Show Notes
[00:01:00] What videos can really be helpful for a business?
[00:08:00] What video should a company start out with?
[00:21:50] Advice for New Business Owners
[00:39:00] Connect with Zak
Links
In the digital age, it is important to not just tell your consumers why your product is important, but to show them. Videos for your business is a great way to do that. Not only will producing videos add authority to your brand’s voice, video can also take your business to the next level.
What videos can really be helpful for a business?
When you are just starting out with video, a great place to invest is in telling stories. No, not the fairytale storybook kind. Telling a story is almost always more effective at engaging your audience than just telling them what they need to know. These stories can tell consumers many things about your brand. The overarching questions should always be this: what are you teaching your audience?
What video should a company start out with?
There are a few “types” of videos that every business can benefit from, but two in particular are a great place to start. First, testimonial videos. Testimonials can range from an Amazon review shot on an iPhone to an all-the-stops-pulled-out production. Make no mistake – the Amazon review can be just as, if not more, beneficial to a business. The second video is any form of video that sells the culture of your company. Behind the scenes, who you are, or the origin story of your company are great prompts. This gives insight to who your consumers are buying from and, hopefully, convinces them to choose you over the competitor due to an emotional connection. The key feature in both of these videos? They are authentic. Consumers do not want to see a false version of reality.
What about a budget?
Depending on what your business’ budget is, the types of videos and scale at which you produce will vary greatly. That doesn’t mean you can’t make a video without a 10k budget, but the complexity may be less than movie quality. Setting reasonable expectations will help you be even more impressed with what is produced.
Incorporating video into your business marketing is sure to gain you success and engage your audience in new, exciting ways.
Transcript
Hey, thanks so much for listening to the podcast today. This is Brian. I wanted to jump on here real quick before we started the episode. So this one’s just a little bit different. Uh, sometimes we have founder series and then other times we have different episodes of them, a little more tactical and good information, how to tos, and this is going to be mashup.
So this first part is going to be, be with Zach healed of intercut. We’re listening to his story, how he started his business. Uh, and then next week we’re actually going to do part two where we dive into a little bit more of what it looks like to create a good sales video, what videos actually work and help convert.
Uh, Zach just is a ton had just, uh, ton of information. And so we were so excited to have him on the podcast and typically we keep our episodes. Try it around 30 minutes, but we just, we kind of went long with Zach and it was so much fun and so much information and we really hope you enjoy it, but make sure you tune in next week for the second part you’re kind of diving into.
So anyway, let’s go ahead and kick it off.
Hey, what’s up. Everybody I’ll come back to the do marketing differently podcast presented by go rogue ex. My name is Brian Finn. This is the podcast dedicated to those who are wanting to do things differently. Serve first, give value, stand out from the crowd. Make sure that you subscribe to our show because we’re every week.
Bringing you awesome stuff, right? Lauren? Yeah. That’s my awesome cohost Lauren Lewis. And today we have an amazing guest, Zach Heald. How’s it going? Zack. I’m doing well. How are you guys? Good. Zach is with intercut productions as I knock over all the production stuff as we’re doing this. So if you’re watching on video, uh, Zach is.
A video master. We’re just going to go ahead and say, okay, SEO experts. Um, I appreciate Zach. I’ve known him for a few years and I’ve actually looked up to Zach with, he has an amazing studio, amazing content. They’re always producing some really, really cool stuff coming up with new ideas. And so we’re going to dive into all of that.
And on top of that, of how video can really help you sell in your business, right? Yeah. So excited to kind of jump into that as well. But before we do. We like to start with something fun. What is that Lauren, each week we like to talk about what are you obsessed with this week? So starting there, guest, Zach, what are you obsessed with this week?
Um, you know, I think, I think this week, I think it’s just like Twitter. Um, I’ve spent more time on Twitter in the last week than I probably have spent in the last 365 days combined up until this point. Yeah. I don’t know. I just feel like the world’s happening on Twitter right now. Um, and so I’ve been kind of glued to my phone in that respect, which is terrible.
In fact, I told someone yesterday, I think I’m just gonna like, get all the social media apps off my phone for like a month. And just like get out of the world for a little while. Um, but yeah, I think right now, sadly, um, I’m on Twitter. That’s like where I’m at right now. I love it. You, no one would have ever said that two years ago.
No, it’s somehow Twitter has just kind of come back up and I’m not going to give the credit to Donald Trump, but there is a large insurgence of Twitter usage, you know, he’s definitely the reason the world’s on there right now. You know, like if he wasn’t tweeting, no one would care about Twitter. Like.
That’s that’s reality, social media platform. It’s almost like they took a back seat for so long. And so many people were like, yeah, Twitter. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody’s using it. I actually, you know, I kind of am really interested to see like post this presidency, what happens to Twitter? Um, only cause I, I think 2015, we could have considered Twitter to be dead or on the way out.
