Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Matt Alonzo: Director, Editor, and Award Winning Filmmaker

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Welcome to another episode of The Radcast! This week Ryan interviews award winning filmmaker Matt Alonzo! Matt shares his experience working with some of the biggest names in the music industry, and talks about the importance of self promotion and branding."Alonzo, Partner/Head of Production, helped develop one of the first popular YouTube channels -Skee.TV with over 2 Billion views and 300,000 plus subscribers. The channels content was also syndicated on screens in restaurants and gas stations worldwide including McDonald's, Taco Bell, Denny's and more. Alonzo also helped Develop, Creative Direct and Direct "SKEE LIVE", a one hour original TELEVISION series that provides insider access to the hottest musical artists, athletes, celebrities and cultural tastemakers via exclusive interviews and performances. It aired on Mark Cuban's AXSTV.Alonzo departed from ICM as a Feature Film Director and is now pursuing Independent film opportunities." - quote from mattalonzo.com/about To keep up with Matt Alonzo be sure to follow him on instagram and twitter @MattAlonzo and check out his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/MattAlonzo Thanks for checking out this weeks episode of the Radcast! Be sure to keep up with all that’s Radical @ryanalford @radicalresults @the.rad.cast @nick_weaver and like and subscribe to our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc8gmekIb1SS1s216ASNT_w  If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

At that time, nobody believed in YouTube. So we just built up our platform and then we would premiere these music videos on our channel because Veebo wasn't out. The record labels didn't understand the monetization of this stuff yet. So they were like, sure, go ahead. As I continue down that path, you know, number one video, I think I had 11 number one videos within either a year or two years span, something like that. And as a creator, this is where the business and the creative side kind of bumps heads

because like as a creator, I'm not really worried about business. most of the time. I mean, now I am, but as a young creator, I just wanted to create. You're listening to The Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. Ryan Offer, your host, talking content today. The King of Content, filmmaker, Matt Alonzo. What's up, brother? What's going on? I'm a pleasure of being here. Thank you for having me on.

Yeah, man. I'm excited to talk content. And, you know, everything that goes into the power of video, man. They say content is king and video rules. Yep. That is very true. That is very true. Pioneer on YouTube.

And, you know, I guess we could name drop a little bit, Just a Bieber, you know, just a few names. So you've been out there. man. I love your story. My team brought me your name. I'm like, dude, I want to talk to this guy. And, you know, it doesn't hurt that we have a lot of the same beliefs. So I decided to have you on. And, you know, I just want to tell everybody a little about your story and talk a little bit about the business of filmmaking. I mean, it's, it's a convoluted world out there. I know it's everybody thinks it's sexy and glamorous. It ain't always that way, though, is it?

No, absolutely not. It's kind of the opposite of that. Like, what is, uh, good, good from a business standpoint is not the sexy glamour stuff. And then the sexy glamour or stuff is not necessarily the best for business. So it took me like 10, 12 years to find a balance there, you know, so definitely have some gems and jewels to drop.

I know. It's funny. You frame it that way. I tell people that all the time. They're like, you know, I own an ad agency and, you know,

we do commercial work. And it's not all, you know, some of us super fun and super sexy. but you know some of the best paying gigs though are just you know some bread and butter marketing you know yeah so yeah the ones that seem to be the fun ones that are the big names that don't seem to pay very well you know but you do them and if you do them do them with the mindset of them being you know a commercial for yourself essentially and not necessarily worry about the

back end on those ones then then it's okay you know so you have to be able to kind of like basically break each project down into different sections and then put it in its slot and not think that they're all going to be the same. So give me a little time, but I learned it. Well, it's like, and I teach that in some

personal branding coaching that I do with called Circle of Influence. And you borrowed leverage is what I call that. You know, it may not pay the best, but you're borrowing some leverage from the existing circle of influence of bigger names that then bring other opportunities that have bigger opportunity.

