Creatives Grab Coffee - Growing a Video Business with Google Ads (ft. Republic24) #97

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

On episode 97 of Creatives Grab Coffee, we sit down with Rodrigo from Republic24, based in Monterrey and Mexico City, for an inside look at building a sustainable video production company in Latin America. Rodrigo shares his journey from film school to founding Republic24 over a decade ago and discusses how he grew the company without loans, relying on organic growth, smart hiring, and an unwavering belief in Google Ads as a lead-generation tool. We explore his strategic expansion into industrial video content, how his team has tapped into cross-border collaborations with U.S. clients, and why niching down into B2B content has been a cornerstone of their success. Rodrigo also opens up about building a strong internal company culture, his cautious approach to scaling, and plans for a third location in Guadalajara. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Episode Introduction and Sponsors 02:18 – Guest Welcome: Rodrigo from Republic24 02:53 – Rodrigo’s journey from film school to starting Republic24 03:30 – Why expanding from Monterrey to Mexico City was essential 05:03 – Early lessons: making videos vs. selling video services 06:36 – From solopreneur to building a growing team 08:30 – How Google Ads fueled Republic24’s early growth 11:26 – Why Rodrigo still manages his Google Ads personally 14:41 – Targeting U.S. clients for shoots in Mexico 16:44 – Positioning as an English-speaking production partner in Mexico 17:17 – Niching into industrial and manufacturing videos 18:56 – Why industrial video is overlooked—and profitable 20:29 – Google vs. Meta vs. LinkedIn: what works for B2B 24:49 – LinkedIn’s underuse in Mexico 28:15 – Why Rodrigo never took out loans to build Republic24 30:03 – Budgeting growth through calculated hiring 32:32 – Hiring contract roles with long-term potential 35:15 – First key hires: editor and sales/admin assistant 36:49 – Building a positive workplace culture 37:59 – Activities that create a happy, loyal team 40:25 – Team loyalty through the pandemic 43:02 – Corporate video demand during and after lockdown 44:47 – Sales strategy: all inbound, no cold calls 45:39 – Risks of relying solely on Google Ads 47:19 – Nurturing past clients through personalized messages 50:34 – Future plans: expansion into Guadalajara and U.S. client growth SPONSORS: Canada Film Equipment: www.CanadaFilmEquipment.com Audio 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.com To learn more about the show, visit: https://www.creativesgrabcoffee.com/ #CreativesGrabCoffee #videographyhacks #videography #videographer #videoproduction #businesspodcast #videoproductionpodcast #lapseproductions #videomarketing #videoproductioncompany #videoproductionservices #videoproductionbusiness #internationalvideo #videoagency #lapseproductions #GoogleAds #videostrategy #businesspodcast #mexico #mexicovideo #videoproductionmexico

Welcome to Creatives Grab Coffee, the podcast on the business of video production. Creatives Grab 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?

Do you need crew or a strong production partner to help you with your project? Laps Productions is one of the top production companies in Toronto and your go-to video partner. With our strong creative skills and extensive network, we can help you achieve your goal. Laps Productions is able to offer you production services, white label services, or finder

fees for project handoffs. Reach out to us on our website at LAPSProductions.com to learn more. My name is Mehran, welcome to Canada Film Equipment. We are a boutique rental house based in Toronto. We are here to help you guys out with all production sizes. Feel free to contact us to get a quote if you are a production house and you're looking for lighting, camera packages or lighting and group plan packages. You can see our contact information in the link below.

We are more than happy to help you guys out. Make sure you follow and subscribe to creativescrapcoffee.com. Thank you. Hey, what's up everybody? I'm Matt Pappas. I'm a professional lighting designer. I'm a professional lighting designer. I'm a professional lighting designer. I'm a professional lighting designer. I'm a professional lighting designer. I'm a professional lighting designer. I'm a professional lighting designer. Hey, what's up everybody?

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Don't forget to like, follow, subscribe, and all of the other internet things to Come on down, audioprocess.ca. Don't forget to like, follow, subscribe and all of the other internet things to creativesgrabcoffee.com. They'll be waiting for you. I'll be waiting for you. And we're all going to have a real good time. And now let's begin the show. Welcome everyone to creatives grab coffee. Today we got our first guest from Mexico. We got Rodrigo from Republic24. Welcome Rodrigo. Hi guys. Thanks for having me. A little bit warm down there, right? Over in Mexico compared to up here in Canada. Oh yeah. Definitely. It seems that it's going to be like a really hot year this year. I hope so in terms of work as well, you know, because it's been, 2024 was a bit of a tough

year for a lot of people in the industry. But anyways, before we kind of dive into it, give us a little bit of a background into you and your business. Well, I started video production, I went to film school in Mexico, and then I started a company we plug 24, 11 years ago. So we've been here for 11 years. It's been a fun ride, a lot of ups and downs. But we've been growing. So we started in Monterrey, Mexico.

