Creatives Grab Coffee - Creative Risks and Rewards (ft. Savvy Productions) #93

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

In this episode of Creatives Grab Coffee, Steve Smith from Savvy Productions (Salt Lake City, Utah) shares his inspiring journey of building a successful and innovative video production company. Steve reveals the creative risks he took, from crafting elaborate props and unique sets to constructing his own dedicated production facility. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining strong client relationships, leveraging awards for client retention, and adapting to industry shifts with a positive, forward-thinking mindset. Discover valuable insights on navigating business growth, overcoming creative and financial hurdles, and why continuous experimentation is vital for staying ahead in the evolving video production landscape.TIMESTAMPS00:00 - Episode Introduction and Guest Welcome02:28 - Guest Bio: Steve Smith from Savvy Productions03:04 - Steve’s early career and industry transition experiences06:30 - Finding a unique niche in prop and set building08:00 - Challenges and successes with creating specialized props12:57 - Understanding Salt Lake City’s video production market15:21 - Balancing client projects and collaborating with ad agencies16:27 - How Savvy Productions budgets and quotes for creative props and sets18:51 - Navigating budget uncertainty in custom creative projects21:51 - Leaving a job of 13 years to start his own business25:31 - Overcoming fears and discomfort in entrepreneurship28:35 - Transitioning smoothly from employee to business owner34:34 - Why business owners need to remain hands-on36:37 - Maintaining positive team culture and motivation40:01 - Building a custom studio space from scratch45:20 - Navigating the financial aspects of building a production studio47:49 - Lead generation strategies: SEO, referrals, and repeat clients51:02 - Exploring the value of Google Ads for video production56:07 - Effectiveness of social media vs. SEO for video production companies58:43 - The importance of industry awards for client retention01:02:32 - How awards can differentiate your production business01:08:23 - Steve’s future vision and adapting to AI in production01:18:45 - Closing Thoughts and ConclusionSPONSORS:Canada Film Equipment: www.CanadaFilmEquipment.comAudio Process: www.Audioprocess.ca🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2vHd8BdbkMQITFZmDJ0bo9🍏 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/creatives-grab-coffee/id1530864140 🎞️Produced by LAPSE PRODUCTIONS – https://www.lapseproductions.comTo learn more about the show, visit: https://www.creativesgrabcoffee.com/

Welcome to Creative Scrap Coffee, the podcast on the business of video production. Creative Scrap Coffee is hosted by Dario Nuri and Kirill Lazerov from Labs Productions. Our goal is to share knowledge and experiences from video production professionals around the world. Whether you're a freelancer looking to start your own business or a seasoned business owner aiming to scale your company, this is the show for you. Join us as we develop a community of like-minded creatives looking to learn and help each other grow. Welcome to the business of video production. Welcome to Creatives Grab Coffee. Before we get started with the show, let's go over today's sponsors. Do you have a shoot in Toronto?

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And now, let's begin the show. Hello everyone, today we have Steve Smith from Savvy Productions, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Steve, welcome to the show. Hey, it's great to be here. Excited. I love the energy. So let's just get right into it. Tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got into this for over 20 years full time professionally. I say that because I got this like baby face and everybody thinks, you know, I'm in like my mid 20s or something. Like I did a sales call a couple of years ago and they thought I just graduated from college and I was trying to look pretty young And I was trying to get a job.

I'm not a vampire, I promise. Just got that like baby face. But the reason I say that is because I've been in the industry long enough that I've seen the transition. I started out with beta SP tapes. And if it was a bigger, higher budget project, we actually filmed it on film, transitioning all the way to the industry today. So I've been around the block a few times, but I worked for a company for 13 years full time,

where that's really, I really got my start and tried to buy the company, things didn't work out. So I started Savvy Productions over eight years ago and Savvy Productions we specialize in doing corporate sales and training videos and commercials and like I said we've been doing that for over eight years we've worked on some really cool projects interesting enough we've kind of found this little niche for us where we actually kind of specialize in weird projects. And what I mean by that is like, we've done like lots of props. Like for example, we did a commercial where we needed to have the Grim Reaper. So

the Grim Reaper, the concept was is for like clicking or ticket. So it's like the Grim Reaper was trying to encourage people to drive without buckling up. Which in the United States, it's the law. You have to drive with your seatbelt on, but it's a problem with some people not doing it. So that's what these public service announcements were for. And of course, everybody says no to the Grim Reaper at the end and the Grim Reaper gets mad and breaks stuff.

And so we had the challenge of it's like okay well how do we make a Grim Reaper right? Like we needed like this big menacing Grim Reaper with these like huge hands that were like you know four times the size of the actors hands that were like bony digits. And so it was like, how do we get these to move, you know, like with the actor's hands and stuff? And so it was like quite the process of figuring out like how to make this these prop hands and build this like grim reaper that's like larger than life. And we've actually done quite a few projects like that. And so, yeah, we do that. And then we do what I bet everybody else who's listening does, you

know, your standard interviews and filming b-roll and stuff like that. One other thing that's kind of cool is we built our own building about two years ago. So we're located in Utah in the United States and built our own building. So we have our own studio and then a big workspace where I have three full-time employees where we can all work together, collaborate, work on the same server together. And we have an edit bay because we have clients who like to come in sometimes and work with us and collaborate on projects. And quite frankly, I'm just super excited that I get to have such a cool job where I get to have fun all the time

and build stuff that it doesn't even exist. And then we bring it to life and turn it into something that people can, I hope, enjoy. Every week, we're finding out a new niche that a guest is specializing in. I think it's become like the trend for this season of Create a Crab Coffee. Like previous years it would come up like sparingly,

but every guest that we've had on has a niche this year. Yours is pretty interesting though, the fact that you specialize in like props and like set building and all that stuff. How did you guys kind of get into that? Yeah, that's a really interesting question. So it's something that probably happened, I would say maybe eight years ago. And we just had this special request and was like, Oh my gosh, how are we going to do this? And, you know, I basically pulled my team together and I'm just really lucky.

I have some amazing employees and two of them, they do like Comic-Con, like I'm not sure how to explain it to somebody who doesn't know what it is, but it's basically like a convention where people get together and I'd say celebrate our beloved comic book type movies. And so a lot of people like to dress up

as maybe their first, their favorite characters and stuff. And so two of my employees have actually made amazing costumes for different Comic-Con type events. And so they were just a perfect fit for building stuff out of nothing Like we got to do a really cool project for Sega they have a like a Gambling arm to their

Portfolio gaming yeah, and So we actually had to build a video that was announcing a new console that they were doing and they they wanted the concept of this like space person like on Some Mars like planet and we decided let's do this practical. So we actually built like a full-on like costume and filmed it out in the desert a few hours away from here and It was it turned out really cool. And you know, it's just this really fun process of like,

how do we build this? What should it look like? You know, and going through this process of like, what will fit and what won't fit. And I actually got to wear the costume and we're filming it at like, I think it was like at two in the morning. Cause you know, we wanted like that darkness,

you know, where our lights were, that it just fall off into like nothingness when we were filming. And like the visor, I couldn't even see what I was doing. It was, it turned out really good. If you see it, you'd be like, okay, yeah, that looks really good. But yeah, like our office,

we have actually kind of enshrined like some of our props and put them in shadow boxes. So like when you go down like one of our hallway, we just have like a hallway of props in shadow boxes. And it's really cool. I like it because, you know, as I go down the hallway, I'm kind of like inspired by these fun past projects and I remember how cool they were and I'm inspired by what we're

going to get to build in the future. But I would say, you know, that's a small percentage of what we do on an average day. It's just something kind of really fun and, and unique. You mentioned that you were, uh, you were having difficulty seeing through some of the visors and the props. So are you also the actor in a lot of these projects? Obviously he is. I was not the Grim Reaper. That was actually one of my employees.