But we can talk more about that. Yeah, that's great. But Matt, let's give everybody, I know you got a fascinating story. I know you're in L.A., but let's tell everybody a little bit about Matt. All right. Well, my name's Matt Alonzo. I grew up in Santa Barbara, Carpandaria, which is about 50 miles north of Los Angeles. nice little beach town. But my parents met each other about 16. One night decided to make me

and they didn't know each other, but they decided to make a family, create a family. They both were street kids. So we didn't have much growing up. But the one thing that we did have, or my dad saved up to go get was a video camera. And he just had this video camera in my face constantly. He had no connection to film. He was like a 17 year old kid cleaning cars, you know. So he just wanted to document everything because he didn't really have a family life. So eventually he plugged it into the TV and I saw myself on TV like, you know, some stuff he had recorded or he would he would do it so it was live on TV. And I thought I was on TV and my mom would be laughing. My sister would be laughing. And so I realized I could make people happy with this

device. And I learned that at a very young age. I don't think I like intuitively could spell it out for you, but I understood one plus one equals two. And so I started taking that camera and just creating short films. Then basically I learned how to, for lack of better words, manipulate people's emotions through this box. Started editing and putting together all these clips when I was like eight or nine. So that was pretty much my life. That in football and being 5'5, 112 pounds, like football was out of the equation at 18.

So filmmaking was going to be what I did. Unfortunately, first year I went to City College. It just didn't work out. And I was just going to be working for the city of Santa Barbara, which my dad did. And my friend who I got into filmmaking at a very young age, he started going to this film school. Excuse me. And I was doing his projects just casually on the side. And he pulled my dad aside a few times and was like, you have to get mad into this film school.

He's acing all my projects. He's doing all my work. Like he has to be here. And my dad just couldn't afford it. And six months later, he refinancing. the house and just sent me to school. So I just put my head down and went to work and did internships. I did everything. I went above and beyond any, in every opportunity I could just because I knew how much my parents had invested into into this opportunity for me. So by the time I graduated,

I had a full-time job working for a small record company. I was making 100 plus thousand a year living in Santa Monica. And I just wasn't happy though. So one day I called my dad. He's like, why are you growing as a man? I said, nope. He said, are you growing as a creatively? I said, nope. He said, okay, well, you know what to do. I don't think he meant this like literally, but I grabbed my bag and I just walked out

with no savings, no concept of like tomorrow in terms of like what I'm going to do or like strategy in terms of like, let me slowly get out of this job and put my two weeks in, let me save up some money maybe and then kind of sail, sail off into the sunset. But at 22, that wasn't necessarily the way that I moved. operated. So yeah, it rarely works out that way. Yeah, yeah. My car got repossessed. I was sleeping on couches, but I was like, I was at peace. I felt completely comfortable in the chaos because like I just knew how talented I was and I knew where I was going to, I knew that if an opportunity presented itself,

which it would, that I would be able to show my talent. And I knew I was talented. And as cocky as that sounds, I just, I had been working every single day editing or shooting for four years straight on top of what I did what I did as a you know as an adolescent so I just knew that no one had put in the work that I had done so I was very confident in my skills did a concert in San Diego for 150 bucks or $200 for this no-name artist but they happened to be opening up for little Wayne I was able to film the concert took it home put it on YouTube that night and it had like the first video to ever get a million views and so like A month later, I was shooting a game, the game featuring Travis Barker, and I had it on

Jimmy Iveen's desk the next morning. So it was a pretty, like, meteoric, like, it was so fast from sleeping on couches to sitting with Jimmy Iveen, who was, you know, the founder of Interscope records and shooting for the game, and Dr. Dre and just the whole, you know, the whole act. So would you shoot the concert? Literally, would you stay up all night editing? Like, yeah. I shot the concert in San Diego. You know, at this time, I was just shooting on a little camera with like little tapes. And at that time on YouTube, YouTube 2007 just wasn't really used the way it's used now. So I labeled the official music video, Little Wayne official music video.

And all the outlets, MTV, BET, everybody took it as the official music video. So they placed it on all their blogs or all their websites. So that really helped generate all the views. and then DJ Ski, who was Games DJ, had just started Ski TV, and we connected to create Ski TV, which was one of the first popular YouTube channels. But, you know, he was obviously with game and Interscope.

So he asked Jimmy Iveen, hey, give us like a microscopic budget from what you're used to and let us show you what we can do. And so he did. And we kind of changed the whole music video industry with that one ask and that one delivery in terms of like, Before us, it was 200,000 was like minimum. Now it was like 10,000 minimum. We obviously didn't understand that.

