SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Welcome everyone to the Peel Podcast. I'm Shelly McGuire, your chief strategy officer here at Arms Vices. I have with me Patrick Rafferty. He is the owner, producer, and director at Rafferty Weiss Media. He has over 25 years' experience as a producer and a director of TV spots and PSAs in the corporate spotlight, and especially focusing in on films of marketing and training videos, virtual meetings, conferences. He's like me a little bit, but he's like been with people in TV, which I haven't gotten that far yet. But I'm I'm it's on my bucket list. So welcome, Patrick. Thanks for joining me.

SPEAKER_01: 0:50

Thank you, Shelly, for having me. Do appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

I love it. You know, you sent me over your bio about public figures and celebrities that you have been in contact with and that you have also interviewed. So, like a couple of them, just to let everybody know, like Bill Gates, Quincy Jones, Val Kilmer, Yclef John, Bobby Knight. Like the list goes on and on. Political figures. I mean, okay, so out of all these people, who was the most intriguing and interesting person?

SPEAKER_01: 1:28

Oh, wow, that's a tough one. And Shelly, I've been blessed to be in this industry where you do get to jump in and out of people's lives and to meet the celebrities and to meet uh the titans of industry. It's very cool. Um, I would have to say that the the top three would be uh Quincy Jones, Bill Gates, and coach Bobby Knight. Um I'm a big uh basketball fan. So um Bobby Knight was the most recent, so I'll speak to that and then I can get into the others. But uh went out to um his place uh in Bozeman, Montana, and uh went out to interview him and he picked me up at the airport. He insisted. He's an old school guy. I reached out to him the day before and said, Coach Knight, I'm coming in. He goes, What time's your plane coming in the next day? And I said, 1230 from DC. He said, Okay, I'll be there. And there I was and and watching him coach, you know, for decades and and winning at all the schools that he went to. And I know he doesn't come without controversy, but uh, all of his kids, and so uh I'm sitting next to him in his car, going, Bobby Knight's driving me around in Bozeman. And he goes, You want to get lunch? And I'm like, sure, let's get lunch. And I'm like, is this a pinch me moment? I'm hanging out with Bobby Knight getting a cheeseburger, and then I go back to his house that afternoon. Uh, he takes me back to his house, and then after that, I go have dinner with he and his wife that night. It was like the best 24 hours of, you know, and at the end we finally talk about hoops, but nothing was in basketball. So that was probably a very special moment, just because I'm a big fan of of college basketball and and and what he did. And so he was uh he was a true gentleman. Uh, he was great. Uh, but what you see is what you get with uh Bobby Knight. And so that was a really cool one. And then the Quincy Jones one, uh, that was for the Red Cros Red Cross. We had to go to his house, had to. We went to his house in Beverly Hills, overlooked LA. Wonderful man, very interesting. Uh, asked the crew all about their lives and where where they're from. So Quincy Jones was just uh he's an icon, was an icon, and uh was it's a really cool experience to talk about his history and who he worked with. And of course, I knew it all, and just it's very interesting and awesome, awesome experience.

SPEAKER_00: 3:49

That's that's that's cool. And then you're you're in the government contracting space, which you know has its own famous people, uh not as famous, but definitely influential, right? So let's take a dive into that and just kind of talk about, you know, what's sort of happening out there related to, you know, you you do a lot of marketing and the training videos and the meetings and the conferences. So, from your perspective and your opinion, how would someone navigate that new doge environment that we're all in right now as it relates to marketing in the government contracting space?

