171. Video Storytelling w/ Todd Vaske

The KC crew enjoy a fun visit with Agile Video's Todd Vaske. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You paid the money you'reexpecting to see a professional

(00:01):
show, so let's not waste anymore time.
Let's go with professional showbusiness.
Let's go.
Hey, video is the most powerfulform of media on the face of the
planet.
In fact, television has proventhis.

(00:22):
Year after year, decade afterdecade on the internet, the way
the internet is today with highspeed, you can create a video
presentation and you can showthat to millions and millions of
people selling your product oryour service.
Alright, welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where once again we

(00:42):
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota nice that
it desperately needs.
This is the deepest into thatsong that we've gone with an
introduction.
And whoever's voice that guywas, it had a little Gilbert
Godfrey thing going on there.
It was Don Lari.
Remember the little tiny ads guyfrom the nineties?
That's the guy I knew.
I recognized that voice.

(01:03):
But we have a show today that isgoing to be, uh, focused on
something very related to that,soundbite.
That you produced to it for us,but welcome back to the studio.
Thanks John.
Jeff, you were in Arizona.
How did that go?
It went really well.
I got my parents settled.
Um, they're both in their latterpart of their eighties, but

(01:24):
they're still snowbirds andthey're going down there and I
flew down and got'em set up witha.
Different technology.
You're you're a good boy, aren'tyou?
Yeah.
A really good boy.
Well, my mom's a good cook too.
I, she did set him up with, uh,technology.
I did.
Can you imagine?
I got some, some ring camerasand Alexa device, so I can,
they're just a, a phone callaway.
A video, a video.
Hey, Jim Conference.
How many times?

(01:44):
Oh yeah.
Dempsey Ladies in general.
Michael Dempsey.
Mike, how many times are theygonna call you?
Like It doesn't work, Jeff.
In fact, that happened.
That happened yesterday, butI've got the troubleshooting
down and it's sort of like whatyou guys are witnessing here
with the production.
It's a lot like that.
It's orchestrating a lot ofdifferent things, so Very nice.
Yeah.
Steve Brown.
Hi, Steve?
Yeah.

(02:04):
Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Welcome.
Uh.
Did you have a nice weekend?
I had a wonderful weekend inWhite Boy Lake.
Yeah, I'm, I'm deep into WhiteBear now.
I actually, I, I actually had a,my first weekend home Oh.
Settling the house clean, doingcleaning, and it was fantastic.
Very nice.
Well, we have people for that.
I love it.
Yeah.
Our guest today is a friend ofmine, um, man named Todd Vay.
He works for a company calledAgile Video, and I met, he went

(02:27):
to St.
CLA State University.
Didn't know him there, but wewere, uh, acquainted, many years
back when he was doing aproduction for, uh, my, my
former company Hero wroteProductions.
And we talked a little bit andwe realized that, and we were
both at St.
Cloud at the same time.
And then we stayed in touch, andthen we did after pandemic
times, John.
You were looking for some helpwith a video production and I

(02:47):
brought Todd in, and Todd and Ikind of helped you do that whole
thing.
So yes, Todd put together alovely video.
Yeah, that I have probably seen150 to 200 times because I was
playing it all over the state ofMinnesota.
It was a video about the impactthat Masonic Charities has had
on the state of Minnesota, andone of the things that came
outta that video.
Was a wake up call for me'causeI could not believe how fat I

(03:12):
was.
I looked at that video and Ithought, what has happened to
you?
That combined with my wifesaying, when are you gonna get
it together, man?
Well, here's the thing, John,question for you.
Yeah.
If you saw it a lot after awhile, did you just kind of
ignored it?
No, it made it worse.
Ignored it every single time.
But the video was lovely.
I think that you probably didabout three hours of, footage

(03:37):
and you boiled it down to 11minutes.
And the way that you incorporatemusic, I just find like the guy
in the, the, the soundbite videois such a powerful way to tell a
story.
Yeah.
For a person who's trying tocram a whole bunch of
information into a short amountof time.
It was so wonderful to be ableto just say.

(03:59):
Instead of listening to me forthe next 25 minutes.
Yeah.
Watch this video for the next 11and it'll answer a lot of the
questions that you, uh, that youmight have, well, even some that
you might not.
So let's welcome to the podcast,Mr.
Okay.
Let Todd talk podcast.
Todd, welcome podcast.
Thank you.
We wanna hear all about, uh,your stories of, uh, travels
and, uh, interviews and all thethings you've, people you've
talked to, even how you gotstarted a kid.

(04:21):
Sure.
But before we do that, well,let's let him talk.
No, let's, I'm gonna let himtalk.
Let's talk.
Let him talk.
I wanna know about when you guyswere working together at Heroic
Productions.
Yeah.
And there was a question as towhether or not Todd was familiar
with a particular band that hada particular.
Following in St.
Cloud Steak Todd?

(04:42):
Sure.
Could you explain how that allwent down?
Absolutely.
So, um, I'm meeting HeroicProductions for the first time.
I'm, I'm the video producer atStoryteller, was the name of the
company, and walk into this roomand everybody's chatting and I
swear there were everybodythere.
Went to St.
Cloud State, it felt like.
And somebody asked me, when,when did you go to St.