Then we opened an office in Mexico City. So we're kind of trying to target both which are kind of the biggest cities in Mexico. So that's what we've been doing lately. And you said you started first in Monterrey, right? Like what made you make that move or switch over to Mexico initially? Was it like a gradual kind of organic way

that you kind of moved there? Or was it like a conscious decision you wanted to put an office there so that because of all the business that was coming in? It was definitely conscious because here in Mexico, a lot of things are centralized in Mexico City, which is the capital. And it's, you know, one of the largest cities in the world. I think it's more than 20 million people that live there.

So definitely, I felt that staying only in Monterrey would probably just get us so far. And I felt that the right move or the smart move was to try to break ground in Mexico City and see what would come out of there. And it's been really good. It's definitely different than Monterrey. It's more another kind of clients and our kind of videos. But it's huge. It's a huge pie.

And it's a lot of work. So it's been fun. I think it was the right move, definitely. Yeah. Let's kind of explore your history in terms of how you got and started your company, because we kind of glossed over that a little bit. It just got us through, you started your company, you finished school, you started your company. What was that whole process like? Yeah. So I finished film school and I immediately knew I wanted to do my own thing.

So the thing is I had no idea how to do it. I mean, I knew how to make videos, but one thing is to make videos and another thing is to sell those videos. So I went into work to another company. They were very focused on corporate videos. And I learned a lot. I learned pretty much all the ins and outs

of how to actually sell your videos to customers, how to sell your service, and how to do all the administrative tasks that here in Mexico might be a hassle if you have no guide or it's the first time you want to start. I mean, it's not as friendly an environment to start a business by your own.

So there was definitely a challenge, but I learned a lot in that company. I was there for a year, and that was more than enough for me to learn everything until I got to a point where I felt like, you know what, I think I'm ready. I think I'm gonna go ahead and give it a try and see what happens. I was young, I was single, I didn't have anything to lose.

I didn't have a lot of money in the bank, but I was just like, you know, let's go for it. And that happened 11 years ago. And it's been fun. So then in terms of like, you started the company, like, what kind of errors did you have in terms of like, growing it? Like, what was that? What was that whole history like? Well, I started with, you know, the typical solopreneur just by myself, my apartment, I had no office, I had very little equipment I would rent out

or even borrow from friends, different equipment or gear, whatever I needed. Things kind of started working out pretty quick. I got one client and then another one and then another one. After about a year or a year and a half, I felt the need to actually move to an actual office and hire someone. So I hired my first employee, like probably a year or a year and a half

after I started the company. And from there, we've been growing. We grew for like six years in Monterrey and then we made the decision that, if we went to Mexico City, we could expand our business and that's what we did. Then came the pandemic. There was, I think for everyone, it was a big hit,

but we were able to overcome it. And here we are 11 years ago, sorry, 11 years later. We're here, we have the office in Mexico city and here in Monterey we've been growing as well and having a lot of new people and new projects. We've been also exploring new niches, like selling to American customers. There's a lot of industry here in Mexico

from American companies, so we offer the services for them to, you know, we do all the shooting, and then we send all the raw files, and people back in the US edit the whole thing. So that's what we've been focusing on in the last two or three years and it's been good. And then in terms of your first year, you already got quite a few clients going right off the bat. Were you actively doing a lot of sales or yourself?

Yeah. What I did was, and it's been a core of the business since, it's Google Ads. That for me was the thing that really got me started. I had no idea how to do it, so I took an online course. I learned a lot. And the very few money I had, I decided to go all in on Google Ads. I just felt that it was the right move to do. And back then, there was pretty much no one here in Mexico

that was doing that Google Ads specifically for video. So I think I was probably one of the first ones. It was cheap. It wasn't expensive at all and that really started working. I'm talking a couple of months after I started the campaigns and everything, I started getting one client and then another and then another and it just snowballed from there. I just restarted our Google AdWords campaign the other week after putting it off for like

months and it's actually done pretty well in terms of the impressions and everything. And luckily we cut a lot of other costs so I was able to allocate that money that would have gone to those costs towards our AdWords campaign. And I actually started seeing some leads coming in. So it definitely does work. Do you still heavily use it in your business? Oh, yeah, we definitely rely on it since day one and to this day. It's been like our main tool for sales, you know, and it's much more different now than it was then.

It's much more expensive now. There's a lot much more competition. The cost per take is way higher than it was back then. Also, the platform has changed a lot. But still, I mean, it definitely is the way we go. And we'll probably keep doing this for a long time. I don't know. It's a lot easier to create the ads now I noticed because you know, they also have like some AI on the platform, which is not great. I had to change a lot of it. But luckily, using something like chat GPT like save so much time in terms of like crafting the descriptions of titles and everything. I remember in the past whenever I first started, it was it took me like

hours to like create stuff. And you know, you look at it, you're like, this is not the best. I'm not a writer, right? But now it's, it was, it got a lot easier. I was able to get it off the ground way faster compared to before. I definitely need to go through like a course to like really understand the ins and outs of it. But yeah, it's, it's a lot better now. Do you do it all yourself or do you have like a company that handles it for you? No, that's something that I've always done by myself.