And so we didn't want to see their face. So we had this like black see-through stuff that he had to wear on his face and he had to wear it like all day. And you know like when he pulled it off it's just like buckets of sweat and stuff. So I'm really glad I wasn't the Grim Reaper. I was the space guy just because I guess of lack of budget and we were filming out in the middle of nowhere so adding on an extra actor, you know, we have to pay the actor, but then we're also gonna have to pay for, you know,

hotel and food and all those additional costs. And it was just kind of like, it just budget wise, it just made sense. But I usually will try to always be on the other side of the camera. Right. You mentioned that you started in the props eight years ago, pretty much around the same time

that you started Savvy Productions. So when you started the business, obviously you might've had a certain idea of the kind of projects or the kind of work you wanted to do. How did this early kind of opportunity to kind of jump into props kind of shift your thinking in terms of the direction of the business?

Yeah, you know, I really just kind of like landed into it. We had a client that had this vision for this really cool idea and it was like a simple little prop. What it was, there's a restaurant chain called Sizzler. They have, it's like a steakhouse, but they have like a buffet element to it where they have a salad bar and a dessert bar and they wanted this ice cream cone. You know, like how you serve yourself like the soft serve and you know, you can like twirl up the cone. And they liked the idea of this like cone that was just like ridiculously high for this commercial.

So it was like, okay, well, how do I make this? And then you just get on the internet, start researching, looking for ideas and have some ideas that don't work out as you experiment, to see what does and does not work. And I think that's kind of just started it. And then, you know, clients saw the prop and it's like, oh, well, what could we do, you

know, type of a thing. And yeah, it just kind of opened up like I'd say it opened up this idea with our clients that we really can do stuff beyond your typical commercial where we're just going to film some actors delivering some dialogue and maybe at most we're going to get a wardrobe or some props in the background that we're just going to buy at the store. With a lot of these product-based businesses, because last time we were chatting with a lot of these product based businesses, like his last time we were chatting with a guest from Salt Lake City, like we were told that the industry there is more like nonprofit focus, maybe some tech, but you seem to have found

like market with products. Is that also big there? So, uh, all the props are not product based. They're just something that helps support the idea of the commercial. So the product, um, that we're creating actually is not You know like the product we're selling like for example, the Grim Reaper was to encourage people, you know to buckle their seat belts So he had nothing to do with seat belts it's itself but

Shout out as you mentioned that you interviewed Dave Lindsay from Utah. I know him. He's super awesome, great person. Watch episode 79 I believe it is after after you're done watching this one. Yeah. He's great. You would love it. It'll be a fantastic episode. But yeah you know I would say in Utah, we do actually have a really big tech presence. We have this mini Silicon Valley. I would say we're very, very heavy into startups in the state of Utah. So we have lots of startups that have actually really gone big.

So that's a big market and then lots of good like government contracts but of course you could probably get those anywhere in the United States. So yeah like I would say it's a really good blend of like we have lots of you know small companies that are thriving and big companies that are doing really well and if somebody needs a video, you know, to tell their story, we're hoping to build to do that. So the productions is the one. Yeah. Sorry, Dave.

What an avalanche studios. Yeah, exactly. One thing I'm curious about, because now you're kind of like, you have like this focus in such a unique approach and like a new storytelling element, which is with the props, right? Because not many companies typically do that or have such a huge focus in it. How much of your project, how many of your projects are typically like directly with a client that you're working with that you introduce this storytelling element versus like say like another production maybe because I'm sure that you also do this or other production companies probably come to you to help develop props you know for their productions like how often do you like what's the balance in

that and like how do you go approach kind of like pitching that? Yeah, yeah so we do a lot of work with ad agencies and that's actually where the Grim Reaper concept came from. It's from an ad agency called Penna Powers and they're incredibly talented. And yeah, so I'd say it's a good mix. It's probably like 50% of our clients are ad agencies and then the other 50% are clients

that we're working with directly that are typically more like a corporate client, or we'd be working with their in-house marketing team. And what is the process like in terms of, walk us through a little bit of what your whole process is, from when you're starting a project to pitching of, uh, you know, like pitching, uh, creative development, you know, I guess, material sourcing or prop hunting in a way. But before we get into that, I'm just curious, how do you even quote for that's what I mean,

like projects because like start from that to create something from scratch that no one's really done before. So it's kind of, and each project is different. So how do you kind of factor that into your quote? Yeah, so for me, when we first have a meeting with a client, it's very much an exploratory process where we're basically just trying to figure out what problem. I mean, I'll always ask, what is the big problem that you're trying to solve with this video? Because I mean, I've had meetings with people where video actually doesn't make sense. And you know, it's maybe like, no, like, you need

to invest your money in getting a website, or whatever. So we basically have a meeting where we'll basically just figure out like what they're actually want and can we do this with a video and what would be the best way to do it. So in that process you know we'll basically go through like different ways that we could tell their story and you know if a prop is involved in that then you know we'll bring up like these ideas and say hey what if we did this or what if we did that? And then we'll basically give our clients some options to choose from. And then what I like to do is when I

basically try to figure out a budget, I'll basically put together a range. Think of it like a car, right? I mean, you could buy a Toyota Camry and even just that one car is gonna have a range in price right like if you have leather seats or you know the cool rims or whatever those are gonna make the car cost more even though it's the exact same car and so I basically will budget or put together a bit that's actually in a range and then I'll let the

client decide. And, you know, like if we're on the low end, then we're not going to be able to afford to do anything like that. If we're on the high end, then we'll be able to afford to, you know, do a prop or whatever, or maybe even bring on, you know, a bigger crew to like do more with filming or more in post production or whatever. And so that range basically empowers, you know, the client to decide what kind of money they want to spend and what is worth it for them. But how do you get, excuse me, how do you guesstimate like what the cost is going to

be in terms of like building that prop? Because again, oh, you mentioned a lot of times it's the first time you'll be doing it and you got to go do your research as well. So how do you go about that process? Yeah, it's always the first time like we've never gone back and built like a prop that's similar ever. So it's absolutely just one of those situations where I'll just pull my team together and go, hey, this is kind of what I'm thinking. And then like those two employees that I was talking about that are really handy at building incredible stuff, they'll just do some quick research, you know, get an estimate on like

materials and stuff. And then we'll just put together a guess. Like the spacesuit, we went like way over budget. Like I mean like crazy over budget and you know, it happens, right? Like we're literally doing something we've never done before and I just looked at it as now we got a cool spacesuit in our office. We actually built a mannequin, so our spaceman is actually greeting people as they come and go out of the office. We went way over budget on that one, but it's okay. We got a cool prop in the office that looks awesome, and I think it makes our space feel

even more cool. Like that was kind of one of the neat things about building our own building is we were able to build a space, you know, that worked for us. And you for, oh, sorry, go ahead, Kyo. I was just gonna say, like, do you also like look for examples of maybe like some props that have been made

by other companies in the past to kind of like show like some similarities. Cause this is like a hard thing to also kind of like showcase to someone what your vision might be. Like aside from like drawings or inspo images and stuff like that, is there any kind of like actual examples? Like, oh, we want to do a spacesuit like this.