SPEAKER_01: 4:34

Yeah, um, that's a great question. And these last definitely 60 to 90 days have been very interesting for us all in the GovCon space. And so I try to every day try to keep up with it, uh, try to see what's out there. Um, I do have a GSA schedule, so I'm very interested in how that's all gonna turn out if all contracting will go through GSA. How do I stay in front of that? Um, so I did hire a consultant to help me kind of navigate that a little bit. Um, I'm on the mass schedule right now, but do I are SINS even going to be relevant? You know, we talked about that earlier, Shelly, you know. So is past performance gonna be relevant? I don't know. Um, but I do have a schedule and I'm hoping that maybe, you know, that's a fishing license I can have for the next couple of years to go after it. But um, what we're seeing is I've had contracts cancel um and I've had other agencies reach out. Um, just last week I had an opportunity that came out of nowhere. Um, and it was for a video uh that was gonna happen this week. I bid on it, I did not get the job, but it was uh it was a it was a hefty budget. So there is still work out there, and I think it's gonna come in in fits and stops, so to speak. Um, and I think there is still opportunity. But what I what I am reaching out to my clients is that there are existing assets within the federal government agencies. They have video content, they have still imagery, and messaging can still be created without spending too much money. So um I would encourage and you know, to folks that are in my industry, in the marketing industry, is to inquire to these federal agencies saying, hey, what are your existing assets? How can we piece these together? How can we go out and still communicate and market um internally and externally? Um, so that's one thing. Um, and being local too in the DC area, I've gotten calls from outside contractors going, hey, can you provide me with a crew? Um, because they don't have a travel expense net right now. So, you know, that is an advantage to being local within a 50 mile radius of a lot of the federal agencies here in the DC market, that um we are getting some inquiries about that as well.

SPEAKER_00: 6:49

How about um marketing within a company related? So that was kind of a focus on, you know, if you are doing marketing for the government or, you know, videos training, what have you. How about as a company as a whole, kind of putting themselves out there related to, you know, what they're doing? You know, they want to showcase their capabilities. Um, do you have any suggestions right now related to that for our for the government contracting community companies?

SPEAKER_01: 7:21

Sure. Um I I use LinkedIn um a lot. I I think that's a safe, a professional platform where I think a lot of the government eyeballs are. Um, and so I try to find work groups, uh, you know, similar uh advertising GovCon groups to share thoughts, to follow leaders in those groups. But I think LinkedIn is probably the best bet that I have right now that I use as a tool every day. And I look for reaching out to program managers, to contracting officers, and just connect with them. Um, and so that's kind of what I'm doing right now. Uh, on that, you know, I don't think cold calling and emailing right now is is probably the thing to do. I think there's just so much stress um in those federal agencies. And I've gotten calls from, I've you know, I've gotten calls from clients who've lost their jobs, you know, and lost their positions within the agencies. So I'm trying to help them connect with others in in our industry.

SPEAKER_00: 8:21

Right. I think that's really important. So let's kind of change topics related. So coming off of the government contracting side of things, kind of pivoting because there are companies who are now sort of like pivoting into the commercial side. So, how does that differ related to um marketing in your eyes and media?

SPEAKER_01: 8:42

Sure. Um, yeah, I I have a pretty good balance of federal work and corporate and nonprofit and association work uh at Rafferty White. So um the marketing to the private, to the commercial sector is a lot different than the federal government. Um, it happens a lot faster. Um, and the the contacts within the corporate and the private sector are creative directors in my case to the services I offer, or marketing managers, communications directors, um, and and C-level executives. And, you know, when you market um to those corporations, to those associations, to those nonprofits, uh, it happens pretty quick. You know, if you go in there and there is a need, a proposal comes out just as it would on the federal side. But uh the turnarounds are much quicker. Um, usually when we get calls, uh the demands are much faster. They need something within a month or two, which is great. So we can jump on it. Um, so that would be the biggest difference. And the other difference, too, is that the deliverables that the private sector is looking for is not just one linear piece, it's multiple channels because they have um, you know, the flexibility to go out on all the social media channels and to push it out in many different ways. So whether that be through still photography, um, live streaming or video traditional video content. So um they're they're always looking for you know six to seven to eight different assets to be delivered, not just one.