I don't know. I don't feel comfortable. I tried it. I tried doing it through another company probably six or seven years ago and I didn't really like the results. I felt that they, you know, it was like they thought I didn't know anything about it so they started, you know, kind of trying to sell me things that really and I was like, hey guys, I know what we're doing here and like I started this whole thing and so I, that's something I don't feel comfortable yet, you know, giving to someone else.

So after 11 years, it's it's me. It's personally me, the one who who does the whole ads and campaigns and everything. And yes, it's definitely easier now. It's way easier. Yeah, I feel like if you just like dedicate a bit of time so you can kind of figure it out, because I feel like even if you do hand it off to a company, I feel like they'll just do like cookie cutter templates that they do to all their other like, you know, I don't know, like whatever they do for dentists, they'll just walk out dental and they'll just do that. And I was looking at it.

I'm like, I could tell this is not like rocket science. I'm like, if I really like put my mind to it, I feel like I could figure it out pretty easily. I mean, it's already there like I think in terms of just going from like Amateurs are just like a little bit more advanced that that step is not that difficult. I think yeah, and also No one knows group business better than you do, right? So that's it's kind of hard to give it to someone else and expect them to do it The way you think should be done because you know

what you're selling. So that's why I think it's always best that maybe we all videographers don't have the time to do that, but at least to try to be there and know what people are doing and make sure you're not just wasting your money, right? And you can always adjust it. Yeah, sorry. You can always adjust it. And like by doing it yourself,

you can understand what works, what doesn't work. And then you gain experience using it over time. Whereas then you realize maybe you don't need to be spending this many dollars if you're trying to target certain leads, you know, and then if you want, and then if you realize, hey, you know what, I noticed that maybe I might get more leads if I invest this much, it would actually,

you would actually understand what kind of investment you need to do. Whereas as you said, Rodrigo, that if you hire another company, they may not necessarily be proactively trying to improve the ads over time. They might just, it's like a set it and leave it type approach where you just pay them. They make it once and then maybe just swap things out.

They may not really proactively improve it because yeah, not only that, the money you're going to be paying them, if you understand it, you could use that money to actually fund the Google Ads themselves as well and you know get even more leads so exactly again it all depends on time versus effort right that's that's the one thing you got to measure yeah definitely yeah and we found out that for us it was it was way better to do it by ourselves yeah you mentioned you were also trying to find niches currently. So do you want to expand on that a little bit? Yeah. We've always been very focused on the corporate side

of things. We do a lot of corporate video and we started noticing, it's something we didn't actually actively search for, but we started noticing a lot of clients from the US that needed video here in Mexico. So we decided to explore that and we kind of did a whole business unit around that. So we offer that service as an English speaking crew here in Mexico as an English speaking crew here in Mexico that has high quality standards that are aligned to a lot of what an American or a Canadian or a European customer would expect. So we started working on that for probably, I don't know, we started working on that a

couple of years ago and that's probably our main thing right now. So it's definitely a niche and we've definitely explored it and we're loving it so far. It's been good. So essentially becoming a solutions provider for a lot of production companies or agencies that are trying to find crew or talent over there in Mexico, right?

Is there a particular kind of strategy you've like kind of implemented in terms of like how you're trying to make yourself more known to them or searchable? Um, Google ads, once again, we started a campaign in English targeted to, um, for people in the U S and in Canada that are looking for video production in Mexico, video services in Mexico, video crews in Mexico, talent in Mexico. So we have the whole thing, the campaign, the ads, the website, we have it all in English so that English speaking customers feel safe and feel kind of, they can feel it's the right way and that's a lot of what we offer.

Make them feel like, hey, we get you guys, we know what you need here in Mexico so we can make that happen. Like in Mexico, what kind of other, like are you trying to also target other industries in terms of like niching down to specific industries? Well yeah, we've also been exploring a lot of like, well here in Mexico we call it industrial video, I think maybe you call it the same, which is a lot of videos, you know like probably training videos or explanatory videos about you know how a certain machine works. There's a lot of industry here, there's a lot of maquilas, there's a lot of manufacturing, So we've also been exploring a lot of that.

And it's actually one of the niches that we really enjoy. And a lot of persons from our competition aren't really looking into it because it maybe doesn't look or seem as glamorous as making an ad or whatever. But it's definitely well paid and it's, it's definitely something that's really interesting. And you know, there is like a big need for that. So we, we found out and you know, we've been focusing on that probably for like eight years now. I'm surprised no one else is targeting that because that's always like a juicy industry. Yeah, I don't know.

It's maybe that people here want more of like a, I don't know, I think the ads side of it making commercial videos is more glamorous. I don't know. So yeah, here in Mexico there's something about that, that everyone wants to, you know, be there and all wants to look at, uh, you know, getting dirty, going inside the factories, looking at the processes. And I love that. That's, that's something that I've enjoyed. Yeah.

