Creatives Grab Coffee - How to be a FULLY REMOTE Producer | Creatives Grab Coffee 44

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR EXCLUSIVE CONTENT: https://www.patreon.com/CreativesGrabCoffeeProduced by LAPSE PRODUCTIONS – https://www.lapseproductions.comThe job has changed and being remote is becoming more the norm. One field that this wasn't expected for at first was video production. So how can you produce video content fully remotely really? Well today's guest Jeremy Thibodeau from Rubicon Story shares his story and how this model works for him and his business.SUBSCRIBE 🎧✅ and FOLLOW 📲 for more episodes! https://www.creativesgrabcoffee.com/

okay it seems like it's happening so seems like okay yeah wow this is kind of surreal because i've been watching you guys uh pretty frequently so it's kind of i i felt like i was just like watching the show or like talking to the show like i didn't i it doesn't even feel like you guys are like real people it feels like i'm talking right like because i because i see you so often on on well on my linkedin mostly so it was kind of like us it was like when we first chatted it's like breaking the fourth wall it's like yeah i'm now talking to you personally that's it exactly i know it was a little bit off-putting famous yeah to me you are i mean like yeah i've been following you guys for quite a while how did you how did you even find us i'm thinking uh while thinking of i've started recording some of my own podcast episodes.

So I just looked up like video, like podcasts about video production and you guys were the first that came up. And then since then I started following and I've just been basically anytime it comes across, like sometimes I put it on just like on the side while I do other things like the longer versions. Um, and then obviously like, I don't know if you've noticed but i'm i like and comment on pretty much every time you guys post on linkedin so yeah no we have yeah you stalk us constantly yeah well it's not my fault i always say jeremy liked your stuff it's the algorithm we appreciate the support yeah for sure i mean obviously like it's like it's it's motivated by my own self-interest, too. Like I'm trying to create more of a presence on LinkedIn. So, yeah. So I'm just engaging with everyone who's kind of in my field, hoping that others see it and so on and so forth. Yeah.

Well, it's definitely working. Jeremy, what do you do? Because I really don't. I've been out of the loop. Just kind of give us a little bit of a backstory and who you are and what is Rubicon Story? So I'm Jeremy. I've been making videos since I was about eight, eight or nine. So I've done a lot of different things over the course of my career. Rubicon Story is seven years old, Rubicon's story is seven years old and we kind of just started off like everyone. Music videos, moved into little product videos, moved into corporate videos, started getting opportunities to do a little bit bigger things. And then a couple of years ago, we got a pretty cool opportunity to start working with some clients fully remote. And then, I mean, got the opportunity, with some clients fully remote and then i mean got the opportunity covid came along basically and and yeah just a lot of a lot of companies were shuffling around and then we ended up getting one really interesting lead and then that led to another thing so now i

might basically have like two main clients that i'm that i work with it's all remote uh and i'm kind of like their their touch point for all things employee facing video. And then I have two partners, one who's more on the, well, it's two things. So there's a software product that we're developing. So he kind of oversees that. And then he also, he's the safety net, let's put it that way. So like I outsource everything, but sometimes when things don't go according to plan, he kind of makes sure that we deliver. So he's kind of like the, yeah, the fallback, the safety net. And then my other partner, he's more on the marketing side for SMBs. So he's got same thing, like two or three flagship clients.

We're really more like a part of our client's team. We work on the creativity with them and then we outsource to all kinds of different partners for execution. You mentioned that right now, pretty much all the work and all the video content that you produce is all remote based for you guys. Was it forced into that because of the pandemic or were you less remote and were you less remote beforehand? So, so I'm, I'm pretty much fully remote. Um, my, my partner's not like he does, he, his clients are in Montreal and Toronto, um, minor in New York. And I basically just, uh, yeah, most of it's post. Like I do coordinate some shoots and stuff with different teams depending, but most of it is all post. So just kind of landed that way.

And I like the flexibility. I like being able to do my job from pretty much anywhere and not be tied down to a specific spot. anywhere and not be tied down to a specific spot. So, uh, I'm trying to grow this as opposed to, uh, you know, obviously like if, if, if a great project came along and we have to, I mean, I did do a couple of shoots last year, but it was like, it's not the moneymaker really. So, so you're handling a lot of just the post-production work from your, from your clients, uh, out of New York? a lot of just the post-production work from your from your clients uh out of new york yeah well it's it's it's both it's like it's it's like creative conceptualization uh client experience and then yeah so it's kind of like you know sometimes they'll have an idea for something

and then we'll we'll work on it together other times they have a very specific idea and it's just on on me to guarantee the delivery by a certain date uh and then other times they have a very specific idea and it's just on me to guarantee the delivery by a certain date. And then other times they just have an objective and then I've got to pitch concepts. So, yeah, I mean, the capabilities for execution are like we like a lot of people can do that. I'm trying to sort of differentiate as a creative expert for employee engagement and this kind of thing. So you're kind of like trying to become part of like different companies, like marketing teams, developing a lot of the pre-production and kind of like basically the idea development, they kind of film and produce it. And then you kind of handle the

post side of things in that kind of sense yes and no i mean a lot like we do a lot of animation too a lot of cg um we do uh there's like a lot of like slideshows but like elevated slideshows like i have to buy like my my clients are are like on the well high-end fashions and that one is high-end fashion and the other one is eyewear and eye care, so optical. And yeah, it's stuff like we have eight people this quarter who are celebrating their 20th anniversary with the company. We need to make a video for our upcoming town hall that commemorates them. And it has to be different than the last one. And it can't be dry and you know we we want to make people feel something so i have to like continuously find ways to do

interesting internal corporate stuff and sometimes you know it's like an event that they that that you know we we work with a team we oversee and coordinate a team that's local and then they shoot it and then they ship everything to us and then same thing what are your methods for overseeing coordinate a team that's local and then they shoot it and then they ship everything to us and then same thing what are your methods for overseeing a remote shoot like what do you what are some of the key things you're you're thinking of or watching out for to be honest it's uh it's just a list of the materials that we need so it's it's teams that it's teams that are used to doing event recaps and stuff so i mean sometimes oh it's mostly it's mostly that are used to doing event recaps and stuff. So, I mean, sometimes... Oh, it's mostly event recaps then for when you're doing remote?

