BIZ/DEV

Picture Perfect in 2023 w/ Michael Davis | Ep. 74

Big Pixel Season 1 Episode 74

In this episode David and Gary chat with Michael Davis, CEO of Uptone Pictures, and chat all things hard work, standing out and creating a picture perfect startup success...

Links:
www.uptonepictures.com
http://vimeo.com/user16184040

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Our Hosts

David Baxter - CEO of Big Pixel

Gary Voigt - Creative Director at Big Pixel


The Podcast


David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.


In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.


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David:

Hi, everyone, welcome to the biz dev podcast podcast about developing your business. I'm David Baxter, your host, and I'm joined today as always by creative director Gary Voight. And I realized I've never actually used your real talent, your good your real title. So intake and talent, no, you have no talent whatsoever. But we've got you as the creative director. So that is actually his his title, his real job, not the 24 other ones I've given him and the 24. More, I will add later. But there we go. We're also joined today by Michael Davis, who is the CEO of upturn pitchers. And we're going to learn more about that in just a little bit. But first, I want to finish our series that we've been doing with our guests on time management. Mike, one of the things we've been doing with our last several weeks, with our guests is figuring out how they manage their time. Because I realized several weeks ago, that time management for CEOs and founders and such is a little different than most, because our job is to give away our job. And so when we do that, that leaves us with weird tasks leftover. And sometimes that means time management. For some people, it's very easy. And other people, it's very difficult. So I'm curious, where do you find fall in that spectrum? How do you manage your time? And what do you find yourself doing on an average day to day basis?

Mike:

Well, I mean, I, I guess I pride myself a little bit on being a multitasker, I guess you have to be in. And so I try to maximize time by doing multiple things. And that's one way that you know, and I also try to delegate as much as I can or outsource in some cases, other things so that I can focus on what I feel is important for my, for my for the business and what we're doing, or the project that we're on. And, and that way, you know, again, we can focus on that and and get the other things done.

David:

So what is it that takes up your day on a regular Monday, Wednesday or Thursday?

Mike:

I don't have Is it a bunch of meetings? Or is it? Well, my days are pretty. Like my Monday is completely different than my Friday and Mondays are pretty much a lot of meetings and or, you know, kind of setting the week up, you know, and what we're, you know, planning to do, and that kind of thing, the rest of the week is, is it can vary in our business, you know, being a film production company, it changes dramatically from, you know, I could be on set tomorrow, or, like last week I was in Los Angeles in meetings with people and partners that we work with. This week, I'm not, you know, in December, you know, we were in Amsterdam, and we were in the UK and other places a water Mala. So, you know, it really changes I don't have a set like, you know, Monday through Friday, I'm in, in an office doing whatever, I'm mobile. So I you know, we were in, you know, out if I'm on the road, I'm still doing a lot of the same things. Even if I'm in my office. With that kind of a schedule, I assume that you use some sort of time management system, whether it's not your day to day, but are there certain apps or anything that your company uses to kind of keep track of scheduling? Oh, I use a ton of apps. Yeah, we use three favorites. I use Trello and slack and a number of other you know, for our social media, Hootsuite, you know, just a bunch of different things to be able to maximize time and delegate.

David:

For your personal time. Do you do anything like writing down little task lists for the day? Or do you have any way of I have a little notepad where I write stuff down like things that want to get done in the day and or the week, depending on what we're doing? So what is your definition? When you're running your company in your in your doing your myriad of tasks? What is the successful week for you? Is it I check these boxes? And I got these things done? Or is it more of I'm moving towards a much larger goal that get three months we need to do these 27 things and I moved forward on that. What do you consider a successful productive day for you?

Mike:

Um, I think that, you know, first of all, if I'm able to get everything on my list done, that's always a success. I think that also depending on the project and what what I'm doing, it varies. So if I'm, like, for example, we know last summer we were shooting a movie, and I was on set every day for eight weeks. You know, getting that project done was you know, every week getting stuff in the can and getting the film shot. You know, it was both on you know from a micro perspective Do of getting the day done meeting our day without going over because if you go over your, your, obviously your budget is going out the window. So you got to manage your day. If you manage your days, you're gonna manage a week, if you manage your week, you're gonna manage the show. So, you know, it's it kind of boils down that way. Man, I find the entertainment industry super interesting.

David:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm eager to dive into that a little bit. A lot of people think it's glamorous. It's not as glamorous as people think. But it is better than digging, you know, working on the road somewhere, I guess, or doing some hard labor that, you know, I don't know if I could do that. So let's back up. So tell me about uptown pictures. Tell me about what you guys do, how you got started all that good stuff?

Mike:

Well, Uptown pictures is in its 23rd year, we started in 2000. I had been working, I came from the ad agency background and worked work for a number of players back in the day. And I was tasked I was working for kind of a production, there was an agency that had its own production component production house, so to speak, in house and was doing a lot of things. And we I was tasked to, they decided to start creating content. And the first project that they did was a kid's animated feature. This is when you know Maya and some of the early animated cartoons were coming out. And so I was tasked to kind of oversee that project and ended up selling it to Sony, a division of Sony. And shortly thereafter, I found that where they wanted to go, and some of the things they wanted to do was starting to be different than what I felt like I shouldn't be doing. So I started up to him pictures in the year 2000. And the relationship I had established with the folks over it at this, it was provident, which is now a firm, it's changed different names over the years. But back in the day, they they were based out of Nashville, that division of Sony was and had a good relationship with them. And they, they asked me to keep bringing product to them. And so for a few years, I all I did was kind of help other producers that had content, get it to market. And and in that process, I kind of got to a master's degree, I suppose, or something similar in distribution, and, you know, sales, I had come from a sales kind of background originally. And so that kind of naturally flowed for me. And, but then finally, I was like, you know, I'm helping all these people do their projects, I like to start doing my own, you know, and so

David:

I think it was 2007 2008, we started creating our own content, and have since gone on to produce 18 feature length films and both of our own and for others, but and then the company is basically a full service production facility that in a you know, we create content, feature films, television shows, documentaries, you know, really the spectrum of any visual type product that goes to market. And then we have I've started a second company called Seven worldwide, which basically still helps produce others with their content like I did back in the day and have been helping other producers still, even now with and we manage about five or six clients that

Mike:

with their content and getting it to market and helping them develop it and brand it and so forth. You mentioned I just want to ask a quick question. You mentioned creating animations in Maya and I remember my I came out and it blew everybody's mind. I was actually I was learning you know other lower level animation and 3d programs at the time.

Gary:

But um, were you actually creating the stuff as well or were you more in the like management leadership role? You personally

Mike:

I mean, well, I yeah, I wasn't I wasn't an ant. I've never been a you know, I didn't I wasn't on the computer actually doing the the animation work. But I did you know, I followed a lot of it to learn because I wanted to understand a little bit of obviously the technology and what was going on but no, I'm not I wasn't a animator myself. We actually I was more of in the as a producer role or executive producer role or whatever you would call it at the time, kind of supervising the production in terms of the overall you know, Project moisten the animation more into giving you even like some VFX chops for your team to do visual effects production or did it kind of stay in? Well, that it should have and unfortunate unfortunate

David:

Only that whole thing kind of, as I said earlier, they wanted to do some things that I really wasn't keen on. And there was some issues with the company that I really don't want to get into. But and at that point, I felt like, you know, what, there, this is not, I need to go do my own thing. So, I left at that point.

Gary:

So is VFX something that uptown pictures does offer.

David:

Um, I actually work, I have a number of friends that in the animation space in the, in the visual effects space that I our we work with as partners that come in as kind of a, they're not, they're not necessarily part of Uptown, but it's something that we can do through them. And these guys, you know, come from Fox animation and Lucas Films and things like that. So you know, high end, you know, everything from mocap to, to other types of digital technology that, you know, use for VFX work, but, but they're very good friends of ours, and they focus on that, that piece. So typically, they'll come in as part of our team and in a project but I don't necessarily have to cover the overhead.

