Video Storytelling w/ Todd Vaske

The KC crew enjoy a fun visit with Agile Video's Todd Vaske. 

Transcript

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You paid the money you're expecting to see a professional show, so let's not waste any more time. Let's go with professional show business. Let's go. Hey, video is the most powerful form of media on the face of the planet. In fact, television has proven this. Year after year, decade after decade on the internet, the way the internet is today with high speed, you can create a video presentation and you can show that to millions and millions of people selling your product or your service. Alright, welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. This is the deepest into that song that we've gone with an introduction. And whoever's voice that guy was, it had a little Gilbert Godfrey thing going on there. It was Don Lari. Remember the little tiny ads guy from the nineties? That's the guy I knew. I recognized that voice. But we have a show today that is going to be, uh, focused on something very related to that, soundbite. That you produced to it for us, but welcome back to the studio. Thanks John. Jeff, you were in Arizona. How did that go? It went really well. I got my parents settled. Um, they're both in their latter part of their eighties, but they're still snowbirds and they're going down there and I flew down and got'em set up with a. Different technology. You're you're a good boy, aren't you? Yeah. A really good boy. Well, my mom's a good cook too. I, she did set him up with, uh, technology. I did. Can you imagine? I got some, some ring cameras and Alexa device, so I can, they're just a, a phone call away. A video, a video. Hey, Jim Conference. How many times? Oh yeah. Dempsey Ladies in general. Michael Dempsey. Mike, how many times are they gonna call you? Like It doesn't work, Jeff. In fact, that happened. That happened yesterday, but I've got the troubleshooting down and it's sort of like what you guys are witnessing here with the production. It's a lot like that. It's orchestrating a lot of different things, so Very nice. Yeah. Steve Brown. Hi, Steve? Yeah. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Welcome. Uh. Did you have a nice weekend? I had a wonderful weekend in White Boy Lake. Yeah, I'm, I'm deep into White Bear now. I actually, I, I actually had a, my first weekend home Oh. Settling the house clean, doing cleaning, and it was fantastic. Very nice. Well, we have people for that. I love it. Yeah. Our guest today is a friend of mine, um, man named Todd Vay. He works for a company called Agile Video, and I met, he went to St. CLA State University. Didn't know him there, but we were, uh, acquainted, many years back when he was doing a production for, uh, my, my former company Hero wrote Productions. And we talked a little bit and we realized that, and we were both at St. Cloud at the same time. And then we stayed in touch, and then we did after pandemic times, John. You were looking for some help with a video production and I brought Todd in, and Todd and I kind of helped you do that whole thing. So yes, Todd put together a lovely video. Yeah, that I have probably seen 150 to 200 times because I was playing it all over the state of Minnesota. It was a video about the impact that Masonic Charities has had on the state of Minnesota, and one of the things that came outta that video. Was a wake up call for me'cause I could not believe how fat I was. I looked at that video and I thought, what has happened to you? That combined with my wife saying, when are you gonna get it together, man? Well, here's the thing, John, question for you. Yeah. If you saw it a lot after a while, did you just kind of ignored it? No, it made it worse. Ignored it every single time. But the video was lovely. I think that you probably did about three hours of, footage and you boiled it down to 11 minutes. And the way that you incorporate music, I just find like the guy in the, the, the soundbite video is such a powerful way to tell a story. Yeah. For a person who's trying to cram a whole bunch of information into a short amount of time. It was so wonderful to be able to just say. Instead of listening to me for the next 25 minutes. Yeah. Watch this video for the next 11 and it'll answer a lot of the questions that you, uh, that you might have, well, even some that you might not. So let's welcome to the podcast, Mr. Okay. Let Todd talk podcast. Todd, welcome podcast. Thank you. We wanna hear all about, uh, your stories of, uh, travels and, uh, interviews and all the things you've, people you've talked to, even how you got started a kid. Sure. But before we do that, well, let's let him talk. No, let's, I'm gonna let him talk. Let's talk. Let him talk. I wanna know about when you guys were working together at Heroic Productions. Yeah. And there was a question as to whether or not Todd was familiar with a particular band that had a particular. Following in St. Cloud Steak Todd? Sure. Could you explain how that all went down? Absolutely. So, um, I'm meeting Heroic Productions for the first time. I'm, I'm the video producer at Storyteller, was the name of the company, and walk into this room and everybody's chatting and I swear there were everybody there. Went to St. Cloud State, it felt like. And somebody asked me, when, when did you go to St. Cloud State? And I said, I was there 92 to 96 actually. Graduated in four years, so, you know. Wow, so you're the one, I'm the