Yeah, yeah. If there's a shoot, yeah. And then the other one would be like talking heads. So, you know. So, I mean, if it's a talking head, then sometimes I'll zoom into the actual shoot. And even like direct remotely. But for for event recaps you can't really do that so you just kind of i mean events are very straightforward yeah that's it exactly it's just

kind of like this is going to happen this is going to happen this is going to happen like this is what the schedule i mean yeah like the the so i don't work with the marketing side i work with the internal comm side and the employee development and training side yeah so a lot of the videos i do are also like employee training. It's the elevated internal content nowadays. And that's a big part of the video business that a lot of people don't really think of right off the bat when they think video. A lot of the time it's social media content, promotional material, but with a lot of big companies, they have a lot of activities that are internal between different team members that they need to communicate things. And internal video production is a big part of

the business, right? Yeah. The budgets aren't very high compared to the marketing side because it's not customer facing. But yeah, I mean, for a company that's got even a couple hundred employees, it's somewhat worth it. But when you start to talk about companies that have like five to 10 to 50,000 employees, uh, yeah, the, it's a big part of it because that's one of the most effective ways that they can engage. It's one of the most effective ways that they can sort of build an affinity with the brand. Uh, retention is a huge part of, is a huge issue for a lot of companies these days. Uh, you know, they, there's days. They're calling it the great resignation.

This is a couple of years old now, but it's really like a new niche, honestly. I think historically internal corporate videos have been known to be pretty boring and that's kind of like my pitch. It's like, you can do it the boring way or you can do it the fun and interesting way. You're probably going to want to do it the fun and way as long as it's cost effective enough um but you know it's always

a question of again like it doesn't it doesn't drive sales so there's no way to really measure the roi it's more just like they're sitting there in the audience and they can see that the the you know people are are responding positively or like it's all it's based on like positive comments or like i mean a lot of stuff too is like uh even things like oh this person just left the company uh goodbye farewell we're having like a farewell dinner and we're gonna play this video at the dinner or it's gonna like re it's gonna be a recap of their entire experience working with the company for the last 10 years. And it's going to be like a parting gift because they want to maintain good relationships with high level execs and other companies and so on

and so forth. So yeah, it's, it's, uh, I just kind of fell into it. Honestly. Uh, it's just like a person who knew someone that we knew just like needed a little Christmas video for like 700 bucks. Uh, and it was like a 48 hour turnaround. And their existing vendor that they had been working with for 15 years just wasn't available. So they were just like, oh, can you edit this thing? And obviously because we are not a big established New York firm. And so they were happy with how above and beyond we went for a simple little Christmas video. It was a lot more than they were used to. And then they had another little one. And so they gave us a chance and so on and so forth. And they don't work with that vendor anymore. They work exclusively with us. And then the same thing happened with the other client.

Yeah. Yeah. The other client in particular, they used to work with a firm that had like 170 employees and like offices in Santa Monica and New York and Dallas and all that. Yeah. It was a, yeah. And, and it was a long, like, like 10 year long relationship. And that's the thing is like you, you know, especially nowadays, uh, with, with the, the playing field becoming as leveled out as, as it's becoming, you always have to find a way to create some kind of wow factor if you can. It's amazing how the industry has gotten to the point now

where a big-time agency that has developed a long-term relationship with a client can still be under threat of losing out to even, let's say, someone who's remotely working out of their home in Montreal. Where are you based right now? Montreal. Montreal, yeah. Just out of Montreal. It's like one guy versus a company of like 100 employees.

It's amazing how level the playing field is nowadays, as you put it. Yeah, we're three guys with laptops and we just talk and email. Don't let your clients hear that. No, but I tell them, I mean, I tell like, that's what I say. It's like, I'm just a guy with a laptop and I'm here to make sure that everything goes super smoothly and that we always deliver on time and that it's always cool. Always creative, always, wait, what is it? It's always creative, always responsive, always competitive. So competitive meaning competitively priced. So it's like the best bang for your buck.

And the reason is, is because we're super lean and we're designed for internal corporate engagement. That's kind of like what we're built for. That's your niche at this point, yeah. Yeah, that's it. And so I'm trying to find new clients and it's not easy. It's not easy to just like do direct outreach to clients and try to, try to get them to give you a shot.

It's cause it's like certain departments. What's your biggest hurdle right now with that? The biggest hurdle is, Oh, we already do. We already have a team. We already have a team that does video. And my only argument is like,

yeah, but I think I could do a better job. And they're like, what you think? I'm, you think I'm stupid. You think I didn't hire a good team? You think you're so much better? And what, what am I supposed to say? You know, like the, all, the only thing I can say is like,

yes, I'm like, we do a better job, but like, that's, that's like, well, okay, well, what, like, who do you think you are? You know? Like it's, I don't have like, whereas like, yeah, we can do a better job and we do it for these guys pretty much. It's like, I don't know. How do you guys, how do you guys like approach a new client and like differentiate from the hundreds of thousands of video production companies? It's like. I mean, we don't really do a lot of outreach. It's more inbound leads that come to us.

At the moment. Yeah. And then by then we just go through our own like pitch that we've developed. Right. That's it. Like, I don't think I've, I don't think we've, I can't, I can't think of more than two instances where we've reached out to someone and it turned into an actual gig. It's like 98% is, is just word of mouth. It's like knocking on the door as a salesman asking, do you need a new vacuum cleaner? You know, most of the time people are

going to be like, I have a vacuum cleaner. It's like, yeah, but this is better. Well, that's it. I have one. I don't need to spend the money to change the vacuum because it's, it's like, well, statistically you'll get, you'll get the, it's just, if you do it like that, it's just a numbers game. You need to have someone dedicated to it. That's it. Cause yeah, it'll work like out of a hundred, you'll get like maybe 10 that might be interested in other than maybe like three, but those three will keep you like, they'll give you good numbers in return. So ideally, yeah. And like, they won might be interested in other than maybe like three but those three will keep you like they'll give you good numbers in return so ideally yeah and like they won't be interested now they'll be interested in two and a half years you know so it's like not only about hitting like if you're if you if you happen to get them at exactly the right time where they're feeling