I love that it's, that it can be consistent. I love that it can be recurring revenue. You know, you do, if you do one ad for a company, you might do one project for them once in a while and that's it. Right? When it comes to working with the industrial type projects, there's the chance that they need a lot of different kinds of video content depending on what their processes and machinery and everything like that might be.

It's funny that you mentioned everyone wants to do ads. Everyone wants to do the Nike or the Adidas ad, you know, it's like what everyone jumping into the industry first says, like, I want to do an ad for Nike. It's like, great, you and 50,000 other people, right? Yeah, exactly. And I mean, you can get those projects and, you know, they happen once in a while, but as you said, like,

there's much more going on here and it's always like constant training and constant processes and constant, you know, things happening in different areas inside a manufacturing plant. So yeah, it's definitely steady revenue. And I think it's really good to be, you know, kind of trying to target that from the beginning.

And you learn a lot as well. That's the other benefit from it. Oh yeah, and you don't get bored because, one day you're shooting processes in the airport and then you go in a coal mine and then you go into a hospital and then you go into a manufacturing plant and all over and it's really fun.

You get to learn a lot of processes know processes and how things are done. Yeah. I want to go back to the ads for a second. You focus a lot on Google ads. What about the other platforms like Meta and I guess just Meta for us. What about LinkedIn? LinkedIn maybe. Yeah. LinkedIn maybe? Yeah, we've definitely explored those,

but we've found that Google Ads for us work best. I think that it has to do that we sell a lot of business to business, and I think that that usually happens in Google Ads. And whereas maybe if you're a business selling to customers or consumers, I don't know, if you sell hamburgers or whatever, you would probably advertise through social media, right?

So we've done advertising in social media, and we've done pretty much every platform. But for us, it hasn't worked out as well. So we even have our social media accounts forgotten. We post every once in a while, but we don't really do any ads. We don't really put any paid stuff in there. Because again, Google Ads has worked for us so well and we we did

try it but it didn't work so it's like we're just sticking to what we know has been working for for all these years. What about LinkedIn? If it's not broke don't fix it. Yeah exactly. You know we haven't really explored LinkedIn as much. We've done the typical, as you said, meta, like Facebook, Instagram. We haven't also done any TikTok. I don't know, maybe we haven't, you know, had the time to do it. And yeah, like I said, since we feel like really comfortable and we've seen all the

results that we're getting from the ads, we've kind of tried to stick and stay there. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like in terms of like paid ads, Google's probably the best bet with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. I think for our type of companies, it might not make the most sense unless you're targeting, I don't know, maybe some people in marketing that would be actively looking for production companies on those platforms. But I think that's such a small number of might not make sense. Like,

if you think about the like the customer journey, it always starts off on places like Google customer journey, it always starts off on places like Google and LinkedIn. That's where, that's where I think it lives and breathes. Right. So targeting Google makes a lot of sense. LinkedIn. I feel like it's so expensive to do like ads that I think the best shot at it is just doing organic content creation. So you're kind of like masking your ads to be like posts.

And that's how you make it work for yourself. The other thing is also like a lot of people in those spaces, they're looking for platforms that allow them to kind of find the specific search parameters. If they're looking for a video production company, if you type that into Google, or video production company, Mexico City, they know Google, it'll, or video production company, Mexico city.

Yeah. There's, they know what they're going to get when they search for that. Whereas, you know, on LinkedIn, you can't just search a keyword and then it'll find you the list of companies. Sorry, did I say LinkedIn? I meant Instagram.

Instagram, you can't just put like video production, Mexico city, and then it's going to find you a list of all the companies necessarily, you know, based on those kind of organic search parameters, you know, like sometimes it's like people have paid posts or sponsored posts and that's kind of what's similar also on LinkedIn where you're finding people and companies. But it, I don't know. It's, it's not as, it's not as, um, organic now compared to like what it

is like with Google, I feel, and that's why Google is still one of the best ways for people to find what they're looking for, right? Yeah, definitely. And also, I don't know how it is in the US and Canada, but here in Mexico, LinkedIn, it's weird. I don't know. It feels... There's 20 million people there. you telling me like not more than

Population is in that city. Yeah but you know LinkedIn it feels like there's a lot of recruiting there's a lot of recruiting. There's a lot of sales of business solutions. And I don't know, I think here in Mexico, people don't use it as a tool to actually network,

genuinely network with other professionals. So that's why I was thinking, I think it's weird. I don't know if it's that way in the US or not, but here in Mexico, I think it's weird. I don't know if it's that way in the U S or not here in Mexico. It's either, I think people don't haven't, you know, gotten a clear idea of how to actually use the tool for, you know, to take an advantage of it. Interesting. Yeah.

Now here people use it for, I would say both, like a lot of knowledge sharing like I can see like an effort for people trying to be more genuine on it compared to before before it was a lot of like you know patting everyone on their back and participation trophy vibes but now it feels like more people are trying to like give their opinion and what not. This is the Facebook generation that graduated into the workforce and now uses LinkedIn as the new Facebook as it used to be. That's how I see LinkedIn now.