one's the one, I'm the one That's amazing. Yeah, exactly. Cloud. Yeah. And uh, and then somebody threw, you know, I just thought it was a very random question, you know, Hey, did you go go to any concerts, go to any music in St. Cloud? And they were really only, I did, but I could only remember two names. And one of them was the sandwiches. Oh yeah. And nobody seems to remember them. Yeah. And then the other one, I said, and, and I, you know, I went to see this band called Johnny Clueless, a bunch. Ding, ding, ding. And you know, and then, and then I think somebody said, well, hey. Does this guy look familiar? And it then it did click out. Oh yeah. Yeah. That glorious head of hair. Fun. You know, um, some of the reason why you only remember two bands is because you went to St. Cloud State. That's mean. There's not a That's true. There's not a lot of remembering. Where did. Where did you grow up that, that drove you then to St. Cloud State? So I grew up in Mankato. Oh, okay. And here's why. And you couldn't get into Mankato. Sorry. There, there was an incident. Okay. No, no, no, no, no. I didn't go to St. Cloud. Um, because, so both my parents went there. Oh. And then both of my brothers went to Mankato State. Mm-hmm. And I was the youngest and I wanted. To be different. So I chose to go to the one school that everybody else in my family hated. And mission accomplished. Yeah, rebel. Exactly, exactly. Started your own story, you know, you're gonna create your own, uh, tradition. I did, did you know that when you went to St Cloud, besides starting your own tradition and being a rebel, did you go there specifically? For Mass comm, I did. And here's what's funny about that is I, I went to become, you know, a DJ and. E. Exactly. Everybody here is looking at me going, yeah. Okay. And I'll always remember my very first class, it was a night class, it was intro to radio, and I've just assumed you'd show you how to turn it on. You know, I, you know, I figured it's St. Cloud, how tough can this class be? And the very first thing, the professor or teacher, his name was Al Neff. And Al Neff was a, a DJ in town there. Yes. Yeah, he was. And, and he, he, his first question to all of us was, all right, who here wants to be a dj? And we all raised our hand and he goes, awesome. There's, I didn't, I promised I wouldn't use the word awesome, but I'll just Awesome. That's, but that was a quote though. Okay. Yeah. Using quote, quote, I'm using it as a quote. Can I just explain? Awesome. Awesome. Is a trigger word for me. Wow. Awesome. Like the Grand Canyon is awesome. The Grand Tetons are awesome. Wanted to be a dj. I don't know if that's awesome. Well, Al Kn Al Neff was pretty awesome. EF thought it was awesome. So we'll go with, so he, uh, he says, well, all of you wanting to be a dj, get used to. Then he paused and he said, minimum wage. And I'll always remember that's when I said, okay, well I'll finish this class. And I got up after class was over and walked over to the TV studio and went, well, I guess I'll give this a shot. Uh, so I have to share, I think I took that same class or I, um, I had a class with Al Neff and I saw Al last weekend. No, at the red carpet. I talked to him, yes. He's still doing great. And uh, wait a minute. He was a good dude. Was he at your show? Yes. That is awesome. Yes. Oh, nice Grand Canyon anyway. Yes. Oh, that's, oh, I, I, hopefully he's doing well'cause he, he was a great instructor. Yeah. So I agree. So, you leave the intro to radio announcing and you go to the TV and they say, okay, here you make minimum wage plus a nickel. Because it's not that much more. It was less. Oh, so my first job was up in Duluth I was hired as the producer of the six o'clock and the 10 o'clock at, KDLH. I think they were CBS, I can't remember, but I was still going to St. Cloud State. And this is the beauty of going to SCSU was I still had most of my last, we were on quarters at that time. All of the instructors. Yeah, you got what you came here for, whatever. You get an a. so my first day is I'm driving into Duluth, and you don't know when you drive Duluth into Duluth. I was there today on 35. Yes. And you just get this moment. It's just, it's. Beautiful. It is love that I have the music cranked. I'm singing along not well sandwiches. That was not the sandwiches. I think the only song I knew by the sandwiches was an instrumental. So, but anyways, I'm driving along and I get to about a mile, maybe it's a half a mile from the TV station, and I'm of course, you know, three hours early. But I'm, I don't care. I'm ready to go to work. I'm excited. I pass Burger King and it says now hiring eight bucks an hour. I was making seven 70. Oh, oh my gosh. So, you know, you know, but I got about another couple blocks, turned the music back up, started singing again. Wow. But obviously you caught a bug to keep it going and persevering in that. What was it? Do, can you tie back to Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I, I love storytelling. I'm not joking. It started with show and tell at school and I would find anything. I would, you make these hideous looking cars out of Legos. I'd bring that in. I once brought these, we went to a hotel in New Ulm, Minnesota of all places, got these little tiny shampoos, I thought were the coolest thing. Brought those in for show and tell in kindergarten. But the one I remember most was I Miss Canceler. She was the toughest of all. Kindergarten teachers at Hoover Elementary Go