Gary:

Now, in a previous episode, we had someone who was heavily involved in game development, and that's David's wheelhouse, and he kind of just nerd it out, leaned in listen to everything about film, well, film production, but just you know, basically creating visuals, whether it's VFX, or just video, like that's, that's something that I'm super interested in. So that's why I'm asking all these little fanboy questions. Sorry.

David:

I want to back up for a second. I am ignorant with all things film, except for a regular, you know, movie, buff as it were. When I think of movies, I'm thinking of big blockbusters in theaters, all of that kind of stuff, 1000s of theaters, you know, Marvel, whatever. But there's a whole nother world where there are smaller pictures. And that seems to be I mean, I haven't seen your movies in the big blockbuster. So I assume that's your world, that you're you're living in a different thing that's not in 5000 theaters in a weekend or whatever. I'm not necessarily 5000. But we are, you know, my films have been in theaters, my library, they do go to theaters, yeah.

Mike:

Oh, yeah. Okay.

David:

You know, limited releases, they can be 150 200 500 screens, you know, they may not get up to the 5000. Sure, I mean, in a lot of that is just based on your marketing dollars that you have, because it just costs, you know, like three to five grand per market per theater for you to put it in there. You know, we do that, but on a scale, right. So where Marvel can go out to 5000, because they have $92 million to spend on marketing and advertising. You know, we don't have necessarily that luxury, but we can still get it in theaters. And we can still in that, you know, this last film. You know, we've we that's why we were in Amsterdam, we did a, you know, a European release there. And a lot of the we've sold it and I think seven or eight countries internationally now because it was in theaters in the United States. So you know, you pick you pick the markets based on where you think your product will do? Well, well, and I asked that not because of this to say that's worse in some way. I'm just, it's a different world, right? Because again, we're thinking of most people just average Joes like myself, when it comes to movies think all we know of are the movies that hit all the screens, Avatar and whatnot. But there's a whole nother market here. And that's where so you make some money by going into theaters, and you make some money selling brights to Amazon and some, but like, where does that most of your revenue come from? Is it just a bunch of deals all over? And? And you make a little bit from a lot of places?

Mike:

Yeah, I mean, you you do, you know, if you do well in the box office, and you get a good streaming product, you know, screen streaming or broadcast deal.

David:

You know, those that that can recoup your investment. And then, you know, our goal typically has been, you know, you do a domestic distribution deal. theatrically and then streaming and even, I mean, believe it or not, there's still a market, Walmart still sells DVDs and blu rays, believe it or not, and people don't realize that but there is still a market for that, even in America, and Walmart will still buy your product. So if it's good. And so those are kind of your, you know, main revenue streams, then, you know, depending on the project and what it involves, there could be ancillary things, you know, there could be a, you know, I did a faith based film, for example, and they created a whole study guide thing for using the film and that became an ancillary product that almost did as well as the movie, you know what I mean? So, there are different ways for you to monetize that. But and then your foreign becomes kind of your gravy money or your profit, you know, as you sell it.

Mike:

I'm always amazed that people in you know, countries that you you see on a map, but you have no idea that there, there's consumers there that are going to buy your film. So

Gary:

now does that entail translation and closed captioning and stuff as well? Is there any post production that has to happen?

David:

In your deliverables you I have, at least our company has always had this idea and this protocol that we we do what they call an m&e, track, which is when you export the film out from the the edit bay for your mastering process, you do an extra pass or an extra export, which involves you take everything out. But I mean, excuse me, you take the the dialogue out, but everything else stays. So music, and effects stay. But all the dialogue is taken out of the film when you export it that way. And then you deliver that to national market so that they can dump it into their own language with their actors. And you provide a script and a what they call a dialogue script, which is an actual time script based on the actual movie, not the original script that you shot with, and a few other deliverables. And then they go and go into studio record it and put that VoiceOver on top and re export it bear in their language. I have a question. So you started in 2000? Right?

Mike:

Yes,

Gary:

I'm assuming that since then, the, with the way the internet and streaming services have erupted, that has to have changed and helped your business as far as being a video production or, you know, movie production company, as far as for distribution, it must have opened up a lot of doors.