And if you had told us in 2015, that Twitter would be alive in 2020, we would all probably have been like, yeah, but no one was going to be on there. Yep. Um, and somehow, you know, number 45 is managed to keep it there, rolling it back, keeping it alive, which is blowing my mind. It really has. Um, but I really do like Twitter as far as like, it’s just a mind dump.
I feel like, um, there’s a lot less. Uh, of like the deep opinions, like you don’t get to, you know, string out three paragraphs of your love or hate for something. It’s a lot more of like really quick. A lot of it’s like in the moment news. Um, in fact, like a lot of stuff, I’m trying to find something it’s something that’s happening in like downtown Fayetteville or downtown, but I’ll go to Twitter first.
Like I’m going to learn what’s going on three blocks from me on Twitter far before I’m going to learn what’s going on, going through the news. Or even Facebook or some of the other ones that kinda, you know, put, put in your content into a feed where you don’t actually see what’s actually happening. Yeah.
It’s still chronologic, chronological. How many other newsfeeds are chronological? You know, so like Twitter, I think is in that respect, like a really powerful tool for that. I’m just like, I can learn about wherever I’m at. Like, if I’m at a conference, like you can type in that hashtag and see like, Everything that’s happened in the last 30 seconds on Twitter with that hashtag, which like, you just don’t get on most platforms.
That’s true. That’s true, man. Zach’s is bringing Twitter backs. I love it. I just read a lot. It’s weird. You know, it’s funny because I don’t use it. I used to, but I don’t use it anymore, but it’s, it’s one of those things where I do find myself. Like I wish I had, I wish I had Twitter again, because I would, I would like.
All those just random thoughts that you have, like, this would be perfect for Twitter. It’s funny. Right. It has nothing to do with anything. Right. And I was like, I know several of my dumb friends would be like, Oh, that’s hilarious. You know? Yeah. But I’m just not there. If I was committed enough, I’d have like a couple like dedicated Twitter channels to like just certain types of thoughts to have out there.
Cause I think that like, that platform is like perfect for that of like, if you can hope with some really funny punchlines. Like in one vein of gravity that like, you’re just consistently like throwing little jabs out about one thing. Like I think it can work really well. Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome.
So actually I was talking to our content coordinator. Ava, big shout out friend of the show. Ava. Yes. It’s all behind the scenes. That’s right. That’s right. Big fans of Spotify. But, um, we we’ve been sharing playlists, but one of the playlists that I have listened to a 10. Super random is Spiderman into the spider verse.
The soundtrack on that. Oh, amazing. It’s so good. I’ve been listening to it a lot in the office. I’m a beast, you know, but not blaring it out, you know? Yes. Oh, you should be blaring it out. It’s good music. Everyone should enjoy it. Yes. Well, Brian, where some music and it’s not always appreciated now. I know what will be appreciated.
Yeah. But no, I haven’t. I have really been, uh, jamming out to that. Yeah. I was out of the office for a few days. Came back. It’s just nothing but the spider verse in here, which I’m okay with, again, I’ve tried to find Jordan ones. I, there are nowhere to be found even when that came out. And I was like, man, I loved those shoes back in the day.
And then you couldn’t, you find them like once that movie came out and then obviously the documentary is done, it’s done there mainly expensive. So anyway, all right. Uh, my obsession this week as actually, okay. This is weird. Yeah, we talk about video games, right? We’ve talked about it. So I try to do some mobile gaming.
I was like, I don’t do that very often. I played Tetris, which was fine. It’s on mobile. Do I sound really old right now? Is that what’s happening almost exclusively mobile game. So all of you. Okay. Oh, okay. So here’s the deal I tried. I could not get into it. And so I did play Tetris, which was great and I enjoyed, but, so I found a random old game called not old.
Uh, what remains of Edith Finch? I believe. It is like a very strange on Xbox game pass, right? Live game pass. And it’s like a player walk through. You’re not really doing anything other than solving like a crime, I guess. And your learning history. It is. I will, you would think of most boring game in the world, but it’s actually really, the graphics are amazing, but I think it was like originally a three 60 game.
So here’s a random thing. I’ve enjoyed it. So all that matters. Right. Thank you. Thank you guys.
I, uh, I’m a big mobile gamer. Yeah. Tell me what are some good mobile? The references because I got her referral system games were just not good at all. I don’t know. So I go back and forth between the type of online games, like mobile games. I play. Um, I, when I bought an iPad pro I went ahead and bought a, um, I bought the XR, uh, the Apple arcade, arcade pack.
Tell me about that. Cause this was five bucks a month. Bucks a month. Okay. And I’ve gone back and forth whether or not I’m gonna keep it or not. I haven’t decided for sure. There are, there are days where I really enjoy the Apple arcade games. Yeah. By and large, they are all very arcade style, which is not my game style.
I’m much more of the strategy long game kind of player. Like I want to save my game, come back to it for the next. You know, three months is like build out an empire or something, you know, like a lot of the games I play, which I guess is not surprising for the type of person I am. It’s like, I play a lot of times tycoon games and like, you know, um, like simulating out and things like that.