We just wanted an opportunity, and we took whatever opportunity we had. We were just able to give them the same product for that price, which unfortunately changed the game, you know, at least for that time being. The democratization of content is what I call it. It's like, you know, I used to do a 30-second TV commercials that took six months and cost $2 million. And now the same things, you know, maybe 100 grand in three weeks. Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, when we asked for it, they gave us like the game video that we were shooting. Even the soldier boy turned my swag on song. That one went number one.

It wasn't supposed to go to number one. It was supposed to be like a B-side record. They were just like, here's 10 grand, here's 20 grand, which then was like craft services. And they were kind of laughing, like kind of almost giving it. to us as a joke or like wanting to see us fail like not wanting to see a spill but like kind of just just throwing us off right like it wasn't much it was nothing for them to lose so but the fact that we had we had um we knew the red cameras which had just came out it was like brand new oakley was still around like the glasses and you know the oakley uh CEO is the one who

created red so like no one knew how to use those cameras we did they were cheap and we just kind I breached that gap. And it was an opportunity. We took it, but we just, we didn't understand the repercussions. But at the same time, I wouldn't be where I'm at if we didn't take that, that opportunity. So it's good and bad. Yeah, it is. But, you know, like the game was going to change, I guess pun intended, no matter what, right?

I mean, you have this proliferation of software and the tools, you know, where, you know, what, 25, 30 years ago, you didn't have 100 grand. couldn't get a camera that shot at a good enough resolution or in the editing software wasn't good enough 25, 30 years ago. So this marriage of software and technology was coming like a freight train. You just jumped on it early. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we had no concept of any of the other way before us. Our only concept of filmmaking was from these apps and these sort of digital cameras and stuff. So it was just natural to us. But I didn't, you know, we were we really cut the music videos down for a long period of time. They started to go back up,

but yeah, there was no reason for them to spend millions of dollars when they didn't have to anymore. And the quality was up to par. So that's, so then I did a bunch of music because for interscope. Yeah. Pioneer on YouTube.

Yeah, probably like a G6. They had a bunch of never run. Yeah, so what we did at SCTV is we really just used music videos. We were really a marketing company, and what we really wanted was basically what you're doing, commercials. We wanted short-form commercials that would be used on YouTube because we understood that YouTube was going to grow.

At that time, nobody believed in YouTube. So we just built up our platform, and then we would premiere these music videos on our channel because Vivo wasn't out. The record labels didn't understand the monetization of this stuff yet. So they were like, sure, go ahead. And so we just kept building, and then we would go pitch to Chrysler and say,

hey, we have a million viewers from 13 to 35, what card do you have that's in that demographic? And then we would go make some sort of 10 second, 30 second bumper for 50,000 or whatever it was. And we kind of double dip on that. And that's really where we wanted to go would be more marketing and breaking products. So we were able to do that with like a few products and really kind of grow that. And then continue to get big music videos in. So it was good from a from a business standpoint.

So we go from the game. We've got opening for was it Little Wayne someone to when did the Bebs and all these other big names hit the fold. So that, I mean, as I continue down that path, you know, number one video, I think I had 11 number one videos within either a year or two year span. Something like that. And then I left Ski TV and I wanted to just because they wanted to go more into like a into more of a marketing standpoint of business. And I really wanted to either just, you know, build on my music videos and then go into more narrative. So I went journeyed off, created my own company and teamed up with with another company called Happy Place. And they pretty much started reping me.

I had another rep called from Hello company, Lark. She was a huge rep. So she rep meeting the bill and a couple other big people. So that's where all the big names started coming in where she was able to like go pitch for me and have meetings for me and be my voice. So that from a business standpoint was great. Obviously she took a percentage. Yeah. But I was happy to get happy to give it to her.

What was crazy during that time was that there was like six months where I didn't work because she was like, look, your videos are great. But you need to make money. So we're going to say your cap is or your starting point is 50 grand. And I was freaking out. I'm like, 50 grand, no one's ever going to hire me. She's like, yeah, they will. It's going to take a little bit of time, you know. So every month I'm like itching.

I'm like, what's going on? I'm freaking out, you know? And then eventually they started coming in, you know, 50 and 60, 100. You know, before that it was like 10, 20,000. And I was pretty fine with that. But she was like, we've got to make a stance for you. You know, you got to stand firm and it'll come. So thankfully, it did.

