B (2:32)

I don't know, I'll, I'll bring my questions from my own personal experience. Yeah, but I do hear about like people using.

B (2:42)

Companies like the Oxco and it's hard for me to really understand because you guys do so much and you can, you, you guys can be so flexible. But so you can, can you give me like a real world example that maybe like a brand that maybe a beverage brand or some sort of like any sort of brand that we can understand. Oh, that's what the Oxco does. Or they, they would do something like that. So we can kind of put that.

A (3:05)

I think as one step back. We are not a production company. So a lot of times when you're like, I have an idea for this, I'm gonna hire a production company so they can shoot it or make it or whatever. Those vendors tend to specialize in one type of thing, right? You're gonna have the production company that does a lot of sports videos or you know, outdoorsy type of work. And that's really what they like hone in on. And they may say, hey, we can do everything, we can do your thing. But it's not like their specialty. So really what I became known for was my Rolodex and it's really just tapping into our Rolodex of the right strategic talent, creative talent, directors, photographers, whatever it is, whether it's execution or even on the ideation side to take whatever little marketing advertising idea that you need to produce and bringing that to life.

B (3:53)

Interesting. And so like when I think about, let's just say I'm drinking Alani right.

A (3:57)

Now.

B (4:00)

And at what stage would, let's say I'm the CEO or the CMO of Aulani. @ what stage would I be like, okay, I need to call Danny, like what, what are my problems that I'm dealing with right.

A (4:09)

Now? So what's actually interesting is that one of the reasons that I modeled the company the way I did is because what you used to do was you would, your in house creative team would come up with an idea and fully flush it out and script it or your, your agency would, and then you would then sort of deliver that, you know, that RFP to a production company or to another entity and they would just take your order and say, yes, it will cost this much and this is how we will do it. What I was seeing a disconnect in was really not bringing that production expertise on earlier, so that when you're in the process of like, I have this idea for this event or I have an idea for, you know, a video that we need, whatever it is, you can bring production expertise in earlier on so that they're really helping you craft the idea. Like, is. Is the idea in your head the best version of that? Is, is there a more expedient way or a more like, is there a way that's going to like, be saving you more money and getting you more content if we do it in another approach where it's not anyone's fault, it's just that you tend to, you know, you know what you know, and so you tend to ideate within those constraints versus saying, you know, I actually done this, this same launch as an event, or I've done it as a big out of home campaign, or I've done it this way where the creative behind it is, tends to be the same. But it's how it's being brought to life and how your audience is interacting with it that's different. And it's sort of making sure that you're not only ideating in ways that can come to life, you know, in every medium that we have to hit these days, but also like that you're just sort of kicking the tires, if you will, before you go into production on something, because by the time you've already, you know, gotten to the end of the process and you're ready to bring on production companies, a lot of times you can't make those.

B (5:53)

Changes. So at what stage of the business where I would be thinking about doing something like this, or is it my.

A (6:01)

Great. My teams will call me, like.

A (6:05)

My agencies will call me and literally be like, hey, our client wants to do, wants to make a big splash for New York Fashion Week. This is sort of the things that they're hitting on. This is some of the ideas that we're talking about. How much would some of these things cost? What do you think? And I'm, you know, actively helping them craft those ideas or, you know, maybe they've already started pretty. You know, I had a client that was like, we're making a statue of, we're making a full size statue of Elon Musk for his 50th birthday. And I was like, okay, it's not a great idea, but cool. And they're like, we want to, like, put. Put it up as a stunt somewhere. I was like, okay, well, it'll cost you this. Let's think about that. And that's actually a good example of where they had sort of already packaged the idea earlier, so much earlier that they weren't willing to, like, make many changes. And it didn't do very well. But I think it's, yeah, being able to. I mean, I have creatives that just text me, like, hey, does this make sense? And then I'm like, oh, yeah, I have a guy for that. And I, like, send them videos that sort of inspire them. It's really more of, like, open collaboration versus feeling like you have to have all the answers packaged before you call.

