Welcome And Studio Setup

Vipul Bindra 0:04

Welcome to another episode of Studio B Sessions with me, Bindra. I'm the owner of Bindra Productions here in Orlando. And these are unedited, raw, unfiltered conversations with other video professionals. And just like the rest of the season, we have Mario on the producer table. So thank you for helping us.

Mario Rangel 0:21

How are you? How are you today?

Vipul Bindra 0:22

And our guest today is Dalton, the owner of a video agency. You've been doing this for a while and you're very successful at it. So apparently hard to get. So thank you for coming.

Dalton Smith 0:34

Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. This is an epic setup. Glad to be in here one other time. And I think I can safely say you have like the dream production garage. Well, thank you.

Vipul Bindra 0:42

Thank you. Appreciate it. This was quickly thrown up. I was working with Adam. I don't know if you know him, uh David's friend. And literally I owe him a lot of coffees. Well, good. I'll get to that in a second. So, anyway, so I actually came from shoot with him at like 6 p.m. and we had to start at like eight, the first podcast ever. So this is like two hours, and I'm calling Mario, supposed to help me. And then uh behold, he was busy stuck in a meeting. So I was like, okay, I'm doing all this. So I think it turned out really good for a couple hours. I think uh the setup looks really neat, and that's kind of what I wanted to do season one. Uh, but I wasn't able to because I didn't have the time and the resources of Mario to be able to cut between multiple cameras, so it ended up being one camera. Yeah. But I'm so glad now it's you know, multicam, you have your own camera to look at.

Dalton Smith 1:26

Yeah, no, and having a having a Mario is critical. Shout out to Mario. Like you always gotta, you know, have that guy right there to because you know did you use our Jamie, yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's what I'm saying. Like, you gotta have it. I guess.

Vipul Bindra 1:36

Yeah, now we can pull up things. It's been so awesome to be able to actually look at uh uh people's websites because I had somebody who's like, I put prices on the website, and I know I don't do that, yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:44

So it's really cool to be able to just pull that up in real time and actually see it because we weren't able to do that last season.

Family Goals And Work Boundaries

Vipul Bindra 1:50

So, anyway, the number one thing about you, funny enough, I had David on the podcast, right? So you came up. I was just saying that before we started. And the first thing, uh, something I was like, yeah, I'm looking forward to talking to Dalton on his episode. He's like, I'm I'm surprised that you got him. I'm like, what does that mean? You know, so I mean, I'm glad that I have you, but you must be hard to get.

Dalton Smith 2:09

Yeah, it's uh it's it's just because how I do it, it's it's very irregular. I say no to very little. I'm working on that, but I just have so many things I like to do, man. Um, and I'm you know, family man, big with my family, and we structure a lot of time towards it, I would say in intentionally, but big family goals, big work goals takes up a lot of time.

Vipul Bindra 2:33

No, I had uh again talk about Adam. I had a great conversation about him balancing life. Family and work is very important. And uh, same thing, he told me, like, yeah, he's been trying to get coffee with you for a while. Yeah, and so you owe him a lot of coffees.

Dalton Smith 2:46

No, shout out to Adam though, love his work, and uh shout out to you, the dads, man. Yeah, I know. I don't know if you know who Jared Sanders is, uh super talented guy on the Space Coast. I was just telling him like all the dads, the production, because for me, it's the hardest thing that I've introduced to my timeline. I've gone through a lot of different stuff, business, personal, family, COVID, right? All these changes, but uh yeah, that was a big one.

Vipul Bindra 3:14

So yeah, no, it's it's it's you know the catch 22, and I'm so glad at least you and and Adam, both of you are you know, paying full attention to it, and that's kind of where I feel like I need to do more. Not that we don't spend time as a family, but kind of like I love this, you know, this is a passion. So, for example, I had a few days, I had like said three-day shoots and I had four days, and then I had another shoot. So I was like, okay, this is the next season of podcast. So I I scheduled it, I schedule everyone, I packed my days, uh, you know, like five episodes uh, you know, a day. And and uh then I was like, yeah, you know, I I'm not gonna see my kids now six days in a row. I mean, they're there. Yeah. But you know what I mean? And then I was like, that's the other side of it. I'm really enjoying this, I'm really enjoying these episodes. We're sharing so much uh entertainment and knowledge and all that. But then I'm like, at the same time, I'm like, oh, I gotta then make up. I gotta spend so many days with my family to make sure that you know I'm I'm paying attention to that side of it too.

Dalton Smith 4:06

Yeah. And it's the balance is hard. Yeah, it's very hard. It's it's single-handedly the most important thing, in my opinion, in your entire life. And it's hard because I joke that life is so contradictory. Yeah. Even even like, you know, with my wife. Um when she met me, the things that she wanted and saw in me, I'm this entrepreneurial guy and I'm surfing and inventor in the world. Well, now those are still great features, but those are things that are also challenging to our family environment. Yeah. You know, they take time. So that balance has been hard. But if you're down for it and you got the right spouse and you're driven with your business in the right way, I'm not saying it's not hard, but it's like, I don't know, it's rewarding. So I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere in the last like year. Not that I wasn't anywhere I didn't want to be, but I have just big ambitions to just get better, you know? Yeah.

Vipul Bindra 4:53

No, and that's good to have. You and I have big ambitions, and like you said, you need one spouse and a family that supports it. And um, like I said, you have to find that balance. That's a fine line that everyone has to obviously find what that is for them.

Dalton Smith 5:05

Yeah, like I was engaged. I always talk about this, and I'll make it short here, but I was engaged. I was a few months out, like three months out, went to lunch, and my fiance at the time walked out. Oh, wow. Cold turkey. And it just made me question everything. You know, I had to get down to like my roots of who I was. It made me reset. But the the core of my passion for filmmaking and being a business owner and doing this survived that, which was it meant a lot because uh it was the hardest thing I've ever been through. Um, but I'm obviously in the most amazing place now. I got my beautiful wife, I got my two-year-old baby girl. Look at that.

Vipul Bindra 5:39

Um it was meant to be, and that's the the perspective that you have to look at from. I know hindsight is always 2020, but in that moment, because we all have tough moments, we always have where you're the the worst moment. You know, I've talked to Alex a couple of times here on the podcast, and you know, what he was going through uh last uh a few years ago, through the same thing, a divorce, you know, kids, all that. And it's like it can be very difficult to run a company uh during that time, which what you have to remember though is people who make it through those tough times are the people who are successful, are the ones who can now look back and be like, hey, that was actually a very teachable moment. That was what was best for me, even though at that moment that felt like everything was falling apart. Yeah, you have to get past it to to kind of look back at the benefit, I guess, in a way.

Dalton Smith 6:24

Yeah, and it's a double-sided sword, you know, it it can and and will hurt you, which could hurt your business when these things in life happen. So it's important. I'm like a big mental health advocate, but on the other side of the sword is where the strength comes from, where the perseverance comes from. So, you know, I was talking with my mom recently just about growing up and where I'm at and just being a father and all the changes. And she was like, Man, like I wish I could have done maybe some things differently for you. And I was like, No, no, no, no, because you did the best you could, and I believe that. And if you took a single thing from my path, then you would take where I'm at now away.

Vipul Bindra 6:56

Exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah, you are because of what you went through. Yeah, no one changed that, yeah.

Dalton Smith 7:00

So I love to advocate for the the balance to to it should be fun. Like, we should all make money, but we should we should enjoy this. It's it's because I joke because like I've been one-wheeling in the morning again to this to the beach. I'm blessed to live that close to the beach, and I don't even go, you know? So I've been making the time and I joke, I'm like, I'm such a crappy boss. You know, I set the schedule for me. So you have to choose all that balance to make sure it's epic and fun and you're making money because I don't play with the money side either. It's very important to me. So, you know, yeah, you gotta again balance.

From Surf Culture To Filmmaking

Vipul Bindra 7:33

I guess that's the word for the episode. But uh, talk to me about uh obviously I know a little bit about you. Like, you know, we've met a few times. We I also met you at David's meetup. Uh is I think the first time where we connected. He brought you out. Um, so you know, you surf. I guess that's where the love started, right? Tell tell me more about like how did video production became the thing.

Dalton Smith 7:54

Yeah, definitely, I would say on traditional route. I was 13, and I don't know if you ever heard of a cartoon Rocket Power.

Mario Rangel 8:02

No.

Dalton Smith 8:02

Uh it's the first seed of this. It uh group of surfers, uh they're all kids, like 13 in California. It's an animated show, and one of the kids' name is Twister, and he has a camera. He has a VHS, you know, style camera, and he's filming all the surfing, the snowboarding skateboarding. So growing up, I'm that age, it seemed so tangible. I wanted to be Twister. So yeah, I had a you know, Sony handicam, um, not full-size tape, but not the mini DVs yet. It was like the in-between ones, the like the full-size DVs. And uh, yeah, man, just started making skate videos, filming stuff at my house. And then very little really evolved from that until I got to high school. And the first big thing was I got a GoPro, I had a really rough high school experience, actually dropped out, got my GED, and at the time I was going in a not great direction. So we were looking at the future, and we just decided I needed to get out of that environment. So at that same time, I get my GED, I'm doing surf lessons, I'm doing kayak tours, and I'm really excited because even though it seems small, I'm going in such a good direction. You know, out of trouble, I'm away from these things. And my brother gives me a GoPro. And I joke because if I had to pick one thing, I don't want to say a GoPro is bigger than a person, but if I had to pick one thing that where it really changed it and made it happen is the GoPro. Because when I got that thing, it it just flipped the switch. And so 21. So we're making surf videos, we're doing kayak tours, we're going out to Orlando to party at the clubs for the first time, and we're making all these videos. So our entry was YouTube. So I posted some videos, a couple of them were some I would say slightly sketchy stunts, uh jumping into pools um off of hotels and stuff. But we're 21 and it's like safe fun, it's like reasonable fun. So even my mom is stoked on it. You know, she's like, Man, he's figuring this thing out, he's got a job. And that went on for the summer, but I didn't realize I was planting these seeds. I made this skim board video, and now I'm getting branding involved. And uh the big ticker was Corey Howell, uh, was a Ronjon team writer. He got introduced to me through the network, and I uh ended up in Puerto Rico with him. All these kids were done on money, and I got this photo, and he said, send it to my team manager, and they bought it. Um 500 bucks, and it was in perpetuity, so I didn't know anything about it, but five hundred dollars to take one photo was I couldn't even really comprehend it at the time. I was like, we made it like we're done, we're done, we can wrap up shop. We have five hundred dollars, yeah. But that the the chain just kept going. Um, and frankly, I saw Corey. I remember we were at Surf Expo and he went in there and he was like the mayor. Like he's just the king because Corey had like the looks, the talent, he was like an A plus student, he had the whole thing. And so I'm realizing these stickers on his board are not just stickers, they're real estate. And he's getting paid to represent these brands.