the pain of not having a good vendor for what it is that they have in mind and you happen to have the portfolio that that proves that you can pull it off and But it's just like, it's such a crapshoot. So actually, that's why I think that content marketing is the way to go. I think LinkedIn content, I mean, exactly what you guys are doing. Put out content on a regular basis and position yourself as an expert in some kind of niche and just invite a bunch of people that are your target customer and just invite them on LinkedIn and just keep putting out content. With those internal teams, I found that anytime in the past that Dario and I have worked with a corporation that's specifically for internal content, it was always either a

referral from someone within our network or it was just and you actually that was pretty much 100 of the time how it was um or someone we worked with in the past moved into that company and needed a video partner and that's it but that's like one part of it the second part of it is a timing aspect you know it has to be a good transitionary period like how you managed to land that fashion client you mentioned right it just happened to be a timing aspect of when they needed something on a crunch basis, someone wasn't available or their previous one wasn't available. And then you kind of stepped in. So that's really the only way to kind of do that, right? Yeah. You got to be like a crocodile, just kind of like lying in wait and then pounce when there's an opportunity. I mean,

you see all kinds of gurus that are selling you these systems for generating leads and build your five-figure video business in four weeks by using three simple techniques. It may be, like the way to go, the way that they do it is position your, again, a niche, right? So say I make videos for early stage startups in the smart city technology space. And then you set up your landing page so that you, you know, anyone who is of that profile, who's searching Google for whatever, like you find the right combination of keywords and you find the right message and you try to get like the best click-through rate that you can. And then you try to get the landing page with the best conversion and you, know like that's how you do it but i really like the idea of uh

being able to leverage your uh your creativity not leverage a message that is uh you know we we only do this kind of video i it's not really why I got into video. Like, I know I'm saying that I only do internal, internal engagement stuff, but like, it's still like very, so very broad. I mean, there's, there's, uh, there, there are all kinds of different things that you can do. Like it's, it's a niche, but it's, it's broad enough. But a lot of people just like say, okay, we do Kickstarter videos for this kind of product. That's the easier way to build a funnel that will generate consistent leads on your behalf. But you kind of have to sacrifice the whole reason why you got into it in the first place a little bit, in my opinion anyway. Yeah, because you're kind of more so

only dealing with one type of content, which is productized in a way. And you don't get to deviate too much in terms of how you're going to produce it because they're looking for that specific type. Whereas if you picked a broad niche, like say you do only corporate clients or you only do music videos or you only do, as you said, internal, it's a type of content,

but there's still different types of content within that that you can kind of get creative. So you offer different types of solutions and things like that. But then your SEO is not going to be as good because it's too broad, you know? So it's like you sacrifice the whole point of kind of like branding your... I mean, I suppose what you could do is create like four or five different funnels. So you could look at your own portfolio and say, okay, well, we tend to do this kind of work. Now let's, let's create a, uh, let's create an SEO funnel or

whatever for, for this and let's do that. And so on and so forth. And, and then I guess it all leads back to like your core website. You'd have like multiple landing pages, multiple websites, essentially. And you kind of put it. People do, they do it with cities like i see it all the time like video production toronto video production montreal all these different cities and then it always leads just to one website and they're based in like hong kong does that does that work does that work though in terms of uh like getting those leads do you know they rank so i guess it does work carol yeah it's like yeah that's it it's like if if i mean i see so many ads for so much shit that i'm i can't believe that this ad is still running it's i've seen it running for like six weeks now eight weeks

how can they afford to run this ad with with such a generic offering or such a like obviously i don't know but there's if it's if it's there if they're spending on ad spend they must get some kind of roi like it's you know unless yeah so i don't know have you have you checked out you mentioned those sales gurus have you like checked out any of their stuff yeah yeah yeah um there's like most of it is most of it is geared towards people that are just starting it so it's or or people that are just i mean yeah like having a video production business is really tough like you first of all you have to be able to make good videos and tell a good story but then there's the whole other side of it which is like the the client relations side and the client development

side and like just a lot of people aren't that good at doing that so that's what they do they they they say hey are you having a hard time making money? I did so-and-so project for X client and I'm going to tell you, Oh yeah. And here are all these testimonials of, of my students. And this is, this is the process and they're good. I mean, that's, that's how you do it. Like that, that is how you do it. It's just like, that's not what I got into it for. I didn't, I didn't get into it to productize. The funny thing though is that they all say it with like the same kind of hook to kind of get people's attention.

I guess it does work, which is, are you only making like $1,000 per video project? Here's how you can make $30,000 plus a month at a minimum, right? Yeah, that's it. Retainer. Get your clients on retainer. The zero to 100 marketing tactic, right? plus a month at a minimum right and that's it retainer get your clients on retainer the zero

to 100 uh uh marketing tactic right yeah well yeah what is it it's uh full-time filmmakers the big one with uh i forget his name which one's that guy you know what i'm talking about i know who you're talking about yeah he worked with this other uh creator back uh back in like the early 2010s and that's where he kind of like built his like knowledge and then i guess a few years back he started that full-time filmmaker thing and i think that one is definitely the the biggest one biggest resource out there and they have a lot of marketing money behind it yeah it's like an academy we had ryan correll on the last episode uh forget his company grow your video business grow your video

business and uh it's something similar to that but he also does a podcast show similar in a way kind of like to what we do but he's by himself so if you're also curious about another format just with one person maybe if you want you could check him out as well yeah absolutely did you just record the episode or did you just release it we just just recorded. We just, we recorded it last week. So it'll be another week or so before it's released. Yeah. So how often do you guys do this? Infrequently.