B (7:10)

Me. Interesting. So, like, let's say that Cody.

A (7:13)

Right?

B (7:13)

Me. And I'm just like, okay, I want. I have this goal for this year forever be. And. And I would just, literally just call you essentially and be like, hey, here's. Here's the goal. And then we can kind of basically strategize and work backwards and be like, okay, what's. What's actually the outcome that we actually want to achieve. And here are the three different avenues or five different avenues that we can do, and then kind of brainstorm and eventually just kind of go.

A (7:34)

Deeper. We're not feeling like we need to get a, you know, I have a. I'll even take the soda drink that you have as an example there. Like, I've had brands of prep approach me and be like, hey, we are having an issue where we're about to lose a ton of our stock photography. We don't know what to do because we have limited budget, but how do we get. You know, we need stock that fits a lot of different things, and we're just not sure of the approach because we don't have, like, you know, money for 10 different photo shoots. Okay, great. Well, I have an idea. Let's go out there and, like, brief tons of photographers all over the country that fit the different kinds of content you want and then make them a flat offer for, like, here's the brief. We will pay X per image that you shoot and we buy, but we're not paying for them to shoot it. We're paying on spec. It's basically, you know, a spec. And so we pay for what we keep. I've done that sort of model is really like, kind of how to put together the puzzle for whatever your problem, your creative production problem is because there's definitely an approach that will work for the money you have, the time you have, the goal you have and all of those things. And not like, sometimes it's just more of how you're doing.

B (8:38)

It. Interesting. Do you guys feel like you. You've specialized or you've. Not on purpose, but because you guys can do so much, but you guys tend to have like an 80% of your clients fit in a certain category. Is it, like, because you mentioned, like, fashion for, for one, for example.

A (8:51)

We do a lot of everything. What I would say it's more that we're not the one. We don't tend to get calls when there's like, oh, we have all of this time and all of this money. It's more of like, we have a problem. And that's, you know, I love to have all the time and all the money. It's just sort of that, you know, I've become known as a fixer, and my team can really think outside the box in order to solve those problems. So a lot of times the first time a client has been working with me is because they had a problem and we were like, you know, we like to say that, you know, no is easy and getting to yes is hard, and we always can find a way to figure something out. But it's not like within the constraint. Like, it's not saying, oh, we only have to do it this way. It's more of. There's lots of different options. I just need to sort of shake the tree of your creative idea, get to what the, like, the crux of it is, and then I can problem solve that much.

B (9:44)

Better. What's the typical problem that. I know there's no typical. It doesn't sound like, but, like, what is the kind of the categories that. Is it budget, Is it. Is it time? Or is it like.

A (9:53)

Budget. It's time. It. You know, I. Yeah, it tends to be budget and time and, you know, as the, as the combo or, you know, location. Right. Like, we. Oh, we have to. We. We just found out we have to move everything to this location because that's where the talent's going to be. And we don't know anyone over there. Okay, great. I've got people there. Like, that's a solve. Or. When I was helping YouTube launch YouTube shorts, their internal creative team was having a really big problem figuring out how to produce all of this content that needed to look like TikTok and Instagram content, but couldn't have been seen before, couldn't have been out before. So it needed to look organic to that platform. But they didn't, they couldn't produce all of these individual types of things. Especially Google and YouTube likes to work very much in the. Let's just produce every single idea and see what works. So for about two months I actually had built a system where we utilized my real people casting partners and we would send a brief out on a Thursday afternoon of like six different things that we needed people to film themselves doing and submit in a very like viral TikTok way. And then we would go through them all and pick them and see what worked. I mean it was everything from we need people finger dancing with your hand dressed and twerking like, to cardi b with your finger. Like it was just whatever kind of crazy ideas. Um, because originally they were coming to me saying, hey, we need to produce all of these shoots. It's like that isn't so based.