Mario Rangel 11:01

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 11:01

And so I started pitching for me to get sponsored in the 2014 to 17 time frame. So like GoPro was on like the explosion. Yeah, Go poll was like this huge, thriving third party market for parts. And I was making ghetto rigged Home Depot PVC polls at home. So that was an unintentional, perfect. I I literally was doing that at the time it was happening. So man, I was just like, I won't I don't want to say begging for money, yeah, but I was going to Surf Expo and like, hey, sunscreen, flippers for scuba diving, whatever. And everybody just started throwing us product and money. And we just got the ball rolling. And years went by, we turned it into tourism. That was the I think the where I think tourism is where we took it from like me and David and Tristan. Shout out to the boys. Kind of just doing pickup work, you know, figuring out what that even meant to this agency hired us. They have this large volume, they've they know what they want. They're giving us preset details, and then that went on for years. I mean, that you can ask David. He talked about it in one of his I didn't even know how much I paid him. He talked about it in one of them when we did that relationship, it went up and up and up for a few years. Yeah. And then, like most things, there was an eventual change.

Mario Rangel 12:18

Exactly.

Dalton Smith 12:19

And it went away. It was just it was probably worse for him than it was for me.

Vipul Bindra 12:23

Because he talked about it, because that was a transition. I think he was like I said, you guys was doing this for years, and like you said, it went away, and then he had a pivot. You know, yeah, exactly.

Dalton Smith 12:32

It was not planned. Yeah, it was that agency, I'm guessing, pulling the plug, or yeah, so and I can talk about it lightly, but there was uh a budget and it's a government agency, so that budget is tax, like you know, it's very sensitive, and there was overspending. Okay, and so the internal team dissolved a bunch of finger pointing, and then Florida Today got involved. And essentially, our whole involvement was relationship-based. Like, skills are awesome, who you are is awesome. But when a new set of people come into a building and their relationships are gone, yeah, you're you're and that's how it works, you know.

Vipul Bindra 13:05

To be honest, like I've done some tourism work too. Funny enough, going back a little bit, you say you it's untraditional. Most people I talk to, uh, I feel I'm untraditional because I didn't come from most people have background either. They loved skateboarding and they wanted to make video. They were BMX making videos, surfing, they were making videos. I feel like a lot of people I talk to, they started with uh this type of passion where video wasn't initially the thing, it was something they love, and then they were filming that, and then video became the whole thing. Yeah. And uh I find that as a common thread. And you guys, a GoPro in your hand is amazing. Uh, because you know, that what you can capture. Funny enough, I had a GoPros, and I was like, I'm never using them because I'm filming on you know the bigger cameras or whatever. So they sat in the drawer until the tourism department called me and I was like, perfect, where are these GoPros? Dust them off, get them out. It was so awesome to be able to do BMX, you know, uh kayaking, canoeing, all that, you know, hiking stuff. So yeah, I love tourism stuff, and I was like, this is so awesome. I'm not sitting in an office capturing some content. So that's really awesome. Uh like cool that you were able to kind of jump in and uh, like you said, do pickup shoots or whatever for the tourism department. You could you're talking about locally here in Florida, right?

Dalton Smith 14:16

Yeah, so it's the Space Coast Office of Tourism. And so it it really was like, you know, I'm a faith guy, but I'm also a timing guy. I think I'm talented, but I really think I just worked hard and didn't give up. And because frankly, the whole environment of it, it just it's too perfect because I do the work because it's good, but we bleed Space Coast colors, like literally. I was born and raised there. I know everything, every rock. So when we do productions there, the ease comes from so much of our background. Yeah, like I can do any project and we need something, and I joke, but it's probably true. I have a bigger B-roll stockpile of the Space Coast than the Space Coast does. Probably. And they come to me. They come to me for everything, and I love that. And it's funny because with bigger agencies, sometimes it's not really about that relationship, it's about getting the job done. So they'll go to these bigger agencies and then the bigger agencies will call us.

Mario Rangel 15:06

Yeah.

Why Relationships Beat Raw Skill

Dalton Smith 15:07

So it's it's very cool that at the end of the day, who we are and who we've worked with really plays as much of a role as the work, you know.

Vipul Bindra 15:16

And and that's true, you know, and I've talked numerous times about this, but to be real, it's all relationships. At the end of the day, it's who you know and uh who knows who they know. You know, that's how connections are formed. Networking is a bigger part of this than uh uh I mean, not that skill doesn't matter. Obviously, skill matters. You gotta be able to uh, you know, then do what you sign up for. So, question Do you think it's bigger? Networking is bigger than, yeah, skill any day.

Dalton Smith 15:44

And people should remember this.

Vipul Bindra 15:46

Absolutely. Because no, I've said this before. If you can go find the client, you can hire one of us to come do the project. All day that's the easy part. Obviously, uh I've seen it the other way. I've seen people then take that advice, go close a 10k deal, and then just try to do it themselves and fail miserably. The client hates them, everyone's has a bad experience. But most of the time, I'm saying people are smart. They basically take you go get the gig, right? You you build the networking, you build a relationship, and then A, obviously, figure it out. It's not that complicated. We don't do brain surgery here. But if we can't, that's when you go, you know, look around your network, you find the people who know what they're doing.

Dalton Smith 16:23

And that network, like you said, it's not just on like the relationship of booking a client because they know who you are. It's leaning on the professional that you know to either execute it at like a hey, I'm ready to do it, or it just hit the fan. Yeah, I need help. You know what I mean? And having those people, and what you do, I see you all the time. I see you going to your community events, doing your chamber of commerce, doing your podcast. So, like for me, Facebook has made me an undisclosed amount of money. I don't even know because it is the why. So I don't market, we don't run ads. Yeah, I've got a lot of views from different places, but they're so random. It's like shooting ducks, you know what I mean? But my Facebook is so specific and strategic, and it's got this huge, it's the hub, it's the center point. I've got all these little stars of like Instagram and YouTube, and they're all there's lots of people there, but it's kind of a mosh pit. My Facebook is so dedicated, it it's the backbone of like everything I make.

Vipul Bindra 17:22

That's so crazy that you know, for so many people, Facebook is dead. And then here you are saying, like, look, Facebook is where you're getting majority, or not majority, but a lot of your money from uh because you've dialed it in, and you know, and that's that's that's a that's a way to say, you know, uh, where it doesn't it may work for somebody, it it it can work for someone else. You shouldn't you can't knock it.

Facebook Live That Changed Everything

Dalton Smith 17:45

You got you gotta try it. And like from you know, for real, like I've I fell into it, so I've had this knack of doing something. I don't want to say because I'm so smart, I think I'm just feeling it and unintentionally being on trend with it, right? Yeah, so live streaming on Facebook. It's super funny because like you notice how the live streaming thing is so big right now, not what we do, but like the Twitch and like people just driving on their own. So one of my guys that I work with at ESPN, I'm very irregular, I'm not the normal production guy. So I'm very much an entertainer and like an on-camera personality for a lot of my stuff, as much as I'm behind it. So one of the guys I'm uh with at work, he's like, dude, you need to like start streaming like all your crazy stuff all the time. I was like, it's like maybe I should. So the reason is going back to Facebook, like 2016. I'm probably like about to move out of my mom's house to my first place, and Facebook introduces live streaming. And I jump into it and I start doing these things called tip of the day. I don't even know why the first one was. And I've probably done thousands, and I'll start it up, I do them to this day. I'll usually wait for something to annoy me or become a problem in my life that I'm struggling with, or see something and I'll speak on it and try to make it a positive. And people have really enjoyed it. So I did it and did it and did it, and then in like 2017, a hurricane hit our area and I went live. And I went over the bridge, and then I didn't know this, but the bridge got closed behind me. So I'm beachside, I'm live. Yeah, every not everybody, but more people left than usual because this looked to be like a seriously bad one, and it was pretty bad. It ripped the tops of a lot of um gas stations and structures and car ports. So when I got to my townhouse, I was pretty blown away. Like the damage was pretty legit. So the numbers are climbing. Usually it was like 10 people, 20 people watching. Now there's like 50, 100, 1000. We got to like 10 or 20,000 concurrent viewers, and we went for like 11 hours. Well, what happened is someone's like, Hey, can you go over two streets? Yeah, my grandma lives there. Hey, can you go down this way? My dad owns that restaurant. Hey, can you check on my cat? And we so we were having fun with it. Yeah, but what we didn't realize is it was making a relationship. And all these people, when I when it was done, I got letters of people like not just saying thank you, like they're like pouring out their soul to me and talking about how much we made them feel better and we did this thing for the community. I had people give me gift cards for gas and dinner. To this day, I will walk in the publics and I'll see it, and I can tell by their face because like they don't want to say it, but they want to say it. And they'll walk up like, are you the hurricane guy? And it cracks me up because uh it's this little thing. So the point is that they liked it, they liked us, they stuck around. There is, I don't even know how many relationships came from it. Yeah, I don't I have no idea how many jobs came from it. And every story I've told, now my baby, you know what I mean? All these things have become a part of the center point. So ESPN, people ask me all the time, how did you get the ESPN? She watched the hurricane feed, dude.

Vipul Bindra 20:46

That's how you get ESPN. You go out and stand the hurricane. People like yeah, yeah, yeah. They want to discount you. You actually provided a service. You did provide content people wanted to watch. Because you know, if the hurricane's coming, people want to see what's happening. I mean, I was sent out uh to for the through the Red Cross to cover the damage after the last two hurricanes. So people want the content, you know.

Gimbals Broadcast Gear And Craft

Dalton Smith 21:08

So it wasn't it wasn't just luck or anything, but but the important part, like you said, is I posted the live video in 2017. She called me in 2023. Look at that. So my goodness. She watched me as this eclectic group of just crazy Florida people because, dude, we're hanging out at helicopters, and then we're jumping out of a helicopter with Doug Flutie, and now we're surfing with it. So she just watched it and she owned a home in Brevard County. That was her connection to the video. So ESPN buys this uh I don't even know, it wasn't even an A703 at the time. It's like an A7R, and they stuck it on a RS3 and they were like, put it on the set, but they didn't know how to do it. So Fox had done it. I don't know what whose idea it was, but it makes sense, you know? They called it the poor man's gimbal. Yeah, and it looks pretty good. So the crew we work with runs the BH photo. In Manhattan, buys just whatever, and um the the operator was the problem. Because all these guys are traditional broadcast guys.

Vipul Bindra 22:08

Yeah, they're they're used to shoulder mounts and stuff. Hard cameras. Not running. Yeah. Tiny little gimbal. And it takes the you know, the gimbal walk. Talk about why I bought the run in 8k, because I was tired of the the ninja walk, right? That you gotta do. Uh but yes, you don't feel the gimbal walk as much. Well, again, I don't want to speak too much. I'm an expert on that. Yes, but that's I thought the is the point, right? Because you know, it has the fourth axis, so you don't have to like ninja walk as much.

Dalton Smith 22:32

There's a guy named Gary uh in Brevard County, his name's Gary V. He does um a bunch of stuff with that, and Justin said um he doesn't even look like he's trying.

Vipul Bindra 22:42

Oh yeah. He's just literally like just what I was like, if we can add that, you know, make our jobs easier. But coming back to what you were saying, yeah, if you're a traditional guy and you just buy a gimbal and you think you can operate it, uh again, yes, in a way, it's electronic, it works, but there's a skill to it. There's an there's a walk to it that if you don't know how to do, there is, you're not gonna, yeah. And there's levels to it.