(05:04):
Cloud State?
And I said, I was there 92 to 96actually.
Graduated in four years, so, youknow.
Wow, so you're the one, I'm theone's the one, I'm the one
That's amazing.
Yeah, exactly.
Cloud.
Yeah.
And uh, and then somebody threw,you know, I just thought it was
a very random question, youknow, Hey, did you go go to any
concerts, go to any music in St.
Cloud?
And they were really only, Idid, but I could only remember

(05:25):
two names.
And one of them was thesandwiches.
Oh yeah.
And nobody seems to rememberthem.
Yeah.
And then the other one, I said,and, and I, you know, I went to
see this band called JohnnyClueless, a bunch.
Ding, ding, ding.
And you know, and then, and thenI think somebody said, well,
hey.
Does this guy look familiar?
And it then it did click out.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
That glorious head of hair.

(05:46):
Fun.
You know, um, some of the reasonwhy you only remember two bands
is because you went to St.
Cloud State.
That's mean.
There's not a That's true.
There's not a lot ofremembering.
Where did.
Where did you grow up that, thatdrove you then to St.
Cloud State?
So I grew up in Mankato.
Oh, okay.
And here's why.
And you couldn't get intoMankato.
Sorry.
There, there was an incident.

(06:06):
Okay.
No, no, no, no, no.
I didn't go to St.
Cloud.
Um, because, so both my parentswent there.
Oh.
And then both of my brotherswent to Mankato State.
Mm-hmm.
And I was the youngest and Iwanted.
To be different.
So I chose to go to the oneschool that everybody else in my
family hated.
And mission accomplished.

(06:28):
Yeah, rebel.
Exactly, exactly.
Started your own story, youknow, you're gonna create your
own, uh, tradition.
I did, did you know that whenyou went to St Cloud, besides
starting your own tradition andbeing a rebel, did you go there
specifically?
For Mass comm, I did.
And here's what's funny aboutthat is I, I went to become, you

(06:51):
know, a DJ and.
E.
Exactly.
Everybody here is looking at megoing, yeah.
Okay.
And I'll always remember my veryfirst class, it was a night
class, it was intro to radio,and I've just assumed you'd show
you how to turn it on.
You know, I, you know, I figuredit's St.
Cloud, how tough can this classbe?
And the very first thing, theprofessor or teacher, his name

(07:15):
was Al Neff.
And Al Neff was a, a DJ in townthere.
Yes.
Yeah, he was.
And, and he, he, his firstquestion to all of us was, all
right, who here wants to be adj?
And we all raised our hand andhe goes, awesome.
There's, I didn't, I promised Iwouldn't use the word awesome,
but I'll just Awesome.
That's, but that was a quotethough.
Okay.
Yeah.
Using quote, quote, I'm using itas a quote.

(07:36):
Can I just explain?
Awesome.
Awesome.
Is a trigger word for me.
Wow.
Awesome.
Like the Grand Canyon isawesome.
The Grand Tetons are awesome.
Wanted to be a dj.
I don't know if that's awesome.
Well, Al Kn Al Neff was prettyawesome.
EF thought it was awesome.
So we'll go with, so he, uh, hesays, well, all of you wanting
to be a dj, get used to.

(07:57):
Then he paused and he said,minimum wage.
And I'll always remember that'swhen I said, okay, well I'll
finish this class.
And I got up after class wasover and walked over to the TV
studio and went, well, I guessI'll give this a shot.
Uh, so I have to share, I thinkI took that same class or I, um,
I had a class with Al Neff and Isaw Al last weekend.

(08:18):
No, at the red carpet.
I talked to him, yes.
He's still doing great.
And uh, wait a minute.
He was a good dude.
Was he at your show?
Yes.
That is awesome.
Yes.
Oh, nice Grand Canyon anyway.
Yes.
Oh, that's, oh, I, I, hopefullyhe's doing well'cause he, he was
a great instructor.
Yeah.
So I agree.

(08:39):
So, you leave the intro to radioannouncing and you go to the TV
and they say, okay, here youmake minimum wage plus a nickel.
Because it's not that much more.
It was less.
Oh, so my first job was up inDuluth I was hired as the
producer of the six o'clock andthe 10 o'clock at, KDLH.

(08:59):
I think they were CBS, I can'tremember, but I was still going
to St.
Cloud State.
And this is the beauty of goingto SCSU was I still had most of
my last, we were on quarters atthat time.
All of the instructors.
Yeah, you got what you came herefor, whatever.
You get an a.
so my first day is I'm drivinginto Duluth, and you don't know

(09:21):
when you drive Duluth intoDuluth.
I was there today on 35.
Yes.
And you just get this moment.
It's just, it's.
Beautiful.
It is love that I have the musiccranked.
I'm singing along not wellsandwiches.
That was not the sandwiches.
I think the only song I knew bythe sandwiches was an
instrumental.
So, but anyways, I'm drivingalong and I get to about a mile,

(09:43):
maybe it's a half a mile fromthe TV station, and I'm of
course, you know, three hoursearly.
But I'm, I don't care.
I'm ready to go to work.
I'm excited.
I pass Burger King and it saysnow hiring eight bucks an hour.
I was making seven 70.
Oh, oh my gosh.
So, you know, you know, but Igot about another couple blocks,

(10:03):
turned the music back up,started singing again.
Wow.
But obviously you caught a bugto keep it going and persevering
in that.
What was it?
Do, can you tie back to Oh,absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
I, I love storytelling.
I'm not joking.
It started with show and tell atschool and I would find
anything.
I would, you make these hideouslooking cars out of Legos.