And so I started being able to, like, believe in terms of, like, setting my, you know, my prices or my expectations for what, what was going to be my, my bottom line, I guess. I was able to see that eventually it would come to fruition. You know, but there's a good lesson to learn there for anybody listening. Like, you know, you got to set your value at a certain point, you know, and it doesn't mean you can just be unrealistic completely. But, you know, if you've been in the business as long as you were, going from 20,000 to 50,000. That's not, that's a reasonable, like,

upgrade from where you were, you know, when like you went 20,000 to 2 million or something, you know. Yeah, I mean, in the videos that I was doing at 20,000, we're really, we're really more of $50,000 videos anyways, as far as, like, the resources that we put into them. And as a creator, this is where the business and the creative side kind of, you know, bumps heads because, like, as a creator, I'm not really worried about business most of the time.

I mean, now I am, but as a young, I just wanted to create. So all the money could go to the screen, I would eat top ramen. I didn't care. Like, it's just because I'm an artist. Yeah, right. Is that why they said it's called starving artists for a reason? Exactly.

Exactly. And I had to come to the point where I realized, look, you can be an artist, but if you want to be, you know, a financially stable artist, you need to be an artist for the brand or for the clients. And the client is like whoever the actual brand or artist is. like I can't like sometimes I would get like a song and maybe a Bieber song and I would write this like very you know artsy fartsy creative that didn't fit his brand at all but I wanted to go with it because I'm such like an artist and I'm like okay I'm applying the job instead of just writing something that is for this

brand it fits into the brand but has my little sprinkle on it and then make the money right like and so I think a lot of people get stuck there because they want to like I'm an artist and they feel like oh, I don't even know what the word is, but like, yeah, you can do that. You're just going to be doing it for nobody, you know? So. What's the Madelanzo style? I mean, you know, not to pigeonhole yourself, but what, you know, do you feel like you have a certain style or, you know, like.

Yeah, I mean, my style is pretty, like, fast. I mean, I've been editing since I was eight. So, like, I just like to, I like to edit quickly, like, and I like to, like to, like, to like over, I just like to keep things. I have ADD, like, through the roof. So like a couple frames, my attention span is gone, which is good now because nowadays, like, 15 seconds. And, you know, even for me, I'm an old head, but like, I even check out about 15 second video, you know? So, so I would say just really fast and just a lot coming at you in a short period of time.

I have a really hard time, at least at this point, like being slow. Like, I just feel like, okay, I'm done. I'm bored. You got that TikTok brain. Yeah, for sure. and I had it before TikTok, so it's kind of worked out for me. You know, there was a time where it didn't

because, like, TikTok brain for everybody else wasn't there. So that was a little bit of a rough patch, but I managed to survive. Yeah. So. I see a lot of effects and stuff in your stuff. I mean, is that working with others, or are you a practitioner?

Are you just like a jack-of-all-trades? And I know you're directing some, you're editing some, you're filming some, like, you know, where is your skill set? kind of fall. I direct. I mean, I write and direct and edit pretty much everything. I think I've one or two videos. I've had other editors. But I started as an editor as a kid, really. And then I started shooting and directing and everything in college. And so as a director and editor, it's, you know, it just helps on set. You're able to kind of get in and out and kind of like combine shots. And if you

have a problem, some directors are going to sit there. They're not going to really like be able to have the vision of how these shots are going to connect. They're going to take time. And I'm able to just kind of move along. So my skill set really lies and I would say more like leadership and then which was from a director standpoint, creating the vision and then also creating the vision in a way that is going to be executable for the price or for slightly under the price so you're able to make some money. Right. So like that's a big part of it, which it does fall on the creator. I used to think it was like business side, but it does fall into that. So I'd say that's the strength of mine as well and then being able to like edit and all that stuff.

And the effects, I would say 95% of them I do myself. And I do them all in one program. So I've just learned to, I didn't have much as a child in terms of like the top equipment and top software, top computer. So I had to make do with what I had. And I had to improvise in ways to make things that weren't necessarily meant to be done on this computer or done on this camera. I had to find a way to make, find a way to be able to make them on these things.