Dalton Smith 23:03

Yeah, there's not just I can use a gimbal or not use a gimbal. And there's like guys that are really great with intricate movements. There are guys that are great, like my buddy Che does these insane, it's like he's flying an FPV around the room. I don't even know how he moves that quick. So yeah, there's there's a method to the madness, right? And I come from like the glide cam generation, so I flew glide cams for years, and I kind of love having that appreciation for it, but you know, it's not required, man. You know, and I I told my wife that I remember when I started in like 2012, 13, my first camera was like a D5000, a Nikon. And so I ran these like mirror bodies with just like Tokina 14 to 24, kit little 1835, like not ideal, not cinema. And uh I remember a lot of people were still kind of aggressive towards the idea of digital at the time. You know what I mean? Yeah, there's a little bit of loading.

Vipul Bindra 23:58

I mean, yeah, there's a reason films alive. I mean, yeah. But the new Jurassic Park Jurassic World was shot in film, so it has to be, you know, the dinosaurs will not look great in digital, you know. For sure.

Dalton Smith 24:10

David Morfield just sent that to me.

Vipul Bindra 24:12

I'm gonna drag him to the theater with me. It's like it had to be on film because the dinosaurs would not look great on digital, you know what I mean? Anyway, but no, no, I'm all I I don't want to make it seem like I don't like film. I love film.

Dalton Smith 24:24

No, I like the idea of it all works though.

Vipul Bindra 24:27

And and to be honest, like I said, I started personally on those mini DV tapes too as a kid because that's what we had. I started with those, and funny enough, I went to digital because uh then I was like, I want one of my own too, you know, and then the the the the camcorders or whatever, I'm talking long time ago, but was DVD-based. And the the thing was tape was so easy because uh the and I'm talking we had an older thing, uh, but I would plug it in, you know, you can basically pull the the tape off. It cut so well in uh whatever I was using at that time. I don't know.

Dalton Smith 24:58

Yeah, you would just play it back to your computer.

Vipul Bindra 25:00

Exactly, and it would work. But as soon as we got the DVD, I was so excited, I was like, oh, it's all digital, right? Nice. Dude, that that MPEG, whatever the footage format was, that thing would not cut like no my poor computer back then, and you know, computers weren't that fast. Anyway, I would a copy pasting was a pain, and then when you would be done with it, it wouldn't cut at least what I had access to. So that was a pain until I went back to uh, you know, I went to school, and it was so weird because they were still using broadcast cameras with tapes on it. I was like, thank goodness I can pull footage off it. It wasn't until I got the T4i where I was like, oh, SD card, this is a lot easier to, you know, work with digital.

Dalton Smith 25:37

Well, dude, and shout out to David Moorefield again because like he is so funny to me. I'm so enamored by David just because I've known him for so long and what he's doing right now is it's so David, but it's also not from like traditional what I grew up with, right? Yeah, like David and I were like skating together. Like I had him on my like skate team.

Mario Rangel 25:56

Yeah.

Creating Content As A Career Moat

Dalton Smith 25:57

So 2014 time frame, I made like a little skate, skim, surf team. And like David was like on a skating with us, and he had done a lot of stuff with his brother, and he was filming like skate contests and making little content. But to this day, he's just got that eye, and it's funny because he does it now, it's that like documentary eye, you know what I mean? He just he didn't need the gimbal or all the flashy stuff. He could do these great shots with a tripod or just handheld, not moving either. And I and I loved that about him.

Vipul Bindra 26:24

So yeah, and what I like about both of you, I think it's just uh what sets you apart, and you've already said it, is that what I don't do is that you and I'm trying to now, obviously, but is that you guys create content. See, the thing is obviously you're doing this professionally. David is doing professionally, he's making money, but he's still vlogging, he's still making content. You're like you said, you're on Facebook Live, you're on you're you're putting your tips out or whatever. You guys were creating content, you're making your skateboarding content or whatever from day one. Uh, I feel like at least that's what I see, and I I think is what sets you apart from let's say other guys, is because you guys are creating, and let's say the way I see it, if you weren't even making a living off this, you'd still be making some kind of content. Yes. And when you when you love what you know what you do and you just want to share, then I think I don't know, it just it's it just makes you different. It makes you where, like you said, people just want to come to you and they want to work with you. Uh and uh and I and to be honest, that's the best thing that happened to me getting to know David. It I grew up with YouTube. I was posting videos before Google bought YouTube as a kid, you know, silly videos. Hopefully, nobody can ever find those. But yeah, I'm saying YouTube isn't the the the problem, but to be honest, yes, my my career when I started, I just wanted to do tech reviews. Yeah, that's where the camera love came from, right? Because I wanted to be on camera, talk about technology, that's what I love. And funny enough, I could have so built a career with that, and I tried to go the traditional route. Let me go on TV on a tech show because those used to be a thing before YouTube, right? Yeah, and then now think about it, it was like so stupid. Here I am having fun on YouTube, not even considering that this could be where I post the content, trying to run towards these news networks, trying to be because that's the option I had for the tech show. Uh and uh like I said, I started a bunch of YouTube channels or stuff, whatever. But when I started doing this professionally, where people started paying me 2010 and Rwards, I never once considered YouTube as the place to put my content, even though I was all in on YouTube. Do you see what I'm saying?

Dalton Smith 28:23

Like and until now, and I'm like, well, and I say that I got lucky a lot because I didn't have time to think about the strategy before I started. Yeah, I literally just jumped. So our YouTube channel, I remember my brother had opened a new gym. It was in Cocoa Beach, there was nobody there. And me and my buddy Tyler Rago, if anybody founded the company with me, it was him. So, in that, like, I'm getting out of trouble, I'm getting a job, what are we gonna do? We're partying. He had an okay home setup, but it wasn't perfect. So he just wanted to be out of his house. So he'd come stay with me. And during that summer, my mom was like, whatever, as long as you guys aren't in jail, then fine. So him and I were the ones creating that content. And so that first day at the gym, we dumped like 30 videos on YouTube. No plan, no, like literally just uploaded all of them. And like, mind you, content was so scarce at the time compared to now. You know what I mean? So we were like, I felt like we were like pioneers, you know, like especially locally, like globally, it was early, but locally, it was just a there's nobody was doing it. Yeah, nobody. So when we made these videos, you know, a lot of people have questioned my tactics with money, charging enough, doing enough, whatever. But I've been so relationship-based and taken so much risk on things that have ended up turning around that I don't even look at it like that anymore, man. Like I calculate my expenses, I calculate my mortgage, yeah, but I don't calculate the return on all these things because I've seen so much weird stuff turn into the to the literal pool of gold from from just a relationship I took a risk on. Exactly.

Vipul Bindra 30:01

And and that's what this is. I mean, my most money comes from, you know, like everyone, five, ten top clients, and all of those are relationships. Like you said, if those people left those company, who knows, you know, what it's gonna be. And that's why a lot of people are gonna be able to do that. Yeah, they're like, hey, how are you gonna uh can you introduce me to one of these agencies? I'm like, but I don't know the agency. I know this one person that we're I'm friends with or I've known for a few years.

Dalton Smith 30:24

And even that, it's like your relationship might be this one tunnel of relationships. You know what I mean? So yeah, it's it's hard to bridge or throw other things in sometimes. And and I overanalyze, I'm super emotional and I love to like communicate and like you don't always get that uh through and through all the way. It's not it's not their job, you know, they're not married to you. So as an entrepreneur, you know, you could drive yourself crazy sitting there trying to uh manage a predict and I don't want to say manipulate, but stay in control of everything. And uh it's as little as like people not communicating back to you the way that you would, you know, respectfully communicate to them. And it it's not it's not personal. Is it perfect or right or the way? Maybe not, but it's like you just have to focus and you'd stay the course. You know what I mean? You just have to keep swinging and keep going. Cause in the last like year, I just got out of it. I got in this weird slump and I didn't even realize I was slipping. I was just, I don't know, like getting older, like getting out of my bed definitely hurts a little more. Um just finding it the finding it so difficult to to go surfing, to go skateboarding, to be able to be home and just like realizing how much money, you know what I mean? It's like the older you get, it's like a trap. It's like more aware you get, the more like this world is actually like a wicked thing, you know. But it doesn't have to be like that. So I got here by let's let me really let's recap this. I got here by dropping out of high school, starting a YouTube channel, partying with my friend, doing surf lessons and posting YouTube videos. And that made everything happen.

Vipul Bindra 32:00

So and just so you know, there's a high chance of you did that you are not gonna make it for high chance you're not gonna make it.

Dalton Smith 32:06

So what it was is it was doing the next best thing for me, right? So getting out of a jail cell, literally, and deciding to create a YouTube channel and do surf lessons and create content was such a positive direction for my life. Yeah, that was such an increase, but it was also situational. I was 21. If I was 31, so everybody has to nurture their own setup, right? Yeah, but you you just gotta, it's so lame, but it's from frozen. I don't know how many I've seen frozen 3,000 times this month with my daughter, but she says to do the next right thing, you know? And I and I truly believe that because when I look back, yeah, dude, yeah, frozen quotes in the podcast, bro.

Vipul Bindra 32:50

Yeah, uh but no, that's same thing. My my my you know content I watch now is you it changes you because I wouldn't be watching half the content I watch with my kids if I didn't have the kids because yeah, yeah.

Handling Slumps Without Panicking

Dalton Smith 33:02

Well, and dude, it it did something to my brain. I've always been like an emotional person, but dude, yeah, it it it's it's such a cool thing because it if you're ready, you can use it to fuel who you are, fuel your business. Like I wanna dude, we had the biggest year we've ever had last year, and trust me, it didn't feel that way in the process because it was so hard. But it means that I can, you know? And so I've realized that life's gonna do what it wants. So if you have those core discipline sets and you work hard and just remember that it's gonna do this, like it's gonna do this. And don't freak out. My dad used to always say, be like the duck. Um, if you see a duck in a pond, it's just sitting there, you know, there's no ripples on the surface. If it sees you, an alligator or whatever starts to move, you don't see any ripples, but the duck's moving. He's kicking out of the water, he's not responding. So it was funny because that always sat with me, and I do not respond like the duck. I respond like a drowning cat at times. Yeah. Um, and I'm learning that the responses don't have to be immediate. Yeah, you don't have to freak out. Yeah.

Vipul Bindra 34:14

And and that's the the lesson in the business, you know. Look, we are no matter how much awesome you may or we may think we are, and or other people may think we're doing, we are small cogs in the wheel of United States economy or the world economy. We cannot control how that moves. Like earlier this year, for example, for me, like I've been going, you know, growth after growth after growth, no slump since like six, seven years ago. And then here comes February. I mean, uh, you know, and it's like dead. And I was and January was busy. I am like killing it when January's supposed to be.

Dalton Smith 34:48

I remember you telling me about this.