(10:25):
I'd bring that in.
I once brought these, we went toa hotel in New Ulm, Minnesota of
all places, got these littletiny shampoos, I thought were
the coolest thing.
Brought those in for show andtell in kindergarten.
But the one I remember most wasI Miss Canceler.
She was the toughest of all.
Kindergarten teachers at HooverElementary Go Huskies.

(10:47):
Oh, they were the Huskies too.
Oh my God.
But she.
First day, she said, one thing Iwill not do is tie any kids'
shoes.
So if you don't know how to tieyour shoes, you either have to
learn or have a friend do it.
So I had Liam Tiko, she, shetied my shoes.
That's sweet.
Until the day she said shewouldn't.
Oh no.
And so I freaked out and it wasthe first time I'm only five was

(11:09):
the very first time I went up tomy mom and did the, I'm sick.
I can't go to school.
I started doing all that and um,she probably knew, but, so she
plopped me down on the couch andI sat there all day trying to
practice tying my shoe and Ifinally did it.
Wow.
You remember this?
And I jumped, I do.
And I jumped up and I shouted Idid it.

(11:31):
And the reason I was so excitedwas'cause the next day was show
and tell.
And I went in and I showedpeople how to tie their shoes.
I love it.
You're a teacher at heart then.
Oh, yeah.
That is amazing.
So I, that's, that's one of thereasons I got in.
I've always loved story.
I mean, my favorite thing issitting around the fireplace,
doing, actually doing stuff likethis, listening to telling
stories.
It's, it's fun.
So I, I basically do show andtell for a living.

(11:53):
Fun.
Can I just ask you, we're gonna,we're going pivot this into the,
the kindness that you'veexperienced mm-hmm.
In your career and the kindnessthat we all experience through
different storytelling.
Are you guys familiar with a, acharacter on YouTube called Mr.
Ballin?
No.
So Mr.
Ballin, he's got like 11 millionsubscribers he's a, former, Navy

(12:15):
Seal.
Special ops guy and he is thisstoryteller, Mr.
Ballin.
That's so cool.
And he tells these stories aabout, mysterious things.
Is that how you say that word?
I said mysterious.
Yeah, I think, I think so.
Weird.
Just say it weird.
Yeah.
We kind of made it mysteriousthe way you said it.
Thank you.
Yes.

(12:36):
But Mr.
Ballin, I just encourage peopleto go.
That guy right there, he's, heis one of the greatest
storytellers.
It's just incredible.
Yep.
And people, well, clearly he'sgot a lot of sub, he's got more
than us, I can tell you thanthat.
No.
Yeah, I know.
It's hard to believe..
So you went out on your ownmm-hmm.

(12:58):
As a, so you were working for,KDLH or whatever it was?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I, you know, I, I bouncedaround to a few different TV
stations.
I was in Duluth and I went to,um, WKOW, the cow.
At ET in Madison, Wisconsin andeventually came back and I was
the, I think I was the firsthire when Channel nine started

(13:20):
up its morning show here in theTwin Cities.
Oh wow.
Channel nine KMSP.
It Was UPN when I started there.
Oh.
Our, one of the lead-ins to ashow I worked on was called
Homeboys from Outer Space.
So they had some stellarprogramming when I started
there.
They've come a long way.
Yeah.
Some of my first shows when Iproduced in the morning, you
get, you know, you get yourovernight ratings and I did not

(13:43):
know that they could just get anasterisk.
Not even a number, just anasterisk.
So yeah, we, we get those onthis show.
Not awesome.
Yeah.
But no, I was, news was a greatlearning, opportunity for me
because you, you have, from thistime to this time to get 35
stories written and go, do youhave a story of a mentor that

(14:07):
taught you how to properly.
Put together a story thatcaptured attention and really
held help people.
Uh, yeah.
There's a, a gentleman named JoeThornton.
He was the, um, he was the newsanchor up at in KDLH, and he was
only hired at the time becausehe had anchor hair.
He also played for the Bruins.
He did play for the Bruins, theBoston Bruins.

(14:28):
He did different Joe Thornton.
Different Joe Thornton, sorry,different, different Joe
Thornton.
Um, but Joe, he, I don't knowwhat it was.
Everybody was afraid of him,except he would come up to me
and be really gruff.
But then.
Hey, you wanna go to lunch?
He'd wink.
Yeah, gimme the wink.
Well, and he w he was trying toteach like other people there,

(14:50):
couldn't take some of thecriticism.
And he would criticize, okay,you wrote this story and blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
But then he would say, andhere's why it's better how I,
and he was always, it was betterbecause I wrote ego, right?
And, and it was, but it wasn't,he was very, it was, he was just
into his craft.
And that was the first time Irealized like, look, nobody

(15:11):
knows that there's.
People behind the scenes writingthese scripts.
Everybody thought, you know,who's watching it there?
Well, Joe wrote that'cause hewas reading it.
He he's doing everything.
And so, yeah.
So Joe Thornton was the first,um, mentor.
At some point, do you get todecide?