Yeah. And like building them out and, um, uh, like as a kid, like lemonade, tycoon, rollercoaster, tycoon, of course I own all of those. Right. Um, and, uh, and it’s just got, you know, I’ve, I’ve played all over kinds of tycoon games as well. That tends to be what I play on my mobile. Um, But some of the arcade I have to say are really fun.
There’s a game called, uh, Outlanders that, uh, is really, really fun if you’re into, like, it’s very arcade, flat style gaming, but like, it’s just a very fun graphics are pretty good for being a flat style game. Like it’s just, it’s very fun. Creative. Uh, in fact, I would say a lot of the Apple arcade games have become very, just like art, like artistic.
Yeah. It’s more about like, how, how much can we do this? You know? And yeah. Um, yeah, so, yeah. Okay. So I saw that and I was like, so basically my anniversary was this weekend. And so we just kind of checked out and I was like, I’m just going to do things that I don’t typically do. And so that was part of my arcade push, and I just didn’t do it.
I should have, now I should have just done it. Cause that’s actually a style game I want. And I was like, I just want to mindlessly play something fun, but I dominated. Tetris. I’m just going to say that again in another podcast. I said that, but I’m gonna say it again. I’m gonna keep talking about it anyway.
All right. Is there a win and Tetris, like, can you win the game? Is there a last level, like the final round we did hear from another guest that said he got to a point. I think he said it glitched out where it’s like, you can’t go any further. He was like, I beat the game. Wow. It’s like, I don’t think that’s exactly what happened, but.
You definitely ran to the end of the disc on that game, changed this all the preprogrammed little blocks have fallen done. It’s done. That’s hilarious. All right. So, Hey, moving on real quick, we are so excited to have you on Zack, because like I said before, uh, we, you know, all the things that you guys are doing and so many different programs and stuff, I’m not going to butcher, I’m gonna let you kind of tell us a little bit about all the amazing things you guys are working on.
Yeah, well, um, So a little bit, I guess, talk about you first. I’m so sorry. I don’t want you to tee that up. It’s okay. Please tell us your story and all the amazing things that you’re doing. I’ll do that. That’s a little easier to intro into all of them. Otherwise, I feel like I have a list, you know? So, um, yeah, no.
So, uh, my name’s Zach obviously, um, I, uh, like Jesus, Zach healed like Jesus, if you guys ever want to, that was great. Uh, I, uh, I’m actually a, I turned 25 this month. Um, so I’m pretty young the game. Uh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, uh, I got started in video in high school. Um, so I grew up in Kansas city and growing up in Kansas city.
Uh, my dad owned the wrestling team in our town and that was all we did. We lived and breathed wrestling. And so, uh, I started wrestling when I was like four or five years old. Um, my brother started when he was four. Um, and we like, that’s what we did for 12 years of our lives. Like that was a hundred percent of our time.
It’s that? And, uh, Recession hit and tells an eight. If we started looking for jobs, my dad was working for sprint at the time in Kansas city. And, uh, just got to point where I was like, I’m not enjoying this anymore. Like, my job involves laying people off. Like that’s not what I want to do for a living. So I’m going to leave and started searching around, found an opportunity down here in Bentonville and, uh, almost moved to Oklahoma OU nearly scape that one bullet.
Yeah. Right. Uh, But, uh, yeah, he was interviewing with Google out in Oklahoma. And thank goodness that didn’t happen. Um, we ended up here instead of just caveat. If we have any Oklahoma listeners, we love you. Yeah, that’s right. You have an amazing state. You have an amazing sandstorm. You sent us the other day was rude.
Crazy. Don’t need to be doing that. No more thing. That was nuts. That was awesome. Yeah. So anyway, we moved to Arkansas and when we got to Arkansas, of course, um, my, well, my parents were amazing when we moved here and they were like, you can we’ll move anywhere you want in Northwest darken. I saw you guys go look at all.
The schools will tour all the schools pick the favorite school district will move into that school district, um, which like how many kids get that opportunity, um, as part of the deal when you move. So, uh, but I was entering into high school coming into Arkansas. And so, um, it was kinda like a weird time to change schools.
Like I’d grown up. Since kindergarten with all the same kids in a school that was a hundred people per class. Like it was a small school. Um, So moving to Arkansas, I started scouting all the schools. We went and toured them all, and I really fell in love with Gravett school district. Uh, the private school district didn’t have wrestling.
In fact, the only ones that did at the time were like Benton or Bentonville and Rogers. And, uh, and so I knew that going to grab it meant I had to find something else to do. Like my whole plan was I was going to go through high school, get a wrestling scholarship tie with city, get my MBA at Iowa city.
And then go get a cubicle job somewhere. Yeah. Um, thanks to wrestling for paying for it. Um, and, uh, getting into high school, then not having a wrestling team. Um, I coached a little bit of Bentonville while I could there. And, uh, eventually we just like, okay, I have to, I have to do something with myself and with my life and, uh, kind of fell into theater.