Huskies. Oh, they were the Huskies too. Oh my God. But she. First day, she said, one thing I will not do is tie any kids' shoes. So if you don't know how to tie your shoes, you either have to learn or have a friend do it. So I had Liam Tiko, she, she tied my shoes. That's sweet. Until the day she said she wouldn't. Oh no. And so I freaked out and it was the first time I'm only five was the very first time I went up to my mom and did the, I'm sick. I can't go to school. I started doing all that and um, she probably knew, but, so she plopped me down on the couch and I sat there all day trying to practice tying my shoe and I finally did it. Wow. You remember this? And I jumped, I do. And I jumped up and I shouted I did it. And the reason I was so excited was'cause the next day was show and tell. And I went in and I showed people how to tie their shoes. I love it. You're a teacher at heart then. Oh, yeah. That is amazing. So I, that's, that's one of the reasons I got in. I've always loved story. I mean, my favorite thing is sitting around the fireplace, doing, actually doing stuff like this, listening to telling stories. It's, it's fun. So I, I basically do show and tell for a living. Fun. Can I just ask you, we're gonna, we're going pivot this into the, the kindness that you've experienced mm-hmm. In your career and the kindness that we all experience through different storytelling. Are you guys familiar with a, a character on YouTube called Mr. Ballin? No. So Mr. Ballin, he's got like 11 million subscribers he's a, former, Navy Seal. Special ops guy and he is this storyteller, Mr. Ballin. That's so cool. And he tells these stories a about, mysterious things. Is that how you say that word? I said mysterious. Yeah, I think, I think so. Weird. Just say it weird. Yeah. We kind of made it mysterious the way you said it. Thank you. Yes. But Mr. Ballin, I just encourage people to go. That guy right there, he's, he is one of the greatest storytellers. It's just incredible. Yep. And people, well, clearly he's got a lot of sub, he's got more than us, I can tell you than that. No. Yeah, I know. It's hard to believe.. So you went out on your own mm-hmm. As a, so you were working for, KDLH or whatever it was? Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, I, I bounced around to a few different TV stations. I was in Duluth and I went to, um, WKOW, the cow. At ET in Madison, Wisconsin and eventually came back and I was the, I think I was the first hire when Channel nine started up its morning show here in the Twin Cities. Oh wow. Channel nine KMSP. It Was UPN when I started there. Oh. Our, one of the lead-ins to a show I worked on was called Homeboys from Outer Space. So they had some stellar programming when I started there. They've come a long way. Yeah. Some of my first shows when I produced in the morning, you get, you know, you get your overnight ratings and I did not know that they could just get an asterisk. Not even a number, just an asterisk. So yeah, we, we get those on this show. Not awesome. Yeah. But no, I was, news was a great learning, opportunity for me because you, you have, from this time to this time to get 35 stories written and go, do you have a story of a mentor that taught you how to properly. Put together a story that captured attention and really held help people. Uh, yeah. There's a, a gentleman named Joe Thornton. He was the, um, he was the news anchor up at in KDLH, and he was only hired at the time because he had anchor hair. He also played for the Bruins. He did play for the Bruins, the Boston Bruins. He did different Joe Thornton. Different Joe Thornton, sorry, different, different Joe Thornton. Um, but Joe, he, I don't know what it was. Everybody was afraid of him, except he would come up to me and be really gruff. But then. Hey, you wanna go to lunch? He'd wink. Yeah, gimme the wink. Well, and he w he was trying to teach like other people there, couldn't take some of the criticism. And he would criticize, okay, you wrote this story and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then he would say, and here's why it's better how I, and he was always, it was better because I wrote ego, right? And, and it was, but it wasn't, he was very, it was, he was just into his craft. And that was the first time I realized like, look, nobody knows that there's. People behind the scenes writing these scripts. Everybody thought, you know, who's watching it there? Well, Joe wrote that'cause he was reading it. He he's doing everything. And so, yeah. So Joe Thornton was the first, um, mentor. At some point, do you get to decide? I, I really wanna do projects that are more about. Elevating kindness in this world or highlighting positive things. Or I just wanna do hard news or investigative reporting. Do you get to make that choice? At one point, the, what happened for me was, I started up that morning show and, and worked there for about a year, year and a half. And the next steps up in news were things like assistant news director and the news director. And I watched our two assistant news directors and the, and the news director, and they just seemed miserable. They seem and a hard, and they're, and it's a, an extremely hard job. And it's, from my understanding, it was like a two year shelf life and then you get fired or you quit and you gotta find another job. And I didn't have that desire to keep going. Mm. And so, uh, uh, the person who hired me at Channel nine started up a production company and I had at, you