(15:31):
I, I really wanna do projectsthat are more about.
Elevating kindness in this worldor highlighting positive things.
Or I just wanna do hard news orinvestigative reporting.
Do you get to make that choice?
At one point, the, what happenedfor me was, I started up that
morning show and, and workedthere for about a year, year and

(15:52):
a half.
And the next steps up in newswere things like assistant news
director and the news director.
And I watched our two assistantnews directors and the, and the
news director, and they justseemed miserable.
They seem and a hard, andthey're, and it's a, an
extremely hard job.
And it's, from my understanding,it was like a two year shelf

(16:14):
life and then you get fired oryou quit and you gotta find
another job.
And I didn't have that desire tokeep going.
Mm.
And so, uh, uh, the person whohired me at Channel nine started
up a production company and Ihad at, you know, 25, 26, 27,
somewhere in there.
And he, they did shows for foodnetwork.

(16:36):
So I got to travel around thecountry, um, trying great food
and the reason why it was such agreat move was in news, when you
call people, what, 90% of thetime, they don't want to talk to
you.
Yeah.
You know what it was the turningpoint was there was some big.
Story about, uh, somebody'schild had died and I had to be

(17:00):
the one to call'em up and say,Hey, can I get a picture?
Oh, wow.
And that's one of the producer'sjobs and things like that.
And I just.
You know, you call the police,hey, anything happened and you
know, they might give you ahappy story and then you, oh,
that's nothing.
You know?
And so it was nice to get outand go.
And I still remember the veryfirst call I made was to, um,

(17:23):
this, oh, it's a Baker Willettebakery in town.
Oh, they're great.
That was the first story.
I think they all just closed.
Oh.
But oh well.
But they were the first storythat I got to produce on my own
for food network.
And it was a show called TheBest of.
And I just remember calling themup saying, Hey, we'd like to do
this.
And just, well, when do you wantto go?
Who do you wanna talk to?
What do you need to see?
What do you need us to do?

(17:43):
Do we need to close for the day?
You know, just all these things.
Very accommodated.
Yeah.
And then so I finish writingthat or we, we shoot that story
and I go to my, the, um, it wasPaul, David and Dave Dennison
were the two owners.
It was a company called, um,David and David Productions.
And Clever.
Yeah, exactly.
And they said, I said, okay,when's my deadline?

(18:04):
You know, I'm ready to go.
I'm a news guy, right.
He goes, uh, it's kind of aquick turnaround.
We're gonna need this in aboutthree weeks.
Oh, geez.
So that again, that, that's feltcomfortable.
Yeah.
Did being in the bakery, didthat have anything to do with
the fact that you enjoyed beingthere?
Well be honest.
I mean, yes.
But ettes, they put together oneand they ettes is good.
They do.

(18:24):
They're pretty good.
They are, but, okay.
So little, little, little.
Informational I'll divulge.
I am a type one diabetic, so Iwas able to pull back a little
bit on that.
Okay.
So, but that is actually kind ofthat whole thing I got that I
was diagnosed from inkindergarten.
So now that we've discoveredyour, your my ailments medical
situation, well, you get towrite about something nice,

(18:46):
which people enjoy, which isfood and bakery goods.
And well, they like that.
They wanna talk to you too.
They wanna talk to you as theywanna talk to me.
And I, you know, I didn't reallymean to get into the whole
diabetic thing, but growing up.
I actually loved it because I'dgo on, at Halloween, I would go
and get, I would get the mostcandy on anybody and then I, I
was happy'cause I'd give it tomy brothers.
Oh, I love that.

(19:07):
Yeah.
That's nice.
I love that.
That was one of the old, was oneof the old times they weren't
like, you know, giving menoogies and things like that.
So it must have been the youngerbrother then.
I was the youngest, yeah.
What you're describing istelling someone else's story.
By,, cobbling together all ofthese videos, these images that
you're taking down, you'reessentially writing the story

(19:30):
using other people's words.
'cause you're not on camera.
No.
So.
When do you transition intoAgile?
At what point in your career doyou create your own thing and
why Agile?
I love the name.
So it was uh, I think it was2019.
I was working for anothercompany and, you kinda do the
same thing over and over again,and I found myself.

(19:53):
Driving into work, not tooexcited about it.
And I just, for years I'd talkedabout, oh, I should start my own
company.
And from circumstances from the,the boss saying, you know, I'm
not sure it's working out here.
We, we might want you to moveinto a different position that I
didn't wanna do.
So I just took that as a signthat, you know what it's time
to, to go out on my own.

(20:14):
And it was, I'll always rememberI le it was like April 30th or
something.
I don't, it was my last day andthe.
The next day a client called meand said, Hey, can I still work
with you?
we were on site at theUniversity of Minnesota and we
visited with some doctors andwhat I found most fascinating

(20:35):
is.
The amount of stuff that youwere able to capture and how you
were able to cobble thattogether into something that
flowed so nicely with this greatmusic and when you're in the
fundraising business, you wantto, amplify the emotion, and you
did such a, an amazing job.

(20:56):
You know, you talkedspecifically about COVID.
How difficult it was operating anursing home during the COVI
time.
And those nurses that youinterviewed really came across
as absolute heroes through thatstory.
And that was not their intentionwas to look like heroes, but
they were just telling theirstory.

(21:17):
I want to compliment you well onjust what a, a remarkable way
that you did that.
Well, thank you.
That's, to me the, the mostimportant part of the interview
is the time before.
You roll.
I always let the camera people,and if we sound people,
whoever's with us get going.
But I always take the person orpeople who I'm talking to and
sit'em down front of the mics,lights and everything, and I

(21:40):
just start asking questions.
Just, you know, where'd you growup?
You know, or, oh, where'd youdrive in for?
Just kind of those, just thelittle silly things.
And the goal is by the time.
We, I don't have the, the cameraperson yell, we're rolling.
Mm-hmm.
You know, they tap me on myshoulder.
Mm-hmm.
And so I don't really wantpeople to know, I just want it
to be a conversation.