B (11:25)

When you're working with Google and YouTube and this interesting. So it's an interesting use case because we've all experienced like Google and YouTube shorts now. Right. And it's actually a, it's a breakout success. Right. Like YouTube shorts is awesome. Um, and so the, the problem that they came with is is that, hey, we're launching this new product, essentially this new feature, whatever it is, and we want to make sure, sure that it takes off, take to takes off. It needs to be widely adopted or at least appear to be widely adopted. For that to be widely adopted, you need to have content being produced on it. But the problem is there was no content being produced because it's a brand new thing. It's chicken or egg. The.

A (11:59)

Problem. And so it wasn't out yet and they knew they wanted to feature. The big thing with YouTube shorts at the beginning especially was you could take anything from YouTube, any video that's already out there and be basically like matching the sound to it. That was a big thing. So they liked to come up with a lot of different ideas the last minute and they don't have the in house. Like there wasn't the budget to like do a different shoot every, you know, every weekend. And also when they approached me with the idea of hey, we want to do all these shoots, I kind of had to push back and say that the content wouldn't feel organic if we did that it would feel produced, which would instantly be, you know, off putting to the viewers and that there was an easier way to be getting that without spending, you know, without overspending and still really like hitting your goals. Because we were really, I think we were creating like 100 to 150 new videos over the course of like a month. So, you know, and then sort of finalizing those for what went out at launch and then what just was used after the fact. And it wasn't an idea that they had. It was more of. They couldn't. They didn't even know what the problem was yet until I kind of flagged.

B (13:04)

It. What did you. What did you end up launching with? What did they end up launching with? What did they take from your. Your ideas? And what did we. I didn't see obviously launch or I don't remember it at.

A (13:13)

Least. Yeah, we launched. It was in Times Square. It was all over the place. We had. It was just really a ton of UGC content that was that. That people shot themselves but that we converted to look like, you know, was in. It was within the platform. It was native to the platform. So we had like Roblox stuff in there. We had dancing animals. We had like I said, the twerking little hands. We had father daughter dances, we had drag queens doing the wipe. We had all of these things just. But it was. Each piece was paired with a different YouTube video. Like there was like a sea, like a, like a sawing noise like from a, you know, from a YouTube video. And then it was paired with someone like catching their, their partner snoring. It was just all sorts of funny, silly stuff. But it was, it was more of.

A (14:00)

The amount of stuff we were able to create that felt organic to the platform. That was really the solve at that.

B (14:05)

Time. I don't know if you can recall this, but.

B (14:09)

Was it links which I was every video linked to a specific YouTube channel at that time? Because that means you're. It probably creates this new problem where you like create this dancing hand video, for example. But like whose profile is it on YouTube channel is it.

A (14:21)

On? No. So that was. Since it was solely for the launch. It was only living on YouTube because we were having stuff created solely for us so that we could own all of the usage for the campaign for it. So we weren't having to go back and like have it lit like it wasn't. We weren't pulling like because versus going and pulling from what's already on the Internet. And then we can't guarantee if it's been on TikTok before or if it's been somewhere else before. And we like own it outright. Where everything was 100% created and only paired with what YouTube had already like squared away to have released side by side with the shorts.

B (14:57)

Content. Interesting. You. You said I don't know if you remember this, but Authority magazine said, always keep your eyes on the horizon, not the ground. What do you mean by.

A (15:07)

That? That when you're starting a business, and I, I say this a lot, jumping, jumping off the cliff and for starting your business is kind of the easy part, at least for me. If you're a risk taker and, and you don't live in that sort of fear mindset because at the very beginning, at least the first few years, it feels like, well, if it does, I can always go back, right? It's like it's far enough, you know, it's. You're close enough to, to turn around. But then as you keep going, going and as you keep building, it's important to.

A (15:36)

Build a team around you or build structure and, you know, processes around you that you can keep your eyes up and not in the business. It's very hard when, you know, everyone says no one will care about your business the way that you do. And it is incredibly true in you where it makes you a perfectionist. It makes you want to be able to, you know, have a hand in everything. But then you're not able to keep that mindset looking forward. I remember very early on in my career working for people that I just did not understand. Like, it felt like they were insane. It felt like they had, they saw the world a completely different way. And really that's what CEO brain is like. It has to be that you have this vision where you see the other side of it. You don't see the road underneath. You don't see the full map of how you're going to get there, but you just know that that's where it is that you're going and you can help lead everybody that way. They may not have to get you, but like, you have to know if you don't know what you want, then you can't translate that.