I’d been in theater a little bit in Kansas city, like in middle school had kind of experimented with theater, uh, fell into theater, uh, into high school, fell in love with it. And. Um, my theater teacher is actually the one that really introduced me into film. I’d always loved cameras. I bought lots of still cameras before then.
Um, a little bit of video and my, a teacher at Gravitt who actually still teaches at grab his name’s Ian Galloway. Uh, he introduced me into film. He’s a freelance screenwriter, um, own films and producing them during the summer when school wasn’t in session. And. Um, I got plugged in with him and his friends and started making films with him during the summertime.
Um, and that just lit the fire. And I was like, this is, I love this. This is what I’m doing. Um, and so, uh, my 16th birthday, when I turned 16 and got my driver’s license, my first stop, um, was the, uh, the city hall building, uh, and went and guard the courthouse to go file my DBA for my business. Um, that was my first stop at 16 and, uh, filed a production or filed a DBA for a production company.
Uh, which was called intercut productions. It was a name. We come up with a, my, a bunch of my friends come up with in class. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It still remains the name of our company today. Um, yeah, that was the beginning of intercut productions. I was a junior in high school at the time. Um, and just doing everything I could, I was doing lots of free work for people, churches, uh, local businesses.
You name it, anybody that would let me bring a camera, uh, to come do something with them. Like I was like, I don’t know, you don’t have to post it. Like, let me just come shoot. I’m just going to come shoot. Yeah. Um, and so I was just shooting everything I could all the time. Yeah. Inventing my own projects, uh, before like creating original content was a thing that people were doing.
Um, and, uh, we, we started a YouTube channel with my friends. Did, I’m never going to tell you the name of it. Um, I’m sure there’s revenance of it out there. Yes, it does guy wearing short shorts in every episode. Um, it was fun content. We, and I learned a lot through that and ended up launching kind of like a, the video department in our school.
Um, kind of launched like a news daily news through video, um, which has continued on after I’ve left. And, um, and actually after leaving high school, Uh, the gravity has gone back now and they’ve actually added a film program. Um, so it’s been really cool. I’ve gotten to go back and plug into that and, and help.
And actually our studio is in grab it city limits. And so, and that was a big part of why we did that is we’re really pumping, kinda, you know, our tax dollars back into that school and, and helping them out. And so, um, but graduated high school and went to John Brown university for a year, um, in their, uh, digital film program, met some incredible people while I was there.
Uh, but at the same time, my business was really starting to grow. And that summer after my freshman year had to go to my parents and go, we have to make a decision. I’m either I’m going to continue with this business or I’m going to go to school. I can’t, I can’t do both anymore. I was like living out of my car practically, um, like working in Bentonville and Fayetteville during the day or during the night, and then driving sometimes will the night back to Siloam to go to class and like, it just wasn’t working for me.
Um, And so I basically put it to them and they were like, well, you’re going to school or we’re not like, we’re not supporting you anymore. Like you’re on your own and good parents in a sense. Right. Right. Yeah. And I remember, I was like, I was so mad. I was like, what? Like, if you guys would support this business, like you support the school, like we’ll be in the same position in five minutes, same position.
And so, um, I was like, maybe you take on debt with me, but like, I was like, you’re taking on debt with the school, like there, no, but two weeks later they came back to me and they was like, they were like, you know what, we’re wrong. Um, and you’re totally, if you want to drop out, drop out, you can stay here, live here, live off our expenses, as long as you need to get your business up off the ground.
Um, and so that’s what I did. I knew like there’s never gonna be another opportunity in my life that I would have to start a business with no expenses. Right. Um, in fact, there’s businesses starting even right now that I wish I had no expenses, you know, Um, and so I understand, like I was really privileged in that of like having parents that were like, no, yeah, live here, stay here, do your thing.
Uh, while you grow your business to a point that you can afford it. And so, um, that’s what I did. I hired some friends out of JBU that were, um, students at the time that were there with me, that I met, uh, Some of them dropped out of JBU with me later, uh, promoting that college admissions and I are not getting the best of friends.
Um, he’s taking more people that were admitting what is going on here. Uh, but you know, we, we all left and all of our friends were kind of saying the same conversation of, um, you know, actually I got a real two of us, Michael Kelly, and I were, uh, JBU and Michael I’d hired Michael and. Um, he was working actually, we were over here at Halstead and we were in the office here at, uh, driving back to silo and we lived in silo and going to school there.
And I was telling him, I’m like, you just, you’ve got to quit. Like you’ve got to drop out and go full time here. Yeah. He hated doing, like, he was doing homework all night long working during the day. Like he was miserable. I was like, what are you doing? All of our friends are looking at you going, why you’re getting a degree to get the job you have.
Yeah. I’ve never asked for your degree. Like, what are you doing? You know? And, um, and so eventually, uh, I think it took him. Until his junior year. So he was so close. Uh, but after his junior year he was like, that’s it I’m done. And I remember never forget, like it was at BIA, Jeff. I think he made that decision with us.