Like there was this company that did something like this. We're thinking of doing something similar. Do you do a lot of that? or is it mostly kind of like concept drawings and just inspiration from other movies? Yeah, mostly concept drawings or inspirations from other movies, but with the space outfit, you know, that was easy because there are so many, you know, different genres of movies that have different like space outfits.

Cause they, I should have pointed out, they wanted, you know, like more like a, you know, like a video game, like halo type spacesuit, not, you know, your typical landing on the moon, you know, Apollo type spacesuit. But we could use tons of movies and, you know, comic books and stuff as like references and then ask our client like, what do you like? You know, we like the gloves on, you know, comic books and stuff as like references and then ask our client like, what do you like?

You know, we like the gloves on, you know, this character or whatever. And then basically get a sense of like what they like and what they don't like. And then we were able to do a concept drawing of like what we thought the space person could look like and get their input and go back and forth until we had something

that worked for our client and then start building it. Let's go back in time a little bit. So you mentioned you were working at that first company for 13 years, right? Yeah. So like what prompted you to kind of like, because then you said you wanted to buy it, you offered to buy it. Like what prompted you to go from, I'm assuming you've worked your way up to producer Like what was the impetus that wanted you to become like an owner?

Yeah, you know, so I want to keep this like a hundred percent positive. I don't want to Paint like a negative picture of where I used to work Like to me, it was a great experience. It was a great job. I enjoyed it and I felt like I gained a lot of valuable skills there. But we did reach this point where I was just working an insane amount of hours. Like I think the last three years I worked, I put over two months worth of overtime in, in one year alone, and I was just getting completely burned out. I was just fried.

Like I was to the point where I was getting sick every month. If we're going on a vacation with my family, it'd be like I'd have to put in two weeks worth of work the week I was gonna leave, and then when I'd be like, I'd have to put in like two weeks worth of work the week I was going to leave. And then when I'd get back, you know, I'm putting in like the two weeks again, you know, to get caught up. And I constantly expressed to my boss, like, this has to change.

Like we had, I think like three employees, you know, when I was there. And it's like, this work needs to get spread out amongst all of us. And it just never happened. Like basically all this work just always kept falling on my plate. So I was the person, you know, that was always working like crazy over time. And I basically told my boss, it's like, listen,

I can't do this anymore. Like I need to be in control of my schedule because you're not willing to do it. And either you sell me the company or I leave. Like I need to be in control of my schedule because you're not willing to do it. And either you sell me the company or I leave. And I mentioned that after I landed, so I landed basically at that company's, it's the biggest budget we ever had ever in the history of the company for a commercial. So I kind of used that as my leverage, right? Like, look what I did,

I can run this company type of a thing. And my boss was like, yeah, let's do this. And we negotiated for about a year and it just fell apart. I guess, you know, it just was never meant to be. And my boss, you know, I basically met with him like our last meeting where we were negotiating on the price and the logistics of turning the company over to me was it was just a really bad meeting. Like it was not good, you know, and so I talked to my boss and just said, hey, listen, that meeting was really bad. And he's like, yeah, I don't want to sell you the company anymore. And so it's like, okay, well, then like I said, if I can't run the company, I'm going to quit.

And I, at the time, you know, I had zero plans on running my own business. I really thought this was going to happen. So I guess this was kind of my last play at leverage, right? Where I was hoping he was going to go, okay, no, no, no, don't quit. I'll give you, you know, percentage of the company. But it's like, no, good. See you later. Wow. So it was like your guns. That's I don't know. Yeah, it's like, I don't got a plan. Like, I honestly thought this was going to work out. So it was like Saturday, you know, all of a sudden, it's like, I don't have a job. I don't have a plan. I just literally jumped off the cliff with no safety net, nothing. And it's like, what am I going to do?

So I basically kind of got thrown into it. You know what I mean? Whereas like I had to sit down and go, what am I going to do? Like I, that first month I lost like 10 pounds. Like I couldn't eat breakfast. Like it was, like my stomach was constantly tied in knots. It was rough. But I figured, you know, I was planning on running this company, so why not just run

my own company, right? Like that's what I was going to do anyway. So let's figure it out. And I was talking, I basically pulled out my phone and I was calling like everybody I knew, even if they didn't have anything to do with video to see if maybe they knew somebody that could be interested in using a video.

Like I spent all Saturday, Monday, like probably the whole week just on my phone making calls all day long. And for anybody who ends up in a similar situation to me, I got some really good advice. I was talking to somebody who I used as a freelancer and he basically said, he's like, that like super uncomfortable feeling, you know, that you have in your stomach that's just like tied in knots like leverage it like right now you're uncomfortable and leverage it and use it to motivate you to make those phone calls and all those

things that if you weren't you know like like right now like I would say that probably most people in our industry we're probably like I mean I'm a introvert I bet most people are introverts. Like we don't, I don't like calling people. I don't like going to a business and just walking in unannounced. Like I hate it more than anything, but you know, I was able to take that, that fear and basically leverage it and motivate me to do these things that I absolutely hate and turned it into an advantage. And you know, all those calls like paid off and it worked out really nice because it was really cool because as I like talk to people, I heard constantly, you know, along the lines

of, hey, you know, I don't go to that place to work with anybody other than you. You're the only reason I'm there. So I would like to continue to work with anybody other than you. You're the only reason I'm there. So I would like to continue to work with you. And so I was able to have like a couple clients from my past gig. And then I was able to round up some new ones that were old contacts that just happened by making the phone calls and stuff.

And I was able to kind of just have enough work to keep me full time working in my basement of my house. And over the course of eight years, like I said, we basically jumped from like office to office as my team has expanded and now we built our own building and I couldn't be happier. It turned out really great. Yeah.

And I mean, you had already like the skillset. Yeah. The only thing you were really missing was just a business license. And a plan essentially. It seems like you were kind of running there. I mean, if you were like the go-to guy for that company to the point where the offer to buy was even on the table, I would say you were the owner technically almost right like you were filling in those shoes. So it seems like the next

logical step for you was to start your own thing. And the transition seems like it was pretty smooth. Because again, you were almost like the owner essentially, right? Yeah, especially some clients even went over to you after that means that you were like the owner essentially, right? But especially if some clients even went over to you after, that means that you were like the guy. Yeah, like my boss, like he would literally go on vacations for like over a month and just be gone. And I think he thought like the company just ran itself

on autopilot or something. So I felt like he just didn't recognize that there was somebody there that was actually keeping everything going while he was gone. And so I kind of wonder if maybe that was why maybe it was not such a smooth, graceful exit, I guess. But yeah, I basically, you know, I already, you know, like you said, I was producing editing my background I started as an editor and Like I mean I started on after effects

it's like CS for like not creative cloud or create like I mean like for Yeah, like this was in 1997 Is when I started using After Effects. So you know, I've been doing like After Effects color grading, the whole like post-production like workflow for most of my career. And so it's just a natural transition into like producing, you know, working with clients to make sure that their vision was basically created,

the project was created in a way that they envisioned it being put together. And then my hobby was videos and taking still photos. I love doing time lapses. So even though I wasn't on as a camera operator at the company I worked for, I was still doing it in my spare time through, I had the most killer awesome like home videos and stuff and when we travel amazing videos. So I was, you know, I was basically like cutting my

teeth on this skill even though I wasn't doing it in that company. So when I basically went on on my own, I basically had, you know, skills and knowledge in all the aspects that were required to run a one person company at the time. And what happened to the, I'm just out of curiosity. Like did you notice that there was like a dip in form in the other company, like after you left? Cause cause you were very integral. You were basically running the whole show.