Like it's, it depends on, uh, on how, how many people we get lined up. But, uh, sometimes we get like, we try to do it on a weekly basis, have like maybe one guest per week. Um, we've been, uh, thinking about maybe trying to do maybe more than that here and there but it really depends on how busy we are who's available who we've gotten in touch with and we're trying to we're trying to reach out to people in different countries too now so like what percentage reach out to you to be on like i reached out to you to be on as of now one percent you are you serious yeah yeah what is it with people like but that's the other

no but actually like the i always find it funny when when i outreach and some of them say no and i'm like it's free yeah it's free yeah exactly it's free it's free marketing material it's a cool experience like why i yeah people don't help themselves either like i i don't want to i don't like i don't want to be like pretentious, but I'll, I'll just say it like on my, on my bio, it says like right at the top, like preferred partner to Louis Vuitton across the Americas. And I add video post-production editors and motion designers. Like I, I invite them to like join my network and they, they ignore me. Like they go on my page and they don't accept my invite. And I'm just like, I'm like, I'm looking't accept my invite and i'm just like i'm like

i'm looking for people to hire i'm looking to build like why wouldn't you accept the linkedin invite like what what do you think it's fake or like what's the what's the i don't yeah people don't help themselves and like i guess it depends i honestly i think it depends sometimes people might be either thinking like oh this isn't the type of work that i want to do so i i don't see any value in it or like in our case when when we reach out to guests to join on to the show i think it's i i think it's probably just a simple thing where it's just like they're not interested in it or they might not be comfortable talking about their story on camera as well like i i think dar, you and I have jokes like,

oh, maybe they have something to hide. That's what I always think. I was like, what shady thing are you doing? What is your shady business practice? Yeah, well, actually in Montreal, a lot of companies started off with some pretty shady kind of content. Really?

There's quite a few studios. Yeah, there's quite a few studios here. Story time? Well, just adult content. A lot of studios that have... there's quite a few studio yeah there's quite a few studios here story time well just uh like um adult content a lot of a lot of studios that have oh i was thinking like mafia related stuff i don't know why i don't know mafia related stuff too those two things are completely intertwined oh yeah i there's a there's any videos for like the construction business that was like yeah a hundred percent yeah yeah but it's but uh i mean like I even know some people that are super open about it.

They're like, yeah, we got, we got started doing this kind of content and we built up our studio. We were able to afford all kinds of cool gear and then we leveraged that gear to move over into another kind of, another kind of video. Yeah. Everyone, everyone we know started out on weddings. No one, no one started out on OnlyFans. Yeah, right.

Is this like a montreal only trend or something because we've never heard about this before i wonder now really it might be because you know mind geek um it's that's funny we're talking about this on your podcast but so mind geek is the they own and control about 90 percent of pornographic content in in north america and it's a montreal it's a montreal-based company there's like a thousand five hundred employees down the street that like work in this in this firm and so there's just a lot of that there is just a lot of that here um and so you've got all kinds of companies that kind of work for them or know them oh okay well that's an entirely

different world there like yeah like yeah well it's just funny because like like i even see some people who like put it on their linkedin like it's like video editor at mind geek yeah or like yeah well when you think about it like when people put that kind of stuff on on linkedin like when you say video editor at mind geek that's not the first thing that you think their business is going to be about when you think about it thank god they named it mind geek because it's very i you know what i was thinking when you some tech company i was thinking geek squad of course yeah squad at the best buy i'm like okay it must be geek squad or whatever nope it's a different type of geek they're very crafty different type of mind different type of geek

so yeah it's uh anyway but i just it reminds me of a few conversations that i've had and then also yeah of course like there's know, mob kids who get these great opportunities just like right out the gate because... AJ Soprano. AJ Soprano. Oh my God. Imagine, it's like, I was like, dad, I wanted to start a video production company, you know? Then they go rob the rental houses.

There was actually this like string of, a string of like thefts that have been happening in Toronto where a lot of different rental companies have been targeted by the same people. And it's all been, well, kind of robbed, but you could tell it was a sabotage thing. And it's a crazy thing that's happening here right now. I wonder what the next place is going to be hit. Well, there's insurance. They got it for that, right? Yeah.

going to be hit well there's insurance they got for that right yeah well yeah but i'm saying like i'm saying like if if you have a bunch of equipment and anyway that's well that's that's what it is right it's like you you run the rental house and then someone comes and robs your rental house and then you make a claim with the insurance but really like you're in on it with your might be something like that also no no they've been doing it they've been doing it to to too many people it's It's definitely not that. Really? Just like gear thieves? Yeah. It's like they're targeting one after the other. Wow. That's amazing.

That could maybe have been the case if it was just like a single production company, but seven production, seven rental houses. Yeah. And the funny thing is the same people's faces are on every single camera. So it's not like their identities are hidden or anything like that. Oh, wow. Okay. So they're like fugitives on the run. I don't know about that. It's Canada. Even if they get caught, they'll be out by like 9 a.m. the next day. Yeah, that's true. We have like the weakest laws in the world. I was just going to say about insurance claims. Have you guys ever had to do an insurance claim? No, God forbid. God forbid. none of that. Fortunately not, yeah. Why, have you? Yeah, well, I told you I'm not a gear guy.

But I do operate sometimes. So this was back in the day where we were in Nicaragua for not even a paid project. We got the travel and the accommodations covered for us in exchange for... So anyway, i had my c300 mark ii and i wanted to get a shot that was like really close to the water and i waved yeah exactly top handle and i was like oh this is so epic you know the closer you get to the horizon the more the more dramatic it is and yeah there's just this huge huge like a rogue wave not a rogue wave just a wave it's just like it's it's not even a wave and it just it just came and it was like yeah it's like it's like a little raise yeah exactly it was just

i was like yeah and it's just like then that was it when i traveled i had uh my like my dslrs and i've and i've done the same thing similar i never got caught by that wave but i've seen them coming and then i would raise it and it would be like a it's like a little splash almost it's not even a wave it's like a little extra splash that just catches the camera like this but with a c300 oh that's brutal yeah and it's salt water and so it was so it was the worst part of it yeah it's salt water the worst part of it was that it was like early in the week too so we just like what do you do now whatever like a so i think it was like early in the week too. So we just like, what do you do now? Whatever. Like a, so I think it was like a, so, uh,

whatever. A Sony, um, a seven S. Yeah. It's like a bad one. Like one, not the,

not the good one. The, it was just like a backup. So we ended up just shooting. Yeah. We just shot the whole thing like that. And you had something. Yeah,

we had something, but like nobody was happy. I hope you had like 30 batteries for the trip. Yeah. Why? Cause they, cause they run out quick. Definitely wasn't the third one.

So it must've been either one or two and the battery life on those stunk. Yeah. They were terrible. Why? Because they run out quick? Definitely wasn't the third one, so it must have been either one or two and the battery life on those stunk. Yeah, they were terrible. You would need at least 8 to 10 batteries a day just to get through the day. And you'd have to keep charging them. As soon as they die, I'd go back in the charger.