He was like, I’m not going back. This is yeah. Um, and so. We all set out and, and, uh, and left JBU and, and just went out and did this thing full time and hit it hard. Um, and a lot of our work at the beginning of his working, we did a lot of weddings, obviously, who doesn’t do that. Everybody starts, man.
Absolutely. Yeah. Why not? There’s more weddings bigger than there are of any other type of video, probably. So like, there’s a ton of those to go around and everyone can do those. And, uh, and so we started in that and. And moved through the weddings and then, uh, started getting more and more commercial work.
And that’s kind of slowly where our business turned is really into small business and, and really, I guess, businesses of all sizes. Now we have quite a few fortune 50 companies that we work with, but, um, fortune 500 and, and such. And so we’re, as we, as we’ve grown, it’s really just kind of. What we do, hasn’t really changed the scale at which we do it changes.
Um, but we’re still, you know, even today we’re working with clients that we had back in those early days. I’ve got clients that are still my client, that we had five years ago. Um, you know, that when we were first starting and it was the two of us basically freelance, you know, um, and so, uh, it’s been really cool that we, you know, we, we still, we have a pretty vast style of work you get to do, um, you know, the $500 dollar short, little web social video.
Um, and then we get to do the $500,000 brand films. And so, um, getting, we have that broad spectrum and we kind of get to see scale at will for different projects. It makes for a really fun, I get to, we get to work with basically every single subcontractor dealing with film or production in the state of Arkansas.
I think we’ve probably worked with at this point, or maybe even in the Tristate area we pull in from all over a lot of times for projects. And, um, it’s just been super, super fun. And, and through all of that, we’ve, it’s allowed us to start a couple of different businesses and all, and. I think the main one that I think gets drawn into intercut a lot is, uh, we have our big studio, um, which up until now has been called farm studios.
Um, you guys can be the first, Oh, it’s the new news. The first ones that’ll have gone out on, but after basically now it’s called Bentonville studios at the farm. Okay. So we’re doing this a little bit of a rebrand. Um, we do with the Bentonville film festival. Yeah. So yeah, I’m working a little bit more to align ourselves more into what they’re doing.
Um, we had some issues with the farm, um, and just getting, uh, we had a lot of brand issues there as far as like we had there’s another film studio, not in the United States, but called the farm. Um, ours is called farm studios. They just called the farm. It’s gotten a little confusing. Um, but also locally, like we’ve got red barn studio here, you know, and, uh, I can’t tell you the number of times that we have people in the studio shooting and they tag red barn studio and I’m like, Oh, I love those guys.
Anything like what we do really? You work with them a lot. Yeah, absolutely. So red bar, he gets tagged all the time when people are at the studio. And so I’m trying to, like, I was like, okay, we’ve got to find a better way. Um, And so, uh, and one of the, you know, one of the obvious things and when it comes to like, you know, marketing is Bendle studios, what is the first thing?
Most filmmakers search. When they get accepted into Benton film festival, they search studios in Bentonville or Bentonville studios. Um, and so that was like the obvious thing for us to go, okay, well, we’re already doing so much with the festival. Um, how can we better relate these two brands? So, uh, that’s what we’ve, we’ve gone there.
And, uh, the studio is a, it’s a 17,000 square foot facility that allows you to. Shoot anything there’s really no rules. Yeah. It’s crazy. This stuff that you guys have put, I mean, just even the helicopter picture alone, I think that’s kind of like the main one is so crazy that you have that much space and that much room to be able to do.
I mean, yeah, where’s the helicopter. And then we had 500 people in there on top of that. Oh yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. It’s, it’s a, it’s a big, I tell people it’s a playground. It’s a big video playground for us. It’s kind of a dream come true. Um, it’s like thinking back into high school of like, What I tried to make the theater black box into in high school is like, now what we have, you know, on a huge scale, we’ve got a 50 foot by 90 foot CYC wall.
So, um, we can literally put semi-trucks in front of the psych wall, helicopters, airplanes, um, all kinds of stuff. And that was, that was really our goal when we were building it as we, we, we said, you know, we want to, um, the first step in Arkansas is production. Uh, Infrastructure, right? Yeah. If we’re going to grow production capability, we’re going to bring bigger brands to do bigger projects in Arkansas.
We have to build infrastructure for them. Uh, and the number one thing that’s lacking is a real soundstage. Uh, and so that’s, that was the first need we wanted to fill was how do we build a soundstage? Uh, and now that we have the soundstage open for just over a year now, uh, we’re now really heavily working into what are the external services, what are the peripherals around production, whether that be catering, whether that be transportation, whether that be.
You know, lots of porta-potties, you know, what are the, what are the things that we need on set and how do we start either setting up relationships with local vendors to provide those to films that are coming in, um, or are those things that we’re investing in ourselves to have as a resource for local projects?
And so, um, Yeah, the studio is a lot of fun. I have a business partner in that. I’m actually my parents, they never got involved in intercut. And so my parents were able to get involved in our studio, which is really fun. Now that you’ve proven yourself, we’ll get involved now. Yeah. Um, no they’re involved. Um, and then we have another partner, uh, named Jason Netter with kickstart entertainment.
