeah, I mean you're doing it,yeah, you know.
So I mean, all I can say is Itake huge inspiration from you

(01:58:35):
anyway because, like I said,every time, I know you're doing
something and you still travelto family and, like you say,
you're paying attention,traveled internationally and
paying attention to your family.
Now I get it.
If you were doing that every day, that'd be a different thing.
Right?
You're finding a balance andthat's good that you're not also
getting, you know, just boredwith it.
But no man, this has beenincredible.

(01:58:55):
Thanks for, like I said, takingtime out of your time and from
your busy schedule and all thisfeature and the things that
you're building now and comingand talking to me.
Anything you want to add, talkabout, ask before we wrap this
up.

Let's see.
I've also thought about other.
People have said you should dosomething similar.
I'm talking to them.
I'm like, yeah, it sounds likea good idea, but I don't really
want to sit in front of a camera.
But that was the point of themeetup is having those
conversations that you wouldhave one-on-one with different

(01:59:34):
people, have it in a largerspace and maybe doing it in
front of a camera could helpalso.
Yeah, I thought about that, butreally the goal this year is
completely going into the livespace 100%, building that studio

(01:59:54):
space out, putting one to twoOB vehicles out there and really
diving into the virtual side ofthings.
So those are the goals for theyear.

That's pretty good goals.
I'm excited to see the newstudio, I guess, or the new
space once it's done, and thenalso seeing the OB man because,
like I said, I wanted to buildone for years because we have,
we do enough live events whereyou know it could be beneficial.
But then again, I'm like I'mtraveling so much, would it be
like, because all my live events, a lot of them, are, like you

(02:00:26):
know, flying somewhere or doingit.
Then I'm like, do I want tobuild a van?
So it'd be great to have afriend who has one.
So if I ever do need it, I canobviously work with you on that.
So that's incredible, man, likeI said, you're chasing your
goals, you're chasing yourdreams and I'm excited about the
next meetup as well because,like the last one was a blast.
I had such a good time andthanks for having me and and

(02:00:47):
feel, you know, be a speaker andspeak and I hope people got
some value out of it, just likewith this.
I'm just like I just wantpeople to get any value out of
it or, worst case, entertainment, because I love podcasts when
I'm, you know, driving longdrives to miami, atlanta,
whatever shoots, and that's mypurpose.
I'm like I'm just trying tomake what I want to listen to.
So, yeah, but that's incredible, you're quentin again.

(02:01:10):
Thanks for coming, man, it'salways a pleasure to talk to you
, and do you want to tell peopleany instagram or any anywhere
where can they go follow you?

um, I'd have to .
I would have to have thoseright and use them yeah, you're
like me, you're not postinganything no, but uh, it is going
to change because of the newspaces and things available.
I want to be more visible?
Um, because just operating asmyself I didn't really have to
be, because most of the businesswas word of mouth anyway.
Yeah, so I didn't have to bemore visible because just

(02:01:37):
operating as myself I didn'treally have to be, because most
of the business was word ofmouth anyway.
Yeah, so I didn't have to bevisibly out there, but we spoke
about I'm going to change thecompany name.
So at the moment it's in thismedia production, which is a
mouthful.
Yeah.
But I have decided it's goingto be Delta live media.

Speaker 3 (02:01:56):
And that's going to be delta live media um and
that's going to be everywhere.

Okay and um, I think we're still working on the
studio name for the space, uh,but I guess, once you have all
this let me know and we can putit in the description yeah, uh,
and people can click on itbecause, uh, yeah, I would want
people to follow you andespecially if they have anything
about live, they, you know theycan reach out.
Uh, but appreciate you again,man.

(02:02:19):
Thank you for coming, it's beena pleasure and, uh, you're
welcome back anytime, of course.
Thanks,

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