(22:00):
And that's usually, you kindaroll into that and that's when
people start talking.
That's when you start getting,you know, the emotions and you
know, things that you don't,they didn't expect to tell you
about.
And the best thing to do withthat is you sit back.
And you, you don't interrupt.
You just let it you go.
And you're not reading questionsfrom a list.

(22:22):
You're covering those, butyou're listening and making sure
you're asking questions, followup questions about, oh, so when
that happened, you know, whatwas going through your head?
What'd you think?
And that's when, yeah.
It doesn't feel sotransactional.
Yeah.
It's just more conversational.
Yeah.
My, my favorite one was, ajudge, I would assume she was
the Supreme Court judge at the,um, state capitol.
And I made her cry asking aquestion and I went, alright,

(22:45):
very nice.
And it was, it was all about,we, I did a video for the, they
remodeled the capitol and I'lltry to make this quick and.
I just, I just asked thequestion, how does it make you,
how do you feel that you walkinto this beautiful building
every day for work?
And then she just startedcrying.
Wow.
So you touched a nerve.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You, Jeff mentioned it.

(23:07):
Um, when you're prepping oryou're gonna do a story, Is it
about the emotion?
Is it about how do I,appropriately and respectfully
represent the emotion of thistopic?
You always have to know what'sthe story you're trying to get
across and what do you want theviewer to do once it's, you
know, once they've seen thevideo, but.

(23:28):
You know, it'd be easy just totake a script and write out the
perfect words.
It's, it rings truer to peoplewhen they hear the story.
I leave in ums and ahs.
Mm-hmm.
Quite frequently.
I'm not editing those outbecause I want it to be known
that this was, this isauthentic, this isn't, and in
today's world, this isn't aiwhere it's, these are real
people giving.

(23:49):
Just to be clear, just fulldisclosure, I edit out my ums
and ahs and I leave everybodyelse's in.
Right.
Well that's just'cause you know.
He does it all the time just tokeep some authenticity.
Yeah.
There you go.
I, I, that, that's what keeps itreal.
That's it's people come back,they said, I, I relate to that.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
This is amazing with all theemotion, but have you ever been

(24:10):
in a situation where somebody'sripped off their microphone and
tried to attack you?
you Like Katie Porter runningfor governor of, uh, California,
right?
I mean, that's seriously that,yeah.
That's been hot news that has,um, in not out in the real world
of Agile video.
Tell a story.
Okay, so I got it.
Doesn't need to be true.

(24:30):
I've got two of'em.
No, I have two of'em.
Those are the best ones.
When I was working in Duluth, I,it, I took the, I took it being
local.
I mean, I really took that toheart because I just believed
that.
Anybody can get news off of thewire and read it.
I mean, you.
And so we had this sports personwho, let's just say, disappeared

(24:50):
between the six o'clock and the10 o'clock and showed up right
about 10 minutes to 10.
I'm not gonna say anything.
I see what you're doing thereand.
What this sports person would dois the first minute and a half
of the sportscast would bescores, and it wouldn't be local
scores.
It's, you know, the nuggetsversus the suns.

(25:11):
I mean, who cares?
You're in Duluth, Minnesota, whocares?
Even Duluth by that time gotESPN, so there's just no need
for this.
So I, I would just get on hiscase about getting local stuff
and getting scores.
And so one day I, I told him,I'm refusing to show these
scores until you gimme somelocal stuff.
And, you know, I'm 22 and thisperson's much older.

(25:33):
I, I don't have that authorityeither, but I, I just did it.
So he got so mad.
He took the phone.
And these weren't cell phones.
These are those full on phones?
Yeah.
And threw it at me.
Oh, and it sounds like anassault.
He missed by a lot.
Okay.
Um, and so, but being theproducer, I had the ultimate.
Controlled.

(25:53):
And so we get to the sportscastand I deliberately what's called
stack the show heavy.
So sports always got the shaftat the end, you know, weather
gets the most, and then news,and then that's the level of
importance in news.
That's funny.
Well, so now we, I uh, we getright to when.
The sports is about to start.
So we're getting ready to rollthe, the scores and I announced

(26:16):
everybody, we have to drop thescores so he, and, and get right
into'em.
So he spent all this timeputting all these scores
together.
Jesus.
And then I had to drop it.
So, so welcome to the KindnessChronicles.
Yeah, yeah.
We are hoping that we couldextract some stories of kindness
that you've experienced.
Yes.
Tell us a little bit about, uh.
You know, uh, here's what I loveabout what I do.

(26:38):
I do a lot of, um, videos fornonprofits and specifically for
their galas and for fundraising.
And what's, what's great aboutthat?
Just think about how people canbe divided and whatnot, but
bring people into a roomtogether, whether it's a, a
concert Steve or a, um, comedyshow, a movie, a church,
everybody there doesn't careabout.

(26:59):
Any of that stuff.
And that's what happens atfundraising events.
So you play these videos andthey always play right before
they do the ask for money?
Absolutely.
And it to me is just fun towatch.
I'll see.
I always sit back and see if,you know, hopefully people are
inspired, see some tears, andit's just fun to, when they do
the first, all right, we'regonna do a bid on whatever.