know, 25, 26, 27, somewhere in there. And he, they did shows for food network. So I got to travel around the country, um, trying great food and the reason why it was such a great move was in news, when you call people, what, 90% of the time, they don't want to talk to you. Yeah. You know what it was the turning point was there was some big. Story about, uh, somebody's child had died and I had to be the one to call'em up and say, Hey, can I get a picture? Oh, wow. And that's one of the producer's jobs and things like that. And I just. You know, you call the police, hey, anything happened and you know, they might give you a happy story and then you, oh, that's nothing. You know? And so it was nice to get out and go. And I still remember the very first call I made was to, um, this, oh, it's a Baker Willette bakery in town. Oh, they're great. That was the first story. I think they all just closed. Oh. But oh well. But they were the first story that I got to produce on my own for food network. And it was a show called The Best of. And I just remember calling them up saying, Hey, we'd like to do this. And just, well, when do you want to go? Who do you wanna talk to? What do you need to see? What do you need us to do? Do we need to close for the day? You know, just all these things. Very accommodated. Yeah. And then so I finish writing that or we, we shoot that story and I go to my, the, um, it was Paul, David and Dave Dennison were the two owners. It was a company called, um, David and David Productions. And Clever. Yeah, exactly. And they said, I said, okay, when's my deadline? You know, I'm ready to go. I'm a news guy, right. He goes, uh, it's kind of a quick turnaround. We're gonna need this in about three weeks. Oh, geez. So that again, that, that's felt comfortable. Yeah. Did being in the bakery, did that have anything to do with the fact that you enjoyed being there? Well be honest. I mean, yes. But ettes, they put together one and they ettes is good. They do. They're pretty good. They are, but, okay. So little, little, little. Informational I'll divulge. I am a type one diabetic, so I was able to pull back a little bit on that. Okay. So, but that is actually kind of that whole thing I got that I was diagnosed from in kindergarten. So now that we've discovered your, your my ailments medical situation, well, you get to write about something nice, which people enjoy, which is food and bakery goods. And well, they like that. They wanna talk to you too. They wanna talk to you as they wanna talk to me. And I, you know, I didn't really mean to get into the whole diabetic thing, but growing up. I actually loved it because I'd go on, at Halloween, I would go and get, I would get the most candy on anybody and then I, I was happy'cause I'd give it to my brothers. Oh, I love that. Yeah. That's nice. I love that. That was one of the old, was one of the old times they weren't like, you know, giving me noogies and things like that. So it must have been the younger brother then. I was the youngest, yeah. What you're describing is telling someone else's story. By,, cobbling together all of these videos, these images that you're taking down, you're essentially writing the story using other people's words.'cause you're not on camera. No. So. When do you transition into Agile? At what point in your career do you create your own thing and why Agile? I love the name. So it was uh, I think it was 2019. I was working for another company and, you kinda do the same thing over and over again, and I found myself. Driving into work, not too excited about it. And I just, for years I'd talked about, oh, I should start my own company. And from circumstances from the, the boss saying, you know, I'm not sure it's working out here. We, we might want you to move into a different position that I didn't wanna do. So I just took that as a sign that, you know what it's time to, to go out on my own. And it was, I'll always remember I le it was like April 30th or something. I don't, it was my last day and the. The next day a client called me and said, Hey, can I still work with you? we were on site at the University of Minnesota and we visited with some doctors and what I found most fascinating is. The amount of stuff that you were able to capture and how you were able to cobble that together into something that flowed so nicely with this great music and when you're in the fundraising business, you want to, amplify the emotion, and you did such a, an amazing job. You know, you talked specifically about COVID. How difficult it was operating a nursing home during the COVI time. And those nurses that you interviewed really came across as absolute heroes through that story. And that was not their intention was to look like heroes, but they were just telling their story. I want to compliment you well on just what a, a remarkable way that you did that. Well, thank you. That's, to me the, the most important part of the interview is the time before. You roll. I always let the camera people, and if we sound people, whoever's with us get going. But I always take the person or people who I'm talking to and sit'em down front of the mics, lights and everything, and I just start asking questions. Just, you know, where'd you grow up? You know, or, oh, where'd you drive in for? Just kind of those, just the little silly things. And the goal is by the time. We, I don't have the, the camera person yell, we're rolling. Mm-hmm. You know, they tap me on my shoulder. Mm-hmm. And