Vipul Bindra 34:49

And then exactly, and I'm like, what's happening? Uh why's my calendar not booked? And all the inquiries I'm getting are smaller shoots. So I reach out to a few production company owners I know, and they're like, Yeah, it's slower too. I'm like, okay. So not just me, right? At that point, you know, if it's me, then I gotta change something. I'm like, oh, it's just uh concerns out of you know, things out of my control. Then I reach out to a few clients, they're like, Yeah, we're just holding off. We don't know where things are heading. And I'm like, okay, awesome. All right, I'll take these smaller shoots, more opportunities for me to go make make more connections, help other friends on shoots. Uh, you know, and and the whole thing at that point was just making it past the slump, right? And hey, because we've got mortgage, we got bills, we got you know things to do, and it's not like luckily work completely run out, it's just we're not doing major things, we're doing smaller things, and that's okay. We pivoted, Mario came in, helped me on a bunch of shoots. Sure, they weren't 10 people shoot, there were two people shoots, but we killed them. And guess what? And that's what you do, yeah. Exactly. And then we passed, and March was the same, and now I'm starting to get worried and come April 1st, no joke. It's been killer, not had any minute. Like you said, I'm going day after day after day, like, and calendar keeps getting full. And so I'm like, you cannot predict, I'm saying there was 60 days where I'm like freaking out. Yeah, but you at that time, there's two things you can do either you can, you know, kind of like panic, or you can just be like, hey, I'm gonna double down. This is what I love. I just have to pass this hump, and I'm sure this will happen again, you never know, right? Uh you cannot predict the economy. And I like I said, maybe somebody can. I am I can't. So I'm just gonna keep doing what I love. And if one of those dips again comes, then you just you know, just you go past it, right? Yeah, I don't know.

Dalton Smith 36:29

It's hard to predict like the economy, but it's way harder to predict your little tiny microeconomy. Yeah, you know what I mean? Exactly. And especially when some of those decisions are being made outside of your zone, outside of your realm, you just have to keep moving. So, what I've been trying to do is, you know, I've been asking myself, what did I do to get here? Like, there's nothing wrong with trying some new tactics.

Mario Rangel 36:49

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 36:50

Hired a new guy, he's uh basically doing all the dirty legwork to help us get some of these government contracts, like RFP-based stuff. I'll never do it. I don't have the time. I've got to go like this all day, every day. So um, we are trying some new things, but I was like, oh, well, how did I get here? Yeah, uh, I didn't get here by freaking out and thinking I'm not gonna make it. I got here by being definitely not like arrogant, but really stoked and excited and like not necessarily needing a lot of approval. Just I dude, I've done like five of my own little shows. However, people looked at it, it didn't matter because at the end of the day, it got me to the place. So, dude, I've just been creating content, making stuff. I've finally got a vlog and I sat down and did the dang intro the other day and shouted David out. So now I'm really screwed because I definitely started it.

Vipul Bindra 37:33

Um same thing to me, and I'm like, hey, we gotta do it. Shout out to him, right?

Dalton Smith 37:38

Yeah, but and and dude, frankly, it's super cool that you're doing this. It's cool that David did his thing. I the reason I'm trying to commit to it is because for a decade now I've uh re-entered and exited something similar six, seven, eight times. And it's because I wanted to do something, but I couldn't really hone in on what. And I've realized the importance of setting a real goal. Yeah, it's it's so much more obtainable when you set it and then come backwards. Yeah. What do I do to get there? So I really, I really funneled in, and it's kind of what we talked about at the beginning of this. I asked myself, what is important for me to share? And what do I really think people could could uh you know pull some value from? Because not in a negative way, there's so much structured uh data content out there on how to build businesses and shoot. It's like I want to talk about the story, the balance, the family. How am I doing this but not losing my wife in the process? How am I doing this and not losing myself in the process? Exactly. So that's what that'll be, and I'm excited because again, something in me keeps pushing to want to tell that story, right?

Mario Rangel 38:44

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 38:45

Um, and David doing his damn thing got me so excited, and that's so cool that not calling him old yet, uh, but for him to be doing something at this stage after he's already been you know what I mean, to pivot and create a whole new direction and then the results from it.

Vipul Bindra 39:01

And I like how transparent he is with sharing his results. Because here's the thing you know, there's a bunch of stuff on YouTube, but um uh the summary of all this is you should do YouTube. There you go. That's the lesson learned. But coming back to it, look, there's the actual YouTuber audience, and they're peddling products to you because they're in the business of being a YouTuber, right? The goal is you get a sponsorship, you push the product, then you move on to the next product, you move on to the next product, which is fine. That's the business you're in, but they're not filmmakers. A lot of people go onto these channels and learn, oh, what camera I need to buy and stuff. What I like about what David is doing, this is a real guy getting his money from actually doing these jobs. He's telling you real-world problems he's solving and real-world products that he's buying to actually solve his problems. I don't know. I feel like you read his comments, yeah. They're they're amazing. And then also um talk about um uh cranky cameraman that he put me to. Have you seen that, Jerry?

Dalton Smith 39:56

Well, he credits him as you know, yeah, one of the first things he saw. And it's so cool because I've said this with David before. I just in life was a little bit standoffish in certain scenarios because the way that I was brought up and some stuff that happened, you know, it definitely can alter the way that you approach people. And I definitely didn't get like a like a red carpet entry or anything into um even like surfing culture and um like content creation within that, and just even my it can get weird, man. And so it definitely closed me off. And I have dealt with a lot of stuff that have made me want to kind of turtle mode and not share, but I've realized that I've held out from stuff that frankly could help other people, and I don't want to try to keep that back from people. And two, I was missing out on this, this this awesome network of people. And I realized too, like I'm out here thinking for all these years, it's like 50-50, like one in two people are gonna get you. It's not like that, it's one in a thousand, you know. And if you don't uh have it in you to take that risk to meet people, you're never gonna meet your wife, you're never gonna meet your friends, you're never gonna meet those people to help your business. So I've been taking a lot of risk and meeting people. And I went on Instagram recently and I want to grow the business, right? I've been looking at you and all these people, and I'm inspired, and I've started to think about where I want to go. And I kind of had an idea of what I needed, but I didn't know what to call it or what it or who did it. So I got on Instagram and I literally said that I was like, hey guys, I'm trying to grow this thing. I don't even know what it is, I don't know what it's called, but this is what I'm thinking. If that even sounds like you know a person like that, so a few people hit me up, and so and some stuff's happening. And it like it's like the ESPN thing. The people were from here, but they're living in other places, but they got connected to me through this post, and I was just like, all I had to do is just be willing to say I need help.

Vipul Bindra 41:48

Exactly. And people are there, and and that's the the part. Talk about why I wanted to do this because when I started, you know, I was in Florida doing freelancing, I left for a few years, and I uh all I wanted to do was I was in a miserable job, right? I've only had two jobs in my life. Disney was fine, but they didn't pay me enough. So I left, got a job that paid me well, and I was like, I'm miserable, I don't want to do this, right? I love video production. Isn't that funny? So you did both sides of the spectrum, exactly, right? And I was like, I uh because at Disney I was doing the tech stuff, the magic. It was cool, but again, that Disney doesn't pay you well. I did get to eat at all the fancy restaurants for free, so I'm not gonna clean me. Yeah, so yeah, anyway, coming back to the real topic, but the the thing was, so now I'm like, here I am. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna just go all in. I'm gonna make a real production company. I'm in the middle of nowhere, Alabama. I, you know, there's barely any video people here. There's one company that's already established, won't return my calls, and because I'm trying to, you know, connect or whatever. And then there's a bunch of people around me. They're like, we're right next to Nashville, we're right next to Memphis. You're not gonna get here. There's not even an airport, you know, until an hour away. And you know, I could have taken that negative energy, what I'm saying, and and could have been like, okay, I'll stay at my job. And I was like, no, I gotta, I gotta start my thing. And I'm so glad I did. Uh because, like I said, people say I couldn't even make a thousand bucks. First week, closed over 30 grand in deals, right? So you cannot listen to other people, what I'm saying. And I'm talking middle of nowhere, Alabama. So it's much much easier if you're in a bigger market. That's why I don't also like when people are like, oh, if I was in a bigger city, no, it's like people think that if you go to the spot where the dude nailed the big fish, you're gonna nail the big fish.

Dalton Smith 43:26

But it does not work like that. The fish is gonna move. Yeah, it's not gonna like that bait. So you know what a Rolodex is? So I remember someone made Are you trying to aid yourself to the audience?

Vipul Bindra 43:38

A little bit.

Dalton Smith 43:38

So for anybody that uh hopefully everybody is, but a Rolodex is just a little booklet for all of your business cards. Yeah. And it's a it was it was and is a powerful thing, right? Because it's it's a book of information and people. So the way I look at information, I feel like research is dead. No one has the ability to do informed decisions anymore. And that is unless chat GPT tells them to, yeah. Which chat GPT. Should be one of your sources, right? So you should still be able to cite and do this stuff. And so, like, I like digital, but I learned on film. I like my digital gimbal, but I learned with the glide cam. You don't have to, but I think there's value to it, you know. But the Rolodex concept is that when you meet somebody, do not take me as your lord and savior. I am possibly a fraction of a group of information that can help you get where you want to be. But I'm just one little card in your Rolodex.

Vipul Bindra 44:28

So and what's crazy to me is why I I just wanted to do this because like I said, I stumbled my way through because I knew enough about business. I knew enough, obviously, about video production, but I had no examples, nobody to lean to, nobody to ask for advice to. And like so, obviously, the the right thing was to move back to Florida, which I did. But the point I'm trying to make is why I wanted to do this is to be able to give people access to so many different varieties of ideas, a just for entertainment, to listen to people that you think like you or at least have similar interests, but also there's golden nuggets, like you said, they're in there, they can learn from you because the way you approach it is completely different for me. I most people don't know what I do until, like I said, I met David a couple years. I was like, okay, maybe I need to start podcasts, maybe I need to share. Now I'm trying the vlogging thing since to David, right? It's really hard, by the way. It's really hard to be directing or DP with a freaking phone on my face. It looks so weird.

Dalton Smith 45:21

Well, it's not just the physical effort, it's your brain. Yeah, you're you know what I mean? You're literally sending a whole other channel, and the channel is not, is this on and recording me? You're entertaining it, you're doing, you know what I mean? It's it's it is extraordinarily difficult. But back to David, need to stop giving this. We're giving this man too much credit with that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we need to stop talking about it. But his simplicity, yeah, doing it. Shooting it with his phone, editing on a phone, editing on the phone. So, with my blog that I'm about to do, I am doing it regardless of what is available, right? Yeah, I'm gonna do it and just get it moving because I've realized I've had so many cool ideas die because I waited too long, you know? So I've got a couple cool things, and life is funny, man, and life, and I'm a big affirmations guy, and I've got a couple things, including I'm doing I love animals. If you had, if you asked me, like, Don, what do you want? What are your dreams? I've thought about that question a lot and I've narrowed it down. If I could really do one thing and not have to worry about money, I would host uh an adventure wildlife show. I would love to work with anybody that's so similar. Yeah, dude, we're jungle boys.

Vipul Bindra 46:25

He didn't say animal, but he was like, Yeah, he wants to do a wildlife type of show, you know, like travel show basically is his dream. That's so crazy. Okay, we're not gonna take up a David anymore. This isn't about animal. I will definitely say the summary of this is he's made you at least or inspired you at least to start a vlog. He did for me. So we'll see how it goes. I don't know, I can't guarantee I'll continue, but I am definitely trying what you're doing.