B (16:34)

Down. Completely agree with you and very, very relatable. Absolutely agree with you. You also say, know your powers, know what they are not hire for the.

A (16:43)

Rest.

A (16:44)

Definitely. I think that whenever people say, hey, I want to invest in this marketing stuff, or I want to invest in this is like if you're not first investing in someone, even just one person underneath you doing, taking stuff off of your plate, then you shouldn't. Like, that is your first investment that you should be making, at least in my opinion, because you. There's lots of like, I am not. I spent years being very organized as a producer, but now that, like, I have so many things Going on. And I have two young kids in this business organization, and staying organized is not something I even have time to do. So reading my email or scheduling my day or, you know, any of that admin work that you can get off of your plate so that you can keep looking forward is better. And it also trains, like. It helps train you to let go of stuff, which is it. It takes a long time, and that's a hard.

B (17:38)

Skill. Very, very hard skill. I agree with that. How big is your team.

A (17:41)

Now? Right now I've got about six people, but we go from anywhere from, like, three to six to 10. It really kind of depends on. We have our core bench, and then we have people that we bring on with certain specialties as the clients scale up and.

B (17:55)

Down. Absolutely. I could see that definitely have to be, like, scalable in, like, different ways. And do you remember. I know this isn't something that we plan on talking about, but, like, do you. Do you remember hiring? Sounds like you have an ea, right? An executive, like some sort of assistant.

A (18:08)

Right? Yeah, I have an executive assistant. I've hired. I've had lots of hires over the last.

B (18:12)

Years.

A (18:12)

10. 10 years.

B (18:13)

Yeah. Do you remember, like, the mindset of hiring your first assistant? Was that a challenging hire for.

A (18:19)

You? It was. It was very challenging. And it was the end of 2019, and I had big plans for 2020, as we all did, and I hired someone that was recommended to me. And.

A (18:35)

It was such a struggle because it wasn't like, you know, I'm sort of hiring someone with the intention of training them as an associate producer with the attention of training them. You don't understand other people's skill set as much as you maybe think you do. Just because you vibe with someone does not. Maybe doesn't necessarily think they're gonna mean they're gonna read your mind. And you have to be very clear. But also, just like I said earlier, having the expectation that anyone is gonna care about your business as much as you do is that's on you. That's not fair for you to have that on your. Like, on your employees. Just because I had a crazy work ethic and worked way too much does not mean that's on other people to do. Or if what you're giving people is not, like, clicking with them, that they're just so excited about it they're doing all the time, then maybe give them something else. You know, I had a very. I. Right after I hired my first hire for this company. Covid happened. Then I got pregnant with my first and you know, it was just emotions were insane. And I remember we had a client that was overseas and we were doing an edit for an Asian client and the hours were a little crazy for when they would get back to us. But I remember her out of office on her phone being on until like 10 or 11 o' clock in the morning and. Which was just insane to me. I was like, I wish that I could do that. And I was like, I. I know that we are sort of, you know, you can make your hours, but it's also, if you have an assignment or you have work that you know is at certain hours, maybe consider doing that. But as I've grown my team, what's really interesting is I think I've learned just as much from them as, like, they learned from me. As far as I have. I'm better with boundaries. I'm better with like.

A (20:18)

Scheduling out my emails and slacks and not just bombarding people because I have it in my head at that time. And I think that that is learning how to delegate and learning like, what you, what you need to care about versus what you should not even be thinking about has been a huge game changer for.

B (20:36)

Me. Yeah, it's very, very interesting. I agree with you. Like, it's definitely, I mean, I think every single person has to go through this if they're growing their company and growing their business. You don't just like.