so I don't really want people to know, I just want it to be a conversation. And that's usually, you kinda roll into that and that's when people start talking. That's when you start getting, you know, the emotions and you know, things that you don't, they didn't expect to tell you about. And the best thing to do with that is you sit back. And you, you don't interrupt. You just let it you go. And you're not reading questions from a list. You're covering those, but you're listening and making sure you're asking questions, follow up questions about, oh, so when that happened, you know, what was going through your head? What'd you think? And that's when, yeah. It doesn't feel so transactional. Yeah. It's just more conversational. Yeah. My, my favorite one was, a judge, I would assume she was the Supreme Court judge at the, um, state capitol. And I made her cry asking a question and I went, alright, very nice. And it was, it was all about, we, I did a video for the, they remodeled the capitol and I'll try to make this quick and. I just, I just asked the question, how does it make you, how do you feel that you walk into this beautiful building every day for work? And then she just started crying. Wow. So you touched a nerve. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. You, Jeff mentioned it. Um, when you're prepping or you're gonna do a story, Is it about the emotion? Is it about how do I, appropriately and respectfully represent the emotion of this topic? You always have to know what's the story you're trying to get across and what do you want the viewer to do once it's, you know, once they've seen the video, but. You know, it'd be easy just to take a script and write out the perfect words. It's, it rings truer to people when they hear the story. I leave in ums and ahs. Mm-hmm. Quite frequently. I'm not editing those out because I want it to be known that this was, this is authentic, this isn't, and in today's world, this isn't ai where it's, these are real people giving. Just to be clear, just full disclosure, I edit out my ums and ahs and I leave everybody else's in. Right. Well that's just'cause you know. He does it all the time just to keep some authenticity. Yeah. There you go. I, I, that, that's what keeps it real. That's it's people come back, they said, I, I relate to that. Mm-hmm. Okay. This is amazing with all the emotion, but have you ever been in a situation where somebody's ripped off their microphone and tried to attack you? you Like Katie Porter running for governor of, uh, California, right? I mean, that's seriously that, yeah. That's been hot news that has, um, in not out in the real world of Agile video. Tell a story. Okay, so I got it. Doesn't need to be true. I've got two of'em. No, I have two of'em. Those are the best ones. When I was working in Duluth, I, it, I took the, I took it being local. I mean, I really took that to heart because I just believed that. Anybody can get news off of the wire and read it. I mean, you. And so we had this sports person who, let's just say, disappeared between the six o'clock and the 10 o'clock and showed up right about 10 minutes to 10. I'm not gonna say anything. I see what you're doing there and. What this sports person would do is the first minute and a half of the sportscast would be scores, and it wouldn't be local scores. It's, you know, the nuggets versus the suns. I mean, who cares? You're in Duluth, Minnesota, who cares? Even Duluth by that time got ESPN, so there's just no need for this. So I, I would just get on his case about getting local stuff and getting scores. And so one day I, I told him, I'm refusing to show these scores until you gimme some local stuff. And, you know, I'm 22 and this person's much older. I, I don't have that authority either, but I, I just did it. So he got so mad. He took the phone. And these weren't cell phones. These are those full on phones? Yeah. And threw it at me. Oh, and it sounds like an assault. He missed by a lot. Okay. Um, and so, but being the producer, I had the ultimate. Controlled. And so we get to the sportscast and I deliberately what's called stack the show heavy. So sports always got the shaft at the end, you know, weather gets the most, and then news, and then that's the level of importance in news. That's funny. Well, so now we, I uh, we get right to when. The sports is about to start. So we're getting ready to roll the, the scores and I announced everybody, we have to drop the scores so he, and, and get right into'em. So he spent all this time putting all these scores together. Jesus. And then I had to drop it. So, so welcome to the Kindness Chronicles. Yeah, yeah. We are hoping that we could extract some stories of kindness that you've experienced. Yes. Tell us a little bit about, uh. You know, uh, here's what I love about what I do. I do a lot of, um, videos for nonprofits and specifically for their galas and for fundraising. And what's, what's great about that? Just think about how people can be divided and whatnot, but bring people into a room together, whether it's a, a concert Steve or a, um, comedy show, a movie, a church, everybody there doesn't care about. Any of that stuff. And that's what happens at fundraising events. So you play these videos and they always play right before they do the ask for money? Absolutely. And it to me is just fun to watch. I'll see. I always sit back and see if, you know, hopefully people are inspired, see some tears, and it's just fun to, when they do the first, all right, we're gonna do a bid on whatever. And you just see hands going up. And I know it's not all the video, but it's part of it. Absolutely it is. That's, that's your job in creating that is to, yeah. And so to move people to action. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just, to me, you just see so many people. Wanting to give, wanting to help these great organizations, and those are my favorite. Those are the most fun for me. People typically give to people, so if I'm hosting a table of folks, they have an understanding that there's going to be an ask that's gonna take place. And many people will give just out of respect for the person that invited them to come to the event. But those videos are what adds zeros to the gifts. Oh, absolutely. You know, it, it really does. We call that dramatizing the need. I was gonna just, uh, express a pretty meaningful experience I had with, uh, with Todd and with you, John. The three of us were shooting at, it's the Hospice for Kids. Oh, Crescent Needs Cove. Yes. Crescent Cove. So that is a place where it was, um, it was a surprisingly deep in and, Meaningful video shoot, because we've talked about this place before. We've interviewed people from there. Yep, yep. And that's maybe the, I didn't know that places like this existed, There's only four of'em in the entire United States. They've got five beds. They need 80. It's, but it's also a place where extremely complex, um, oh, medical needs for kids. Absolutely. Um, it's a place where parents can actually, keep them there'cause the staff They'res are so knowledgeable. They have, they can help anyone. So parents sometimes just need a break. And yeah, it was, it was a very impressive and, incredibly, meaningful place. But Todd, I was gonna say, I was very impressed with how you took in that scenario and made it, there was like reverence for all the people you were talking with and for these kids that were in there and for the people that worked there, that was a very interesting way to see. How you do what you do and adapt to that group of people, as opposed to, we were talking to teachers and or, uh, professors and, and medical people at the university talking to John's, folks at the Masonic, you know, charities foundation. It was just really. A very interesting angle that you took and how you went about it. It was impressive and got some great interviews from people there in a tough situation. Yeah, thanks. That one. I, I will remember that one. However, how do you connect you? You must, you're in a compressed amount of time and you have to develop a high level of trust in a short amount of period to get people to open up on camera. Have you figured out? Some tools that can help anyone in just their daily walk of life if they're not a video producer. I, for me, I, when I walk into the, first of all, I do a little, you know, research beforehand to understand what type of situation I'm walking into you. You know, if you're doing a video for, um, an accounting firm versus hospice versus, you know, a comedy club, I mean, I can do all of that. You just have to know. Where you're going into. And that one, I told my videographer, I believe it was Luke who, who worked with me on that one. That, alright, you know, this is what they do. So let, we're, let's. Get in there and you know, be accommodating. If any whatever is asked, we say yes. So, you know, I'll just say the best shot for an interview is over here, but that's going to interfere with their work. For example, this is just an example. Mm-hmm. We are going to move, we're not going to go there. Sure. We are going to, we will adjust to them. And that's one thing I do. And the other one is I just, I start talking to the people I'm going to interview and, and even if there are families around and just, uh, you know, well, and I think you have to have a certain type of vibe. And Todd, your vibe is a very kind vibe. It's a very welcoming vibe. It's a very, mellow deal. You know, if you're a. You know, like that, the one guy that's doing the commercials and that the, the soundbite, that's not the right vibe. Do you do weddings? I will not do weddings. Okay.'cause here's why I ask. No, and, and I, I, here's why I ask. Here we go. My, daughter's boyfriend, her special friend, we call him Schmoopy. Schmo. No, you're Schmoopy. No. You know, you're Schmoopy. Anyway, Schmo got a scholarship to. Go to Montana State to be the videographer guy for the football team. Mm-hmm. Like a scholarship for that. And that's what he wants to pursue. In fact, he had such a robust business going, doing weddings that his grandpa's like, why do you even know to need to go to college?. It's insane how much people charge to film weddings, but Well, it's because there's so much emotion. Well, and, and the flip side of that is if it doesn't come out the way, I mean, a lot of pressure. That's right. Oh, the pressure's gotta be huge. Yeah. Now I, so I have, there are two reasons I don't do weddings. Um, the first one is I don't want to be the reason I ruin somebody's day and or life. Yep. Too much emotion flying. And the other one is, I live in Minnesota. And I, I'm not a winter person, so I love summers in Minnesota. I didn't want to spend every Saturday, every Friday, every Saturday, every Friday, and every Saturday working in the evenings, working weddings that, you know, well, let, let me just say, um, I went to my niece's wedding last winter in Mexico. Oh, maybe NI was the, the, the video crew