David:

Yes, there are, I mean, today, there's a lot of fragmentation. There's a number of you know, things that have happened industry wide, back in the day, and in the, you know, the the golden days, or whatever you want to call it that, you know, it was great, because you could sell it in, you could do the theatrical, you had a known quantity in terms of DVD, or what they call hard goods sales. So that became that was like a second tear. But it was a solid, like, hey, if I can sell X amount of units in Walmart, or target or wherever I'm gonna make, you know, I can monitor I can basically establish what, where I'm gonna end up and then the streaming was kind of an extra write, and broadcast and those other windows became extra things that you could do. And now it's not, you know, it's kind of flipped. So there was a shift, but then the way the market kind of adjusted, everybody's just kind of evolving back to I guess, streaming or digital video would be more of the new normal instead of just cable. And, yeah, and but I think it's an ever evolving, you know, situation, I would imagine. So we our goal with the podcast is to talk to business owners, and to extrapolate universal truths about business and running businesses. And in my head, I'm struggling to your business is so unique, that it's it, it's so interesting, and you have unique challenges that someone starting up a restaurant does not right, and I guess that's true for every business. But it is you're wearing so many hats, and you're doing so many different things. Because unlike, you know, again, a restaurant being just an example, we're making clothes, you have a single thing, but in order to make your a movie, it's like 47, specialties, all stuck together. And your job is that's why that's why I tell people if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. And number two, you know, for you to I tell people, if you don't believe in miracles, watch somebody make a movie. And that's, you know, even a movie that sucks. I take my hat off to them because at least they got it done. Because like you said, you know, there, there are so many, there's so many fingers in the pie. There's so many people that are involved, that any one little thing can screw up your whole best way gaffer you know, whereas, you know, yeah, I mean, if, if, if you don't have a good sound guy, all of a sudden your sound sucks. I mean, you have to go fix that. There's an you know, that's a huge problem. If all of a sudden, you know, some other you had a camera problem, or, you know, or, you know, whatever, there's just so many different elements. The editor can screw it all up or, you know, there's a fire and your, your all your stuff, burns, you know, you're, you're done, you know, after months and months of work. So, it really is a complicated Tetris game that you play, as in as you said, this is an independent filmmaking world or non you know, studio based, you know, and so we we spend a lot of time fundraising we spend a lot of time marketing we spend a lot of time getting things done. I always kid with people we spend 90% of our time

Mike:

And don't you know raising money and doing all these other things? So we can do 10%, which is our is actually making the product, you know,

David:

