Grow Your Video Business with Ryan Koral

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com Are you one of those classic creatives who loves what they do, and is really great at it, but struggles with taking control of their business and capitalizing on their talent. I know I am, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that just because you're a creative type person, doesn't mean you can't master the business skills as well. Brennan Dunn is the founder of Double Your Freelancing, a blog, podcast and online platform dedicated to helping creative freelancers such as videographers, photographers, software developers and more make the most of their talents and grow their businesses. Whether you're just starting out in your freelancing career, or have been doing it a while but want to take it to the next level, there are a ton of practices you can implement to your business and client relationships that will help you grow your business fast, and Brennan is here to share some of them with us today. I've been doing this kind of creative work for over a decade, but after signing up to Brennan's email list a couple of months ago and going through one of his free courses, I picked up so much useful information that I've already begun applying to my own business.

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com You know what one of my favorite emails that I get every single week is? It's the email telling me that a client has just booked with me and my team. Then a few minutes later I get a second email with their retainer payment, then another that they've signed the contract. The best part about these emails is that I can be off spending time with my kids, or my wife, or working on other parts of my business while an automated system takes care of my new leads and clients. Adam Fried is the owner of ShootQ, having acquired the software company within the past year. In this episode, he shares his vision for how he and his team are revamping ShootQ to make it the very best studio management software on the market. My teams and I have been using ShootQ to manage our clients and workflows for the past ten years and I absolutely love it. This is one of those rare pieces of software that actually frees me up entirely to focus on the things I want to, like creating amazing films for my clients. That said, as much as I love the software, there were certainly more than a few pain points and complexities in the program. Adam basically checked off each of my concerns one by one, and it seems like pretty much every gripe I had has been addressed, and improved upon. While we'll have to wait until the end of Q1 2017 to get our hands on it, I have a feeling that this new version of ShootQ might just be one of my favorite tools that helps me run my businesses successfully.

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com "A lot of really smart people don't get around to doing nothin'. They like to think about it, they like to read about it, and then they go to the next book and they listen to the next podcast, and they attend the next workshop, and they talk and they talk about what they're going to do. But then they don't ever get around to doing nothin'." [19:10] As creatives, a lot of us struggle to move into the launch or action phase of our pursuits. Like Ben Hartley, today's guest says, we think and talk and plan but often fail to pull the trigger. Well, if you need some motivation, Ben might just be your guy. Ben is the founder of Style and Story Creative, an award winning wedding photography and commercial videography agency that has been featured on Creative Live, The Today Show, The Huffington Post and more. He also runs the Six Figure Photography Podcast and blog aimed at helping photographers achieve success in their business, but in a way that complements their ideal lifestyle. Before all this success however, Ben was a restaurant server with a degree in oil painting who just happened to hear about a job opening at a local video production studio. With no experience in video, through determination and action, Ben found a way to get that job, ultimately leading to a long and successful career in video and photography. After hearing Ben's story, you'll be hard pressed to come up with excuses about why the time isn't right to pursue this project, or why you can't achieve that goal.

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com I know, I know, I've been there. As creators it often feels like cheating to use templates or have anyone else do work on our projects for us. To be honest though, sometimes that's exactly what's needed to finish a project on time, or to be able to spend any time whatsoever with our families and loved ones. That's exactly why Eri Levin and Tyler Williams, co-founded Motion Array, a creative marketplace with a variety of digital assets that include Premiere Pro templates, After Effects templates, stock music and stock video. Their goal is not to reduce the creativity of video producers and editors, but rather allow them to save time on their projects and focus their creative energies where it really matters. Their content is all highly curated, meaning that everything they offer is the highest quality possible.

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com "The ultimate goal is to be old and in love." That's what our guest today, John Goolsby says he always tells his kids, and it applies as much to your business and what you fill your time with as it does to your relationships with the people around you. John has been making films professionally for 30 years, and although he's had to make a ton of changes to stay current with emerging trends and styles, he's found a way to remain deeply in love with what he does, even after all that time. John's company, Godfather Films has filmed over 3000 weddings, and currently takes on over 300 projects a year. Aside from wedding films, John takes on a lot of corporate projects and is currently even working on a reality show for A&E! In this episode John takes a look back over his career in the film industry, covering everything from winning a national award for his film on floor mopping for a grocery store client, to now speaking at numerous industry events, and structuring his company in a way that allows it to continue to function without his constant involvement.

