Episode 82

Running a Woman-Owned Video Production Business (ft. Digital Moxie Studio)

Margaux Towne did not take the usual road into production. She started as an actor in Orlando, working at Universal Studios, appearing on Nickelodeon and America’s Most Wanted, before a TV-station job turned her into a living-segments reporter and producer, and she fell in love with the other side of the camera. A move to Omaha, a one-person video department at a medical-supply company, and a stint at a small studio later, she launched Digital Moxie Studio around 2016, by her own count the only woman-owned video production company in the city.

In this warm, funny conversation, Margaux joins Dario and Kyrill to talk about being a woman in a male-dominated industry, why she sells through passion instead of pressure, the nonprofit storytelling that fills her calendar in famously philanthropic Omaha, running a lean freelance team, the real skill behind story-first editing, and hard-won lessons on getting nervous people to perform on camera (a week shooting a jail-orientation video included).

Timestamps

From Actor to Founder

Margaux’s route into production runs through the stage. After an acting career in Orlando, including Universal Studios, Nickelodeon, and a turn on America’s Most Wanted (her mom’s favorite), a friend got her a TV-station job as a living-segments reporter, and the station asked her to produce too. Choosing the talent, the music, and the story hooked her: she loved that side of the camera more, and never went back. A move to Omaha for a relationship that did not last led to a one-person video department at a medical-supply company, then a small studio, and finally her own shop, after which, she says, she woke up feeling more alive than she had in years.

That performer’s grip on story and audience is her real edge, the same personal-story-as-positioning idea the show explores in working on personal branding. It is also what any strong video production team is really selling: not footage, but a story that lands.

Building a Woman-Owned Company

When Margaux researched Omaha’s video scene before going out on her own, she saw the same thing everywhere: men, men, men. She decided the city would support a woman-owned production company and built one, and being the only one in town has been a genuine advantage. Marketing and nonprofit decision-makers often skew female, and she has had clients pick her specifically for it, including one who found her on Google and figured a woman-owned shop would simply get the job done. The rare friction, like a certain old-school celebrity assuming she could not be the one in charge on a shoot, she tells as a funny story rather than a grievance.

Turning a personal advantage into a durable business is the long game, the same thread behind building a video business that lasts and knowing what clients look for when they choose a production company.

Nonprofits and the Power of Story

A large share of Digital Moxie’s work is with nonprofits, and Margaux finds it the most fulfilling part of the job: good people doing good things, telling stories that change how donors see an organization. Omaha helps. As she puts it, Warren Buffett set the tone for an unusually philanthropic community, so the nonprofits are well supported, one gala she produced (the Bill Murray shoot for a mentoring organization) raised more than a million dollars in a single night.

It is a reminder that a measurable, mission-driven niche can be both meaningful and good business, the dynamic the show unpacks in the power of niching down, and it lets a studio talk honestly about what a video is worth across every type of corporate video.

A Lean Team and the Editor Problem

On paper the company is just Margaux; in practice it is her plus about five core freelance crew she uses constantly. She keeps them as contractors on purpose: it avoids the payroll and tax overhead she dislikes, rewards people who have stuck with her, and lets them take outside work and bring back new skills and referrals. When a recent growth spurt buried the team in editing, she scaled carefully, and she is candid that hiring editors is harder than hiring shooters. A reel tells her little, because anyone can cut a highlight of someone else’s footage, so she asks to see finished stories and the sound-bite choices behind them, then gives editors a skeleton and room to be creative rather than dictating every cut.

That storytelling instinct, she argues, is a skill you cannot fully teach, which is why hiring and directing post is its own craft. The show digs into it in vetting and managing talent and growing and investing in your team, and it is a big part of what separates a company from a solo videographer.

Selling Through Passion, Not Pressure

Margaux was scared of sales until she realized that talking about video felt less like selling and more like her dad talking about the Red Sox: pure passion. She does not chase people who do not want video; she finds the ones who do and convinces them she is the right choice, which has only gotten easier now that everyone wants video and the question is just pick me. Her pipeline is referrals, repeat clients, a little Google Ads, and showing up: she leans on Omaha’s nonprofit network and chamber events, treating them as a slow burn where you plant seeds and let the work come later.

It is a refreshingly human take on a part of the business many owners dread. For more on that, the show covers new ways to generate leads, finding work in your local community, and thriving in a small market. When you are ready to talk scope, a competitive quote is a good first step.

Getting a Great On-Camera Performance

Some of the episode’s best material is about people who are not actors. Margaux and the hosts trade hard-won lessons on getting nervous non-professionals through a shoot: delivering someone else’s words convincingly is a real skill, so she tries hard not to make non-actors read scripts, and when a client shows up having memorized lines anyway, it usually goes sideways and convinces them they are bad on camera. The fixes are practical, scripts written the way a person actually talks, watching their breathing, and staying calm so they can, and there is a shared red flag: the person who swears they are great in front of crowds is often the longest shoot of the day.

When a script really is required, a well-run teleprompter is the safety net, placed near the lens so it reads as natural, the ground covered in Lapse guides to teleprompters in video production and teleprompter services, alongside practical prep like what to wear on camera. The conversation also touches lightly on new AI edit tools, which Margaux views with healthy caution, a fuller look at which is in Sora and the future of video production. For a Toronto team with that same story-first, full-service range, that is what Lapse Productions does.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Hosts

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.

Digital Moxie Studio is a woman-owned video production company in Omaha, Nebraska, founded around 2016 by Margaux Towne. The studio specializes in documentary-style interview storytelling for businesses and nonprofits, and now operates as Moxie Film and Video. Learn more at digitalmoxie.studio.