how if I was an aspiring I was you. So we always ask the top three things. And that's very generic about business in general, how you would help a business person. And I don't want to get there yet. What I want to ask specifically is, if I wanted to be you, I am you in 1999. Now, your track is a little different, right? Because you came from marketing and an agency. But let's just say I'm, I'm a passionate filmmaker, and I want to dive in. What would you say to that passionate, I get very specific to your industry? Because they don't know what they're getting into? And you do? Well, I know. I've had that happen. I've had that question thrown to me, you know, you know, college students, or whatever. They just graduated. And they're like, how do what I do. And I'm like, What wish I talked to you four years ago, because I don't think you need a college degree. Number one, I know all the film, colleges and universities are going to HATE me for saying that. But the reality is, and I tell this story, and I've told it a gazillion times, and I'll tell it to you, I had this girl come up to me, she graduated college, she walked up and said, and we were shooting a movie here in North Carolina, where I live in and I had hired everybody, you know, when she came to me, it was like, Look, I really want to get in this business, I really want to, you know, this is why I went to school for and i Is there anything I can do. I said, Look, I really, as much as I would love to I don't have an actual job for you. But I will, I'll do this, if you're willing to come, I'll I will cover all of your gas. And I will, you know, you bring me receipts, I'll reimburse you for any expenses. And I, you know, it will put you to work here and you can count it as a college, you know, credit or, you know, internship kind of situation, that's the best I can offer. And I truly was at a situation where I couldn't, I didn't have any more money in the budget to hire someone else. She was, you know, as we shot over six or seven weeks, she was always the first one to arrive, last one to leave, that just that alone caught the attention of some of the people in one of the other departments, they ended up hiring her to work for them on because most of these people have, you know, while they're working on your show, you know, they're already looking at what's the next show that I'm going to work on. And they've already you know, they're talking, they've got four or five shows in the, in the when they know and that they're, they're working with them, they took her. And, you know, in short order that year, she probably did nine feature length films. And today, I don't know, I mean, I could afford it, I'm sure but you know, her rates are, you know, she's working on major shows in Atlanta, and she, you know, is a department head and she's been doing this, you know, and so I would tell people, if you're a passionate filmmaker, instead of going spending$200,000, and go into college, spend that 200,000 on yourself, and get into, you know, go work for free, or even, you know, for whatever, and learn every aspect of the business, you know, start at the lowest level, you know, be a PA get into some other department, try this, if that's your passion, if you're gonna, you know, if you like photography, you know, work, try to get into the film, the camera department, even as an assistant at first, you know, and it may take you a while. But all of a sudden, if you're good, and if you are talented, they're just like in sports, they're looking for people that are, you can spot them, you're like, you know what, that kid can do it, you know, and they'll get called, and they'll get moved up quickly. And, and so that's what I would recommend to people, you know, is it's the little things that, you know, unfortunately, I see what I see in nowadays, especially when it comes to the the work ethic is, you know, those that show up on time, number one, those that actually don't leave and don't come back at lunch, you know, and, you know, can actually fulfill a day's work

Mike:

and are always willing to do that learn, will always be promoted, will always get enhancement and will always, you know, further their career and be successful.

David:

I love that. And it's true for any industry. My son who's 17 I tell him all the time. And I can't take credit for this. I think Dave Ramsey actually said at first he says if you want to get promoted, you come in five minutes early and stay five minutes late. And that will get you noticed. And it's funny. It's just that little bit. And and I think that's true for almost any industry. I want to shift gears for a second. I have a belief. So this will get to a question I promise. I have a belief that every single person especially business owners, have a superpower that makes them able to do what very few people can do. Mine is I find every everything interesting and that helps a lot with our clients. I find everything interesting which is a big part With this podcast, what is your superpower? To the best of your bit? What do you do better than almost anyone else that allows you to do what you do? Because you have to have one? It's a tough question, though. It is a tough question.

Mike:

I would probably say, you know, that a positive attitude and energy are, and I don't know, how you what the word is for that. Sure. But, you know, I am a very optimistic person. And, and I think in my business, dealing with, you know, I'm a problem solver. So that's really all we do all day is producing content is, you know, this happened that happened, fix this, do that this guy, it's got, you know, we've got a myriad of problems that you're solving all day. So keeping, you know, a positive attitude and being have high energy and excitement and being, you know, that being like that, I think, is something that has set us apart. In some ways. It's like a TED lasso.

David:

I've been watching that show, I love that whole concept of just, he's just a good person. And that's all he needs to be. And that is, and that has allowed the whole show to be driven. It's just his niceness, his optimism and stuff like that. So it sounds like you're all Ted lassoed type.

Mike:

Yeah. I mean, there's, as a reference, you know, a great, there's a, there's a show out called the offer, I don't know, if you've seen it, it's like, how they made the Godfather series, and how cool I saw the trailer, that is an amazing that the one character I identify, so I mean, in real life, I identify with that character, because that's what I do, you know, and have to deal with all, you know, it's like, you get the call from them. I've never had this, but you get, it's like getting a call from the mafia, you know, and you gotta go deal with this, you know, mob boss or something. And, and I've never gotten to that point, of course, but, you know, I have had to deal with pretty, you know, weird situations in in, you know, when only imagine, you know, or, or a union, you know, with a union boss, you know, and we shot a movie during COVID and having to deal with all that, you know, and so, all of those kinds of things. Yeah, I can, I'm definitely in that mix with the TED law. So I love it.