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com As busy entrepreneurs trying to grow our businesses and sometimes even just scrape by, it can be hard for us to step out of ourselves and our work personas to actually connect with those around us. Jon Connor joins us today and among other topics shares some incredibly powerful stories of how just being a good human while participating in the film industry have given him opportunities, great memories, and have even impacted lives for the greater good. Jon is a filmmaker, editor, and writer, as well as the co-founder and event director of Masters In Motion, a 3 day event focusing on bringing like minded creatives together to learn from some of the best minds in the filmmaking industry. Jon has worked on productions for Showtime, National Geographic (he's got a great story about this one!), and Urban Outfitters among others, and has a lot of wisdom, as well as a pretty great beard.

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com As filmmakers, gear is an essential part of what we do, and while there's no denying that fact, it's important to remember that gear isn't everything. Kraig Adams, a certified gear nut, joins us today and shares how he's adopting a minimalist mentality when it comes to gear, and the benefits that the switch is having on his workflow. Kraig is a 25 year old, Brooklyn based filmmaker who, in addition to filming weddings himself, runs the website and Youtube channel Wedding Film School, where he offers tutorials, gear reviews, and teaches wedding filmmaking to others. Kraig shares how he quickly gained a high end client base, his current minimalist gear setup, and how he got arrested for flying his drone in the city!

Find the original post at: podcast.studiosherpas.com Have you ever dreamed of booking destination wedding after destination wedding? Maybe you struggle setting prices that you feel are worth your talent and the product you deliver. This week on the podcast, we're stoked to have our old friend and wedding filmmaker extraordinaire Ray Roman on the show, who just happens to be an expert in...well, pretty much every area of the wedding film industry, but especially destination weddings and the typically dreaded business side of what we do.

Are you a storyteller? Whether or not you identify as one, if you want to be a successful filmmaker you need to know how to have a full and balanced story with the four pillars firmly in place. Today's guest has the insight, advice, and software to help you create your most powerful story yet. Patrick Moreau is the co-founder of StillMotion and founder of the Muse Storytelling process & software. Oh, and he's also a three-time Emmy award-winning filmmaker. Patrick is passionate about the psychology and art of storytelling and shares his wisdom and insights into what makes for a good story and why it is essential to have a repeatable system that helps you create amazing and impactful stories time and time again. In this episode, Patrick shares some of that knowledge with us, to help us craft better stories, starting with our next project. We also discuss why it is important to have clarity of purpose with clients and clarity of intention with yourself so that you can avoid unhappy clients and you, yourself, becoming miserable. If you have ever felt frustrated with your clients making tons of changes or losing sight of the story itself than this episode will help start off on the right foot with your clients and avoid these issues altogether. What are your biggest roadblocks when it comes to storytelling? Do you have a process you use to create the story? Leave us a comment below! In this episode: Why does story have so much power? The importance of psychology in storytelling, and what you need to know Identifying the 4 pillars of a story The "Muse Storytelling" process and how can it help you craft better stories Why is it important to have clarity of purpose with clients The importance of having personal keywords and how they can help guide you in business, storytelling, and life How community can help you to become a better storyteller and creative Quotes: "It starts with you understanding your own story and what you're about and what you want to do, then communicating that effectively to connect the right people." (15:26) "I deeply started experiencing and understanding the idea that the expectation and experience matter more than the content itself." (32:51) "It's not the questions that I ask you or the lighting or the cameras. It is the interpersonal connection that I create that will determine how strong and powerfully moving our experience is." (34:25) "If you always look at the people that have more, or the people that make more, or that are doing work better than you, and you say that's what you need to be, then you will never be happy and truly won't live a lot of your life. But, if you go I am doing sh*t that I love now, every day is just so much fuller." (39:12) Links: Muse Storytelling Follow Muse Storytelling on Instagram | Youtube StillMotionFollow StillMotion on Twitter | Instagram | Vimeo The Remarkable Ones (website is no longer active) 5 Elements Of Effective Thinking, by Edward Burger