Dalton Smith 46:47

If you do, yeah, I'd love to see it. Yeah, just because from my perspective, watching you, it is so cool how different you are. And I used to be afraid of being so different. When I pull up around guys like you, dude, I know that I'm like this like rusty basket of bolts, but I have met so many guys like you that I carry a lot of respect for. Well, thank you. And they like like me. Yeah, and they like and I'm like, wait a second, is this okay? And I've realized it is.

Vipul Bindra 47:17

Yeah, and there's I I think look, like we couldn't be any different, but we couldn't be any similar. You know, it's so contrast. Like, you know, you go surfing, I don't even like the beach. Unless I'm getting paid to be on the beach, I'm not going. And my kids love the beach, so it's like a contrast. I'm like, I have to suffer for them to enjoy, and it's okay. You know, I I'm like, uh, you know, and and you're like the surfer dude, right? Like you love surfing, skating, all that complete opposite of me. And yet, and here's on the other side, I couldn't love anything more than content creation, making content, helping my clients succeed. And that's so similar between us, and that's okay. The whole point of this is like people can hopefully find their path. Uh and and it could be like mine, it could be yours. Like I said, for years I've just I was just doing my thing. Like I said, uh believe it or not, up until I met David, because that was around that time, I think it was end of 22. So for four years, when I started the company, I set a rule. We only worked with you if we film, edit, post, every like the whole thing. You can imagine how many clients I said or potential clients that said no to. So I wasn't even taking a job if I that meant giving you a card at the end or footage at the end of it. And then I had to go at end of 2020. I'm like, why have I set this arbitrary rule for myself? I love filming, and we can only handle so much post. So I could be doing so much more work by opening myself and to be able to hang out with people like David, to be hang able to hang out with people like Adam. And that was one of the best decisions I made. But I guess I had to go through that years of just only doing my content and like I said, living in my own bubble uh where I wasn't interacting with that many video people unless I was just hiring them. And like I said, I don't want to ever go back to that.

Dalton Smith 48:50

Yeah, because making that change is good, but but living it that way is really good too. And I think people lose the value of that. And I just think people hate to hear, oh, the good the good's gonna be worth it. Oh, it's and I know that that really sucks when you're at the beginning of your journey. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it is so critical. I cannot scream loud enough that adversity breeds greatness and that the the redirecting, I can't really like I don't know, man. Like if you're going through the woods and you're lost and you keep hitting the wrong stuff, but it gets you to the final destination, all that other crap doesn't matter, right? You got there, yeah. You you may be feeling like you're being led astray, but if you're working, you're moving, and you're pivoting, you gotta get there, you know? Exactly. So um I've turned directions that didn't really like a couple years ago, I started doing some stuff that's very similar to what I'm doing right now. And I look back and I'm like, okay, I can see where I was going. And then I kind of abandoned it, and then now I'm seeing, like, okay, and that's part of it.

Finding Clients By Getting Specific

Vipul Bindra 49:43

Yeah, and I would love to watch your content. Like I said, I can't wait to see your vlogs and what you do because I was like, I like watching people who are actually in it, doing it, and then sharing what they learn from it or their life or everything in general. So I think you will have amazing content to share. I want to pivot a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Let's go like real stuff, like okay. By the way, like I said, the entire point of this podcast is we don't like to gatekeep. So I've had people here talk about quite literally project breakdowns, how much money they make, how they do ads. You don't have to be transparent, but I'm saying you can be. We like to be, we'd like to not gatekeep here. But I really want to go more into how do you because I think what most people see you and get envious is like how to get ESP and how to get all these Florida Tourism, all these bigger clients. And I know you kind of talked a little bit about ESP and but what is your approach today to like getting, and I know you're trying a few things. So, what is your approach to like somebody's like, I won't I have no idea how to get clients? What would you tell somebody like that?

Say Yes Then Build The Plan

Dalton Smith 50:38

So where I'm at today is I'm starting to know now more than ever who I'm looking for and who's looking for me. So I don't like to DQ my company from anything. So I look at it as is this Dalton work, specialty work with me or one of these people that has to be there, or is this like swimming pool work where anybody from the network can chew on it? So on the swimming pool work, I'll take anything. Anything you got, big, small, whatever. But in that uh Dalton specialty work, I'm realizing who my people are, and it is this uh long story of what Dalton loves, which is uh high intensity, difficult to obtain, action sports, underwater, out of a plane, on a boat, and I'm realizing by taking in other uh aspects like live streaming in a difficult scenario, doing uh photography of a model underwater. You know what I mean? These areas that are very difficult. I'm finding this niche. And as much as it's a niche, it it there's uh there's not as many people wanting to hang out in there. So I think that by listening to what's responding. So I hired someone to do my website recently, and they told me something very interesting, and I learned something about myself. I hired her to do my website for my weddings, and she's asked me all these questions about her weddings. And frankly, I was a little, I well, not embarrassed, but I was just like, I thought look, I just post stuff and people call me and we do it, and then we go back for the next one. What she made me realize is I'm like, yeah, she's like, tell me about your clients. I'm like, Well, they're usually chill, really chill. They're kind of like me. Yeah, and then she's like, and so what she she's like, she's like, dude, you're attracting them, they're seeing your work. Their friends are telling them that you guys are these like cool dudes that like because half of MPI productions 100% is is the vibe. Like these guys and girls know that we do great work, but they whether it's like the Florida Fin Fest up in Jacksonville, who I've worked with forever, yes, we do great work, but by like knowing how to mingle with the artists and not make problems and just be a flow, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's important. So that um that's a huge thing for us, is how we make our clients feel. But when I started, dude, I don't know if this is advisable, but I took anything and everything. And I look at it like fishing. I took a hundred fishing rods with a hundred hooks, with a hundred different kinds of bait and threw them all out. Yeah, we started doing weddings, and I liked them because I was getting fed, they were nice most times, I was getting paid decent, and nobody was gonna stop getting married. So that was like the equipment job, which we can all relate in some way. Exactly. Um, so I recommend that. And I always give this example. Let's say you are working a full-time job anywhere, and like, you know, this is your full-time job, and like up here, you want to be a filmmaker or photographer. I don't recommend this. That's not uh it's it's you you're you're likely gonna fail, you're likely gonna quit, you're likely gonna go back to a job. And I've seen people try to like quit their job and buy all the stuff, and then they have to sell everything. So I think about it like taking weight off, putting it over. You got a full-time job, you're not gonna love it, dude. But you need to literally bleed out the eyes up early, up late. You don't got lunch break because you're chopped like, dude, I'm not that enjoyable when I'm in hustle mode because there is no dead time. I if we're in a car, I have been known to pay people to drive my vehicle because God forbid I'm gonna sit in a car for 12 hours and not squeeze the lemon. So, yeah, man, I I just think that you have to just start. You have to just get out there and find something that makes money because when you find something, it can it could be anything, it could be birthdays, it could be weddings, it could be small commercials, whatever. Just find a thing that works. And then I just think knocking into stuff just randomly has helped me the most. Like, I said yes to some jobs that maybe other people would say they're not qualified for. But like, dude, if you call me and you're telling me to point the camera in that direction, unless I don't have that equipment, we can do it. Yeah, so we take a lot of risk, and when it works, man.

Vipul Bindra 54:42

Do you have an example? You don't have to be specific with like the company or whatever, where you took something where you clearly were like, I'm not qualified, but you you overcame that or whatever, or you did it at least.

Dalton Smith 54:51

Told Visit Florida I could do a scuba diving project and I wasn't scuba certified.

Vipul Bindra 54:55

Look at that.

Dalton Smith 54:55

Hung up the phone and called a scuba shop.

Vipul Bindra 54:57

Look at that, and you started just training.

Dalton Smith 54:59

I called in, I set up a private relationship, I made content with the scuba shop, shout out Seminole Scuba, and they um made a relationship with me to give me all my equipment, train me, train my team. And since then, I've done two more rounds of people I brought back to get scuba certified. Some of those people have become like advanced divers, like cave divers, which is really cool. And we're doing the live stream that you're helping me with the equipment for the underwater thing. Yeah, I'm doing a dive after and rewinding to that project. Yeah, I got scuba certified because it wasn't it, it was a camera problem and a depth problem. So I can free dive 50, 60 feet and get a quick shot, but I can't hang out down there and and shoot. My water housing that I had was a surf water housing, so it's only for like splash and small pressure, not 10-15 feet. So I invested into a scuba housing, and now we can go 200 feet with the housing.

Vipul Bindra 55:57

So what camera do you have in that housing?

Dalton Smith 55:59

It's an A7S3. Yeah, dude.

Vipul Bindra 56:02

Which housings are so expensive, by the way. Having looked at them, because we do do some. I know I don't like water, but I do do some uh stuff in water. Uh I uh so I've looked into the house housings, and I'm like, they're so expensive. So I usually end up just hiring someone who has it. Yeah, Ike light.

Dalton Smith 56:16

That's the one that we use. And the way I look at it now is it's like the surf housings are cool. I used um Aqua Tech for years, and it's kind of like a plastic mold, but Ike light is almost the same weight, and it's like it just goes deeper. And it had more, it had more gear options. Like, dude, the Ike Light, I could control my whole camera. I'm I'm down there like changing my focus point, my focus speed. I'm looking at clips. It's awesome. So, yeah, that was a big one. Um, and then another big one for Visit Florida. They called me, they said that they had this huge project. They they even said, like, we know you're gonna want to say yes. But if you cannot guarantee that you can do it, please tell us no. And it's we're gonna scratch it. They wanted to do this like dream uh dry tortuga shoot. So dry tortugas is Fort Jefferson. For anybody that doesn't know, it's the first multi-tier traditional fort, like you would think of with uh all the cannons across up as the first one. And we put it near the Gulf off of um Key West. It's about 60 miles out, and it was meant to defend us from that whole open area of the deep water. So they wanted to do a seaplane, but we can't shoot uh aerials of the dry tortugas from a seaplane. We also can't do a drone because it's national park and there's all these breeding birds there. We can't do a helicopter because there's regulations against the birds being anywhere near them with that. So I say yes and I'm like, I'll figure it out. So I make some phone calls and I find a seaplane guy. He's like, I'll fly you there. But we're gonna have to figure this out because if you're in the seaplane for part of it, we're gonna have to figure out how you're gonna be shooting the seaplane. I'm like, I'll figure it out. We're gonna need boats, so boats, boats, and planes.

Mario Rangel 57:59

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 57:59

And then he's like, and you're not gonna be able to shoot your beautiful dry Tortugas photos from my plane because you'll see my wing. He's like, You need a gyrocopter. I got you. So he hooks me up with this guy, gyro Jimmy, in this thing the size of a freaking golf cart that flies, dude, it's the sketchiest thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, and it takes off like a plane, but you're not going fast enough to take off, and then it just lifts in the air.

Mario Rangel 58:21

Wow.