SPEAKER_00: 10:18

So given those acts, oh sorry. So given those assets, what um as far as marketing assets, commercial versus um in the government contracting, what kind of resonates do you find? Is it um, you know, is it production type of video, short snippets, you know, action packed type of things? Like what's your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01: 10:41

Yeah, so the attention span in in in our world is what less than two minutes? Now everybody wants something under two minutes. So when we create something, it's very rare that somebody's asking for something longer than two to three minutes at any given time. And so when we create one two to three minute piece or two-minute piece, they're gonna want cut downs for 60 seconds, for 30 seconds, for 15 seconds, for eight seconds, you know. So all these little bytes, I know, right? So all these little bytes of information. And we're also finding that still photography um and still assets are a huge value to a lot of the private sector. A lot of people are getting tired of using the stock footage, the stock imagery. We saw so much of it during COVID, and they want their own customized imagery to use. So we found great benefit at a very low cost, you know, uh to capture stills while you're doing video. And now a lot of these associations, nonprofits, corporations have their own customized libraries they could use for PowerPoint presentations for white papers and other things moving forward.

SPEAKER_00: 11:49

I love it. I love it. No, I think it's great. I think also, too, like capturing just people. Since now we're back in the office and doing things, you know, capturing those still, you know, pictures of, you know, what your representation of your culture is and you know your office space and things of that nature is is really important.

SPEAKER_01: 12:13

Yep, absolutely. Yeah. And the one big difference, too, uh, if I could add, between the federal government and and the private sector is that in all the federal government work, when we produce any visual medium, it's bilingual, it's English and Spanish. Um, so you're creating for both audiences. Um, but in the private sector, that's not always the case. You know, they don't have that demand that it has to be, not has to be, or they want that it has to be in English and Spanish. So um that's just something that's very government-like in their 508 compliance um with English and Spanish, and also of all the captioning that needs to be done, you know, whether it be closed captioning, open captioning. So there's a lot of levels and different things in the government space that you need to do that is not required in the private sector.

SPEAKER_00: 13:08

Oh, that's a great point, though. I used to um be a teacher of special education students. So indefinitely, and I used to be a 508 specialist. So that was my next question. Yeah, that's true leading to. So you you took it right out of like my it's it's important. I mean, you know, there's a lot of people out there who, you know, can't access it the same as um a lot of us. So it's important to get that 508 compliancy in there. Um any lasting thoughts that you want to put out there, Patrick, related to, you know, your your uh your thoughts, like what, what, where maybe like where things are going or what you think could happen?

SPEAKER_01: 13:53

Sure. Um yeah, I wish I I wish I had the the crystal ball, right? Don't we all? Um, but I do think um that small business, you know, is is the backbone of our country, right? Sounds so cliche. But if we team together, right, I offer a certain service area where maybe a web design company or an advertising PR company needs that. So I think of small business teams together, we have a better chance of getting these federal government contracts. Um, so I'm hoping that is gonna be, and I think the work still needs to get done, Shelly. So at one point, when we all come up for air and the dust settles, these projects, these programs are still gonna need communication. They're still gonna need some video, they're still gonna need some external, internal messaging. And so when that comes, I think we should all be ready to go. So let's get our heads out of the sand. Don't be ostriches and be ready and be proactive. Um, because it's coming, you know. We've uh I've been around long enough not to say, you know, and I hate the word unprecedented because uh, you know, but this is gonna, it's something different and it's gonna, it's gonna relieve itself, and we better be ready when it comes because it's gonna come quick.

SPEAKER_00: 15:15

I think you're spot on about it. Well, we will weather the storm, right? Yep. And things are gonna happen, they're happening at a quick pace now. So just get ready for when it turns and when the faucet turns on and things are coming out, like exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 15:33

You got it, you got it. Yeah, we got we all have to be ready. So um, you know, I think uh what's happening is we've never seen it, and I see it in my daily news every day because we're right here in the backyard in DC. So it's affecting a lot of friends and neighbors, you know, unfortunately, and and they're losing their their jobs, you know. So it's uh it's it's something that uh we we should be ready for because they they're gonna come back. It's gonna come back. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 15:59

Exactly. Well, thanks for taking time with me, Patrick, to uh, you know, let us in on what you're doing and what you're seeing, and we will stay in touch.

SPEAKER_01: 16:10

Well, thank you, Shelley. Yeah, and if anybody is listening to this and they wanna they want to talk to to me about anything or partner or team up, I'm I'm ready and able and willing to go after some work, whether it be federal or private sector. So, Shelley, thank you for giving me the time to chat.

SPEAKER_00: 16:28

No problem. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 16:29

Alrighty, take care.