All right, I got to make you, you got to name that program because Nick and I are in the business. So I'm watching my producer, Nick kind of, you know, light up. We want to, what program are we talking about? I do everything in Premiere. I do everything in Premiere. Yeah. Yeah. But it's just, like I said, I've been, like, I just find ways to make the program work for me as opposed to like going, you know, using multiple programs, which most people would do.

Or they would look at my stuff and they'd think, like, I had to do all these steps, which I didn't do. I just, my brain can just cheat. it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. Hey, I like it. I like the mutant jack of all trades. Like, Nick My Producer is one of those where he can he has the vision to direct and he can

see it but then editing. That's a unique skill set but you have to I don't know. I think it's a lot of the relationship because it keeps you in the box for like 1820 and I'll edit for like 72 hours straight sometimes because I wanted to get over

be over with but I I also wanted to like, I don't know. I don't know. I'm in love with it. So like, then I'm like, I miss half my life, you know. Yeah, right. All the, the editors toil. So finish out that story, man.

I know we've been having a couple sidebars. I mean, where lead us up to now like the last, you know, four to five years. Well, it's been, I know, I mean, COVID's been difficult being in L.A. and battling through that for anyone that does live action and things like that. But walk me through the last, you know, a few years. I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah.

I mean, once COVID here. I mean, I've been, the last few years, I've been trying to figure out where I was going to go. I didn't know really what I wanted to do music videos. It's like, you know, when you wake up on the first day of school, like, you know, those nerves and all that stuff of excitement, that kind of all faded away. So it was just kind of so easy for me. I just not challenging. I wouldn't say easy because it's still difficult, but it just wasn't challenging me. It wasn't like pushing my boundaries.

And I was like, what else am I going to do? COVID happened. And then, you know, I tried to work for a couple record labels. I do some jobs. And I saw people wearing hazmats and like, you know, getting like 87 tests before the shoot. And I was like, there's absolutely no way I'm going to do that. And like, if I can't even touch my friend or like see my friend, I'm going to be wearing

this big suit and shit, like I'm not going to do that. Luckily, I had a lot of friends who are artists. And so they would just contact me and just, you know, we just do side business. Yeah. Or, you know, small business like stuff. So it's like small videos, five, 10, 15, 20 grand. Like anything under, like, you know, just like the bigger videos for record labels are usually on the 40 to

upper side. So like these were all considered smaller videos. I just did myself. And so that was kind of refreshing, at least for me. And it was good financially. And then I was like, all right, I need to get a big boy job. Like, you know, I'm getting up there in age. So one of the guys that started SCDD with me, Kai Henry,

he was he's over at phase clan which is an e-sports video game org and i just i was like something about that i just had grabbed like it just started pulling me and so i contacted him like hey get me over there what's like what's up and he's like oh it's a big boy job are you ready to come into an office every day i'm like i don't know but let me just go over and check it out and uh and so i went to check it out and you know i've been here ever since you know it's a great it's a great a great place to be I run all the branded content. We have like 15 brands from, oh,

God, luckily I didn't say that one because we're not allowed to say that one. Yeah, but we have, we can add it. Yeah, we have big brands who do business with us, and then we basically pump out content for them,

basically like commercials, but with our talents, like our video gamers and things like that, who star in these pieces. So there's a ton of deliverables that are, that need to be met. And it's a different, a different challenge for me.

and the music because it pays amazingly compared to freelance. So it's been a blessing. It's definitely been a blessing, something new, and that's where I'm at today. No, that's awesome. I'm very familiar with Fais Clan, one of the biggest name, probably the biggest name in e-sports. We did a huge segment on the Radcast. We had like a 10 guest series on e-sports.

And so it's a huge, I mean, people, if they listen to the Radcast, they know how big e-sports are because we made sure they knew the numbers behind it how i mean it's fucking insane like how much money yeah it's it blows my mind like like i'm going in some of the like some of the stuff a lot of the stuff we're doing is like sometimes we'll do bigger pieces but some of this stuff will be like

just for instagram or for like ticot or something and i'm looking at the budget going holy holy shh like this is just for social media but when i say just for that's because i'm on the old head because if you're a ticot or instagram you know in this demo of a 13 to 24 You don't even know what TV is.

So it's not just for. That is their TV, right? Like, that is their... This is the TV. Bread and butter. So the budget makes... I know, I know. So the budget makes sense.