Dalton Smith 58:22

And like we fly out to the dry tour too. So, anyways, he pulled it off. Permits, national parks, FAA, um, whoever regulates the wildlife out there. And how it worked was day one, I went to the airport to do the gyrocopter flight. I get there, and the pilot says he needs fuel. So the man hands me two bags, rubber bags, and he's like, Yeah, I don't have a car. I drove down here or flew down here. So I'm like, I have a rented moped. So I get on my moped and go to the gas station like a mile away, and I fill up 20 gallons of gas unleaded for this gyrocopter, and then which I'm terrified by the way. Yeah. And so he flies us out there, and mind you, it is 60 miles of blue. And so I asked him for he took, I was like, yo, dude, I was like, I know you're in the military military and stuff, and I don't want to disrespect you, but what does this look like if it doesn't go right? Like, what does our like you know what moment look like? He's like, um we're fine. Okay, he's like, it's gonna be great. And I'm like, okay, he's like, helicopter, bad stuff. It's fully underpower. So if you lose either, you're in trouble. The only thing you can do is spin against it and just fall less hard. A gyrocopter is already falling, it's like a kite or a plane. So you can literally glide it down. Like, okay, so we're not gonna just crash into the ocean. So uh we do the shit best experience of my life, dude. Shout out to Jimmy. If you ever can get in a gyrocopter, do it. It was insane. Um, to this day, the photos we got are still used as like their landmark dry Tortugas photos. It was we couldn't have asked for a better day. The next day we went and my team went with two conks with this like legendary fishing team and took two boats over to the dry tortugas. And then I got on the seaplane and we flew out there and they filmed it from the boat, and then I got the couple shots we needed from in the cockpit. Yeah, um, wow, and then we land, shoot the whole thing, got the birds, didn't disrupt the birds. The birds literally were coming up to the camera. It was so cool. Seaplane leaves, we go back with the boat. Yeah, okay. So I came on a seaplane, leave on a boat, we get to the boat marina, and then we realize we don't have we're not at our car. We left the car at the airport, and we're like one key over from Key West. Yeah, we got my one wheel, so I hop on my one wheel, dude, and I do like a half-hour ride to Key West. And in my head, man, I was like, this is nuts. Because it was an interview with a park ranger, B-roll, underwater, the birds, permits, and we did the whole thing.

Vipul Bindra 1:00:52

That's that's nuts.

Dalton Smith 1:00:54

And so that's my proudest project as far as no, that's really awesome.

Learning ESPN Broadcast The Hard Way

Vipul Bindra 1:00:57

And that's what makes you, in my opinion, a great producer because that's what it is. You know, clients will give you obviously I get some nuts requests, but nothing like that. You know, clients will will give you projects where it's like you have no idea how to execute it, but that's what makes you a good producer. And in my opinion, you're not lying when you say yes, because I have enough confidence that there's nothing in the corporate commercial world I can do. Like I had last year, a big project where they're like, Yeah, we want to construct a set, it's a house. Water's gonna be dripping all over the house like it's raining, but like it's pouring rain, essentially, is the way I would call it, or whatever. And I'm like, sure, we got it. And you know, like you say, you yes, and then I'm like, okay, let me call every person I know who can build a set. Let me call every person I know. Yeah, and that's what makes us the producers. And and you know, like I said, how much I enjoy directing and being a DP. I love being the producer too, because that is what makes you a good one, right? Because you being able to find the right people, it's not like it can't be done, you just have to find the right people with the right equipment, with the right knowledge within the budget to execute that, right? And and it's fun, but like I said, that's really cool. I've never done anything like that.

Dalton Smith 1:02:05

But well, it's funny because I didn't think of myself as a director or a DP or anything until I don't know, like years in, years in, because I was just doing it. I didn't know what the job roles were. So it was actually really funny when I learned how many people actually participate in these roles. And it gave me some confidence that I was figuring stuff out, the not just the hard way, but I didn't even know what it was called. I was finding things and finding solutions to things I couldn't even identify. Yeah, and um it what was really funny is when we went to broadcast like to ESPN. Oh my god, I didn't want to open my mouth for the first couple fights because these people were speaking Japanese, dude. I couldn't hear anything. And it's really funny. I'll tell you a funny story. My like you guys have heard enough about how we are just kind of YouTube street backdoor entry, like we're just the GoPro guys, dude. We are on this broadcast set with just these elite people, and our director, I would imagine, is like most directors, I haven't worked with any others, but his name is Aladdin, and he's one of the dude, and he is like fun and cool but stern, and he runs a show. Yeah, so JD uh is trying to get an answer to a question. And now that I know the show, when he's doing a big graphics run, or I you know when to shut up now. We didn't know when to shut up, and JD's trying to get his attention. I'm like, I was like, I was like, maybe not. And he's like, So what he would say is he'd say, he'd you know, hit the channel for Aladdin, and everybody hears it. He'd say Aladdin 13, and he didn't reply. And I saw him gonna do it, I was like, Don't do it again. And he says Aladdin 13. Aladdin says layout. We don't know what layout means. And then he's like, lay out, and then JD does it again, and he's like, shut the and then like so. I joke to this day. I'm like, yeah, go ask JD what layout means. Go ask JD how we learn what that means.

Vipul Bindra 1:03:51

Uh, but I mean, uh uh that's that's part of the job, right? You learn more on the job. I've said this in the past too, like, not that film school has no value, but I'm like, I could teach anyone like in three months the whole job way faster than four years of school because you know, the what you experience in real world is is crazy, uh, but it's fast, and you can it's real world experience, which is not the same thing as you know what you learn at school. But that's pretty cool. I've been out of the broadcast world for a while. Like I said, I kind of started professionally uh from school as a broadcast. And yeah, it was the same thing. Yeah, they had uh we were doing some kind of award shows or whatever, and you know, uh the the things that happen on set, I still don't forget the story. That's why I was like, I never want to work here. So I was there, I'm like doing my dream job, right? Like at a tech show. Uh again, remember, this is back before YouTube tech wasn't that big of a thing. Point is uh something. So the director, the main boss lady told me, you know, like, hey, I need you here, because everyone knew I immediately like, you know, I know more about tech than most people who work on the show because they're more filmmaking people. So anyway, she was like, I need you here at 6:30 a.m. I'll send the car or whatever. And I'm like, sure, got it. So, and then the guy who's supposed to be my supervisor under her, the producer of the show, he's like, Why are you gonna be here that early? You know, come here at 8, 9, whatever. And I'm like, Are you sure? She said 6:30. She's like, No, no, no, yeah, don't worry about it. So I and funny enough, 5:30 a.m. got the car guy, you know, whatever the company has cars, whatever. They call me, it's like, hey, I'm here to pick you. I'm like, dude, what are you doing here? I don't need to go till like 8 9, whatever. I was like, he's like, okay, I'll just wait out. So I just slept for two, three hours and I show up on set, like, must have been like 8 39. That lady looked at me. Um the showrunner, and she's like, and then you know, I've never been sworn at like work. She's like, What are you doing? I told you 6 30 a.m. And I'm like, and I'm like, do I throw this producer under the bus? Yeah. Or what? And then I was like, I don't want to be in this environment. Like the miscommunication that's happening is nuts. And uh, and I'm like, and this is a high pressure environment. You know, it's live television award show, whatever you gonna call it. And I'm like, uh, you know, this may not be the dream show. And Disney was calling me back then for the whole college program thing. So I was like, you know what? Gonna go do the college program. I'm done. So, uh, so but it was kind of like broadcast can be uh it can be like high pressure, yeah, and it's hit and miss, yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:06:08

And I like it, and that's another thing, just to tap into that. That is another thing that we're focusing on. So I've realized the point of entry there, narrow. You know what I mean? That you have got to be recommended or know somebody and have some kind of experience. So the fact that we even got brought in was nuts, it was nuts. And the reason the connection wasn't just that she saw us, she saw us hang out at helicopters. She saw us with this very similar camera. I don't know if she knew or not whether it's the same body, but literally, dude, we pull up and open it and it's an A7S, whatever, on a gimbal. So it was easy for us. Yeah, we did not just flow with the program, we developed the program. That backpack sucked. That gimbal was a disaster. I'm so proud of that thing. Like to this day, I'd love for anybody on your channel, everybody keep their eyes open. Look when you watch sports, NFL, NHL, whatever, look for the shallow depth of cam. For us, it's the shark cam and it's on a gimbal.

Mario Rangel 1:07:04

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:07:04

Somebody out there, tell me if you've ever seen another one that has a uh servo zoom on it. It's easy to do, but we don't see anybody do it. And we did it like two years ago, and we're so proud of it because some of the shots that we've shared are so dynamic. You know what I mean? It's like a dang jib on the ground. It's awesome, like free-floating. So we we developed that whole thing into what it is, and like I'm now pitching like our variations of it to other places that we can use it. But here's the point. And David was so enamored by this. He says to me when we were surfing, he's like, dude, you know what's weird about your ESPN thing? I was like, What? He's like, forget your whole shark camera thing. The fact that they bring you there, call you a vendor, and give you this role, and they're like, Want to play with the handheld? Like, what? He's like, you he's like, the fact that they've got you there as a vendor and they want, and so what happened is the first fight we ever did. I don't know what I was thinking. They're having the camera meeting, and I'm I guess I was just excited. They're like, Yeah, we need someone to run camera three, camera three. No one says anything. I was like, I'll do it. And everyone's like, all right, bye. And they leave, and I'm like, I don't know how to do it. I said I would do it. So I go grab the first guy we met, and I was like, yo, Joe. I was like, I was like, I've never been on a broadcast in my life. I've never touched one of these cameras, I don't know anything. So he starts teaching me, and then this other guy comes over to help. And this other guy comes over to help. So I've worked at least 40 boxing events. I've probably done it.

Vipul Bindra 1:08:31

You've operated like a box camera or whatever, like a handheld.

Planning For A Contract Ending

Dalton Smith 1:08:34

So I've probably done over a hundred rounds of boxing handheld. And Aladdin's a really cool direct guy, and he told me he's like, you know, he says it all the time. He's he he gives me a lot of credit for how far I've come. And he tells me I'm one of the better guys he's got to film boxing handheld. Dude, they went and gave me a whole other thread of opportunity and skill. The last fight we just did, they put me on a hard camera, and so I'm in the chair running this freaking machine that I know nothing about, but I know how to operate. You know what I mean? I got steady hands and it went really well. So they're trying to set me up for whatever's next. And I can't say too much here, but ESPN hired us and contracted with us as vendors to provide a camera. Top rank is their partner for boxing promotions. They liked what we did and they wanted more services. So they actually had us provide two cameras. Then that was a manual. So if you saw a manual style with me a lot, that was top rank. So a manual is being paid, we know what MPI was being paid by Top Rank and ESPN. Okay, so we were now double dipping to both. Yeah. Well, the contract's up. Seven year, $100 million contract up. Of course, we step in at the end of the day and contract, but it's up. There's only one fight left, and it's in two weeks. So over the last year, the conversation has come about. Media loves to chew on crap and spit it out. So the the last the first six months was just BS. There was nothing tangible. The last six months have been really stressful. I don't want to say really, but you can kind of feel it. And every show we were waiting, and they didn't even talk about it about four months ago. And they came in, they're like, so we don't know anything. When we know something will tell you, but we don't know anything. And you know, every fight, like they slowly talk about it more. The last fight we did, everybody kind of knew it. They came out and they said they didn't renew. So, you know, it's a big thing for all these people, us included. We do 25 to 30 fights a year, and mind you, the directors, the everybody, it's like a 50-60 person team. Well, they're all gonna go somewhere. Yeah, so what we're realizing is this is an opportunity. And I can't tell anybody yet because I don't even know what it is yet, but I've been getting some interesting text messages asking, can you send me this? Are you capable of that? And I would not be surprised if we get the opportunity to bridge into other uh other parts of USPN.