A (20:45)

Magic. I hired first. I loved. We, we fought all the time. Like, but I loved this person. I remember bawling when she left. Like, it was very emotional. Like, because it is emotional and it. That is just like, it's hard to get away from that and to not have it be like, you want to connect with people that work close to you because it's your business, it's your baby, but you also have to, like, leave room for people to show you what it is they want to learn more and what they want to do more.

B (21:14)

Of. I completely, completely understand that and agree. What is, what is. What's something that's most exciting for you right now? Like, what's what? Speaking of the horizon, right. Like, where does Danny get excited about right now with the future of your business or.

A (21:27)

Life? Yeah, I'm really excited about what I'm seeing as far as within the ad agents, within the ad world and within marketing. We're seeing this rise of nostalgia. We're seeing, obviously, AI come up, which I'm very excited about. AI because I think that it's not. It will solve a lot of problems, but the biggest Thing that I see it solving is getting us in alignment on what it is we're making or doing much earlier in the process because you're able to come up with bigger ideas, because you're able to show what the idea is. And it doesn't mean we won't still be making things. I think it's just more of having a better agreement and alignment on what it is that we're making. Or maybe it is creating a lot of those lower end, you know, low hanging fruit assets that you normally have to spend a lot of time and money on so that you can actually spend your time and money on the bigger campaign work, the bigger storytelling work and the stuff that, that matters. And where I'm seeing that going now is away from influencers, away from borrowed communities and brands building their own community.

A (22:35)

I think that the brands that are going to come out of the next five to 10 years are going to be the ones that what they stand for, what that brand mission is, is very clear. And they are the reason that their audience puts down their phone, closes their laptop and goes to live the life that that mission stands for. So it can be being a party girl. Fine, cool. Like we, we partner with DJs and have all of these great playlists or we pop up with local dance clubs. It could be, you know, atmos like atmosphere or you know, athletic gear. You know, we're partnering with local, getting people connected again and being that conduit to build your own community instead of borrowing other people's I think is going to be huge. And that's also why we're seeing a lot of brand collaborations right.

B (23:22)

Now. It's very interesting. I, I see what you're saying. I never thought about it until you just mentioned that. It does make sense. I kind of see things going that way too because we're every be like our company is very big on community also but like we didn't do it necessarily intentionally. We just kind of did it because our customers needed community. So we kind of just did it. But now that you're saying it, it's been a huge valuable asset actually as a company, as a business, as user.

A (23:45)

Base. And that's even the rise of influencers were because they were building these online communities, right? But now after five years so starved of in person community, it's shit. And you know, generations that have just are feeling like they've been nothing but sold and sold and sold and they can't trust anything that it's more about like what's real. So you have These, the need for in person, real community. And then you have the rise of AI, which is like making it even harder to know what is real online, which is pushing people offline or to like Facebook groups or just things that are like, everything is going to a more beta version, you know, than it is now. So it's kind of. That's why we're seeing nostalgia. We're seeing Ms. DOs kind of graphics coming up from everywhere. We're seeing, you know, the younger generation starting to embrace hard copy magazines and newspapers, flip phones, things like that, because they know it's. It has a. Like an authenticity to.

B (24:46)

It. That's very, very interesting. Are you ready for the rapid fire.

A (24:50)

Questions?

B (24:51)

Yeah. What is your favorite business.

A (24:52)

Book? Business.

B (24:54)

Book?

A (24:55)

Yes.

A (24:57)

The art.

B (24:57)

Of. I read.

A (24:59)

That. Was it the subtle. Yeah, the subtle art of not giving a. That's it. The subtle art of not giving a. I read.

B (25:04)

That. That's nice. What is the one thing that you wish that you knew before starting your.

A (25:09)

Businesses?

A (25:13)

The power of.

B (25:14)

Delegation.

B (25:17)

You wish you would have done it.

A (25:18)

Earlier? I wish I would have done it earlier. I wish I would have done it day one. And I wish I would have had a better idea of like how to do it. Because even in doing it, it probably took me four years to start doing it.