that they hired. It was a, it was a company that was based there. They had six videographers. They were doing some really unique things. It was an amazing production, but it was not a guy with a camera. It was a whole team and it was a high buck situation. It was beautiful. It turned out great. So this is your niece's wedding? My niece's wedding. Oh wow. Yeah, it was really cool to come from money. Yeah, that is amazing. Uh, how about I get the whole pressure thing?, 25 years ago. My brother-in-law got married in a small church in North Dakota, and uh, I wasn't married to Michelle yet. They handed me a camera and I hit the wrong button and the back popped off and I quickly, I quickly put the back, you know, I snapped the back on going, oh my God. The sound of a penny whistle goat. Yeah. I wish I could say that. That's never happened to me. Yeah. But the back I can relate. Can, can you guys just do the ceremony again, just one more time? Um, uh, my question for you is, um, Is there a time or two where the emotion just, it just, you lost it. It was like, I gotta take a little bit of a break. Okay. Because it is, this is heavy, so I. I, I wouldn't call it heavy, but this just happened. It was, it's the last, video I just worked on for a nonprofit, um, a nonprofit called Accessible Space. If people are familiar, they're out of St. Paul and they provide housing for adults with disabilities. Yep. And um, we were doing a fund fundraising video for them and. It, the, the person who hired me, she, she likes to do a lot of the producer work and That's great. You know, I, I can work with anybody in whatever role they, they, they desire. So she set up the, you know, the people we were interviewing, the places we were going and whatnot. So we went to, um, this apartment complex. It was in the southern metro here. I cannot remember the actual town, but we show up at this young lady's apartment. She's in a wheelchair and she's showing us around and she was telling me the story of her life and how, you know, she was misdiagnosed for like, I dunno, eight years or something of the doctors were telling, she was making it up and all these things, and we moved to this space to do an interview. And her name was Claire. And Claire says, yeah, you know, I grew up in Lindstrom and there was a little trigger in my head. I'm like, okay. And then she said something about her sister Emily. And I went, Hmm. So then I just, I stopped and I said, we got a small world thing going on here. Yeah. Is your mom, you know, what's your mom's name? Just a weird question to ask. And she goes, Jean. They said, and your dad is Robbie, isn't it? And she goes, what? Wow. Well, Claire and Robbie and Jean and her sister for years would go to our friend Lori's house. My wife and I would go there and they would go there and they had these really big parties and Emily and Claire were there. We called them the giggle twins'cause they would come over and just hang on you the whole time there. And they were so great. Lost touch. Hadn't seen her for. 10 years. Oh, wow. And so it's all clicking and I finally, I, all right, I have to stop. And we go and we hug and we, we talk about it. She texts me now and she got me a bunch of photos for the video. And so that's what you're like, okay, this, we call that Saint Small. It, it is. It was Saint Small. So that was, that was one of those where I went, okay, I'm always gonna remember that moment. And then I just saw her mom. Um, about three weeks ago, again at a party at this Lori's house. And so I'm showing her the video and she's like, oh, this is great. And I said, but nobody's seen it yet, so you can't share it. And uh, yeah. So that's my most recent one. Neat. Full circle. I love video production. I, I love working with you, actually. That was really cool to do. But that happens, people don't appreciate because if you do your job really well. All the background stuff you did, no one knows it. Right. And that's the job of production is to make it look great for who's ever on stage, whoever's, you know, being heard or whoever's on tv. Um, and whoever's writing the check. Right. The po the point is they don't appreciate the time it takes to set up and change and all that kinda stuff. Exactly like you said. Right. And it went back to, I even recognized that issue way back when I was in high school. Um, we were gonna play someone's graduation party, and the mom who was like the, the, the, the kid's mom of the grad party we were gonna play it for, she's like, okay, well you can just set up your little band over here. And like, right, like, like I was, took like offense, like, Hey, wait a minute, I'm a high school kid. I'm like, hold on, you're talking to Johnny Clue this. And I was like, I was being, no, it was this rummage kidman. I was being like, well, it's gonna take a little more, we need some power back here. And she's like, okay. She goes, you're being very cavalier. And I was like, oh, I didn't know what that word was. And uh, we used that many times after that.'cause I was the guy that was being very cavalier. Cavalier. But I was trying to respect him. Respect, respect the production. Did you, did you say, well, thank you. Yeah. So I, I think what you're describing is vision. Having a vision of, of what you. I think the audience should have, and it actually segues into another question I have for Todd, and that is, do you have a favorite filmmaker or movie or something that around the whole concept of storytelling, something