They’re based out of LA. Yeah. Uh, and they do, um, I would say 90% animation work. Um, they’re really focused towards children’s entertainment. So anything like ready, jet go, um, pop patrol, things like that. Anything you see on, on Saturday morning cartoons, like it’s probably them, whether it’s two D three D you know, X, men, and 2d or whatever, they’ve got a, quite the broad spectrum and they do a work for cartoon network, Disney, Netflix, Hulu, you name it, Amazon.
Um, and then they do a little bit of live action, like a preacher on AMC with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg co-directing. Um, Jason bought that as a comic book back in the day, he managed to develop that out into a show. And it’s awesome. Yeah. So he’s, they’ve been a great partner for the studio as far as they’re heavily involved in BFF and that’s actually how we met it’s through BFF.
Um, and so they’ve been a great relationship for the studio of just bringing outside productions into Arkansas. Um, but also, you know, He’s got 35, 20, 25 years of production experience, um, in the LA world doing it. And so, uh, he’s just been a tremendous asset for us to have a win, win, working on, you know, growing an industry from scratch kind of here.
Yeah. So it’s interesting because when we first started talking you and I just kind of met up and stuff, you, you mentioned this at one point of being able to. Actually have the talent. You’re like the talent is here. We have enough people that are here that, yeah. When a film comes in, they’re flying crews in, they’re moving people around.
It’s like people that are here. And I remember you kind of putting together a directory of that. And I was like, yeah, let’s do like, cares about this community. And it’s not like big and flashy, like, Oh, Hey, I’m flying here to do this. I’m doing that. And you know what I mean? Like you were actually saying, Hey, we want to promote the community.
We want to, you know, what’s going on here. And people that are looking for work who have the talent. We want to make sure that they get hired on these. And so that was when you started talking. I was like, that’s a really cool idea. I hope it works out. And then obviously everything to do with the farm. Not the farm bill at the studios at the farm, I’m gonna have to correct all my, those studios.
That’s fine. Yes. So it is one of those things. I mean, to see what you guys have done in that space has been so cool. And again, I was saying I haven’t been out there. I wasn’t able to come to the launch party. I know it’s just one of those things where it’s like, Oh, that’s so cool. That’s so cool. I just need to make the, I just call you.
Yeah. You just gotta make it happen. Yeah, absolutely. If you like Google. You know, Bentonville studios or Google, a farm studios, I think is what you actually have to Google right now and probably to get to us. But if you Google farm studios, Um, and you just call the studio number, uh, generally rings my phone unless I’m shooting or whatever, and it rings somebody else, but, uh, generally it rings my phone and we’ll set up a time for you to come out and tour the studio and walk around and meet us all.
Yeah. Physical space. Yeah. Um, yeah. And the studio has given us the opportunity then to launch our own kind of original content. We’ve got a space that’s, that’s always ours. It’s always protected. We can build sets in, keep them standing shoot on when we want. Um, and so, you know, uh, with, with the studio and actually before the studio, we had launched.
A local show called Northwest Arkansas live, um, which is a local television show. Uh, that air is pretty much all over Northwest Arkansas. A little bit in Northeastern, Oklahoma and Southwestern, Missouri, uh, down at the river Valley. Yeah. Yeah. And the show, the whole thing about that show, uh, was, you know, when we started, it was when, when you Google Northwest Arkansas, um, nothing good comes up, right?
Like there’s no good videos that make you like, Oh, I want to go visit that. Right? Yeah. If you Google San Francisco, like, and we kind of did this from a recruitment and retention standpoint of, you know, we have all these recruiters in Northwest Arkansas trying to recruit talent to the area. And I was like, but I pose the challenge of like, okay, but if someone you’re emailing just Google’s our town.
They find nothing besides the news, wait, which isn’t really what you want people to find, not at all. And I was like, but if they search Dallas or if they search Austin or if they search San Francisco, like there’s thousands and thousands of videos, they’re going to find about why they should come visit for the weekend or why she moved their family there for the forever.
Um, I was like, we don’t have that. That’s that’s what’s missing here. And I was so that’s, that was really the, kind of the spawn of Northwest Arkansas alive was. Or the idea behind it was, you know, how do we create content that just makes people want to come visit, um, that instills, you know, that pride of place and people that live here already.
And so, um, that’s one of the things that alive is, is, is it’s, it’s a, it’s a show that’s really just dedicated to telling long form stories about local businesses, local people, local organizations that are just doing really cool things that would make you want to be excited about where you live. Um, or if you don’t, if you’re not from here that make you a man, I’m going to come visit there this week, this summer, because that place looks awesome.
Um, And so that, that’s what we do. We don’t charge any businesses, um, that we could, none of the small businesses we cover on the show, get charged a dollar. We come in and provide them with production value beyond what they could ever afford on their own. Um, and they get a final finished piece that they can promote and use on their website and however they want.