(27:22):
And you just see hands going up.
And I know it's not all thevideo, but it's part of it.
Absolutely it is.
That's, that's your job increating that is to, yeah.
And so to move people to action.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's just, to me, you justsee so many people.
Wanting to give, wanting to helpthese great organizations, and
those are my favorite.
Those are the most fun for me.

(27:44):
People typically give to people,so if I'm hosting a table of
folks, they have anunderstanding that there's going
to be an ask that's gonna takeplace.
And many people will give justout of respect for the person
that invited them to come to theevent.
But those videos are what addszeros to the gifts.

(28:05):
Oh, absolutely.
You know, it, it really does.
We call that dramatizing theneed.
I was gonna just, uh, express apretty meaningful experience I
had with, uh, with Todd and withyou, John.
The three of us were shootingat, it's the Hospice for Kids.
Oh, Crescent Needs Cove.
Yes.
Crescent Cove.
So that is a place where it was,um, it was a surprisingly deep

(28:29):
in and, Meaningful video shoot,because we've talked about this
place before.
We've interviewed people fromthere.
Yep, yep.
And that's maybe the, I didn'tknow that places like this
existed, There's only four of'emin the entire United States.
They've got five beds.
They need 80.
It's, but it's also a placewhere extremely complex, um, oh,
medical needs for kids.

(28:49):
Absolutely.
Um, it's a place where parentscan actually, keep them there
'cause the staff They'res are soknowledgeable.
They have, they can help anyone.
So parents sometimes just need abreak.
And yeah, it was, it was a veryimpressive and, incredibly,
meaningful place.
But Todd, I was gonna say, I wasvery impressed with how you took
in that scenario and made it,there was like reverence for all

(29:12):
the people you were talking withand for these kids that were in
there and for the people thatworked there, that was a very
interesting way to see.
How you do what you do and adaptto that group of people, as
opposed to, we were talking toteachers and or, uh, professors
and, and medical people at theuniversity talking to John's,
folks at the Masonic, you know,charities foundation.
It was just really.

(29:32):
A very interesting angle thatyou took and how you went about
it.
It was impressive and got somegreat interviews from people
there in a tough situation.
Yeah, thanks.
That one.
I, I will remember that one.
However, how do you connect you?
You must, you're in a compressedamount of time and you have to
develop a high level of trust ina short amount of period to get
people to open up on camera.

(29:53):
Have you figured out?
Some tools that can help anyonein just their daily walk of life
if they're not a video producer.
I, for me, I, when I walk intothe, first of all, I do a
little, you know, researchbeforehand to understand what
type of situation I'm walkinginto you.
You know, if you're doing avideo for, um, an accounting

(30:13):
firm versus hospice versus, youknow, a comedy club, I mean, I
can do all of that.
You just have to know.
Where you're going into.
And that one, I told myvideographer, I believe it was
Luke who, who worked with me onthat one.
That, alright, you know, this iswhat they do.
So let, we're, let's.
Get in there and you know, beaccommodating.

(30:34):
If any whatever is asked, we sayyes.
So, you know, I'll just say thebest shot for an interview is
over here, but that's going tointerfere with their work.
For example, this is just anexample.
Mm-hmm.
We are going to move, we're notgoing to go there.
Sure.
We are going to, we will adjustto them.
And that's one thing I do.
And the other one is I just, Istart talking to the people I'm

(30:54):
going to interview and, and evenif there are families around and
just, uh, you know, well, and Ithink you have to have a certain
type of vibe.
And Todd, your vibe is a verykind vibe.
It's a very welcoming vibe.
It's a very, mellow deal.
You know, if you're a.
You know, like that, the one guythat's doing the commercials and
that the, the soundbite, that'snot the right vibe.

(31:15):
Do you do weddings?
I will not do weddings.
Okay.
'cause here's why I ask.
No, and, and I, I, here's why Iask.
Here we go.
My, daughter's boyfriend, herspecial friend, we call him
Schmoopy.
Schmo.
No, you're Schmoopy.
No.
You know, you're Schmoopy.
Anyway, Schmo got a scholarshipto.
Go to Montana State to be thevideographer guy for the

(31:37):
football team.
Mm-hmm.
Like a scholarship for that.
And that's what he wants topursue.
In fact, he had such a robustbusiness going, doing weddings
that his grandpa's like, why doyou even know to need to go to
college?.
It's insane how much peoplecharge to film weddings, but
Well, it's because there's somuch emotion.
Well, and, and the flip side ofthat is if it doesn't come out

(32:00):
the way, I mean, a lot ofpressure.
That's right.
Oh, the pressure's gotta behuge.
Yeah.
Now I, so I have, there are tworeasons I don't do weddings.
Um, the first one is I don'twant to be the reason I ruin
somebody's day and or life.
Yep.
Too much emotion flying.
And the other one is, I live inMinnesota.
And I, I'm not a winter person,so I love summers in Minnesota.

(32:24):
I didn't want to spend everySaturday, every Friday, every
Saturday, every Friday, andevery Saturday working in the
evenings, working weddings that,you know, well, let, let me just
say, um, I went to my niece'swedding last winter in Mexico.
Oh, maybe NI was the, the, thevideo crew that they hired.
It was a, it was a company thatwas based there.

