Episode 16
How to Pivot Your Business (ft. Bee Video Productions)
Brigitte Sachse is the founder and executive producer of Bee Video Productions, a certified women-owned video production company in Toronto that she started in 2017. Bee Video specializes in short-form content, both animated and live-action, for businesses, institutions, and government organizations. Brigitte’s path to founding it was anything but linear: she spent years in media financing and policy, reviewing film and television funding, before pivoting into production of her own.
In this episode, Brigitte joins Dario and Kyrill for a candid conversation about pivoting a business and building one from the ground up: writing a real business plan, pricing packages, why video is a high touch business, the SEO that quietly brings clients in, and the hard lessons of running a lean shop, from the truth that you cannot delegate a role you do not understand to pushing through when a business partner walks away.
Key Takeaways
- Pivoting is a skill, not a failure. Brigitte’s move from media financing into founding a production company is the throughline of the episode: a well-planned pivot can turn years of unrelated experience into an unfair advantage.
- Write an actual business plan. A real plan, not a vague intention, is what separates a hobby from a company and forces the hard questions about pricing, positioning, and who you serve.
- Price in packages, and respect the high touch. Video is a high touch business, so pricing works best in clear packages that reflect the hands-on time and care each project actually demands.
- You cannot delegate a role you do not understand. Handing off work you have never done yourself rarely goes well. Learning a role first is what makes it possible to hire for it and hold it to a standard later.
- SEO is a quiet client engine. Getting found in search is a slow, compounding source of inbound work, and it is worth building into the business early rather than as an afterthought.
- Solo ownership tests you. The biggest challenges of running lean show up around incorporation decisions and, hardest of all, pushing through when a business partner leaves.
Timestamps
From Media Finance to Founder: The Pivot
The episode opens on its title theme: pivoting your business. Brigitte’s story is a genuine pivot, from a career reviewing film and television financing into founding Bee Video Productions in 2017, and the conversation gets into how that background in media and money shaped the company she built. The bigger lesson is one every operator faces at some point, the decision to stop freelancing your way through and actually build something, which is the exact trade-off our guide on a video production company versus a videographer is built around.
Remote Directing and a Real Business Plan
From there the talk turns practical: shooting and directing over Zoom, a skill the whole industry was forced to learn, and the discipline the show later devoted a full episode to in proposals, sales strategies, and remote shoots. Underneath the logistics sits something more foundational, creating an actual business plan, mapping how the work gets made and sold, the same end-to-end thinking our guide to the corporate video production process lays out.
Pricing a High-Touch Business
Then comes money. Brigitte and the hosts get into pricing packages and the idea that video is a high touch business, one where the price has to reflect real hands-on time rather than a commodity rate, the case our guide on how much a video actually costs is written to make. A quick detour into how she landed on the Bee Video name gives way to the deeper pricing question the show has unpacked before, most directly in the conversation on how to create a retainer and building recurring revenue.
SEO and the Limits of Delegation
One of the sharper threads is SEO, the slow-burn engine that brings clients in through search, the same logic behind our guide on YouTube SEO and getting your videos to rank. That leads into a line worth writing down: you cannot delegate a role you do not know. It is the honest limit every solo owner hits, and it connects straight to the biggest challenge of running lean and eventually needing help, the theme of the show’s episode on the importance of teams.
Incorporating, Turning Points, and First Projects
The back half gets into the unglamorous machinery of a real company: when to incorporate, the turning point that made the business feel legitimate, and the first projects that taught the most. It is the messy early stretch where trust is earned one client at a time, the same ground buyers walk when they read our guide on how to choose a video production company.
When a Partner Leaves, and the Road Ahead
The most personal moment is about pushing through when a business partner leaves, the kind of gut-check that either ends a company or forges it. The episode closes on the 2022 outlook for the industry, a fitting end to a conversation about reinvention, collaboration, and staying in the game, themes the show also explored with Play Creative in scalability, collaborating, and pre-production.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Brigitte Sachse?
Brigitte Sachse is the founder and executive producer of Bee Video Productions, a Toronto video production company she started in 2017. She has nearly two decades in the industry, including an earlier career in media financing and policy, before pivoting into production. Site: beevideoproductions.com.
What does it mean to pivot your business?
It means deliberately changing direction, often carrying the skills and relationships from a past career into a new one. In this episode, that pivot is from reviewing film and television financing into founding and running a video production company.
How should a small video company price its work?
In clear packages that reflect how hands-on the work is. Video is a high touch business, so pricing should account for the real time and care each project demands rather than defaulting to a flat commodity rate.
Why can you not delegate a role you do not understand?
Because you cannot set a standard, spot problems, or coach someone in a job you have never done yourself. Learning a role first is what makes it possible to hire for it well and hold the work accountable later.
What is Bee Video Productions?
Bee Video Productions is a certified women-owned video production company in Toronto, founded in 2017 by Brigitte Sachse. It specializes in short-form video, both animated and live-action, for businesses, institutions, and government organizations. Learn more at beevideoproductions.com.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, event, and testimonial video. New to commissioning video? Start with our guide to the types of corporate video.
Bee Video Productions is a certified women-owned video production company in Toronto, founded in 2017 by Brigitte Sachse. The team specializes in short-form video, both animated and live-action, helping businesses, institutions, and government organizations educate, inspire, and connect through story. Learn more at beevideoproductions.com.