Um, and you know, and. We, we go out and sell sponsorships, uh, to able to do that. You know, it’s got to cover that cost for those, for businesses. So, um, and overall, like it’s not a, you know, it’s not a moneymaking business. Let me tell you, right. Regional television will never be a money making business for anybody.
Um, but the show basically breaks even, you know, and we see it as it provides tremendous value in our community. We love doing it, got and to meet just so many people because of it. There’s very few business owners, I would say in Northwest Arkansas that I haven’t gotten the chance to meet. And like, that’s just been an incredible experience along the way.
Um, and then, uh, as, as part of Northwest Arkansas, I live, um, as kind of the parent brand there alive media is the parent brand. And we’ve, we’ve also launched a podcast out of here as well, called beyond the tap. Yeah. Um, which is starting in season one, relatively local, but I’ll, I’ll say we’ve already got guests coming in from other States to want to be on the show.
So it’s a quickly growing beyond Northwest Arkansas, but, uh, it’s just a, it’s a, it’s a show about craft beer and a beer, wine and liquor. Yeah. So, uh, lots of, uh, nerdy craft, alcohol conversations happening, lots of drinking. There’s yeah. Um, there’s always, always, always beer on set there or wine or, or, you know, Brandy would the guys Margie making a Carson and the other day.
And, uh, of course, you know, um, that’s just, uh, any time you’ve got a lot of people drinking on a podcast, that’s going to be a fun time. So, yeah, exactly. So it’s been a fun show to produce. And, um, you guys do the video aspect is I think what what’s different about that show is because there are so many different craft beer podcasts out there, but when you actually see people and obviously the set, what you guys have built and created is looks phenomenal.
It’s lit well, everything is, it sounds great. Everything is so great about it. That production value rises in that. And that makes you want to. Listen and watch the show because there is a difference in that from two dudes in there, you know, closets, we’re trying to record a podcast about beer. You know what I mean?
You guys have done. Sorry. If there’s any of those people, you should always start a podcast. Please make sure that you start a beer closet. Even if it’s in the closet, it’s just the best place to record. So it is one of the things that you guys obviously add another, you know, higher production value to it that makes people want to want to tune in, right.
That’s the video podcast, right? It’s like what you’re doing. Absolutely. Yeah, no, I think it’s, we’re we’re uh, I was actually, you know, listening and I was doing my homework before I came on here on your podcast. And, uh, I don’t like going into interviews without, you know, doing my own homework. I don’t know about you guys.
And, uh, no, but the, uh, uh, you guys are, you know, even in your June recap, right. You’re talking about your June news, you know, and we talked about video podcasts and Spotify, right? Yeah, I actually, yeah. I walked into my office after listening to your podcast and I walked into my it’s my team. And I was like, um, are we ready for Spotify for their pocket video podcasts?
And they all looked at me like deer in the headlights. And they were like, I think it’s available to us yet. And I was like, no, I know it’s not, but when it is, are we ready? And they’re like, well, we have a video podcast, got a team full of people that are pretty good at finding new codecs or whatever.
They’re going to require stuff. I think we’re going to be fine. And I was like, great, well, we’re ready then. Okay. Yeah. No, I think we’re, we’re really excited about that feature is. It was first announced. I was reading about it and, uh, I think that’s the future of where I think needed to be. And, um, yeah, and I think that’s, we’re teeing up a lot of our content that we’re developing now to be the, um, video podcast format where it has the components of both, but allows you kind of that flexibility in your listening of whether or not it’s going to be on the subway and have your phone in your pocket.
You can, um, or if you want to be sitting at your desk and have it open on your computer and watch us, you can. And, um, it’s been fun to develop a show for that audience of like, knowing that. Uh, like it’s, it’s taken a lot of training of our hosts to go, okay, it’s a radio, like it’s a podcast, but like yeah.
Yeah. People, some people can see you, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then it’s like, but it’s a show, but people that aren’t watching have to be able to listen and know what you’re doing. Right. So describe what is actually happening. Like that’s difficult, you’re talking about beer, right? It’s like, it’s always making sure, like we’re describing what you’re looking at yet.
That color. Like what color is it? So it’s been, it’s been a fun exercise of learning to develop. Content for both in a, in a place that seems really visual when it comes to beer. And, um, we had some guys that brought us still onto the set the other day, and it was like, That was really cool, like in a podcast you’d never, would’ve gotten to see that thing.
Right. And so like getting to show that side of it and it makes it really interactive. And, um, and we’ve gotten to do some fun stuff around that of we’re doing some educational content along the way of like home brews with Brian. Um, we’re doing, you know, Brian or Brian, Brian Crump. Yeah. We used to come on the show and drink with us any time.
You know what? I wouldn’t add any expertise other than this is delicious, or I didn’t really, that’s all I just said, you know, really that’s all Brian’s providing, you know, he’s just like, Oh, let’s say some amazing. And I think when I first met him, he’s like, I really just want a podcast where I can have an excuse to drink for free.
And I was like, Oh dude, we to do that. That’s it. Yeah.