But for an old head like me, who still has, like, you know, you still wants a much Monday night football on my big screen. Like, it's a little shocking. I was like, wow. But it's great. It seems to be perfectly fit for my skill set. And I have, like, you know,

five to seven producers underneath me, who I'm able to kind of manage. And I love being like being able to be a leader and coach and mentor. And, you know, I've done some film classes. I've done as, you know, as many like tutorials or things where I can kind of give back as possible. So I'll be able to do that on a daily basis.

You kind of help these guys through, you know, struggles, not only with work, but, you know, some of the things are growing through with life and to be able to kind of help them out is definitely more rewarding and fulfilling to me as Mada-Lonzo as a person than anything I've done, you know, up to this point. So it's kind of a great mend of all these things I was looking for.

Phase Clan, they still have the, if we could edit this if you were not to be able to answer, but they have a huge activation with the Cowboys, or they did. They did, I think. Yeah, well, we did a lot of the NFL as well. So, yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. It blows my mind. What's, give me an example of the types.

of one of your latest projects maybe, you know, like maybe for the listener, like walking through like, you know, a video or some pack of content. So I'll just say the last project that I did was, so we had a moon pay, which is one of the cryptocurrency brands, is one of our branded partners. So we put together a huge party for TwitchCon with MoonPay. And, you know, events are part of events like. competitions, all these things. So we did that with Travis Scott.

So we filmed it, put together a video with all like the biggest names. And then it's just really trying to figure out how to basically like shoot a music video at a club without disturbing people. Like so there's a lot of different challenges. And really that deliverable is like a one minute video on Instagram, you know. So it doesn't even go to YouTube. So that's kind of like kind of just, you know, one of the things that I just did recently. And before that, I did an X-Finity, Nate Hill, which is a big, you got to remember, I'm not a gamer. So these names to me, I don't really know yet.

I'm learning, you know. The last video of game to play was like, duck hunt. So, like, you know. I think there's some duck hunt on Twitch somewhere. It's just drawing my dad's TV, you know. But the content is. is the same. It's just the faces are different.

So like we did, you know, did some, you know, they're like commercials, essentially. So we just try to find a way not to make them commercials. It just depends on what the client wants. But it's a lot different from that to, from that to like 100 girls running around in bikinis, shaking their butts. And, you know, alcohol being sprayed everywhere. And, you know, dollars being thrown. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

You know, it's a lot different. It's a lot of different. I can't say it's as visually exciting, but, you know. But it's interesting, you know, and I'm going to go down and put on my marketing hat for a second. But you said it, you teed it up. What some people haven't grasped yet is 13 to 23-year-olds do not watch television. They've never watched television. And, I mean, I'm not saying they don't watch the screen at home that's on the wall.

That's not a TV to them. It's a content screen, and they beam stuff from their phone there, or they watch Netflix, or they watch a ton of YouTube. And the only way, if you're a marketer, to reach these people is in video games or where they're at. And so that's why e-sports is gigantic. That's why Face Clan's huge. That's why Twitch and all this stuff and all these brands are spending all this money, because you can't reach these kids. And eventually, they're going to be the leaders of the world. and you've got to have brand impressions

and you've got to build that same brand resonance that, you know, Pepto-Bismol could just run a commercial, you know, back in our day. Yeah. But that shit doesn't get seen anymore. No, you want their parents' dollars right now, you know? Yeah.

You want their parents' dollars. They probably have the ability just to press and buy. So you got to eat, like you said, you've got to go to where they're at, you know, and I don't know how video game integration is. But I know that if you have the best gamer using your product, integration is going to do well for you, you know, and it at least gives you a chance. And I guess that's all you can hope for is an opportunity and a chance that they walk by your product and they happen to remember or as far as being in them to buy it, you know. Because without that, you have no chance.

I mean, you just have no opportunity. You're unseen. You're unheard, you know, out of sight, out of mind. So I get it. I get it from like the, from, you know, from a broad sense. But when I, sometimes I just don't, I don't take that into an account. I'm just going, what the freak is going on here in terms of like budgets and like what we're doing and creating? I'm in the business brother and I do the same thing sometimes.