So, I mean, did you ever keep in touch or anything like that? Or was it just what you saw on the outside? Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. One thing that I learned early on in my life was that, you know, I think like when we're wronged, you know, like somebody offends us or does something that hurts our feelings, we wanna really dwell on it and be angry, right? And I kinda learned to just let it go and move on. Because one thing I learned is the time that we spend

being upset about stuff or looking into this person and what they're doing after they wronged us is just time we're wasting that we could be on our phone trying to land a new client or coming up with this new concept that's gonna make this client love us even more. So I basically just kind of dropped it and never looked back. I think that was the best thing for me was to just let it go. Like I said there were a lot of great things that happened with

this company so again I don't want to paint like a negative picture we just saw the world differently and my boss didn't feel like I was the right fit for running his company and you know it's company, he built it from the ground up. So I feel like he deserves every right to decide who he wants to run it. And so for me, it was just easier to move on, not look at it. But in a nutshell though,

things didn't go particularly well and that worked out in my favor. I was able to hire somebody that worked at that company to work for me and it was awesome for me because this person is incredible. They're super talented and they are an amazing addition to my team and I am so lucky, you know, that I'm able to have them on my team and I'm grateful for that. So I guess in a roundabout way I'm answering your question and saying that things didn't go, I think the way that they were hoping it would go, but things went really well for me and I'm happy about that.

Yeah, it's a good attitude. Success is the best form of a wrench, right? Yeah. No, it was definitely a good attitude that you had. I was more so just curious about how that business might have potentially moved past losing the heart and workhorse and the engine of the business. I don't think they can usually, Kirill.

There's another company I know of here in Toronto that was a similar situation, very identical situation. Of course. It was a wedding company. And I found out last year that they just crashed and burned when the main guy left because it was the same thing. And I think the, the, the key thing there is that as a business owner, you can't just have someone come in and help you with the operations and the

running of the company. And then just, it doesn't mean that you can just take a back seat and not care anymore. Right. It's like, Oh, that guy's running it. I don't have to worry about it because then what'll happen is, you know, like it's your company. Like you gotta make sure you're steering the ship. You can't have the second mate be the captain.

Otherwise then he's the captain. Then you can't get upset if he wants to be the captain, you know, officially, right? So. Yeah, that was a bad, that was a bad business decision on his and for sure to kind of let Steve be the The one basically knowing everything about the business and he doesn't know much of it That's why I was I was a bit curious about that because it usually doesn't as Daria mentioned usually it doesn't work out like that

Maybe sometimes some people figure it out, but I think more often than not it doesn't work there But one thing oh, sorry, you were gonna say? I was gonna say, I agree with you 100%. And I think us as creatives, we need to remember that and go, like, because I think it's easy, right? Like if we have this client, you know, that we're constantly getting work from to maybe take them for granted.

And I think to me, this is like that reminder that it's like, I can't take anybody for granted. And I think to me, this is like that reminder that it's like, I can't take anybody for granted. Like I need to treat every job like it's my last job. And that I need to do every, you know, I got to pull out all the stops, make the best video, do the best I can with the budget that I have to make every single one of my clients incredibly happy. And I feel like, like that it's a five star experience, right? Every single time. And I think for me, this is kind of my journey in life that is my reminder all the time to always put my best foot

forward with every time I engage with my clients and make sure that every video is the best video I can do. engage with my clients and make sure that every video is the best video I can do. On that note, I guess because you had that experience getting into it, what are you doing to keep your employees in like a positive work environment? So I do think that a lot, I've worked at multiple places and I've been able to take what I do and do not like at those companies and I was able to roll them into the company that I work for. Like me personally, I love to create.

I honestly think this job's fun. I could work a 14-hour day and I do and it feels like a couple hours to me just because I think this, you know, job is fun. So I think one thing that's important is that we constantly have jobs that are, cause we all have jobs, right? That are just, they're just there to pay the bills, right? Like we all, we all have those jobs where we're like, okay, just gotta pay the bills.

I think as long as we have a good balance of those really fun jobs, you know, like with the Grim Reaper and stuff that are something new and challenging our creativity, really make us feel fulfilled in our jobs. I think that's the most important thing is to be fulfilled in like what we're doing and to feel like I have a cool job.

So I think one thing that is really important for me is when I meet with clients is that I'm really trying to push our clients into doing something that really stands out and looks cool and will make them stand out and will make my team feel like they're doing something that's really fulfilling. And then like other things, like I said, I have employees is we do stuff together, you know, like go out to lunch or have a barbecue.

We have a barbecue in our studio. So you know, we'll do different activities and hang out. And I think by creating that environment where we're more than just people who work together, but we are friends on a certain level. And then I think another thing is, like I said, we built a building. We created this really, I would say it's this really hip creative space

where when you walk in, it feels cool. You know, like this is a cool place to be. We don't have the boring, you know, like white walls and stuff. It's like, if I could take my camera up and walk you around, I think you would see that it's a pretty cool space where we had like fun props all over the office

and stuff that just looks fun and inspires you to want to do creative work. I think those are some of the things that to me makes this a fun place to work. In our industry, a lot of production companies, one of our goals is obviously to have our own creative spaces, our own studios that we can, you know, it's like a little playground to create the projects that we want to do. Right. And you've basically kind of taken that to the next level where you basically created

your space from scratch. Like, how did you go about like the whole process, like business wise to kind of like think to yourself, I'm going to build a building for me to create a space. Cause most companies would either rent out spaces or offices and then just kind of like adjust it to the way they need to. Whereas you started from scratch, like walk us through that whole process.

Yeah, I would say building your own building is really stupid. As somebody who's like now gone through the whole process. It's a nightmare. But I would do it again. The reason we did it. So like I said, I started out in my basement. And then when I was able to grow, you know, big enough to hire one employee, I rented like a creative suite that was like a single office, but it was a really big single office that we could put in two desks. And then, you know, we hit the point where I was able to bring on another full-time employee. So now we had three

desks crammed in this like creative suite. So it's like, okay, we need to find a bigger office. So I found an office down the street that was, it was the opposite of inspirational. I would categorize it as like a college dorm, you know, with like the ugly white walls everywhere and the trim was done wrong and, but it was cheap. So it worked out really well and then I was able to bring on another employee so we had enough space for four people. We had a spare office. So we turned that office into like our green screen room. Like we had like, you know, the portable like cloth green screen.

And it was nuts because like to film in there, like a single person, we had to put the camera like right up against the wall. Like, you know how you can bend the tripod? So it's kind of like, so your two legs are like straight up and the wall. Like, you know how you can bend the tripod? So it's kind of like, so your two legs are like straight up and then the one's like, so it's like literally like up against the wall

to give us like the most room. It was a tight space. And- Getting three inches. It was, it was not ideal, but it worked for us at the time, right? And it was like, okay, we need to move. We need to get into like a permanent home.

