Episode 17
Importance of Teams (ft. Black & White Media)
Judah Hernandez is the owner and creative director of Black & White Media, an award winning video production and video marketing company based in Hamilton, Ontario. Black & White Media builds visuals designed to impact and connect with a client’s target audience, and Judah’s own path runs through festival programming, studio directing, and years of hands-on storytelling before he set out to build a team of his own.
In this episode, Judah joins Dario and Kyrill for a conversation about the thing that quietly decides whether a video business grows or stalls: the team. They get into why having people around you that you can trust matters more than almost anything, how to structure a team and bring on partners, what to do when work slows down, how to read the real problem a client is facing and hold your ground when they push back, and the entrepreneur’s habit of saying yes first and figuring it out after.
Key Takeaways
- A team you trust changes everything. The heart of the episode is simple: having capable people around you that you can genuinely trust is what lets an owner stop doing everything and start building a business that can grow.
- Slow periods are for working on the business. When big projects get canceled or the calendar goes quiet, the move is to turn inward: sharpen systems, offers, and positioning so the next busy stretch runs better.
- Read the real problem, then hold your ground. A lot of the value is in discovering the actual challenge a client faces, and in tolerating resistance long enough to establish your authority rather than caving to the first objection.
- Partners and structure are how you scale. Team structure and the decision to add partners are what turn a busy solo operator into a company, with all the trust and clarity that requires.
- Say yes, then figure it out. A recurring entrepreneur theme: the people who grow tend to commit first and solve the how afterward, then look back and realize how far that habit carried them.
- Educating the client is part of the job. Walking clients through the video process, and why it costs what it costs, prevents most of the friction that shows up later in a project.
Timestamps
A 2022 Check-In and Weathering the Slow Times
The episode opens on a familiar early-2022 note: a check-in on how the year was starting and the very real problem of big projects getting canceled at the last minute. Judah and the hosts talk through what a shop actually does when times are slow, and the answer is the classic one that is easy to say and hard to practice: work on the business instead of just in it. That means tightening systems, offers, and positioning while the calendar is quiet, the same operator mindset the show later dug into with 6 STRONG MEDIA in systems, margins, and mindset.
The Case for a Team You Can Trust
Then comes the episode’s anchor. The conversation turns to the size of a team and, more importantly, to having people around you that you can genuinely trust. It is the difference between an owner who is stuck doing everything and one who can actually build. That trade-off between staying solo and building out is the exact question our guide on a video production company versus a videographer is built around, and it is a theme the show has returned to often, most directly in strategy and building teams with Tripwire Media.
From there the talk gets concrete about team structure and how a small company actually runs day to day, the same territory covered in the later conversation on creating connections and content where the guest had solidified a tight in-house team. Building that team is not free, and knowing what crew and collaborators cost is part of the math, which is where our videographer day-rate guide comes in.
Live Streaming, and Reading the Client's Real Problem
After a look at Lapse’s background and a fun what-if about 2021 without restrictions, the guys get into expanding a service menu, in this case adding live streaming, and the more durable skill underneath it: discovering the challenges clients actually face rather than just taking the order. That naturally leads to the harder part of the job, what to do when a client objects to your solution, and how to tolerate resistance long enough to establish your authority as the expert in the room. It is the flip side of how buyers decide who to trust in the first place, the ground our guide on how to choose a video production company is written to cover.
Judah's Path, Partners, and the Entrepreneur Mindset
The middle of the episode zooms in on Judah: how he got started, a quick soccer tangent, and the pivotal decision of adding partners to a business and learning to work with a team rather than around it. The guys get candid about the entrepreneur’s reality, the biggest challenge you face, the habit successful founders share of saying yes and then figuring it out, and the value of occasionally looking backward to see how far you have actually come. There is even a detour into accepting crypto payments, very much a 2022 conversation.
Turning Points, Proposals, and Educating the Client
As the conversation builds toward its close, Judah walks through his turning points, including one that lands squarely on proposals, the document where so much of a video sale is won or lost. That thread runs straight into the next episode of the show, the deep dive on proposals, sales strategies, and remote shoots. The other half of getting a project right is educating clients on the video process, walking them through what actually happens and why, which our guide to the corporate video production process lays out step by step, and framing the spend as an investment rather than a line item, the case our guide on how much a video actually costs is built to make.
Future Challenges and the Name
The episode ends where a lot of these conversations do, on the future challenges each of them saw coming, and a lighter note on how Judah landed on the Black & White Media name. It is a fitting close to an episode that is really about the unglamorous foundation of a durable business: the right people, a clear structure, and the trust that holds the whole thing together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Judah Hernandez?
Judah Hernandez is the owner and creative director of Black & White Media, an award winning video production and video marketing company based in Hamilton, Ontario. He came up through festival programming and studio directing before building his own team. Site: blackwhitemedia.ca.
Why do teams matter so much for a video production company?
Because an owner who has to do everything cannot grow. Having capable people you can trust is what frees you to work on the business rather than just in it, and it is the foundation for adding structure, partners, and eventually scale.
What should a video company do when work slows down?
Turn inward. Slow periods are for working on the business: sharpening systems, refining your offers and positioning, and shoring up the parts of the operation that get neglected when you are busy, so the next stretch of work runs more smoothly.
How do you handle a client who pushes back on your creative solution?
First make sure you have discovered the real problem they are trying to solve. Then be willing to tolerate some resistance and establish your authority as the expert, rather than abandoning a sound recommendation the moment a client objects.
What is Black & White Media?
Black & White Media is an award winning video production and video marketing company in Hamilton, Ontario, led by Judah Hernandez. The team creates visuals designed to impact and connect with a client’s target audience. Learn more at blackwhitemedia.ca.
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.
Black & White Media is an award winning video production and video marketing company based in Hamilton, Ontario, led by owner and creative director Judah Hernandez. The team creates visuals designed to impact and connect with their clients’ target audiences, spanning brand, corporate, and marketing work. Learn more at blackwhitemedia.ca.