Gary:

Do you have a standout project that you would call I guess your most? I don't want to say your biggest accomplishment? Because obviously, you've had many since the year 2000. Do you have any standout projects that you feel as though is like the best representation?

Mike:

Well, there's a couple. Unfortunately, I don't know that I I'm still striving to get the one that I really feel like, you know, the day I get the Oscar, I guess I will say that's the one right. But there are a couple films that I've done that I've been very proud of, for a number of for different reasons. So I did a movie, it's not been real popular in the United States, because it was based on I'm originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. I grew up there, my mother's Brazilian and, and so there was a book that was popular in Brazil and ended up working with some guys there and produce the movie based on this book called Three, it translated into English. It's basically three lives, one destiny would be the kind of the literal translation. And they wanted to make this, but they wanted to do it in English. And so we shot it with American actors here in us. And then when we took to Brazil, we dubbed into Portuguese and released theatrically. And it was the craziest thing I've ever been part of, because we beat double Oh, seven Skyfall. And the number one movie in all of Brazil, and I'm getting calls from like, the equivalent of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times and Time magazine. I mean, just one after the other, like, awesome, major publications gone. Who are you? What is this because it was we came out of nowhere, it wasn't, you know, but there's, I don't know if it's still on there. But there were Facebook posts and things have literally lines out the theater. I mean, they were and they were taking, we were taking a got so crazy that they were taking there were there were sessions where they were showing Skyfall and there were nobody was in there. So they put our movie in, took Skyfall out and let people in because there was a line out the door that was being shown on Facebook. I mean, it was it was insane. So for that reason. You know, that was kind of a fun situation to be in and to kind of experience a little bit of that success, of being of being part of something that just organically got big. I don't know that it was much about us as much as the story just connected. It was the right place right time, and people got behind it. And then on a different way. You know, I mentioned it earlier, I did this civil war movie called union bound. And, you know, it. It was, for me personally was really interesting because I learned all about the civil war in a whole new way. Let's not taught in schools. And, you know, we traversed all of North Carolina, when we shot it, looking for the locations and ended up meeting all these people and actually went to all the battlefields and sports and, you know, if you read in the, in your history book, you know, the sport and you go there, and it's, you know, it's 30 feet by 30 feet by 30 feet, it's too rock sound like an old tree. Yeah, it's like not this, you have a vision in your mind that it was this, you know, you're thinking of, you know, I don't know, movies that you show these big, you know, like the remains of an Alamo or something when it's basically it was just an outpost where we were going, I'm like, what, you know, and so for me, personally, that film helped me understand, you know, as someone that grew up outside of the United States, and I had a whole new appreciation and a whole new kind of understanding of some of the things that were going on. The film did very, very well in. At that time, we were on the tail end of the DVD and blu ray market, and it sold out in across America, and Walmart's all across America, and it was in the theaters for a little bit. We're about 200 screens, and then it went to Walmart, and then it's been on streaming ever since and continues to do well.

Gary:

Awesome. Now we do have to ask you a final question. touched on it a little bit before David mentioned it, but now tried to think of just as a businessman overall, what three pieces of advice would you give to any new entrepreneur, anybody starting a business on their own? Don't give up on your dream?

Mike:

Surround yourself with the best people you can that will help you not just say yes, to answer, you know, to make you happy, but can help challenge you positively and constructively help you do, you know, continue. And number three is, you know, provide the best customer service you can possibly provide to your customer base, or whatever that may be. And if that means, in my case, it's like answering emails on time or, you know, making your if you have an appointment being there on time. If it's if you're, you know, if you have a heart good that you're selling, that you're people that are selling that product, or your sales staff or your your front people are, treat your customers well. And I find the businesses that have that, in today's environment are being successful. I think people, I believe that customer service has gone out the window. In most cases. People don't they don't care, there seems to be a difference. Like what you were saying a lot of businesses, you tend to feel like they don't care. But then there are some small businesses that put out that extra effort for customer service. And it seems like that drives a lot of their recurring business. They're almost service more than the product at that point. Yeah. And, and they're not, you know, they're not struggling, they're, you know, they're enhancing or they're, you know, adding, they're expanding, I find that, you know, because people are tired, you know, I think it's so different because on average, and I'm not, you know, speaking ill of people, but I think that on average, that customer service has gone down in across the board. And so when someone is a little bit like you said, you get there five minutes early and or leave and you know, and leave five minutes late. You're, you're that alone makes a big difference. So those little things, there's what makes a difference? I think that's what's gonna make you successful.