And so we started looking for spaces that we could basically buy like an existing building around town. And after like six months, it's just like, there is nothing here that works for me. Like everything that would work would be like in an industrial part of town where, you know, like you don't know who your neighbor's gonna be

or your neighbor already is somebody with forklifts and pneumatic drills. And I've actually, you know, filmed at studios that are in these cruddy industrial parts of town and you're filming and the noise, you're just competing with it. Yeah, so it's like, I don't want to be in that area. I want to be in a more like commercial area where my neighbors are quiet and like a space, you know, like a big empty space with no windows.

It, it, it's non-existent. It doesn't exist. And so it's like, okay, well, let's, let's build our own building. And by building our own building, some of the advantages were, like our studio, it's double walled. So we actually did double walls. We have a sound blanket in between the walls. And then you can do stuff where you actually,

because it's doubled walls, you don't have the studs touch each other on the inside of the wall because sound, you know, travels through stuff. So it helps like break up the sound. So we were able to like, for our studio where we film in, you know, we're able to do stuff to like make it much better for sound. No windows, we actually have brick on the outside of the wall. So it's creating like a really good sound atmosphere for filming. And then we wanted to build an edit bay because like I said, we do have clients who want to come in and they want to collaborate with us.

And for somebody who's been doing this for over 20 years, I can't tell you how many times I have done an edit with a client till like three in the morning and that edit bay just gets so claustrophobic and tiny so I wanted to build an edit bay you know where we actually have like a window on the wall so you can look out and see the rest of the office and see the outside world you know as we're like editing so it doesn't feel so claustrophobic. So, you know, I was able to add stuff like that. And because we built it, we were able to do the wiring the way we wanted to.

So we were able to put the wiring in the wall. Like we have a big monitor above the edit bay. So we were able to put, you know, all the wiring that we needed for that. So like, for example, like, you know, like the HDMI cable that cooks to the TV that we needed for that. So for example, the HDMI cable that cooks to the TV that would go to the computer, it goes inside the wall and out. So it's concealed. You don't see it.

And I could keep going on, but those are, I think, the main details and stuff that we were able to do when we built it ourselves instead of just finding a space and making it work. Like we wanted a, a place where we could film and not deal with issues we've had in the past, which is bad noise. Like everywhere I've ever filmed, I've always had to deal with bad noise. I'm curious also, I mean, to go into building your own building, you know, it's one thing

to have enough money to buy a place, it's another thing to have enough money to also build a building from scratch. How did you go about kind of like preparing yourself financially as a business to embark on that endeavor? Yeah, like I said, we built it about two years ago, so you know, we did about six years, you know, before we did this, I didn't do it out the gate.

But I was, you know, I'm able to look at our PNLs, like basically like the money that we've been bringing in revenues wise every year and go, okay, like, we're reaching a point where I feel comfortable, you know, going to the bank, getting a loan and, um, putting my life on the line, you know, to basically pay for this building for the rest of my life. Was it difficult to get the loan from the bank? Cause I've spoken to some people that say, well, it's extremely tricky, especially if you're a video production company, because they want to see like recurring revenue. And a lot of us are just like per project businesses.

So, yeah, you know, being a per project business, it's it's it's really tough. And I know you've talked about it on some of your other podcasts. So I think it's probably a problem all of us face. You know, we don't really know what is going to be happening beyond the jobs that we're doing. But like I said, I had enough of a track record that it was like, you know, I went to the point where I was working in my basement. It was a team of four. And, you know, we were getting enough work to support everybody on that team and everybody was busy. So I felt like there was enough signs

that there was proof of success in this business that we were going to build to at least sustain what we're currently doing, if not grow it. At the bank, they looked at our P&Ls and agreed. And so for us, the loan wasn't bad. It wasn't a challenging issue, but when we got that, we were in business over six years. So I think that is a big thing.

Like if we would have done that like on year three or something, no way. Like no way would the bank have ever have done that like on year three or something, no way, like no way would the bank have ever have done that. One thing I'm curious about is, because it seems like as soon as you left and you started your business, you were kind of doing pretty well in terms of work. And I guess it continued. Like do you do a lot of sales for your company?

Or is it a lot of inbound stuff from SEO? Yeah. So when I first started out, I was rocking my phone. I was on my phone. I was dropping by businesses left and right. Like I mentioned, I'm an introvert. I hate that more than anything. So now that things have kind of stabilized, I don't do that as much as I guess I should be doing. But most our work I would say is

coming from repeat business. Like that's our number one is like I feel like if we get a client, we keep that client because like I said, like our number one focus, I would say, is customer satisfaction. Like, I am not going to let a video go out the door if our client doesn't love it. So that would be our number one stream of business. And then number two, I'd say, is referrals. Obviously, I have no control over referrals, right?

Like, my clients aren't waking up every morning thinking, what business can I get savvy productions? I'm going to get them some referrals. So that's unreliable, right? Referrals, who knows when we'll get them, but we've been really lucky at getting a lot of referrals. So that's been really nice. And then our SEO, so for people who don't know, search engine optimization. So it's

kind of like where you rank on Google, I think is the easiest way to explain it. Yeah. I'm really lucky my brother has handled SEO for major, you know, like Fortune 500 companies. So I sat down with him, you know, like Fortune 500 companies. So I sat down with him, you know, eight years ago when I built our website and was like, okay, what do I need to do? And he retooled my website to be better for search engine optimization. And then he went through like, Hey, Steve, these are things that you should be focusing on, on ranking high.

And so I feel like I do spend a lot of time focusing on continuing to do those things that I was told to do. So our ranking is actually really high. Like we're typically number one, number two in the keywords that I'm going after. So our website has been really good at bringing in new clientele. And then last, you know, is just going to like, you know, like trade type events or like networking.

Networking is probably the word I'm looking for is networking with people, friends of friends, and basically just trying to build these relationships. But you know, as an introvert, I really got to like force myself to go to like a networking event. I I don't think it's fun at all meeting a stranger. It's funny, you have the energy of someone that would love networking events. So it's interesting to hear that you're an introvert. Well, I'm one of those people where I can force myself to get out of my comfort zone if I want to. So like I know a few people who are like, no, Steve's not an introvert,

no way. But I promise you 100%. I am an introvert. Do you do Google AdWords at all or no? No I did Google AdWords. And I probably didn't put enough money into it. But you know it's like one of those where they introduce you and it's like pay a hundred bucks and we'll give you a hundred bucks. So I did like it was a small amount of money but it did absolutely nothing for me. So I've just never revisited it.

But I probably should. But no, I mean, have you had success with like Google AdWords? We did. And then I don't know why I was like, let's just stop it. And then I noticed the leads dropped off. So we actually restarted it about two weeks ago and I noticed the lead started to pick up. Interesting. I definitely need to do a bit more. Like I need to update my, my skillset with Google AdWords. I actually have it blocked off in my calendar today.

I'm going to spend two hours just like reminding myself how it works and like how to optimize it and whatnot. But I think it's good to, I think when it comes, when it comes to businesses like ours, you got to just utilize every single avenue that is out there. So yeah, SEO, obviously, paid marketing, posting on social. We have an episode that will be coming up or that will be posted by the time this one's out where we dived into like LinkedIn and being really active on there. And LinkedIn seems to be like another big channel that is really useful for people like us.