They were so little. They were this big. I was not handling that camera at all. I was not allowed to go anywhere near that camera. That was our final remaining camera. And as it turns out, where we were, the air was so salty that it eroded. So it's a known thing, Laurie, that in that area, electronics just get eroded with the salty air so really yeah so it turns out that like had we had the camera there the whole time by the end of the week and a half it would have severely damaged the camera like probably not probably not to the point where

it wasn't working anymore but it would have definitely like made it a lot more like rusty and like it not rely let's put it that way, so the fact that we just went ahead and just like broke it means that we were able to get like a brand new one. I mean, the deductible was like 1,500 bucks or whatever. So obviously that was terrible. It's not too bad for a Mark II though. That's pretty good. No, that's it.

Yeah. It was like a $9,000 repair. What year was this? What year was this? This was four years ago now. Yeah. Mark II, I think, was still there. I don't think the Mark III of that camera came out at that point.

But no, that's it. Isn't it a documentary camera? Shouldn't it have been able to withstand salty air? That's what you'd think, right? But apparently, it's just... Maybe it's just the materials, some materials, maybe the handles. No, it's the internal circuitry. It's the internal circuitry. It's like electronics get around it's it's known for that it's like the when we

arrived there they were like yeah your electronics are are screwed you like we didn't know until we arrived so like a lot of our stuff got all screwed up yeah the crazy the things you have to think about huh oh yeah like you can only you can only know after having gone through it like no one's how we just do corporate yeah we don't have to worry about going to nicaragua like on a river yeah well that was an amazing experience like that was also like that was also i mean we didn't get paid but like we well you learned i mean we ended up it ended up costing a thousand five hundred bucks and honestly like the project didn't go anywhere either like we didn't even like that we we finished it and like no one no one really cared about it.

Like it was just like. Join the club. It was a non-results. Yeah. That sometimes happens. But you know, at the very least, what you were in Nicaragua for a week, you at least got to enjoy a little bit. Yeah. It was fun. Well, it was like a hostel.

So it was like a, it was called the Free Spirit Hostel. So it was like a very like hippie kind of free spirited kind of experience. I'm curious. Was it, was it by any chance owned by a Canadian? Yes. Yes, owned by a Quebecois. Okay, my buddy was talking about how he did a big Mexico trip and then he went to some other surrounding countries like Belize

and whatever. He was like, all the hostels are owned by Canadians. Yeah. What? He was trying to pitch to the group like, let's just pool like $120,000 together just buy a hostel down there. That's what they did. As an investment property. Yeah, and they're doing great. It's all Canadians that own them.

Yeah, yeah. And it's just, they live there and their whole cost is covered. Plus they make money and they just like hang out on the beach and serve drinks and they cook a meal per day and that's their life. A meal per day, wow. Yeah, that's it. Well, yeah, that's part of the experience. You get like everyone's like, everyone sits around the table and we all eat together. How do you go about vetting other crew and team members when you're kind of like trying to work on a certain project?

Because since you're remote, you have to rely on other people to kind of execute the production for you, right? So how do you go about that? The production and the post-production. Right. So, I mean, to be honest, these companies have their list of vendors most of the time. So often we're just working with the vendor. If not, then it's just a gut feeling. You, you, you know, you search on online, you look at the website, you talk to a few people and you just kind of make a gamble. So far it's been, it's been okay. But yeah, there's, there's not really, yeah, there's not

really much you can do but i mean even even people that we've been working with for like four or five years they screw up sometimes they forget the battery they didn't you know they forgot the what happens so often is uh oh shit i don't have any media i forgot the media and the card reader at home really that happens that happens like yeah it happens way too often yeah and then everyone's the the cards like the the cards they forgot their yeah yeah and that happens like yeah it happens way too often yeah and then everyone's the the cards like the cards they forgot their yeah yeah that happens so often it's it boggles my mind but like that this this keeps happening it's like missing a cable missing this missing that oh crap we can't

do this i can understand a cable but the card yeah yeah yeah yeah that doesn't happen to you guys well that's good so i know that if we're doing shoots in toronto then i'll i'll know that you guys have a perfect track record with not forgetting cards at least you gotta have the cards now we're gonna be now we're gonna dario and i're gonna have to be like double checking like lists with our team now it's like okay make sure everything there's your niche on the landing page you just like you say we do not for yeah exactly we don't forget our media that's interesting i mean mean, sometimes a cable might be forgotten, but then you're able to figure out solutions on set as if it's not a big deal.

But memory cards, that is bad. I've never seen happen with anyone we've worked with. I have a question, a more technical question, in terms of you're dealing with a U.S. client. What's your financial process for that? Do you have a U a u.s client what's your uh financial process for that like do you have like a u.s account set up we should td or whatever we should have them pay oh so you have them convert like what do you convert you get like let's say a thousand u.s from them you just go to your bank and they just convert it over there like how does that work yeah

it's i i just we spoke to our accountants earlier this year and I'm switching the way we're doing things where we're going to start working. We're going to start using, uh, wise because TD is just, uh, I, I, I, I, it made me sick to know how much we lost on, uh, conversion fees. Forex. Forex. Oh, what is it? Foreign exchange.

Oh yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Uh, it, it, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because basically, he told us the figure that if we had been using Wise and not going with TD, he gave us the figure of what we would have saved over the last two years. Yeah. And it was a full-time salary for somebody for a year. Oh, my God. It was in the lower mid salary for somebody for a year. Oh my God. It was in the lower mid five-figure range of just purely of transaction fees.