Vipul Bindra 1:11:00

That's really awesome though. I mean, to be honest, if somebody looks at it, yes, they already know broadcast, but they wanted to kind of mix our world with their world. And and to be honest, they need that camera because it looks so cool, you know, shallow depth of field. It's what people are used to now, also. Uh, but anyway, that you were able to come in, like you said, develop the program, build this for them, partner with them, kind of bring them, bring this our world to broadcast world. And then not only that, but also took this opportunity to run hardcam and other stuff. That's not technically, you know, you're not on the broadcast side, but to help them on the broadcast side too. That makes you kind of like an invaluable partner. And even if they don't renew the contract, somebody will, and they'll need that camera.

Dalton Smith 1:11:44

So there's a chance that our phone rings twice because they ESPN may or may not go into boxing. There's actually uh a few of us thinking they will eventually, but they might take a break. They because they've done this, they they tend to kind of just focus bigger on other areas. So ESPN might just not need us for boxing, but they might need us for some other stuff. Look at that. Yeah, top rank, they got a boxing program to run and they got events to broadcast. So if we were just regular camera operators, I feel like it would be a little bit harder for us to stand out. Yeah, but we're the only camera that does that, and it's kind of like giving someone crack and then taking it away because it is so built into their show. And um, they just did uh a fight last weekend, and I didn't know this, but since I've been there, people have pressured me. Like, I'm not even kidding. First month in, a couple guys came to me and they wanted to see the backpack. So I don't make the backpack. So anybody that doesn't know what we actually do at ESPN, we have a backpack that is provided by a company that has a bunch of jump sites and it's like a well over a hundred thousand dollar setup, traditional RF, and we are literally going through walls and walls and walls of concrete live streaming from the locker rooms. So they apparently do other fights. I didn't know this. I thought we did every fight. Well, one of the guys like, no, he's like, Top rank is doing another 50 fights a year outside. I was like, right now, they're like, Yeah, they're like, there might be opportunity there. So um, now that this is off, I was like, Well, I want to watch. So I watched one. They're in an they're in a limbo phase right now. It looks like they're just kind of doing bare knuckles, no pun intended, just to kind of like get by. But yeah, man, I'm not freaked out because I've realized like every time something like this has happened, like example, the office of tourism, right? David, Dalton, we're all doing it. 2018 rolls around, goes away. I was like, uh, what are we gonna do? I wrote an email to visit Florida. A year later, they responded, threw me on a job, and then put us on a bunch of projects, and we haven't heard from them in a while. So now I'm knocking on other doors. Yeah. But that's what's what it is, man.

Vipul Bindra 1:13:53

Yeah, it's always finding. And you know, big fish, like I said, most people I know, and I again, this is why I like to tell people look, you can go on YouTube and again listen to people who don't do this for a living or whatever. The reality is, now that I've, like I said, I've come out of the little thing, I know enough people around the country, traveled enough. Every person I know who does seven figures or more in video production, like I said, they make most of their money from five to ten of their top clients. But that doesn't mean those clients are there forever. They do cycle in and out. And you have to constantly be looking for either smaller fish that becomes into that big fish or just another big fish to uh get in. Because you cannot count on a company to just stay with you. Obviously, there are some clients that just are there, they're you're just your client. But like you said, in this situation, you're you have great partnerships with ESPN, but if they decide to not renew the contract, that has nothing to do with you what you're doing, but then you will have to now go and look for opportunities, whether that's with ESPN in a different avenue or other people who are not doing boxing, or and that's just one part of your business, right? Because you're already told me you're doing vettings, you're doing corporate, you're doing live streaming, you're doing sports, tourism. I mean, what else are you not doing, huh?

Dalton Smith 1:15:02

No, and I like to I like to say yes to everything, but I'm also trying to be more intentional.

Mario Rangel 1:15:07

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:15:08

So I've asked myself, like, if I want to not work a hundred hours a week eventually, and just because I can wear nine hats, God forbid anything happened to me, we'd be in deep trouble trying to find people to do it. Not to say I'm like a master, but yeah, like it's it's almost dangerous, right? So we're starting to ask ourselves what's viable, what are we good at? What makes the most return? Um, and so yeah, and I'm really building and I've said this for years, and I really can feel it happening. We're building legs of the agency where they're really acting independently. And um, it it's exciting because now more than ever, I don't just feel like we're growing, like we're growing intentionally, and I know we're going. And I'd like to touch on that ESPN one more time just because I I want people to know where my head was at and where I've gone with this. So when I got the call from ESPN, my wife was pregnant. She was probably around five, six months pregnant, and she was totally fine with the first fight. But then when they called me again a week after I got home, she got nervous because she was like, I see where this is going. I had to do, I think, three or four fights within the first couple months, but then I had to tell them. I had to tell ESPN and Disney, hey, I know you just found me. You want to give me this super special job, but I'm really uh I'm really serious about my family time, so I'm gonna need five months off for my baby. Um good luck with that.

Vipul Bindra 1:16:21

I mean, you you uh I'll let you tell, but I think you you did the right thing, what you did, right?

Dalton Smith 1:16:25

Yeah, so I told him I was like, it's non-negotiable. However, I have the exact skill sets you need, and I can train these people. But then it was like, first of all, it was like capabilities, and then it was legalities. They're like, Well, that's great. We have you approved, not these other dudes. So we became a vendor within two months, which they try not to do. Yeah, and it worked out in our favor.

Vipul Bindra 1:16:48

And then um because that's the smart move. You don't want it to be you, you want it to be your company, yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:16:52

And I told him, I was like, guys, I was like, whether my wife is about to have a baby or not, this is gonna be a problem. I was like, a lot of the guys that work these shows just work broadcast shows. Now that doesn't mean that they can't have a conflict of interest for soccer and football on the same weekend, but they don't run a whole agency back in Florida. So I was like, you guys need to do this with me. And then they saw the value of doing, and then we started talking multiple cameras and doing extra coverage. And so uh I want you guys to think about this. It it went um for you know a year, probably and a half, just I want to say uninterrupted, just fights making money, you know, good work and got the balance with the family, my wife. We had a good system, and then we start thinking about the end of the contract. I remember like even like six months in, I was like, dude, I was like, JD, this freaking contract's up. He's like two years later, bro. Don't even worry. And then we're a year out, and then we're starting to think. So think about this last year where I've seen it coming down to the last six months where I know it's not gonna happen. So, what I did is I went to ChatGPT as one of my sources, and then I went to Google and I searched the internet and I started looking for what is the vibe in the boxing world and the broadcast world, what is the future? What it what are people anticipating? I could go on and on, but it's a combination of what Saudi's doing um with uh DZone and a couple of these other entities, and then the whole streaming thing. But there's gonna be this mishmash of entities and there's gonna be a shift of power, but how it goes down is gonna take time. So my prediction was they're not gonna renew and they didn't renew. I still think top rank is gonna go with a combination of like a streaming service, DZone, they're gonna do like a combo thing. ESPN, whatever. So I asked myself, if we lose this, what are we gonna do?

Mario Rangel 1:18:29

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:18:29

I we because like this is like this trumped any of our other relationships based on several factors quantity of services, you know, 25 to 30 a year, number of days, and then just the structure of how well they paid. Um the zero post-production, it it it was the it was like, oh my god. Yeah. So what I did is I came up with a structure of how are we gonna approach this without pissing off our client, but planning for our future. So I did so much research, even with Chat GPT. I spent days, hours and hours and hours doing deep dives and finding out what was the best option. So I have this document. It is so long, dude. It's from Chat GPT, but it's like I think 10 pages. Yeah. And it discusses the relationship between the networks, who is who, who's the player in what sport. And what I've learned is that there's only a couple people that you need to talk to, the producers and directors. And I know who to ask. So then I said, okay, how and when do I go about this? And my guys are all gung-ho, like, let's go, let's, you know, let's take over the world. And I'm like, hold on. Let's see where the people that got us in the front door want to go first. So the last fight, they announced that it wasn't happening. I was prepared for that. But then they said, um, team meeting over here with the vendors. And there was a little conversation I can't discuss. And then um, I went and I said, There's more I need to know. I want to, I don't want to like I want to say two things. One, my this is my wife's suggestion, it was very brilliant. She's like, Dolphin, before you even ask anything, go tell them thank you for such an incredible opportunity. So we sat down and I have a great relationship with them. And I was just, you know, thank you. Regardless, this has been the most incredible thing in my life. But knowing you're not gonna roll over and die, because I know that you've been doing this for 20, 30 years and you're gonna end up somewhere. Let's just say, for all intents and purposes, you do have an idea of where you want to go. And maybe the MPI Shark Boys might be able to join you. Just let me know. And I basically told her that they the they reserve first dibs on us. And her response to me was Dalton, I can put you in contact with any of these guys. It's that because that's how it works. They look for the people in the network that recommend the people for the services they need. We play a hot potato, that's how it works. But I can't do that because it'll be a conflict because they're because I'm gonna need you. So it was just so amazing to me that I'm not trying to say I predicted it, but I went into it with a plan, an A, a B. And so I still don't know anything. Yeah, I know nothing. Yeah, but there's opportunity, and that's exciting.

Hiring W2 Team Members After COVID

Vipul Bindra 1:21:01

And that's what what entrepreneurship is, right? Uh, because uh, you know, you you're basically building your own path, you're carving opportunity, and even when one opportunity goes away, it doesn't mean it's the end, it's the beginning of another one. Um, that's really awesome, man. Like I said, I'm really excited about what's for the future and what you've been doing. Also, you're one of the few people I know that actually has W-2s, right? You actually have full-time guys because I had like last year I calculated I had over a hundred freelancers, but they were all 1099s, even you know, uh Julie and Mario, people who've been helping me recently. They're all 1099s. So what uh why do you think you and again, there's no right or wrong answer. This is just no emotion. This is a great question. Why do you think you have W-2s? And how many do you have right now?

Dalton Smith 1:21:46

Uh, myself included, three. Three? So three W four W2s? Yeah, three.

Vipul Bindra 1:21:50

No, and then you, I'm sure you have 1099s too, obviously.