(32:45):
They had six videographers.
They were doing some reallyunique things.
It was an amazing production,but it was not a guy with a
camera.
It was a whole team and it was ahigh buck situation.
It was beautiful.
It turned out great.
So this is your niece's wedding?
My niece's wedding.
Oh wow.
Yeah, it was really cool to comefrom money.
Yeah, that is amazing.
Uh, how about I get the wholepressure thing?, 25 years ago.

(33:07):
My brother-in-law got married ina small church in North Dakota,
and uh, I wasn't married toMichelle yet.
They handed me a camera and Ihit the wrong button and the
back popped off and I quickly, Iquickly put the back, you know,
I snapped the back on going, ohmy God.
The sound of a penny whistlegoat.

(33:27):
Yeah.
I wish I could say that.
That's never happened to me.
Yeah.
But the back I can relate.
Can, can you guys just do theceremony again, just one more
time?
Um, uh, my question for you is,um, Is there a time or two where
the emotion just, it just, youlost it.
It was like, I gotta take alittle bit of a break.

(33:47):
Okay.
Because it is, this is heavy, soI.
I, I wouldn't call it heavy, butthis just happened.
It was, it's the last, video Ijust worked on for a nonprofit,
um, a nonprofit calledAccessible Space.
If people are familiar, they'reout of St.
Paul and they provide housingfor adults with disabilities.
Yep.
And um, we were doing a fundfundraising video for them and.

(34:10):
It, the, the person who hiredme, she, she likes to do a lot
of the producer work and That'sgreat.
You know, I, I can work withanybody in whatever role they,
they, they desire.
So she set up the, you know, thepeople we were interviewing, the
places we were going andwhatnot.
So we went to, um, thisapartment complex.
It was in the southern metrohere.

(34:31):
I cannot remember the actualtown, but we show up at this
young lady's apartment.
She's in a wheelchair and she'sshowing us around and she was
telling me the story of her lifeand how, you know, she was
misdiagnosed for like, I dunno,eight years or something of the
doctors were telling, she wasmaking it up and all these
things, and we moved to thisspace to do an interview.

(34:54):
And her name was Claire.
And Claire says, yeah, you know,I grew up in Lindstrom and there
was a little trigger in my head.
I'm like, okay.
And then she said somethingabout her sister Emily.
And I went, Hmm.
So then I just, I stopped and Isaid, we got a small world thing
going on here.
Yeah.
Is your mom, you know, what'syour mom's name?

(35:16):
Just a weird question to ask.
And she goes, Jean.
They said, and your dad isRobbie, isn't it?
And she goes, what?
Wow.
Well, Claire and Robbie and Jeanand her sister for years would
go to our friend Lori's house.
My wife and I would go there andthey would go there and they had
these really big parties andEmily and Claire were there.

(35:38):
We called them the giggle twins'cause they would come over and
just hang on you the whole timethere.
And they were so great.
Lost touch.
Hadn't seen her for.
10 years.
Oh, wow.
And so it's all clicking and Ifinally, I, all right, I have to
stop.
And we go and we hug and we, wetalk about it.
She texts me now and she got mea bunch of photos for the video.
And so that's what you're like,okay, this, we call that Saint

(36:00):
Small.
It, it is.
It was Saint Small.
So that was, that was one ofthose where I went, okay, I'm
always gonna remember thatmoment.
And then I just saw her mom.
Um, about three weeks ago, againat a party at this Lori's house.
And so I'm showing her the videoand she's like, oh, this is
great.
And I said, but nobody's seen ityet, so you can't share it.

(36:21):
And uh, yeah.
So that's my most recent one.
Neat.
Full circle.
I love video production.
I, I love working with you,actually.
That was really cool to do.
But that happens, people don'tappreciate because if you do
your job really well.
All the background stuff youdid, no one knows it.
Right.
And that's the job of productionis to make it look great for
who's ever on stage, whoever's,you know, being heard or

(36:42):
whoever's on tv.
Um, and whoever's writing thecheck.
Right.
The po the point is they don'tappreciate the time it takes to
set up and change and all thatkinda stuff.
Exactly like you said.
Right.
And it went back to, I evenrecognized that issue way back
when I was in high school.
Um, we were gonna play someone'sgraduation party, and the mom
who was like the, the, the, thekid's mom of the grad party we
were gonna play it for, she'slike, okay, well you can just

(37:03):
set up your little band overhere.
And like, right, like, like Iwas, took like offense, like,
Hey, wait a minute, I'm a highschool kid.
I'm like, hold on, you'retalking to Johnny Clue this.
And I was like, I was being, no,it was this rummage kidman.
I was being like, well, it'sgonna take a little more, we
need some power back here.
And she's like, okay.
She goes, you're being verycavalier.
And I was like, oh, I didn'tknow what that word was.
And uh, we used that many timesafter that.

(37:25):
'cause I was the guy that wasbeing very cavalier.
Cavalier.
But I was trying to respect him.
Respect, respect the production.
Did you, did you say, well,thank you.
Yeah.
So I, I think what you'redescribing is vision.
Having a vision of, of what you.
I think the audience shouldhave, and it actually segues
into another question I have forTodd, and that is, do you have a
favorite filmmaker or movie orsomething that around the whole

(37:49):
concept of storytelling,something that really.
It affected you?
That's a great question.
So I, it's funny you ask thatbecause when I talk to potential
vendors, especially young folks,like I'm looking for more
videographers, always looking.
If you wanna reach out, I'mhappy to talk to anybody.
But the first thing is they saythat they're an aspiring film.