No, just transaction fees. Just like, yeah, exactly. Forex. Wow. Yeah. Why don't you open up a US account and then you could just pull the money out and then maybe go to a foreign currency exchange place and just so apparently the the good setup is wise apparently so yeah so the wise is uh is

just like an internet it's a fintech uh it's like a new fintech thing that's just um essentially i mean it's for it's for foreign transactions and or it, it's a, it's a bank account pretty much. Um, so, cause that's the thing is like there. So apparently there's like the, the, the four, the exchange rates that the banks charge, and then there's the actual exchange rate, right? So the bank charges you a certain amount, then, then that's the difference and that's their margin. So wise basically just like cuts out like 95% of that. And that's their, so they give you, they'll still take a little bit,

but it's like way, way less. That's literally all it is. And so apparently it's becoming, but the problem is, is that because it's a new platform, like it's not super reliable. Like I've heard some pretty bad things about it, but. You know, if the amount, if the amount they're sending you is pretty high,

like, I don't know, over 20, 50K, then you can actually ask the bank to give you a better rate on it. Yeah. You mean like reach out? Yeah, probably. You can tell like, well, I remember when I was working as a teller at CIBC, like they made like one of the guys get a better rate. CIPC, like they made like one of the guys that get a better rate. So I had to call corporate and then, or one of the foreign exchange guys, and they gave me a better rate for the guy, but it can't be like a thousand bucks, 5,000. It's gotta be like a sizable amount. Yeah. So actually like, so we do a very high volume of lower budget projects. That's, that's actually the thing. Like, it's very rare that I get into the,

I mean, it's very rare that I get into,, I mean, it's very rare that I get into the, let's say like the mid five figures. Like I'd say that doesn't happen often. Like if I get into the five figures, like I'm pretty happy, honestly. Well, then you might as well just open up a US bank account and then just do it through there. We're working on it. It's like, it's not really like, it's not really me who looks after this.

So we just started up with some new accountants like two ago, and it was such a hassle to switch everything over. Apparently, we'd been doing everything wrong for years, and so we had to fix all of that and backtrack over the last three years. So then now this year, I started thinking about how to expense more through the company as opposed to paying higher salaries. What do you guys do or how do you approach expensing through your company? Like there's all kinds of stuff. Like my home, I work out of my apartment, for example. So I was not expensing my rent and I should have been.

So there's just, it's a learning curve. So the first step was to like actually do the books properly. Second is to start to actually benefit from owning your own business in Canada. And then now the next thing will be to optimize how we're dealing with foreign payments. So that'll probably be once we just finished tax season now. So that'll be the next step. So either we'll do a US bank account or I think, I think wise is going to be the, is going to be the solution.

Either we'll do a U.S. bank account. I think Wise is going to be the solution. Yeah, because we're having some projects that might be involved with different countries coming up soon. And that's something that Dara and I are trying to figure out and try to set up soon. Oh, actually, on that note, sorry, Kirill, on that note, I have another question for you.

If your client is in the US, are you still charging them, is it 13% tax they have in Quebec? What do they have? No, US clients, you don't charge tax. You don't charge tax, right? No, no. You don't charge tax. Yeah, you don't charge tax and you don't pay tax on revenues that come from American clients. What about from other countries? Like let's say the UK. I don't know.

I don't know. You haven't gotten to that point yet. No, I haven't. I'm actually really focused on North America because it turns out that North America is the only place that really values employee engagement. Really?

I've tried to expand a little bit and it doesn't seem like it's nearly as much of a thing. I guess North Americans are more entitled than most or I don't know what it is. But it seems to be like staying with the company, getting employees to stay with the company and to be motivated seems to be a, maybe it's because we don't take very many vacations as opposed to Europe. They get like three months in Europe. They don't take very many vacations as opposed to europe yeah they get like three months in europe they don't need to do give them anything else they have enough rights and benefits over there well that's it right so like i'm actually like i'm like north america focused really well it's also because most of the a lot of the headquarters for a lot of major

companies are are based in north america at least a good majority of them. And if there are any in other countries, it's probably with more local teams. I mean, if you were going to, say, France, Germany, or any of those countries in Europe, for example, those are smaller-based markets, right? There's only so much external that they can bring in. Whereas there are companies in the US that are headquartered there, but they have offices all over the world and all these other countries too. So that's probably why there's a lot more of a focus on employee and talent acquisition and engagement in North America. Yeah. Somewhat. I mean, actually both my clients, their head offices are in Paris and Milan.

Oh, right. Yeah. So I actually know I'm going to say that it's really, it's because I think just because North Americans just like work a lot more hours and are less healthy in general when it comes to our culture around work and, uh, and, uh, you know, the, the pressures are higher. So like, uh, cause I've tried to, they, they don't like the, what, like the New York office does a lot of stuff that the Paris office just doesn't do. They, they think it's like, they think it's ridiculous. Like you, it's, it's, it's crazy to us that you guys do that.

Yeah. But the, the new york offices love it you know why because you got to make you got to make the employees happy that they're working so much you know it's like oh we appreciate that's it we appreciate you guys going over time and missing out on family occasions anything but actually improving anything but actually improving the situation yeah exactly no but that's kind of that's kind of the thing. It's just like, it's the culture. Yeah, so, because I've tried to, you know, I've tried to push that angle of like, hey, like, you know, it's working really well here.

Like, why don't we go global? Like we can do translation, we can do all kinds of things. And they're just like, yeah, I brought it up. And like, absolutely not, not gonna happen. So, and like, I've also like spoken to some people that are based in like abu dhabi and dubai and they're just like huh employee employee engagement huh what yeah yeah yeah they're just it's not even it's not it's like not even an option so i'm just i kind of gave up on

that on that track was that a conversation over over like uh like this over like a like say a zoom call or was it through email where they're like huh no no it's uh so my my dad has some lebanese friends so i actually went over to lebanon a a few months back and i just i you know met with some met some people that are in they're you know they're either like high-level consultants or like they they run companies or whatever they're back and forth like around the Arab world, just doing all kinds of whatever it is that they do. But when they would ask me like, what do you do? I was like, I do employee engagement content.

What is that? It's stuff like this. They're like, huh. So good falafel. That's exactly what that conversation was. So how about the men? You got to show them the cool stuff you know like the the high high-end event videos and everything that's what you gotta show the cool stuff i showed them that i i trust me i dropped like the coolest ammo and they're

just like that's cool but what yeah anyway so i don't know you lost them at employee engagement that's what it was anything else after that're like, no, you've already lost me. No, let's talk about the food or something. So that's that. But, you know, I mean, it's like my dream is not this. Like my dream is to, you know, I always wanted to do, I always wanted to direct TV shows. Like I got into TV shows and movies. Like I got, you know, I got into this kind of thing because I first saw the making of documentary of Pirates of the Caribbean when I was like 11, right. You

know, you know, when the DVDs started coming out with those behind the scenes featurettes, I feel like that inspired a whole wave of people who wanted to make movies is, is when those DVDs came out with the behind the scenes featurettes and people actually saw the process behind movies. I think there's just a lot of people, uh, in our age group that just kind of got bitten by the bug at, you know, the age of like 10, 11, 12 or whatever. And, uh, that's always what I wanted to get into it for. Like I even, I even moved to LA for a year and a half and, uh, tried to, uh, cause I, I did my school in the, in the States. So I had like a year of, uh, of a student visa and I moved out there and I wanted to be like in that entertainment world. And obviously like my visa expired, I wasn't able to stick around and I'm happy I didn't.