David:

I love it. Um, yeah, I think I, I find it so interesting that every business owner, they have these jewels. I think that's the first time we've heard customer service. But I think that one is so, so critical. And I think every company, I don't care what your business is, you can do better. In customer service, you're going to serve your company, your company very, very well. Because like you said, I think it's even if it's not true, that customer service on some sort of global level has not gone down the perception is that it has that everyone's gone. You know, they've they're there. They don't care anymore. It's all automated. It's all scripted emails. If you can put that human touching there. Yeah, makes a huge difference.

Gary:

Maybe that's it, maybe customer service hasn't gone down. There's just been some companies that have learned how to do it better by adding that extra touch which then by comparison, you're looking

Mike:

Get the standard is going not as good as the new guys. I mean, I can just say like, you know, a lot of you know, especially web based type businesses, you know, you have to send an email or contact us and you don't actually talk, you don't really talk to someone if you have a problem. And and then those that do have an actual customer service that you can call or talk to a live person.

Gary:

I think,

Mike:

yeah, now, yeah, now it's all jungle and I get it, you know, people are trying to cut their mark, you know, they want to keep their profits and they're trying to, you know, so they're finding, you know, solutions that they think, you know, make it easier, but the human touch and doing what you like, if you say you're gonna do something, do it, you know, if you're gonna say you're gonna deliver this, deliver it, if you're gonna provide this service provided, you know, and that's what's gonna set you apart. I just like little things, we've so many times we get all caught up in these, you know, strategies, and these whole thing of that, you know, organizational tools and all this kind of stuff. And sometimes it's just the the very small, common sense things that get forgotten that if you do, you're going to be successful.

Gary:

Now, if people find your work, there is alright,

Mike:

so my work is all over. But you can, I mean, you go to our website up, Tim pictures.com, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you can, but all of our products are on, you know, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, you know, just everywhere, different places, and not just in the United States in on a global scale. So if people wanted to see what you have been a part of our is that list of the products that you've created on your website or not on my, on my website, I mean, if they use IMDb, that's, you know, that's a good place, I can see all of my films, a wide range of, you know, stuff. You know, I've done everything from I have not done a big comedy yet, but that's an that's in the works. But, you know, dramas and thrillers and who done it movies, you know, inspiring family faith films, you know, so, true stories, you know, I really gravitate to, you know, stories of people that have accomplished stuff, or did something unique that may, you know, set them apart. No different than this what you're doing with your podcast and in telling stories of people and hopefully inspiring others in what they do. You can take a nugget from this or that to to enhance your your business. I like telling stories, you know, real stories of people that made a difference, you know, as my fact I'll leave with this my Latino one of my favorite movies of all times a film that came out a long time ago called October sky. And I don't know if you've ever seen that. But if you can go watch it, because it's, it's a story about the little guy that overcame, you know, something that it's a kid that grew up in the coal mines of West Virginia, and was the first kid to get out of his school, get a scholarship for math. And then it you know, was later in his life was the guy that designed the rocket booster that took the space shuttle into space. That's a pretty cool story. And there are many, many stories of people that have done extraordinary things that I wish would be told because we can learn so much from that.

David:

Great way to end it. Gary, if someone wanted to get in touch with us, how would they do that?

Gary:

If you had any questions or comments for us, you can leave it below this video in the comment section or you can reach out via email at Hello at the big pixel dotnet. You can also follow us and interact with us on any of our social media channels. Well, thank you so much, Michael, for joining us. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you guys. It was my pleasure. You guys have a wonderful day. It was great talking to you learned a lot and thank you so much for just meeting with us and going over that industry stuff. I

David:

love it. All right.

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