It's like, cause a lot of what I see now. It's still very shiny and positive. It's not a hundred percent genuine. It is, it is. That's what I'm saying. It's like, it reminds me of like when we were in university at the, like back in 2011 to 2015, everyone who was like on Facebook, like pushing a lot of stuff back then, and then it just kind of naturally progressed over to LinkedIn. And then that's kind of

like the same generation, but it's like the same kind of content, a little bit of like what people were posting then. And people are trying to be more personable now in LinkedIn, you know, and not in kind of like sharing experiences and stories and things like that. But, you know, it's still interesting to see, as Dario put it. Yeah. And like, I can't relate to that because here in Mexico, I don't think people use it that way.

So that's why I think it's weird. I don't know, It feels weird here. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it just hasn't caught up in terms of what it could be used for. I mean, LinkedIn was initially just meant to be a platform for people to showcase their resume, for recruiters to find people. And that's initially what the main purpose of LinkedIn is. And then that's probably how it's seen in Mexico. It's like it's a recruitment platform. That's it. It's not a social media juggernaut like how other

platforms are. So that's probably why it hasn't changed there yet. Exactly. It hasn't evolved this much here. Yeah. Interesting. I want to go back a little bit more. I guess we talked about this during your pre-interview. Like you said that when you started your company, you didn't want to take on any debts or anything. I kind of want to explore that a little bit because you kind of hand-built the company yourself, never took out any loans or anything. Do you want to tell us a little bit about why you decided to go that route? I mean, a lot of us tend to do that, but you like strictly stayed away from like going

into debt to kind of try to build, right? So do you want to tell us why? I don't know. I think I didn't feel comfortable like, you know, probably taking loans out from the very beginning. I thought that I could, I wanted maybe to prove myself that I could do it, you know, start something from the ground up by myself and then see what happens. And as the business has been growing, I haven't had the need to do that. And that is something that I think is really healthy.

It gives us healthy finances. There's no pressure of, hey, we have to make this payment with the bank or whatever. So it's something that just has been working for us and also, as I said, everything has been growing really organically. So I think we've been, you know, managing finances the right way and we feel really comfortable doing that, you know, and when we started our office in Mexico City, you know, we didn't start it right away because, you know, we wanted to make sure finances were right, you know, so we kind of, you know, try to

go slow when it comes to money, you know, not make any like big expenses that would probably like move our stability. So that's where we've been focusing on and it's been working. So yeah. So the other thing I wanted to lead into basically was because you started when you kind of hit the ground running, got the office within a year and then started getting your employees. Um, how did you kind of like budget for, you know, that type of growth, knowing that you kind of don't want to dip into the bank's money at any point, right? Because it's like, once you start getting employees, you got to start thinking

You got to be more future future for cash flow, right? I'm like, yeah, like how did you kind of like that? You know for me it it was really organic In the sense that I was you know, I mean I was like myself But of course I would you know hire freelancers for people to work for me, you know you know on a project and I would hire freelancers for people to work for me on a project. And after a while, like you started, you look at the numbers and you realize like, hey, I'm spending quite a big amount on freelancers. Maybe I could just have someone in-house

and see how it goes. I mean, I already have the money, I'm already spending it on someone else else so I'd rather spend it on someone that's already part of the team and also you know when we when I hire someone I Generally like I don't hire them for like an like an indefinite amount of time You know, it's usually like, you know, let's see how this works for three months

or for six months, I don't know, for a limited period of time. And see if we're the right fit for you and you're the right fit for us, and see if everything works. So at the end, there is a commitment for three months or six months usually But you know things don't work out, you know, it's it's easier you have like a calculated risk You know what? I mean like you can spend kind of money or

invest whatever you want to call it on having someone on your team and if it just doesn't work out or having someone on your team and if it just doesn't work out or projects are not going the way you would think, there's always a safe space to say, hey, let's back up a bit. But fortunately, it hasn't been the case for us, except the pandemic where we definitely had to shrink. We usually hire someone and see if it works for three months or six months and it usually works. So we've been growing.

We're about six or seven persons in the Mexico office and in the Monterrey office. But yeah, it's always slow, it's always organic and it's always like, you know, kind of let's try, see if it works, if it works good. I mean, if it doesn't work, well, it just didn't work. And yeah. It's smart business, your approach. Cause you, as you mentioned, like you're seeing the numbers coming through, you're understanding

that you're making a business decision where you notice like, hey, instead of freelancers we bring in people full time and that way you can actually grow with them. But I like how you touched upon how you can also do just like contract basis and plan things out with people for a certain period of time. Cause I've heard of some companies doing that here as well, where they're employees, but they're not like, they're not like an employee that you're going to keep for two, three years or anything like that.