Rapid fire Lauren. You ready? Let’s do this. Alright. If you could teach any grade or subject, what would it be? Ooh, Ooh. Uh, I would teach. High school theater a hundred percent. That would be so much fun. Like teach an improv and like, yeah, that’d be all me. Yeah. So, I mean, these were obviously pre-prepared, but you didn’t know about Zack and grab it because her husband works at Gravitt middle school.
You have to just transfer. What’s his name? Taylor Lewis. Oh, that’s my brother. Yeah. He went to middle school. I never went so, so it is, I mean, it’s kind of funny that whole connection there, but yeah. Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Uh, I don’t like children and so it would be very hard for me to teach. I think it would have to be like a, this is one through 12 K through 12th grade or subject.
Okay. I’m great. I was going to go like college, like some like intro to photography. Okay. Can I do that? Okay. It’s like simple. You’re kind of like seeing people who are like coming up and interested in it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think the key with that as a college age is fun. Cause like they’ve already, you’ve already like.
Gotten the filtered out the kids that don’t really care about what you’re talking about. Yup. Yup, exactly. And it’s a kind of an elective class, so they have some interest in it. I’ve talked, I’ve spoken at the end. Lac photography class had the most fun with those guys in there. Yeah. Like it’s been really great conversation.
Awesome. What about you? You were a teacher. Yeah, I had to cheat. I’m a, I’m still a licensed teacher. Oh, sorry. Teaching. Oh, every day. All that. Uh, I think I would still continue to teach TV. Broadcasting is what I taught and I loved it and it was super fun. The advanced classes, I loved it at the beginning classes.
I hated. Yeah. Several of the kids left all the equipment. That’s a unanimous thing amongst all production teachers. I guarantee it. Yeah. Yeah. I know all well, I know pretty much every film teacher in Arkansas, I think at this point, and I will tell you. Unanimously. They love their advanced students. Yeah.
It’s fun. You’re like creating things at the younger, not as experienced levels. You’re more of like, you’re cheating your babysitting, like babysitting expensive gear where you don’t have a budget to replace it. I found a, it was a satchel tripod out on the square. Uh, one day we were just walking with me and my wife at the time and it was just sitting there and I was like, That’s not supposed to be there.
And so I looked around on there and found luckily underneath it, but it belonged to the U of a, one of the film departments. And I was just like, it wasn’t mine. No, it’s immediately what you thought you were like, Oh gosh, again, I mean, you know, $3,000 tripod, you know, it’s just one of those I was, and so I called the teacher was like, thank you so much.
One of our students just loved it out there. I cannot believe. Thank you. Thank you. And I was like, I had, he could have easily taken that and it would have been a very nice upgrade. Oh, yeah. Ooh. Yeah, the Sattler East, like the lower end one or it was like a nice, like Shutler like it was full on. Yeah, it was definitely more of a portable one, but still, it was just a boost head on it for a Shutler carbon fiber.
Yeah. And it was, it’s been like, it’s always been like my, like the nerdy, like dream tripod of mine. Right. And it’s like, it’s like a $6,000 tripod. I was never willing to pay for that. And a buddy of mine had one that he was like, Hey. I guess she started teaching. Yeah. And he was like, I don’t need this anymore.
And it’s like traveled all over the world, like, and he’s like, you want this? And I was like, yeah, like, I’m like, how much do you want for him? Or what was like 1500, 20, 15 to a hundred or $2,000? I was like, take my money. Tripod. I’ve always wanted, but now I guard it with my wife. We left it at visit Bentonville one day for like two weeks.
I kept forgetting it there. And then I kept calling and I called them. I was like, Please tell me nothing is still there and then we’ll go put it in the back closet. We knew it was expensive. So we said, yeah, I was like, Oh my gosh, thank you guys. So when you said you fell on the square, it was like, this is that mine
is several, several years ago. That’s so funny. My most prized possession. I baby it around the state. It’s only tripod. I have this stays in the case, so. Awesome. That’s so funny. All right. Last question. Sorry. We’re so bad about this. Would you rather work eight hours standing or 10 hours sitting? Eight hours standing?
Yeah. Oh, I didn’t understand it. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t sit at all. I’m a sit stand desk and I’m standing a lot. Yeah. You’re sitting person. No, I think I’d probably say after like sitting a lot today, just thinking about this question, I was like, I need to stand on a lot of pain. Eight hours pacing. No problem.
Yeah. That’s true. Well, where do we get the whiteboard going? It’s usually I’m. Yup. She’s like, okay. Like slow down a little bit, like pulling in here. It reminded me actually, cause I drove in past my old building there on one Halston and I came all the way around the corner here and I used to walk out my building there and I used to just take phone calls and I would walk all the way back to nine and just do that.
Yeah. I was like driving through. I was like, wow, I’ve spent so many hours on the phone and just walk down this road here. It’s a great spot. We love our spot. Yeah. It’s beautiful. Especially this time. So it’s awesome. Okay. Hey. Those are good. Thanks Zach. Thanks again, dude. Thank you guys. Awesome. Alright.
We’re out. Uh . The ankle has landed.