So, yeah, you just got to use every tool at your disposal. Yeah, and it sounds like you need to make a podcast where you just walk us through your strategy for your Google purchases for your Google ads so we can learn how to do it. Maybe I was doing it wrong. I should probably bring an expert and just interview him. You probably should.

Yeah. I think you should do that because like I said, I don't do that for a living. I make videos, so the strong possibility, I just sucked at it and I was doing everything wrong. I don't know. That's the thing with us is that because we have to wear so many hats, it's hard to become an expert in any one of those areas.

So you kind of have to, it's just good, I feel, to just get a surface level times, like a surface level understanding of how that thing works. That way, when you are trying to hire an agency or company to help you with it, you can kind of smell the bullshit right away. Right. So if it's for SEO, if you at least know how it works and you're trying to find an SEO firm to help you, if they're saying stuff that, you know, is outdated,

you're like, perfect, that's the company I'm going to avoid next. I remember actually Dario why you wanted to kind of stop us doing the Google ads at one point was because your argument was you don't want to we don't want to become too reliant on on that avenue where it's like if you stop paying for Google ads, then all of a sudden no leads will come through. And then we could focus on more like SEO type stuff. I remember that was a bit of the reasoning, but you just mentioned though, like once we stopped that old reasoning, old reasoning. Yeah. But then like you said, once we, I mean, it was logical at the time, but now it's like,

yeah, you mentioned like once we stopped the Google ads, then a lot of leads started dropping through. But if we started it recently, then yeah, it definitely can help. Well, I think that's smart. Like that's our creative process, right? Like a lot of times when we're challenged to build a video, sometimes, you know, like, like I said, I do like lots of motion graphics and editing and stuff and I'll do a pass. And it's like, you know what? This isn't what I thought was going to work, isn't going going to work and so I'm going to like try some different things out

or maybe like when I was listening to music I'm like this is the right song but then when I put it in with the interviews it's not so I think having that ability to realize I thought this was going to work but it's not working is shows that to me that you're doing the right thing, right? That you're basically paying attention enough to know like what's going to work and what's not going to work and you're trying different things. I think that shows that you're on the right track and you're doing a great job. Well, I'm trying. Yeah, we definitely restarted Google Ads and I'm starting to see some traction out of it.

But yeah, definitely need to optimize it. But it doesn't seem like it's something that is like rocket science either. I feel like if you just spend a little bit of time, you could figure it out. And it's just trying to like budget the time, right? Cause I found that I had a list of like, like I had a to-do list for tasks and I found that until I just put it in my calendar and like blocked off that time, I would almost never get to it or like I would start it and get distracted with someone else. So like my recent thing has been just blocking off chunks of time in my calendar

for tasks. Yeah. I don't know if you do the same. Well, and I would, I'm also curious, have you ever done any ads on like social, you know, like Instagram or Facebook? I don't think we're gonna, I don't think we're gonna, well, for- We haven't yet. Like the meta platforms and TikTok, I don't think we're going to, I think those platforms are just gonna be as a way to, just to get, like just to get some high engagement.

Yeah, some social engagement and something that should a client ever like find us on there. They can see that, oh, they have some high numbers. They must know what they're doing, right? If the follower count is high, if the view count is high on the videos, they must know something, right? But I don't think the types of clients we go after

They're not searching for us on social media platforms, I feel like that's more so if you have like If your target is like some small e-commerce business They'll probably find you on social media. Okay for for companies like ours that focus a lot on You know corporate content and everything where our lot on, you know, corporate content and everything where our clients are, you know, corporations B2B, B2C, they're finding us on LinkedIn or Google.

That's okay. That's the truth of the matter. I don't think they're, cause you gotta think about it from their point of view. They're at work. They're not going to go on TikTok to find someone. They don't want to get caught looking on socials. Like, no, I'm looking for other video. I think those sites might even be blocked up their workplaces.

That's true. I'm working. Yeah. Meanwhile, you're watching like dog videos on TikTok. It's like, no, no, after this, I'll go find my portfolio. That's part of the process of finding the right video production companies watching dog videos on TikTok. I mean, we have a dog client, a dog food company client, so that might have actually been pretty

accurate. That was Google. That was Google for ironically, that was Google, though. Steven, tell us a little bit about those awards behind you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we let's see we so we've won six Emmys so these are some of the Emmys that we've won. For me like as much as I love my mom you know when she watches my videos and says hey that's really great you did a great job it's kind of you know nice to just get like some brass, you know, that says literal brass. Yeah, like a good job. And I like it. So I have some like when I do zoom meetings, you know, that are behind me.

I think it like, oh, you don't hold them like this in front of the camera. Front and center. I have like a chain, you know, that just holds one of them. But yeah, we're I would say we're big into awards. Like we've won like a bunch of Telly awards and other awards. And I know this is like a controversial topic. Like I know there's a lot of people who are like,

it's buying, like you'll hear the term like all the time, like dude, you're just like buying awards. And I think there's, you know, like an element of truth to that. But I think for everybody who has that attitude, you are missing the boat. I'm just letting you know that you are missing the boat. Okay, like these, like when you're talking about like,

you know, client marketing, I think these are like worth their weight in, you know, client marketing, I think these are worth their weight in your ad spend. In brass, yeah. Yeah, because when you walk into our office, we have trophies, they're just everywhere, all over the office. So right when you walk through the door, you just see lots of awards. And when we have somebody who's meeting us for the first time, and they're filling us out to see if we'd be a good fit. I think like instantly these trophies tell them like, hey, these people are legit.

You know, there are people outside of, you know, their parents who are basically saying like, yeah, you do a good job. These people are legit. And so I think, you know, everybody who has that attitude, like you're buying awards, they're dumb, maybe you should just reconsider and go, what can these get me? And to me, it's like, that's a big thing that they can get you is just like instant, like, showing that you're, you know, a legit business. And then I think the other big thing that they're good for is, I'll always buy a duplicate and go over to my

client and present them, you know, with this trophy and clients go crazy for it. Like they love it. You know, they're like, Oh my gosh, this is amazing. And and to me, it's like, what an incredible client retention tool to build to give them this really cool trophy. For people who are not familiar, the Tele Awards, they're like a trophy for more corporate videos and commercials, so more stuff that's in the space we do the majority of our work for.

They're heavy. They're these big big heavy trophies. And so when the client, you know, like holds them in their hand, it gives them like this validation, right? Like I picked the right production company to make this video. This trophy says so.

Ebby's, you know, that's broadcast only. So a good chunk of the work we do is corporate so they don't even qualify To even compete for those but I think awards it like I said if if Anybody listening to this pooh-poohs awards and like they're getting all angry right now Just hearing like what I say. I would encourage you to just rethink your strategy and go, what can these do to benefit me? I used to be one of those people

until we did episode 89 with Al Dente Entertainment, and he completely converted me on it, and he brought up the same stuff that you did about how it's It's a great client retention tool and it's really for the client at the end of the day to show them like the the hard work They also did and the results Um, I used to think it's like oh you just buy it. It's all it's all a scam You know, like they just want your money

but I never thought about it in that light and it And it's a really good point you bring up. And I didn't even know you could buy a duplicate. That's great. Because then, yeah, you can give one to the client. Yeah, absolutely. Buy a duplicate. And it's getting ridiculous. Like the price on the tele awards is just insane. So know, why people like, it's like buying an award cause it's not cheap, like a tele award, like the cost of entry, then you got to buy your award, right, to put in your office and then you got to buy your client award it's I mean, crud, I swear like a trophy's now like $200. So it's, it's just ridiculous. Like it's expensive.