It's with a very specific set of time. And I guess that might become more common because then you're also planning for, um, cause you could plan your expenses based on that person a little bit more calculated than just hiring someone for a single day. It's like, Hey, we're going to bring you on for X number of shoots over the next six months. These are your hours. This is what we what time commitment. And then you can actually plan the costs at that point. And like you said, it's not like you're

going to be committed right at the end of it. So it's kind of like I'm in between of a freelancer and a full-time employee, right? Yeah, it usually starts that way. Okay. Because that's how we feel safe, you know? But to be honest, they usually do end up staying. I mean, it's not like we usually hire someone for six months and then, you know, like, okay, it's over. So it's kind of like a safe net for us to do that. But it's always, you know, with the focus of I want you to stay and hopefully you want to stay as well. And so far, except a couple of times and during the pandemic and stuff like that, it has worked.

So people that come in for three or six months end up staying for way longer periods of time. Yeah. Well, this is a question, but I'm curious. How do you budget for that? So if you get a three-month contract, are you just saying, okay, I'm going to hire this guy for three months. Let me have that three months already secured now so I don't have to worry about it?

Is that how you did it? Yeah. That's definitely how we do it. Yeah. So I call it a calculated risk. You're risking. At the end, nothing is sure, but what's the worst thing that could happen?

Well, things don't work out, maybe you lost some money, but it's money that you kind of already have there and you're willing to take the risk. So that's why I say it will be growing organically on that way. Got it. Yeah, and in terms of the employees, you said you had like six or seven. Like what was the first like one or two key roles that you hired for to kind of help alleviate

things for you in the business? Video editing. Video editing is definitely very time consuming. Yeah. So- So just editor or was there any, what was like the next role that you found was very helpful in the business? Yeah, video editor and then was this girl Brenda

who's still with us. She does a lot of sales as well, helps with administrative tasks. So that was probably the second, I think, role that we hired. And after that, it's been pretty much manpower for shoot and video editing, post-production, that kind of thing.

But yeah, she's been really helpful to the team. She's someone that came here from, I don't know, when we had probably three years, a little bit less, that I started the company. And she's been here all along, and that's like, hey, I got all the administrative tasks with her, and she also helps me with some sales stuff. So I kind of got that covered.

So that has also helped me. So it's also a matter of having the right people in the right places at the right time. To go from one, like a one man show to like having a team of six to seven employees, like what are some of the things that you learned along the way that you might want to tell your younger self? I would say that thinking of your employees first. A lot of people think that the client goes first. I learned that if the employee is happy, probably the client will be happy as well.

So that's something that I've really tried to encourage since I hired the first person. And I think what we have here, it's something that it's very beautiful. It's very nice. There is a good sense of friendship between one another. Like every person that comes into this team feels that they're coming into a place of light and of happiness, especially in an area like video production that can be really tough. So yeah, I like to focus a lot on that, on having people happy. And I think that has been key. And how do you do that? Like what kind of certain activities with them? Like how do you keep that level of positivity going on? Yeah, we do a bunch of things. We've read books together and you know like hey

let's read a chapter a week and then you know gather here in the office probably Friday and you know comment on that book you know. Like business books? No, but more about creativity and about, you know, like, we read like a book of history of Pixar. So that was like really inspiring, for example, right? We do also a lot of, you know, we try to eat lunch altogether when we can do that. When we're all at the office, we try to eat lunch together.

We try to go out for, you go out for drinks on Friday or something here in Mexico that's called Viernes Chilango, which is like, you take half of your Friday off and go with the people in the office and just have a good time, have some food, have some drinks. Instead of closing the office at five or six, you probably close the office at one or two. And we try to do a lot of that, that, um, stuff and, you know, it's, it's really fun, we enjoy it and yeah, it's, it's one of the things we all look forward, like. Through the week, like, Hey, it's, it's almost Friday. It's almost Viernes Chilango.

So let's do it. I think I'm going to copy that one for us. That's like, that's a good one. It even got me like brainstorming ideas on ideas on maybe not just books, but even you can have everyone find a short film that they really like that week and then have a little viewing party with everyone and just be like, hey, so what did you think of this one? What did you think of that one? What can we learn or bring to our business from this even?

There's so many ways you can do that when you think about it, yeah. Yeah, and it, you know, I mean, you don't have to spend a lot of money to do that, you know? You just have to be willing to do it, maybe take some time. I know it's probably better if we, it will probably be very good for the business if we work Friday, you know, the whole day.

But I also think it's healthy to, you know, probably take some time and, you know, go out and invest in these people that are, you know, pretty much giving half of their day or even more to you, to your business. Right. So it's a way of honoring them. Yeah, we'll get more back from them that way anyways, right. Rather than working the extra time because it lets them recharge, lets them be more optimistic about working.

Yeah, and for example, during the pandemic, when it started and everything stopped completely, it was really tough. So I had to talk to the team and tell them, like, hey, guys, you know what? We'll probably have to pause for, I don't know, a couple months until we figure this whole thing out because, you know, it's been really tough for everyone and I'm really sorry. Like, I really want this to work, but it's been really hard.