Dalton Smith 1:21:52

A lot of 1099s. So I I will try to give you guys the non-theatrical version as I call it. So, what happened is COVID hits. That was the scariest thing instantaneously overnight. I mean, I literally lost every single contract in one day. I was getting my tattoo done, and I remember my phone going off, and it was just like it was like a joke. It was like a sick joke. It was a rainy day, and it it was insane. It was like they all like let's all tell Dalton at the same time. Yeah, so I'm a worrier, and because the whole world was kind of screwed, no offense, I was not worrying. I was it was weird, it was somber. I do great in hurricanes. I'm a great first responder. So when it's really hit, I'm actually better in those positions than if you if there's a fire and I'm saving you guys, I will be way more relaxed than if you tell me there might be a fire. Does it make sense? Yeah. So COVID was this great reset. And then these kids walked into my front door. So it was JD and Gavin. It's a long story, but these kids fell into my lap, and everybody like David, I called them and I was like, Hey, I love you, but count on zero dollars and zero cents from me for the rest of 2020. Like I don't care what comes in this door, the future is scary. I've got a hold of my money.

Mario Rangel 1:23:06

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:23:07

And then JD walks in the door and I meet him, I meet him and Gavin, and then we hung out for like a week, not even. And then like I had these new watches from Freestyle. And um, it's like, why don't you guys take them? You know, they're fresh out of high school, they're skimboarder surfers, hang out with these girls. I'm like, go take some pictures. Let me see how you guys do. Have fun. They look great. So then I just I just had this, I was like, dude, I was like, why don't you guys just hang out with me for the summer? I'll float you guys a few hundred bucks each. You can learn. We're not gonna do anything. I was like, we're just gonna hang out. I was like, I barely have paid work right now. And so, dude, we're watching Peter McKinnon. We're throwing down coffee b-roll challenges in the living room. I'm dropping watches into fish tanks and doing high shutter stuff. And it was great for me, dude, because I turned into like a little crackhead for TikTok and creative ideas. I bought a probe lens. It was funny, dude. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. It's mid-COVID. And I'm like, $2,000 probe lens, buy it.

Mario Rangel 1:23:58

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:23:59

And it was so funny. You got one over there. I can see one right now, dude. I can see a probe lens from here. So it was just funny because people think I make crazy decisions, but I follow the passion and I follow the feeling, and I was so excited and inspired by that. That stupid lens definitely paid for itself. Yeah. So these guys, I just kept turning the heat up as they got better. And then they went from like um kind of like training to like a paid intern to like a job to okay, a more serious job. And the problem, and it's not necessarily a problem, is it only works if the point of entry is very low. They're young, they're living at home. If you got a mortgage or anything, it's not gonna work because I'm not paying that much. Yeah, but there's this interesting opportunity where if you come in later, so now we got Trevor, Trevor is benefiting from the growth from JD and Gavin. So his initial pay rate was triple what theirs was. So we're getting him to a bigger place earlier. But we've had some conversations recently, and we don't know what the future holds. And we talked about what he would like to do, and it was funny because it's kind of a buku conversation and shout out to Emmanuel.

Vipul Bindra 1:25:10

He said, You talk about the Torres or the Gal Galli? Emmanuel Torres.

Dalton Smith 1:25:14

He's such a question guy. That's why I asked you a couple questions here. I realized I never asked freaking questions. And he uh I was like, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna pull an emmanual. I looked at Trevor and I was like, what do you want?

Vipul Bindra 1:25:25

He called me recently, said he wanted to build an RV and live in it or something.

Camera Kits Z Cam Wins And Regrets

Dalton Smith 1:25:29

Me and him have been talking about that for anyway, yeah. He's so awesome. Shout out to Emmanuel. Yeah, um, and he uh yeah, he's encouraged me to ask questions. So I asked Trevor, I was like, you know, what do you want? What do you want to make? If you had to make a decision between more money and your because that's where life gets spicy when you make those decisions. So I got some great information. And mind you, the kid loads at like Windows 98 speed because he's he's a great communicator, but he's not me where he's just gushing out. So I realized that like by just sitting there and giving him the time to talk, dude, it took him like almost 10 minutes to really even get the wheels rolling, but we had a great conversation. I don't know if we will provide a uh a thing that makes him not need to go get a job, but we realized that there's levels in between that we could meet at where he could he could work with us. He goes so it was just so nice to take everything I've learned with working with these other kids in the past and be able to provide a better structure, have those conversations earlier. But dude, last night, me and Trevor were at Island Root at freaking one in the morning, uh filming Slightly Stupid in Iration, which uh are two groups that I grew up, dude. Like it was crazy because I'm sitting there listening to them. I'm 34, I'm tired as hell. My baby's at home, but I'm just listening to this music and thinking about how I've got this 20-year-old kid with me. And when I was 20 years old, I was doing road trips on like borrowed mom money to go snorkeling listening to this music, you know. So it's just very full circle. And so the whole concept with that program is with no offense intended, these kids had no proper training or skills. Yeah, but I can teach anybody anything that wants to work. So all three of these kids, there was no uh there was no open job posting. It was literally, I I like you, and you've got a thing. And so Trevor did that. He he came in and I sent him to a job and he was supposed to shoot BTS and it was like a helicopter tour, and he was shooting with my Z cam. I think I've even told you this story. I can't remember, but dude, I used like five of his shots in the main cut. Yeah, and I'm going through it and I'm like, and dude, I remember calling him like bro, you're good.

Vipul Bindra 1:27:34

Yeah, like that's good. Yeah, you sometimes you know that's how you can find talent, you know. Yeah, yeah. Because you're like, you're supposed to be doing BTS, but this is good enough to to go in the main cut, which talk about Z Cam. So you're you you use Z Cam? You're one of the few people. What are the cameras you got? What's the drop that in there subtly? I'm like, uh what? Uh I mean, not that there's anything wrong with Z Cam, just not that many people running a production company with a a Z Cam in it as a good lineup, yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:28:00

They just have made such strange decisions as an agency. But then meanwhile, they've been used in such prominent uh productions, like frickin' the new uh Tom Cruise movie has oh that whole plane scene is Z Cam.

Vipul Bindra 1:28:13

No, I didn't know that.

Dalton Smith 1:28:14

Bro, go to Z Cam. If anybody wants to learn about Z Cam, go tread carefully because they are being interesting with their involvement of the future of their cameras. But if you want to just look and learn, go to their Facebook page. It's just Z Cam E2. I have recommended non-Zcam users to go to the Z Cam Facebook page because real directors are there, real colorists are there. And I was really impressed by the things I learned. Yeah. But I got brought in by Tristan Laravie. So Tristan bought this sketchy little box camera, dude. It's 2017. This kid goes and buys a China cam and no one knows anything about it. And I remember like our computers were really not stoked on the data at that time. And like I was mad at him if he gave me that footage. But then he taught me how to proxy. I had never proxied before. So we're in the keys and he shoots this footage of me in like 75 VFR. And like the what you'll see is everybody that loves the Z cam will speak on how beautiful the Rec 709 is. It's more like an S Cinitone or like even a corrected log. Like it's just beautiful. It's so great. And he gives it to me, and it was proxied, so it worked. I was like, Wow. I want one. So this poor kid built it out himself. They're modular. So he got every. And then I literally looked at it, I was like, small rig, yeah, yeah. Amazon. I just ordered the whole thing. Yeah. And they were great, man. I shot full Z Cam from 2019 to 2022. Uh 20. No. Yeah, it was like 2018 to 2022. I had three of them. And I dude, I even had it on my Ronin with a follow-up.

Vipul Bindra 1:29:56

Yeah. But so you have a Z Cam A7S III.

Dalton Smith 1:29:59

Yeah, think of anything else? We so we got like six or seven A7S3s. Okay.

Vipul Bindra 1:30:03

We've got two or three, maybe like your workhorse seems like A7S.

Dalton Smith 1:30:07

Yeah, we use them predominantly. And then we had, dude, well, ESPN. So it was it was a good problem. They were paying us enough for it to make sense, but dude, every time we needed to do something there, it's like we'd buy it and put it on the truck, just be like, bye. Yeah, because we got three on the truck. Um, but yeah, we got like six or seven of those, uh, two A7R, like four and a five. Uh I've still got one of my old Nikons. I think we've got like eight GoPros, two or three Osmo Pockets, an Inspire two, Mavic three. And um, yeah, like last night, man, like it's so cool how I can spread so thin now. Yeah, like I can make a freaking an extra team pack.

Mario Rangel 1:30:44

Yeah.

Dalton Smith 1:30:44

As like the fifth pack, you know, recently is PN, like last second. They're like, Yeah, can you do a third shark? And we were like, um they're on your truck. Yeah. And the problem they own them, I'm guessing.

Vipul Bindra 1:30:56

That's why they're no, there are. But they just they travel with the truck. Okay, yeah.

Where To Follow Dalton

Dalton Smith 1:31:01

So what would happen is like in a way was a big fight. Yeah. And they decided they wanted to do a third camera. The truck gets there, but top rank has a road pack. So the road pack is in the truck, but it's at the back of the truck. Other stuff is so buried in racks, like, literally, dude, you can't get to it. Yeah. So I they had they they had to buy us another gimbal, a whole gimbal, because we were able to figure the camera lens out, but but we had to figure it out. And I remember doing it, and I'm in my garage, and it worked, and they wanted me to send them a picture. And I'm like, I cannot believe I just built another one of these freaking cameras in my garage. It's like I'm making little clones, you know? But yeah, the the A7S3 is the main workhorse. Um, and I did buy the ZCam E2F6 Pro. I don't recommend it. It's beautiful and it looks great, but frankly, um, other than the V mount being built in, their monitor is cheeks. And it is a great camera though, but it's a shame because if they paid a little more attention to um communication with their their uh consumers and stuff, they could they could be a big thing.

Vipul Bindra 1:32:06

Dude, this has been an incredible conversation. What's crazy is I didn't even get to half the things I wanted to talk to you about. I'm sorry, and but clients client calls. That's the the crazy thing for me is uh so it's not you, it's me. I knew that. No, but uh one of my clients really uh you know wanted me to hop on a call. But this conversation has for real been been really awesome. You know what I'd love to do, even though I know you're hard to get. Hopefully you'll be available next season. I would love to get you and David on the same one. That'd be such an incredible conversation. Maybe we'll try. David, I'm no, I know he's listening, so uh, you know, put that in your schedule. Uh before we go though, please tell people where they can find you, follow you, learn more about you, or ask you questions. Thank you.

Dalton Smith 1:32:50

Um, thank you for having me, bro. I really appreciate it. Um, NPI Productions, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. And then I have not announced my new vlog yet. Uh, it'll be in the next week or two. So if you follow NPI, you'll see it will be a brand new YouTube channel.

Vipul Bindra 1:33:03

By the time you see this, it is live.

Dalton Smith 1:33:05

Yeah. So it'll be a brand new YouTube channel, uh, which was David's recommendation. And then if you want to follow me, the family, my like personal mental health stuff, that's the life of Dalton Smith. Um, and that's it, man. So I appreciate you guys.

Vipul Bindra 1:33:17

Awesome, Dalton. You are a great guy, and I love I'm so inspired by what you're doing and how you're going about it and the energy you have is just so contagious. Uh, if I could only have half that energy, I'd be, you know, taking over the world.

Dalton Smith 1:33:30

Well, thank you, bro. You're an inspiration too, man.

Vipul Bindra 1:33:32

Thank you. Mario, thank you again for being on the producer desk. You are a killer, sir. You have done great. Thank you, guys. And thank you again for watching another episode of Studio V Sessions. Until next Thursday, we'll see you then. Thanks. There you guys. Bye.