But I'm still kind of going after it. Like I'm still developing entertainment IPs on the side when I can and, and trying to put like a, a bit of a portfolio together. And then when, when I have a slate of projects, then I'll start to invest in actually going to these events and film festivals and markets and stuff and try, because I think you got to do it for a couple of years consistently. So you got to, you got to travel to all the, all of the places and meet people and so on and so forth. Uh, and then, and then, uh, maybe something will happen at some point. But you can't just go one secret. The world is so different from ours. Very different, yeah.

So different. I did see, like when I was looking at some of your work and I think I came across this on Facebook, like a BTS shot of this entire team that you guys had where you guys shot an entire feature film but you did it all remotely in a way. Was that the case or was there another story behind that? So, so when I say like, I'm fully remote, like that's pretty recent. Um, it's only since COVID started and, and this is kind of like my,

this is, this is the, the way that I make money. Right. But, but we, when we started out, we were doing like, we were doing all kinds of local shoots and i mean my partner still does local shoots but i i guess maybe you saw a shot from like we have i have done features in the past and i have done uh we did a tv pilot uh where we got all kinds of gear uh sponsorships and we you know it was like a three and a half week shoot and it was it was we we were working with actor actors and everything. We, I was pursuing that very adamantly early on. Like, uh, like I, I produced and directed my first feature when I was 20 and, and, uh, took it, did the full film festival circuit and, you know, submitted to 50 and only got into four and none of them were really that relevant. And I,

like I learned, I did learn a lot about that side of the business, but, um, yeah, just, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's just really, really hard to break into make money out of it. That's it. Right. It's like, so you have to either you go and you work in that field, but I find that if you work in the field, like you, there's a lot of chance that you just kind of like plateau, like you, you know, you forever in assistance kind of thing.

Like when I was out there, I met so many, you know, people in assistance kind of thing like when i was out there i i met so many you know people in the early 40s mid 40s that were still at assistance desks like trying to push different projects and like it's very much a crapshoot so that's why i said like uh you know i'll come back here like i'll build a production infrastructure like i'll kind of like build the ladder instead and we'll develop projects on the side and then and then we'll try to do the whole like financing distribution thing and like do the production and the and the development and yeah but it's like a long it's a long long road like i like when i was 24 i left i i left and started the thing rubicon with the the idea that i was going to put 10 years into it just just like put my head down and just like hustle and see how far i can go in 10 years. And then I'll kind of like reevaluate if this is the

right, this is the right path, but like it, it, yeah, it's just, uh, the entertainment industry is a marathon for sure. Uh, and I'm certainly not going about it in the way that most people go about it. So fingers crossed, hope that it pays off, but at least, at least also building a business that does like, you know, this, this more like client-based work. So, and it, it, it overlaps, you know, like you, it's, if you want to make a short, um, it helps to have worked with all kinds of professionals, uh, you know, for the last four or five years, like you, you know, you, you can get good people on your project and you can make something really good for not very expensive because you have all

these cool relationships, right? So there is overlap. Where there is no overlap is the financing and distribution side. There's no overlap at all. That's like an entire business in terms of how you go about that. It's not even like the creation of the product necessarily. It's like how do you get that in front of eyeballs? Who do you have to grease to get into those feet,

film festivals and everything. Right. Yeah, exactly. But at this point, like, it's kind of like what Dario and I are right now aiming to do is like build,

build our own business, a good foundation and base where, where, you know, like there's consistent work coming in network with a lot of different creatives and other professionals such as yourself and, and grow a network and see what opportunities come down the road and yeah that's that's really the the modern way to go about it now i guess in a way i think so i i really love the concept of

like two to five person teams that trust one another and grow together and and you know like because i like if you're just on your own, you're not really like people kind of glorify the whole freelancer approach to career, but because you have that freedom, but it's like, you can't really like say no to your client. Like if you're, if you're busy and you, and you pass like once even like they may not come back. And so like, you're kind of like a slave to the yes a little bit. And then on the other side, it's like going and working for a bigger firm. Like you don't have the autonomy and you don't really, um, you know, you got to do what your employer asks of you, but what you guys are doing and what we're doing this, how many full-time are you?

We're just the two of us. And then we, we hired the rest. I was going to ask you how you, you have a team of five people, right? Or was it three? the rest. I was going to ask you how you, you have a team of five people, right? Or was it three? So, so we're three producers, like two, two kind of client facing producers and one back, you know, like safety net guy. Then there's a, there's another side of our business, which is the software product that we're developing. And, and so we hired two developers about a year and a half ago. And now one of them is down to part-time because they've kind of completed their tasks or we just don't need them as much. So we have one full-time and one part-time who are software developers. So they're not making any money right now.

They're just costing money. But we're going to be taking our product to market pretty soon. And then we'll see how that goes. What kind of product is this? So it's a client experience toolkit, pretty much, for professional video creators. So the idea basically is that, especially now that the playing field is leveling out with all kinds of, I mean, remote work, AI tools, all this kind of stuff, the relationships that you're able to build with your clients and the trust that you're able to build and the essentially, you know, like, uh, like in Mad Men, right. It's like you, you, you, you bring someone into the corner, the corner conference room overlooking New York, and you're like, you hand them a glass of scotch and you give them a cigar. And then like, you, you know, you make them feel good. Right. That's a big part of our business is just like making clients feel good and making clients like building that trust. Right. But remotely,

it's not the same, right? Like when you think about the tools that you use to interface with clients like um uh you know just like the standard media sharing portals uh proposal templates uh you know whatever it might be those tools are they're kind of like blank canvas tools they're not they're they're designed to be used by a lot of different people for a lot of different things but they're not like specific they're not purpose-built or specifically focused. They're not designed to make it easier for video professionals to communicate their vision, their pricing, their process in a kind of seamless way with an elevated client experience, like through an elevated client experience. So it's kind of like, how do you get the madman effect,