And, you know, the response, you know, pretty much made me cry because they were like, hey, you've been there for us, you know, when we've needed you, so now we're here for you. So whatever you need, you know, we're here for you. Like, and of course I didn't ask them to work for free or anything, but I felt like their support during the time that was so hard in a conversation that I was like really afraid of having. And the output was really, really something beautiful. That's incredible. Like were you able to bring back most of them?

Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, we took like a two or three more, two or three month break. And then, you know, we were all back in the office. It's good loyalty. Yeah, it's not bad. Yeah. We were closed up way longer.

How was it down in Mexico? It was definitely tough at first when people stopped everything. But then something happened that people realized the importance of video. It was like, okay, we can't do anything. We have to go digital. We have to go virtual. So all of a sudden, from being something terrible, people or customers realized really quickly like,

hey, it is something that we need to do, right? So we started getting a lot of clients, a lot of projects, very different from the projects we were probably doing previously. For example, we started to shoot a lot of like staged corporate events that would otherwise happen, but there couldn't be any events, so we would go to their office and maybe shoot someone doing it and

then edit it out. And then they would stream it as a virtual event. And we started doing that kind of thing. And that really got us going. So yeah, we stopped for probably two or three months. And and then we we we came back really quickly. Yeah. It's almost like there was a second Renaissance of video with the pandemic. That was like the silver lining of that whole thing is that they finally got it through their heads that it was actually very important. So yeah, like we noticed that here as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Wasn't as quickly jumping back into it as you, you know, like two, three months, not bad for us. Well, they probably weren't locked down as long as we were. I know. I know. At four months for us, we were still locked down with no end in sight. And so what did we decide to do? We decided to start this podcast to keep ourselves sane. From the pandemic.

Yeah. Yeah. To be honest, like if it wasn't for it, like we probably would never have done something like this or at least thought of it. Yeah. yeah. To be honest, like if it wasn't for it, like we probably would never have done something like this or at least thought of it. Yeah. Let's go back to sales. You said one of your employees, I forget her name, but does she also handle sales for you? Well, she helps me with, you know, like follow up to clients.

Maybe sometimes she helps me visit them. After pandemic, we don't visit clients anymore. It's all virtual calls and everything. But before pandemic, we used to go to their offices or their plant or whatever. So yeah, she helps me with that. And that really helps me to have more free time to focus on other stuff, not stay really operational. Do you still do, like, well, you mentioned

you do a lot of Google AdWords. Do you do any cold calls or, I don't know any any outbound? No, no, no. It's all been Google ads. It's all been inbound. And of course, you know, maybe some word of mouth and it's also a snowball because you know, one client that found you in Google ads in 2016. Once in our project and another, once another project, and another project, and another project. And then you start adding and adding and adding

more clients from Google Ads. So it's been growing really, really big without the need of ever picking up the phone and cold calling. We probably tried it when we really started, but was like, hey, this freaks us out. We're not good at it and we're not seeing any results. So that's also one of the reasons why I thought it was a way smarter move to try in-down marketing. Is it in the back of your mind that you

should maybe diversify a little bit? I mean, it's great that it's working out so well for you for so many years but the everything like you know, if you google my change in algorithm and Yeah, I mean As Kirill said if you ain't broke don't fix it but also To have that that knowledge that things can change any moment, right? And we're willing to do it. I mean, the moment we see these stops working, we'll probably start exploring different things.

Like I don't want to be married to Google Ads and then fail and die with Google Ads, because it's a platform like any other, and it evolves, and the world evolves. So I know that, and I'm conscious of that. But as long as it's working for us, we're still there. Maybe not necessarily also just with drumming up new business with new leads, necessarily, but do you do anything to kind of engage

your current or past clients in some way? Like at one thing I'm trying to kind of incorporate now is to reconnect with some people that we've worked with in the past, you know, that, you know, sometimes people move on to different companies in different roles, you know, they may not necessarily be handling video anymore in one company, but they not necessarily be handling video anymore in one company, but they're doing something else at another.

I find reaching out to them and just reestablishing connection has actually started to foster a little bit more interest in drumming up new business. Have you done anything like that or do you keep everybody? No, we've definitely tried, you know, we do the typical, I don't know if it's typical or not, the typical like Christmas message card and we send it, we don't send it like, you know, as a whole for everyone, we kind of try to write

like a personalized message, like a personalized thank you note to the people that have been there during the year and also for clients that weren't present in that year. It's like, hey, we missed you this year and we're here, you know? But it's really been like really small, very punctual actions. It's not something that we have system, how do you call it, like we have it done, it's systematic, you know. But it's, I know it's definitely something that we should do more and like we're definitely conscious that it's way cheaper to keep a client than to get a

new one. So like, we know that and you know, clients do keep coming back, but I don't know, maybe if we do that, clients that have already passed, maybe could remember us more or I don't know. It's something we should explore more definitely. It's also about timing because sometimes when you reach out to some of these past clients or people that you've worked with in the past and say like hey Let's grab a coffee and you meet up in person and chat It's almost like a reminder to them but like how great it was to also like work with you and then it Sometimes they just might be even like toying with the idea that their organization might need video and then you kind of coming