It's not terrible. I thought you were going to say a thousand. Yeah. But I mean, if you look, if it retains your client to get at least another video project out of it, you know, it ends up being worth it in the end. It's like a $200 discount on a video basically that you're gonna.

There you go. That's the right way to look at it. And like having that same attitude of looking at it as like a marketing tool and like a promotional tool. It's like, I mean, you're going to have to spend money on Google ads and other marketing aspects anyway. This is just another way of doing it and another avenue to kind of like put your money into it.

So it's, it definitely opens up possibilities a little bit more than you would otherwise, right? Yeah. I think it's well worth it. Like it's benefited our business greatly. And for anybody listening who's like, okay, this is new to me, I'd recommend starting out with the Tele Awards.

Cause I mean, if you look at their numbers, they're not giving them to everybody. It's absolutely something where you're looking, I don't remember the numbers, but I think it's something, you know, like 30%, you know, of people who enter are going to win like a silver telly. So it truly is not, you know, if you enter, you're going to get something and you're buying an award. Like you really do got to win it. Like if you submitted your worst work, I guarantee you it will not win. Like for everybody's like, you got to, you know,

it's like buying an award. I encourage you to submit your worst garbage you've ever made and put in the comments, you know, whether it won or not with a link to that video. Cause I guarantee you it's not going to win. So it has this credibility, right? Cause it is something you actually have to win. So when you present it to your client,

it's like, yeah, we actually like, we did win this. And if the client did dig, they do have the numbers like on their website. So you can actually see that it's not for everybody to win. And I say this because there are some awards out there that are just scams, right? Like I got a mailer saying we won because it's savvy productions and production can be manufacturing. So I got a letter in the mail saying like we're the best manufacturer in Salt Lake City.

And buy this trophy, type of a thing. And it's like, yeah, okay. So, I mean, there's scams out there, right? Where it truly is, you just pay money and you're gonna win an award. Which is why I would recommend starting with the Telly Awards, where it is a competition. So there is credibility there.

And then for us, you know, like it was always a dream of mine to win an Emmy, but I was never in that league, right? Like it was just out of my grasp. And once I started Savvy Productions, I was actually able to get like better jobs that had better budgets. And I, because I was actually able to get better jobs that had better budgets. And because I was pitching the jobs, I felt like there was a higher level of imagination and creativity in what we were doing, that we were able to do stuff that kind of stood out

a lot more than what I was doing in the past. And so the first time we won an Emmy, I was like, I was like jumping up and down in excitement. It was really, it was really exciting and a big deal. And I think about like that, like my client was, you know, that times 10, you know, when they found out the good news. How much does it cost to get a duplicate Emmy? Oh yeah. Yeah, the Emmys is even more.

I think it was like 350 bucks. That's still not bad. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know, you know, it was a lot of money, but again, absolutely is well worth it. Like, I would never like if I had a time machine and I could travel back in time, I would never ever like not submit, you know, these things I did. And I like to me, it was like well worth it. I think everybody should stop looking at them as like an attaboy for yourself and

just start looking at them as marketing, right? It's just another piece of marketing material that you can have for your company. But again, you know, like if you're sitting here and going Steve's full of crap, he's stupid, like he's buying awards. I think that's great. Because you know, at the end of the day, everybody listening to this is technically my competitor, right? So if you don't want that competitive advantage, and you're letting me have it over you, that's great. You know, that'll just make me look better when we compete for a job.

Nice, nice. I like it. we compete for a job. Nice. I like it. We're getting close to the end. So let's just ask the final two questions, which is what do you see as your vision for your for your company going forward? Because you already achieved

so much. You got your Emmy, got all those Tellys. What do you want to do next? I want to pay off our building. But yeah, you know, I have lots of ideas that we're kind of exploring. So we're not quite there yet. So I guess I don't really want to talk about my ideas that I haven't actually like done knowing me.

Some of them will happen. Some of them won't but we're definitely like I'd say something about me is I'm always looking forward I'm never looking backwards so for me it's always about like I said like treating our clients with the utmost respect because we don't know if this is our last interaction with them. So to me, it's always like looking forward, what can we do to grow our company and what we can do to get even better, you know, like higher budget jobs. I mean, I think that's like everybody's dream,

right, is getting those bigger, better jobs. And then we're also navigating the challenges of AI, you know, like what is AI going to look like 10 years from now or five years from now? How can we leverage it right now? We're already doing stuff with AI that is making us better and able to do stuff cheaper than we would have been able to do in the past. It's like one of those things, right? Like is this going to put me out of a job? Or is this gonna become a tool

that's gonna make me able to do even cooler stuff? So I think that's kind of a big part of our future is like, what's the industry gonna look like? Like I went through transitioning from tape to digital, and I know a lot of people, they weren't able to make that transition, you know, like from film to video. I know people who just they couldn't do it and so it's like one of those things was like where are we going to be and I don't want to be one of those people who get lost and left

behind because I didn't want to look forward. Do you think the AI, the era that will be arrived, that you know has arrived already? Do you think it'll be like an easy transition if you're you know type of person that could easily switch from like tape to digital? I hope so, but if you haven't seen it you should watch it on Disney Plus. There's a documentary series, I think there's like eight episodes, but it's for Industrial Light and Magic, who for people who don't know like that's George Lucas's company, you know, that did all the amazing practical effects on every movie we loved in the 80s, right? And it's really interesting because it goes through the history of the company and they hit this point right where

Jurassic Park there were people who wanted to use computers, you know to create dinosaurs and there was the spilling in the company that no we do we do Practical things right like we are going like they were actually planning on doing all the dinosaurs You know like with the clay models or whatever it is, you know, where they animate them like frame by frame. Like they were already in the process of doing that. And one of the problems with stop motion is there's no motion blur. So they had some computer guys, you know, their job was to add motion blur to it. And one of them was like, no way I can do this in a computer.

And he actually got a walk cycle, like one of the Raptors and showed it to his boss and his boss basically like shut him down and was like no we're not doing this we're not doing this in the computer I don't want to see this again type of a thing and he had a meeting in their edit bay where they're supposed to go over showing like the motion blurring on the practical dinosaur walk cycle with Kathleen Kennedy, who's one of the producers. He strategically had a monitor on his desk that had the computer walk cycle playing in loop.

She could not miss it. She sits down and she's like, what is that? That looks really good. It gave this person the indigo, oh, yeah, we could do this with computers and basically forced his boss to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is something we're testing out. And I hope we've all seen Jurassic Park.

If not, you better go watch it. But it was the first movie where somebody really actually utilized computer CG in a way that actually was convincing and everybody went, oh my gosh, this looks good. And that was the future. And you basically had people who couldn't make that transition and they quit. And they're like, yeah, I only want to make practical things for the rest of my life. And there was no future for them, industrial light and magic.

And you had some other people, and it shows it in the documentary where it's like, I made models my whole life, and then the company trained me up, and now I make them in a computer instead of physically with my hands. I think if we're that person who's willing to say, I loved making this with my hands,

but I'm willing to learn how to do it on a computer instead. I think we're gonna be great. Like right now, like AI, I would like to believe it's not gonna replace us. I think it's gonna just change the way we do our jobs and it's gonna be just like that person who made things practically with their hand and now they're making it on a computer.