but remote? Just by kind of like improving the way that you communicate and deliver client experience around your project, all the way from like the first touch point to the very end and so on and so forth. So we bring a lot of different, it's just like,

it's like a lot of different gadgets that we kind of, it's like a Swiss army knife a little bit, like with all kinds of interconnected gadgets that, that help you avoid all kinds of, uh, issues around misalignment, miscommunication, um, these kinds of things. Because I just felt, I felt like there was a lot of stuff that I wanted to be able to do and a lot of ways that I wanted to be able to communicate that I couldn't using the existing tools. So that's where the idea came from. And then, uh, you know, we, we put some figmas together. We did about 75 customer interviews. We kind of honed in on what features people thought were particularly innovative or, or, uh, or could be potentially useful. And we believed in it enough

to, to start developing the thing. So we actually raised money from, well, we got a bunch of public financing for it. And yeah, it's been working on this thing for like two and a half years now. I'm sure this will be like a useful tool for a lot of like creators, especially people who are just trying to kind of learn the business side of things. So, I mean, yeah, like we'll look forward to seeing it

as it comes out. Yeah, it's for client facing basically. It's a, it's a client experience toolkit. Yeah, exactly. So, and you know, I've been using it myself for the last six months. Like it's buggy and it's like, you know, we're, we're getting it to the point where it's ready to take to market, but it's like, yeah, it's, I've, I've made, I've made more money just in the way that I'm able to present things.

Yeah, it's all client experience. And that's essentially what we're all doing. Anytime Dario or myself jump on a call with a client, that is an experience touchpoint with a client or anyone that you're working with. You have to make it good and you got to try to use and find other tools that can help you. But no, that's cool. We'll see. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how people respond for sure. It's been, I've been kind of, we've been building it according to what we want. It's not really the way you're supposed to go about it. You're supposed to make something and then iterate based on customer feedback. But, uh, it's, it's a long process. It does. You can't get it done all at once. It's like you launch and then you improve over time,

but that's it. So that's where the two other employees are. Nice. Yeah. Nimble teams are really the way to go when you're starting out. So that's, uh, it makes sense. Well, I, I mean, I like even just the idea of, um, having full-time employees in your studio. I'm, I really liked the idea of two to five person teams, many different two to five person teams. And, uh, they're all kind of like interconnected in a smart way and, and smart collaboration. Uh, that's all tech enabled.

I think that's really the future. I think big firms are not really that you're, I think it just costs a lot more to get the same level of innovation and dedication and care. And I understand why big firms exist. It's because of trust, right? So it's like, it's once you earn the trust, then you get more opportunities and then you get to build trust more and more as the opportunities that you've gotten then allow you to attract new opportunities and so on and so forth. And eventually these opportunities all kind of consolidate around a few, right? It's like 90% of the budget goes to like 10% of the agencies and like 90% of the spend goes to 10% of the agencies. It's like, it's like 90% of the budget goes to like 10% of the, of the agencies and like 90% of the spend goes to 10% of the agencies. It's because it's because the stakes get high and the, and, and there's only a certain amount of firms that have the trust. Right. So I understand why it is the way it is.

I feel like, I mean, just, yeah, there's a lot of, there's a huge boom in solopreneurship and, you know, and, and everybody's able to become an expert in their own, their own niche or their own field. And everyone's able to produce content and get it out there. And, and so I'm hoping that more and more of the opportunity distribution becomes a little bit more democratized. Yeah. opportunity distribution becomes a little bit more democratized. And I think you get more out of creative people when they have some kind of ownership in the, they have like an ownership stake in their own brand, right? Things will change over time, but we'll see kind of where it goes. But anyways, we're actually kind of hitting the one hour mark already at this point, Jeremy. So just one last question was, how did you come up with the name Rubicon's story? Oh, that's a good question. Thank you. So it's based on the story from antiquity. So there was a moment where Caesar was kind of, while he was off, you know, conquering all the barbarians and stuff. And then at one point, Rome started to sort of collapse in a pool of debauchery.

And so he brought part of his army back. And the idea was to purge the city and kind of clean up, basically. So it's just this big internal massacre of his own people. So it's just this big internal massacre of his own people. And there's a very famous moment where his army was crossing the Rubicon River, which is a very small little nothing river. But as they were crossing the river, he famously said, the die is cast means we've passed the point of no return. We've committed to doing this and there's no going back and come hell or high water, we will see this through. And so that really, that's what the idea of Rubicon, I mean, and the Rubicon story is a known story. Rubicon means to pass the point of no return. So I believe that if you're going to be successful in this industry, you cannot have a plan B. You have to have nothing but a plan A.

And you need to be ready to put yourself in a situation where you're really feeling the pressure because otherwise you will not have the fortitude to break through the barriers and actually reach the promised land. the fortitude to break through the barriers and actually reach the promised land. So one person who I really look up to is Shonda Rhimes. And Shonda Rhimes, basically, she said, if there's anything else that you even kind of want to do, do that. Yeah. So just focus on the one goal and then that's it, right? Yeah. And even if you kind of are interested in something else,

that means that you don't have what it takes to actually make it in this thing. You have to be laser focused. Nothing else is an option. And, you know, don't give up because you have nowhere else to go. And I like that. Of course, it's extreme. So I'm not saying that practically speaking, this is the right way for everybody,

but there's something to be said about that deep, deep, deep commitment and not giving yourself an out, you know, that cutting ties to it. It's the idea behind it, which is interesting. So cool. Thanks for sharing.

So that's Rubicon. Yeah. That's awesome. Jeremy, thanks for joining us on the show, man. That's been great. Of course. Thanks so much for having me. And it was really, really nice to meet you guys. And also I, I, you know, I'm going to keep engaging with what you guys are doing. I think it's awesome. And, uh, I would love to, you know, have an opportunity to work together at some point.

I'm always kind of keeping my, uh, ear to the, to the floor for opportunities to work with, uh, with people. And I think you guys would be pretty high on the list. Let's put it that way because I just keep it on your head. Yeah. I think anyway, just, it's cool. Like I, I, I, I love it when people, uh, take initiative to actually do something different. And, uh, and yeah, I think you guys are, are fantastic. Appreciate it, man. Thanks. Yeah. All right. Cool. Thank you, Jeremy. We'll keep in touch and take care you got it thank you