B (25:28)

Right. Yeah, I could relate to that. I was very resistant to hiring an assistant. I don't know why. Maybe I felt like it was big. You go to like, having assistance and like, I used to like, you'd be like, no, no. I'm like, you shouldn't be afraid of like taking out your own trash. Kind of like that whole mindset mentality. Um, so it came from a good place. I know it came from a good place, but it actually ended up hurting myself, my customers, probably my family a little bit too. It was actually probably one of the most selfish things I could have done, even though I thought I was being selfish.

A (25:56)

Honestly. I would also say like one. Having one person, one assistant is just sort of like having an extension of yourself which isn't even really delegating. It's when you start to hire those other people where you have no idea what they're doing day to day. You're just giving them problem. Like, and. And when you don't hear from them, it's a good thing. Like, that.

B (26:17)

Takes. That is spooky almost, but.

A (26:20)

Very. That is hard for.

B (26:21)

Me. Yeah, it's like one of those things where it's spooky because you're just like, okay, I'm so deep in it now, like, I can't actually fix a problem. You know, when. If there's something that arises but.

A (26:32)

You don't have a company if you're not doing that, you're just freelancing. If you're like, I get to make money off of them doing the work versus if I'm up in their business, then I'm not making any money. I'm not there. Do it. I'm doing the.

B (26:44)

Work. Yeah, it's. It's very interesting. And then also, they're so much more empowered this way, too, because they feel. Who doesn't feel proud of themselves when they're like, better.

A (26:54)

Work. Like, when I came back from one of my maternity leaves and I, like, way overcorrected because I was like, I haven't been working, and I was just really over everybody's shoulders. It's the time I think I got the most, like, clients calling me going, is something up with her? Because she's not, like, doing that. It's like, no, it's because she was waiting for me to do the work because I was being so nitpicky. And like, if you. When you let them do great work but then have their back when they mess up, they will give you great work. Most, like, the majority of the time, like, I think that, you know, my. My producers all sort of know my team knows when to bring me in and when to, you know, have me get me the hell out of the way so that I don't, like, make any problems. And it's the same thing. Like, the longer you work with somebody, the more they know what I'm going to say. But, yeah, it's. It's like, it's just letting go. Let go. I guess I'll. I'll make the answer. The thing I knew, I wish I knew was how to let.

B (27:44)

Go. I still say yeah. And that's an evolving thing for. For me, at least. I. I agree. Yeah. I think about a team. This, this conversations like this make me reflect on my team and who I have. And you're so grateful because I agree they're kind of the same thing. What's nice is when you can actually talk about. You can talk about the what with your team and then just, like, let them figure out the how. The implementation of it. And actually, that's the stuff that I suck at anyway, you know, and they're really.

A (28:11)

Good. I. And the stuff that, like, I don't want to be on set. If I'm on set, a problem has occurred. Like, if I'm involved, a problem is happening. And what I normally do is I tell my team, here's the 5, 5 to 10 or whatever problems that I see occurring on this project before we start. And when I had one producer for Start with me, she took that as a like, insult that I thought she wasn't going to do a good job. When in reality that was just my experience telling her, guaranteed. And now they kind of hate it. They're like, you called it that happened. I'm like, I'm not, I don't like those things. I'm just telling you from experience now we know where the, the pain points are going to be. So that you're not scared later to bring that to me or you're not like, you're just more prepared to deal with it yourself later if we talk about it.

B (28:54)

Now. Yeah, I get that completely. Danny, where can people find you, follow you, learn more about you, get in touch with you, all that good.

A (29:01)

Stuff. You can hit me up on LinkedIn. Danny Dufresne I also have a on my LinkedIn a link. You can hit me up and set up a meeting to chat. Happy to connect with anybody anytime or check out my company.

B (29:13)

Theoxco@Theox.Co. amazing. Well, thank you again for your time. I wish you the best of luck and the rest of the week. And again, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast and sharing your value with.

A (29:25)

Us. Thank.

B (29:26)

You. Awesome. Talk to you soon.