I'm in the business every day and I step back sometimes and go, you know, like I get it, but I don't get it, you know, because just. And I think about what our music video budgets. I mean, music video budgets were absolutely pennies. I mean, they still are pennies, you know what I mean? And like sometimes the bigger the artists, the lower the budget, you know. I mean, a lot of times, like I was telling you earlier before we got on, you know, a lot of the big, big things I did were more for recognition, you know, like it wasn't for, it was to bring in other business, you know,

a lot of times that would bring in artists from overseas who just wanted to shoot with me because I shot with Beaver and that they would pay me an insorbitant amount of money. And so I was able to get jobs like that with that video, will never be seen to the general public, but I wouldn't be able to get that job if I didn't do this $5,000 video for XYZ, you know? And like $5,000 or $10,000 is nothing. Sometimes I do videos for free, you know, like just for the exposure.

But it was worth it because all that probably led to the opportunity today, right? Absolutely. No, no, absolutely. And I tell kids all the time, like take it. Obviously, you have to be strategic about it. don't just do shit for free, like just left and right. You know what I mean? But if it makes sense for you in terms of like you see steps after that,

absolutely do it. You know, some people tell them not to do it. And I'm just like, why? Well, because you're worth more and stuff like that. Well, you're actually worth nothing right now because nobody knows you. You have all the skills in the world. You're still worth zero because you are just not a commodity, you know? So you have to make yourself a commodity.

You're trying to make yourself a commodity and make money at the same time. It's almost impossible. I want to say it is, but it's almost impossible. The tagline for my coaching is it pays to be known. Ed, because if you ain't known. There you go. You know, and you don't have to be famous, and you don't have to be famous, but you've got to be known to the right people.

Yeah, your skills have to be wanted. You know, you have to be a commodity. And obviously, you know, the more you're wanted, the higher your, you know, your prices can be, you know, in anything. Right. So, and I had a good understanding of that. Like I said, once again, I couldn't, I couldn't verbalize this stuff early on, but I just knew that was how it worked. So I was able to take that concert in San Diego for free, drive back home that night, edited it all night, you split screen, all this crazy stuff, post it, knowing that, or hoping, I guess I was hoping that I would start to get known, right? Like, and I knew if I started to get known, then opportunities would come in, and then I could build my leverage up and start bidding more. more. Talk to me about your perspective on TikTok and Instagram and Reels and vertical video. Like, you know, let's go down that rabbit hole just a minute as we close things out.

Like, what's your perspective on vertical video and the like? So when vertical video first came out as well as like square video, I was completely like against it. You know, I did everything in my power not to fall in line with this sort of, you know, liberable. I was very like, egotistic. I was like my head up in the air. Like, no, cinematic film is only this way. And then I realized, like, I'm fighting something I'm never going to be able to win the battle against. And I'm hurting myself or the clients or the brands that I'm working with. I started studying a little bit more about the algorithms. And so, and how, you know, if you, if you stay back in, you know, old head bill, then your, your, your content's never going to be.

be seen, right? And the more you take up the screen and all these things on all these, you know, these algorithms. And so I'm like, I want my content to be seen. I want to grow. I want, you know, I want all the things that come with, you know, exposure. So if I'm hurting myself by staying in this old lane, because just because I feel like it's so precious to me, then I'm, I'm retarded. I'm just, I'm not using my head properly, you know. So what I did was I started challenging myself to find ways to still to shoot in to shoot square so that I didn't have to reframe my shit later and I didn't have to like make something out of out of something that would make a different video that wasn't supposed to be that way so I started shooting perfectly

or I started like taping my my camera off so I couldn't see you know I don't see it square and so I started challenging myself to shoot cinematic that way but also just doing that framing really helped me so that so later on I wasn't trying to figure out which portion of the of the frame I wanted to show and feel like I was losing something once I did that then it all became just intuitive and like natural to me and uh and now I'm like the more vertical the better for me I don't care I'll push the limits like anywhere but I shoot I shoot I first figure out what the deliver was going to be or where I want this video to live and then I shoot accordingly so that seems to help out tremendously but now I'm all for it because I know that's just if you're

18 or 17 you don't even know what the wide stream videos are like for movie theaters which are like drive driving theaters to us you know like it just it just doesn't really register you know so the um yeah i had to change i had to change i think we all have but it's been interesting watching the you talked about the short form video and how you were ahead of your time a bit with that but now i mean everything's like 10 15 20 seconds you got to you know i mean if it's a video like a music video or something with a big star, you certainly got more leeway on length and as long as you're entertaining. Maybe.

Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. Because for me, for me, I'll even, even if I like it, I get to about 20 seconds and I register it as like good video, but then I click off. Even if it has like another two minutes to go, I just, and I, and even if I like it, I just, my attention span, it's like, okay, what's next? Yep.

So. So get that brand. You have to basically. So if you're listening at home, the key there is get that braining in early. Yeah. No, for sure. For sure. Like if you watch any of my content, it's like five seconds.

First five seconds are like, you know, just like, at least keep you there to the, to 15. I was reading these studies and they were saying like 85% of your viewership is gone by like six seconds or something like that. So if you start looking at these analytics, and these are like analytics from actual. you know, real living human beings who are checking your content. So, uh, it's very telling on, you know, it gives you a lot of information on, on how to edit or how to create something. Because you just, you can't, you can't be so stuck in your ways or so like, you know, stubborn that, oh, no, I'm going to show my, my logo at the end of the video. It's like, well, it's never going to, no one's ever going to see it, you know? So having all this data and

having these, like, facts that you can literally just take and then implement, uh, is, is a great thing if you're able to kind of like I said not be so stubborn and hard-headed, you know. But eventually, I guess the numbers will tell as you lose customers or lose, you don't sell merchandise or whatever it is, you know. Hey, man, marrying the art. I just think it's a lot of stuff out there. Yeah. With that, you got to get it out there.

I mean, that's a good point. You need to get it. Go ahead. No, I mean, you got to get it out there because you got to, that's the thing now. Like, people fall in love. and if you spend three weeks doing something, you could have already learned if it worked or not done four other things, right?

I mean, that's the key now. I was like, get it out there. Learn. So I managed an artist during COVID. I managed a huge TikTok artist. I was able to get his Spotify from like $200,000 to when I, you know, without working together,

it was like 2.5 million monthly listeners. You know, I got him a deal, singles deal and everything. But like any song that he would work on for longer than like a few weeks, I was just like throw it away or save it for later because you're attached too much to it. And it's like we got to just throw stuff out. And there's stuff that he didn't care about or was like, okay, I'll just put it out right away.

It did it did really well. And the stuff that he would babysit a little bit longer, just never. And it wasn't because people knew that he put in more time or anything. It just, I don't know what it is, but the more you work on something, the less likely it is to be successful for whatever reason. And I'm not saying like just throw trash out there. No, but I'm saying I think everything has like. like a 90-10 rule. Like once you get to a point,

and I'm a perfectionist to the fullest. I've had to give money back because I've done like 10 versions of an edit and I still didn't feel comfortable sending it to a client. I've had to send money back. Like, here's your money for your project. I just can't edit this. I mean, I can't, I don't want to send it to you

because my perfectionism is so crazy. So me as a perfectionist, being able to say this, like you have to be able to put it out when it's 90% to your liking. It shows the growth. But it also shows like how important it is to do that, you know? And like it's not those days of like, you know, putting all your energy into one film or one single or all that stuff, it's gone.

It's just like you said, you have to just throw shit out there, see what sticks, see what doesn't, and then be able to adapt and just continue to do it. Out of sight, out of mind. And, you know, instead of doing like one thing where you put all your energy and all your eggs and all your budget, do 10 things and you kind of spread your resources, which is kind of opposite of the way I learned, but it's what works right now. You know, a lot of wisdom there. Hey, man, I've really enjoyed this. Where can everybody keep up with you, Matt, and follow along with everything where it's the best place to get you? Best place is probably Raya Bumble.

I'm just kidding. Matalonzo. Matalonzo.com. Everything's at Matalonzo, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. So keep everything pretty easy for people to find. I love it, man. Really appreciate your time and your perspective. and a lot of good insights, man.

I appreciate you having me on here, and hopefully we dropped a few gems for some people. I know. Maybe we'll get to work together down the road. I'll get in touch with you. Hey, guys, you know where to find me. I'm at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. We're at the radcast.com.

Search for Matt Alonzo. You'll find all the highlight clips from today. All the stories about Matt and great perspective here. We'll see you next time on the Radcast.