that really. It affected you? That's a great question. So I, it's funny you ask that because when I talk to potential vendors, especially young folks, like I'm looking for more videographers, always looking. If you wanna reach out, I'm happy to talk to anybody. But the first thing is they say that they're an aspiring film. I don't, I don't work with them because I'm not in, I don't do films. These are completely different. And you're not going, I, I am completely fulfilled. I love doing these stories. If you wanna make a film, go and do that on the side, because that's not what I do. So I've actually never really aspired to be a filmmaker, I go to movies and watch movies to be entertained. I don't, I don't do the ton of the really deep type thing. Okay. So, so you don't get into the hero's journey and. But my, the ones I like are the Christopher Guest movies, if you're familiar with all. Yeah. He, he's one of my favorites. Waiting for Guffman. Yes. You know, or the dog. The dog movie. Best. Best in show. Best show. Yeah. Uh, but I relate the most to a Mighty Wind because they have a producer in that one. And I'll always remember that He's, my Mighty Wind was a, but they're kind of making fun of folk music and they're putting on this big. Big show. And there's this producer that was clueless. And so the show is on in like three minutes and he's sitting, he's sitting in the booth, and the technical director and the director are all there, and the, the producer goes, so, you know that big swooping shot where they come in and they fly in, and then the director just looks, you mean like a crane? He goes, yeah. Like, do we have one of those? No, we, we don't have a crane. Would you want one? Do you want me to make some calls? It's, it's literally two minutes before they, they go on the air and then my wife looks at me when we, the first time we watch that, she goes, so that's what you do. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell us about some stories of kindness that you've encountered during your career. In video, it's all about stories and I and I, I, I feel like people want to give, I wanna give. When they hear a good story, they, they, they, they're, they get engaged. And for me, there's nothing better in a video when you, you tell someone's story, especially in the nonprofit world that. It moves people to action, moves, people to, to give. Um, I've done, I don't know, probably 30 fundraising videos and none of them have ever fallen short in meeting a goal. And when you see people coming together for a a cause. There's nothing better than New York. Hey, I was a part of that. I remember I was on a video shoot doing a video shoot for Harley and watching this poor. Gal who we hired to ride a motorcycle, she said she could ride a motorcycle. She couldn't kept falling over, kept falling over. And instead of everybody on the Harley, she'd fall over. All brand new hadn't, oh, no. Hadn't even been released it. She fell over a few times where we had to shoot only on the other side of the bike.'cause it, it was scratched out. Oh wow. But what I, I saw was it wasn't people getting mad at her and getting, you know, fired. It was okay. I, all the other riders came in and helped her and, and the video team came in and said, okay, here's what we do. And so we was Was she hot? She was hot, wasn't she? No. John. She was a very attractive. Um, I, I will, it doesn't hurt. I think Jennifer doesn't hurt and my wife will be listening, but yeah, she was, she was attractive. Just, let's just get that out there. It helps. But, you know, there was, you just point, if she was a sea hag, she probably wouldn't be getting the same kind of John. She was beautiful on the inside and out. Yes. Oh, chef. There you go. I, I just see so many people coming together on a, video production. Yeah. But I think that's a lovely story. That's exactly the kind of story that I'm looking for because, you know, it can be real easy to be a jackass. Oh. So yeah. And be a jerk. So I had a, I had a compliment from a, a client of mine. I won't give the name Dairy Queen. And they, it's a good client. It's a great client. They. I. Okay. They're my favorite. Yeah. Everybody else, you know, John, you were great too. No, but Dairy Queen is great. Fine. But I, I was told you can get into that Blizzard money you're doing okay. Yeah. Everybody needs benefits. That's right. That's right. But, uh, my client was telling me about a video production she had worked on that was not, I was not involved with, and budgets were tight. So their actors were. Just employees at Dairy Queen, and she said that the director made three of the actors cry because this person, you know, do this, do that. And, and I just, that blew my mind. Yeah. That I, there was a gentleman I worked with who he always wore this t-shirt. It's about two sizes too small for him. Oh, poo Bear. Yeah. Uh, his name's Kurt Schmidt. Check out the Schmidt list. He does a podcast. He's a great guy. But he wore this shirt that says it's video production, not rocket surgery. And I loved that line. And what that I took from that is you don't have to be a jack wagon to everybody. Mm-hmm. On set. We, I mean, think about all the jobs you could be doing. That will suck. This is fun. We're creating stories. Yeah. We're meeting new people. That, to me is. They're just the perfect job. Lovely. And with that, off we go. Okay. I said it before and I'll say it again. Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.