(38:13):
I don't, I don't work with thembecause I'm not in, I don't do
films.
These are completely different.
And you're not going, I, I amcompletely fulfilled.
I love doing these stories.
If you wanna make a film, go anddo that on the side, because
that's not what I do.
So I've actually never reallyaspired to be a filmmaker, I go
to movies and watch movies to beentertained.

(38:34):
I don't, I don't do the ton ofthe really deep type thing.
Okay.
So, so you don't get into thehero's journey and.
But my, the ones I like are theChristopher Guest movies, if
you're familiar with all.
Yeah.
He, he's one of my favorites.
Waiting for Guffman.
Yes.
You know, or the dog.
The dog movie.
Best.
Best in show.
Best show.
Yeah.
Uh, but I relate the most to aMighty Wind because they have a
producer in that one.

(38:55):
And I'll always remember thatHe's, my Mighty Wind was a, but
they're kind of making fun offolk music and they're putting
on this big.
Big show.
And there's this producer thatwas clueless.
And so the show is on in likethree minutes and he's sitting,
he's sitting in the booth, andthe technical director and the
director are all there, and the,the producer goes, so, you know

(39:18):
that big swooping shot wherethey come in and they fly in,
and then the director justlooks, you mean like a crane?
He goes, yeah.
Like, do we have one of those?
No, we, we don't have a crane.
Would you want one?
Do you want me to make somecalls?
It's, it's literally two minutesbefore they, they go on the air
and then my wife looks at mewhen we, the first time we watch

(39:39):
that, she goes, so that's whatyou do.
Oh, that's funny.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tell us about some stories ofkindness that you've encountered
during your career.
In video, it's all about storiesand I and I, I, I feel like
people want to give, I wannagive.
When they hear a good story,they, they, they, they're, they
get engaged.

(39:59):
And for me, there's nothingbetter in a video when you, you
tell someone's story, especiallyin the nonprofit world that.
It moves people to action,moves, people to, to give.
Um, I've done, I don't know,probably 30 fundraising videos
and none of them have everfallen short in meeting a goal.

(40:20):
And when you see people comingtogether for a a cause.
There's nothing better than NewYork.
Hey, I was a part of that.
I remember I was on a videoshoot doing a video shoot for
Harley and watching this poor.
Gal who we hired to ride amotorcycle, she said she could
ride a motorcycle.
She couldn't kept falling over,kept falling over.

(40:43):
And instead of everybody on theHarley, she'd fall over.
All brand new hadn't, oh, no.
Hadn't even been released it.
She fell over a few times wherewe had to shoot only on the
other side of the bike.
'cause it, it was scratched out.
Oh wow.
But what I, I saw was it wasn'tpeople getting mad at her and
getting, you know, fired.
It was okay.
I, all the other riders came inand helped her and, and the

(41:05):
video team came in and said,okay, here's what we do.
And so we was Was she hot?
She was hot, wasn't she?
No.
John.
She was a very attractive.
Um, I, I will, it doesn't hurt.
I think Jennifer doesn't hurtand my wife will be listening,
but yeah, she was, she wasattractive.
Just, let's just get that outthere.
It helps.
But, you know, there was, youjust point, if she was a sea
hag, she probably wouldn't begetting the same kind of John.

(41:28):
She was beautiful on the insideand out.
Yes.
Oh, chef.
There you go.
I, I just see so many peoplecoming together on a, video
production.
Yeah.
But I think that's a lovelystory.
That's exactly the kind of storythat I'm looking for because,
you know, it can be real easy tobe a jackass.
Oh.
So yeah.
And be a jerk.
So I had a, I had a complimentfrom a, a client of mine.

(41:50):
I won't give the name DairyQueen.
And they, it's a good client.
It's a great client.
They.
I.
Okay.
They're my favorite.
Yeah.
Everybody else, you know, John,you were great too.
No, but Dairy Queen is great.
Fine.
But I, I was told you can getinto that Blizzard money you're
doing okay.
Yeah.
Everybody needs benefits.
That's right.
That's right.
But, uh, my client was tellingme about a video production she

(42:13):
had worked on that was not, Iwas not involved with, and
budgets were tight.
So their actors were.
Just employees at Dairy Queen,and she said that the director
made three of the actors crybecause this person, you know,
do this, do that.
And, and I just, that blew mymind.

(42:33):
Yeah.
That I, there was a gentleman Iworked with who he always wore
this t-shirt.
It's about two sizes too smallfor him.
Oh, poo Bear.
Yeah.
Uh, his name's Kurt Schmidt.
Check out the Schmidt list.
He does a podcast.
He's a great guy.
But he wore this shirt that saysit's video production, not
rocket surgery.
And I loved that line.

(42:54):
And what that I took from thatis you don't have to be a jack
wagon to everybody.
Mm-hmm.
On set.
We, I mean, think about all thejobs you could be doing.
That will suck.
This is fun.
We're creating stories.
Yeah.
We're meeting new people.
That, to me is.
They're just the perfect job.
Lovely.
And with that, off we go.

(43:22):
Okay.
I said it before and I'll say itagain.
Life moves pretty fast.
You don't stop and look aroundonce in a while.
You could miss it.