In all of a sudden again is like that little nudge that they need and they sometimes kind of figure out like, okay No, we actually have some video content that we've been meaning to get started. So it's sometimes kind of like a good way to remind them not only that you're there, but also remind them to actually do video as well. It's almost like the, you're the universe calling in a way, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think there's that's something that we should do more and, you know, kind of leave that small idea of people like,

hey, we're here. Don't forget about us. Right? Invite them to those Friday night drinks. It's a cultural thing. So it's a very easy thing to be like, hey, our team is meeting up at this place on Friday. Come join us for, what was it called again? Here in Mexico, it's called Viernes Chilango. Viernes Chilango. Yeah, invite them to that. And who knows, right? Like, just keep it casual, you know, nothing. Like when I'm saying like connect with them, like don't connect with them to be like, hey, you need a video or something that is just genuinely like connect with them and be like, hey, how are things how have things been with you personally, and then

you never know where it can go, right? That's one strategy that I'm trying to kind of incorporate a little bit more. And I'm starting to see more and more the value of doing that because sometimes it's just a timing thing, I have to say. That's definitely a great idea. Yeah. Cool. I think we're close to ending it off. So I guess from my end, my last question is basically, what's your future vision for your company?

We want to expand to Guadalajara, which is the third big city here in Mexico. So it's Mexico City, which is huge. There's Monterrey and Guadalajara, which are the other two big cities here in Mexico. So it's Mexico City, which is huge. And there's Monterrey and Guadalajara, which are the other two big cities here in Mexico. So we've been trying for more than a year to maybe kind of start an office over there. But we haven't found the right people yet. And as I said, I like to sometimes go slow and make sure we make the right decisions. So that's kind of where we're going through to the future.

And also expanding on this niche thing about having the American or the European clients giving them the service here in Mexico. We started with that probably um, I don't know, probably two or three years ago, but I think there's still much more that we can do there to, to expand that niche of the business. So that's that's where we're focusing on right now. If you expand to Guadalajara, are you going to try to find some

client work there first to kind of at least get like a small foundation of work coming through there to prove it. Or are you thinking the opposite where you want to get someone in there first and then they can kind of help drum up the business? Like what is, what are your thoughts? No, that's where we are at right now. We're, we're, you know, kind of trying to get projects from Guadalajara and you know, kind of trying to get projects from Guadalajara. And, you know, it's been tough because sometimes we have to drive there or fly there and, you know, but it's part of, you know, we're kind of investing in the city right now, you know.

So that's definitely, I think, the way to do it. And then once we grow and have a lot of projects, it'll probably make sense to just have someone there, right? And if you're flying there frequently, then it makes sense. Like, yeah, if you're flying there at least once a month or twice a month, then at that point, it might just make sense to be there. Yeah. You already have your business established in Mexico City and the other city as well. So, yeah, Monterey. So you'll have like the business system in place to help with post-production and backend stuff and everything.

You just need someone on the ground there to kind of help execute production-wise, right? Exactly. That's exactly where we're at. And we're kind of excited for what's coming, but it's also not a CC. To find someone you can trust, that maybe you don't know at a distance,

but yeah, it's part of the challenges. For sure. Well, I guess the last thing we'll probably ask is also how did you come up with the name Republic24? I don't know. I guess I like them. I came up with the name Film Republic, which I just thought sounded cool, but it turned out that it already existed and there was already a website for that and there was already

social for that and all of that. So I was like, okay, no, it's not going to work. So I like the word Republic. I was like, hey, I want to keep that. Maybe it's not film Republic, but it's something Republic. I don't know. And yeah, I'm team 24 frames per second. A lot of people think it's better to do it at 30.

I think it depends on the project. Who thinks that? I don't like 30. It's TV. It's the TV folks. It's the whole TV. It's TV. It's the TV folks. A whole TV. Well, no. You know MKBHD?

The tech YouTuber? He has this whole thing going. He even sells merch that says like 30 frames per second is the way to go. Yeah, but he's a YouTuber. He doesn't actually do video production. Yeah. His whole thing, It's a marketing thing. You know, he's trying to be edgy, be like, yeah, no, we're still with the 30 frames. 24 now is the yeah, he doesn't do work, though. He just does the reviews. He's not part of the discussion. Well, yeah. So but I don't

know. I for me, it's always been 24. So that's where it came from. So it's Republic 24. Nice. I like it. And where can people find you? So our website is republic24.net. We also have a website called videoinmexico.com, which is for the American and European and Canadian clients

that are trying to do something here. And our socials are also Republic24 in Facebook and Instagram, Republic24MX, because someone had already won the name Republic24 by itself, so Republic 24 MX on Instagram. Yeah. Nice. Okay. Awesome.

Well, thanks Rodrigo for joining us on the show. It was great chatting with you. Thank you for having me guys. It's been really fun. 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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