It's not going to be an apples to apples comparison but something's going to change. Maybe we're doing a lot more prompting in our crews to create our vision. But right now, for us, we're utilizing AI to do voiceovers. I say this because there's text to voice. I don't like it because I just feel like when we talk, we put emphasis on words, and when we do that, we slow down, and we speed up, and that's human,

and I just feel like speech doesn't capture that. But there's this cool website, it's called 11 Labs. You can actually do voice to voice. So I can actually record the video myself. It's like I've directed millions of them with voice talent. And it's like, no, no, no, I want you to do this. And I want you to do that. So in my head, it's like I know how it should go, but my voice sucks

and I can record it myself and then 11 Labs basically puts on whatever sexy sounding voice I want instead of my icky voice. And now all of a sudden I have this like amazing like Theo, like I feel bad for anybody who has made a career doing voiceover and that's all they do, because I think this is gonna significantly cut into their business. And so this is just like one example, right?

Like it's not like making it so I don't have a job, it's just changing, it's changing what my job is. And like I've been constantly looking at websites that specialize in creating video through prompts. And I haven't necessarily like seen anything that is quite there, but a lot of it is getting really close. And I think, you know, it's gonna be part of our daily lives in the next couple of years.

And I would say like a lot of jobs we do now, like we do stock footage, right? Like I would say we build lots of jobs now where we do the voiceover and all the visuals as stock footage. And I think, you know, there's going to become this time where this is just going to be like another better stock footage library for us to access. So I think if anybody should feel safe, it should be a wedding videographer, right? Which we don't do. But if you know you're a wedding person, you know, like, you're going to want to capture that moment in real time in reality and not like through AI. But my point is, I think there's always going to be moments like that ribbon cutting and I would hope like, the CEO would really want to be on camera and they're going to get trashed online if it's an AI version of the CEO or if it's a video where it's you know like a

company like corporate engagement to show the employees how cool this place is to work, how much they're going to get trashed you know online if their video is all AI and they're not real employees and it's not really the workspace. So I think no matter what, there's still going to be situations that basically present itself that need to be filmed in real life. And then there's going to be ones where now we have access to hopefully an even better stock footage library. I mean, every time I go for stock, it's like, well, that's not exactly what I wanted, but it's good enough. Like, how cool would that be to be like,

that's really close to what I want, but now I can get it to much better than good enough. So I don't know, like, right, we're all guessing, like, and I think that's one of the challenges is it's easy to imagine this world where I just type in chat GPT, make me the most banger cool corporate video, and then I sit back and listen to your podcast, and an hour later, I got this amazing video that's fully edited, color corrected, done for me. And I just don't see that world ever happening in my lifetime, because there's so much more

that goes into making a video, right? Like just that exploratory process of figuring out like what is the best way to present that message is something that I feel like when we meet with our clients they just don't fully have it figured out and that's a big part of the process is figuring it out. And with that step missing, you're not gonna be able to have that video that people like you would create. Yeah, completely agree. I'm sure we wanna ask the last question.

Yeah, and as tradition with the show, one of the last questions we ask is, how did you come up with the name Savvy Productions? Okay. This is, okay, this is crazy. So like I said, I started this business eight years ago and I decided the company name had to be in the URL. Like that was really important to me. So I made a list of 50 names.

I'm like, yeah, these are all, you are all ranging from this is a really cool name to, it's an okay name. I got onto a website that would tell you if you could buy the URL or not. All 50 names, none of them were available. It's like, okay. Then I added a hyphen because all of them were like savvy productions. It's like, well, let's put a hyphen between Savvy and Productions. So I did that with all 50 names.

I'm serious, all 50 of them. Only two of them were available. I like Savvy Productions. That was one of my top favorites. Then the other one was one of the bottom ones. I don't even remember what it is, something dumb. So it's like, okay, well, let's do Savvy Productions. So we bought Savvy Hyphen Productions and explaining to somebody what a hyphen is and that it's not like a dash is a nightmare over

the phone or it's awful. Like it's terrible. So I looked into buying savvy productions comm from the person who owned it and I reached out to him via text and email and said hey Because they weren't using it. I was like, hey, I would like to buy this from you and I've heard horror stories You know where people pay like hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a URL. So I Was like I can't afford that hopefully, you know, we can find some middle ground and and they'll sell it to me for a better price and never responded to any of my text messages or emails and they just ghosted me and so I you can put like a

ghosted me. And so I, you can put like a watch, you know, like pay attention to this URL and see if it basically doesn't get renewed. And it was coming up and I paid a service to basically buy it the instant it basically became available, like instant. And so I bought it for like way cheaper than I would have paid this person for the URL. So I'm super glad they ghosted me and because I would have lost some serious money. So I now own SavvyProductions.com. And so I guess that's kinda the craziest way of saying that's how we picked our company's name.

Like I said, I always loved the name, but there was some other names I liked even better. But I did feel really strongly about having our name be the URL as well. Like I just thought that was crucial, you know, to people being able to search us online. If you Google Savvy Productions, we're going to show up in first place. Whereas if our URL was something different, that would be a much more challenging thing

to do with our SEO. So that's basically how we ended up with Savvy Productions as our name. To me, I think that was just like nuts. But I love the name. It's fun. And who doesn't like Captain Jack Sparrow, you know, saying Savvy? Oh, that's where you got it from. I was wondering.

Savvy. It's so funny. I was wondering, I'm like, why is he like Savvy so much? Now we know why. Yeah. Now we know. That's so funny. I was wondering, I'm like, why is he like, savvy so much? Now we, now we know why. Yeah. Now we know. That's amazing.

No, that's, that's a great way to, to definitely secure the name. Something for us to think about for future names. I feel bad for anybody listening to this. It's like, I'm going to start my business today because you have all those squatters, you know, that are just sitting on URLs. And it's like, there's like nothing available. So it's just getting tougher every day. It makes me wonder, how did, like,

why would someone even get like a URL like savvyproductions.com? Like, costs such a weird like thing to sit on. Do you know what I mean? Like, unless they were also thinking of starting a production company. I came up with the same thing. From my research, it looked like they were gonna be

another production company. Right, okay. So that's why. Cause I agree, I thought it was pretty unique, but apparently it wasn't as unique as I was hoping it was. Well, they must've also been a Jack Sparrow fan, so that's probably how they got it. Howdy, let's do it. it was well they were they must have also been a Jack Jack Sparrow fans alright well I think that's a good spot to end it on we did a longer episode

this time but I think it was pretty good so guys if you want to find Steve go to savvy that's with two V's savvy SavvyProductions.com. V as in Van or Victor. Yeah. And if you want to follow them on Instagram, go to SavvyProductionsVideo. And yeah, that's it. Thank you so much for coming on, Steve. Thanks, Steve. Yeah, yeah. And absolutely.

If you want to see like the Grim Reaper video or one of the others that we're talking about. Oh, yeah, do send it. I was going to say it should all be on our website. If not, everything's on our Vimeo page to check it out. But thanks for having me. You guys are awesome. It was fun to hang out and chat. Appreciate you sharing your story, Stephen. Thanks for listening to this episode of Creatives Grab Coffee. Please make sure to follow and engage with us on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and your favorite podcast app.

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