The Path to B Corp and Networking (ft. Bridge City Media)

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Dario00:01Hey guys, welcome to another episode. Today we got Erik Croswell from Bridge City Media and they're based out of Portland, So Erik, welcome to the

Erik00:12Thanks so much, glad to be here.

Dario00:14So usually when we start these episodes, we just like to learn a little bit about our guests. So why don't you just tell us a bit about how you started and how you got to where you are today.

Erik00:24Yeah, absolutely. We started Bridge City Media in 2016 and it was kind of an accidental company. Just wanted to do a little bit of fun work on the side with an old friend of mine. We were both working at the same company at the same time and we decided that we wanted to try out doing some video. At first we did a number of business videos, a couple wedding videos, music videos, but then over time we found that business videos is really what we wanted to focus on.

Dario01:18And how long have you guys been running? you like two years in, you just fully took control and how long, how long is it? How old is your company basically?

Erik01:26Yeah, we started in 2016, so a little over eight years

Dario01:32Nice. Yeah, you're approaching the tenure mark.

Erik01:35Yeah, yeah, definitely excited for that. think just getting past the five year mark is always something that a lot of business owners, you know, worry about and, you know, it's kind of a make or break point. yeah, it's a lot has grown kind of once we got past the initial stages. So we're doing pretty well now. We're staying busy. We've recently been able to grow into a studio space, bring some more people onto our team and kind of slowly

Kyrill02:14That was actually one thing I wanted to touch upon with you is that we noticed that you have a studio space that you guys run, but specifically it's showed that you share it with another studio, another production company that you work with. Is that correct?

Erik02:29Yeah, it was actually also kind of an accidental blend of things that happened. So we were in the process of wanting to move from our space that we've been in for a couple years, like over on the other side of town. And we're just going to find a regular office space because we don't typically need a studio space because most of the time we're filming with our clients on site.

Dario03:38Nice.

Erik03:50start splitting rent to this place, but then over time we've just worked with each other a lot more. And so if they need music video or concerts, we'll be able to fill in and help them. And then we've hired a couple of people from their team on to help us with some corporate content. So we're in some early conversations about having a more formal business merging to come all over to Bridge City Media, but it's a

Dario04:21good synergy,

Erik04:24Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think that's something that's really cool about Portland is that there's lots of different video companies here, but there's a very significant collaborative energy. So we will frequently refer business over to what would otherwise be considered competition. And a lot of people will work with the same contractors sometimes.

Kyrill04:26and

Erik04:53Yeah, I think that everyone has mostly the best interest of everyone else at heart and we all like to get to know each other and help each other where we can.

Kyrill05:03And I'm guessing since you jumped into that studio partnership, one big benefit must have been also that not as much of a startup cost for you guys in terms of slotting right in into the space because I mean, Dario and I have talked about it and a lot of other production companies we know have talked about getting our own spaces. But the one thing that also is a big

Erik05:45Yeah, they've been in there in here for about a year and like almost all of the build had already happened. So we helped with some like additional improvements over the past few months. But yeah, it was really nice to not have to start from scratch. Like this whole space is like built out with like lots of different grip opportunities and different shutters to

Dario07:21was pretty

Kyrill07:24That's amazing. You're like definitely giving other people what's

Dario07:25– Kirill – Kirill, hold on. Can you fix your audio? Because it's very low and I'm hearing some weird static from your end. I don't know if – one of your cables. Yeah, like your audio is very low. Very low.

Kyrill07:33On my end?

Kyrill07:37I didn't change anything from this morning. that's weird.

Dario07:41It was louder on the earlier episode.

Kyrill07:46Is it the same thing now?

Dario07:49bit better but still low compared

Kyrill07:53Maybe I just need to talk a little bit more into

Dario07:57Let's raise the levels, put the levels on auto or something. On the camera.

Kyrill08:00Okay, one second.

Dario08:03Because we shot one like an hour ago, right? So his level was a lot higher now. It's like half of what it was.

Erik08:10Yeah, it does sound a bit quiet. don't think I… If I'm hearing static, it's like super low, but yeah, mostly it sounds pretty

Kyrill08:16What about now? Is it a little different now? This is weird. Riverside likes to be a little awkward sometimes when it comes to some of the settings, I guess. anyways, kind of moving back into the conversation.

Dario08:17Now it's good. Yeah, now it's better.

Kyrill08:32the

Dario08:36If you lost your train I thought there was something I want to touch on. Do you remember?

Kyrill08:40it was just to kind of summarize it. just remembered. So it's like you're basically given an idea for a lot of production companies who are looking into getting a kind of space that they can potentially look at other partners, other production companies that like, unfortunately, a lot of companies do need help with rent, especially when business can be slow. And that could be a good way to kind of offset rent, while also building a more collaborative partnership down there. Obviously, it's different if like, say, both companies do corporate

Erik09:23Yeah, absolutely. think it's definitely something I recommend because I've seen companies, like over the past few years, they will be so excited and they'll get their studio space and they'll have an open house and invite all the other beauty production companies and creatives to come by. And then a year later, they don't really release because they're like, shit, I couldn't afford it. Or like it just didn't pan out. I just didn't need a studio space.

Dario09:53Yeah, having a studio space just for yourself seems like it might be a waste, but if you're also renting it out to other people, because that's what I tend to see is like people that open up their own spaces are kind of navigating more so into the, are a studio space company now, we have equipment we rent out. That's a transition I see happening a lot of the

Erik10:13Yeah, but I don't know what it's like in other places, the it's also renting it out hourly or for like day rates, at least in Portland seems to be pretty saturated. So, you know, a few years ago, you could have a studio space that you pay your rent on, you deck it out, and then you can rent it out to people for day rates. And you'll make like 100, 200 an hour, something like that. But now there's so many of them

Kyrill10:13Yeah, I've also

Dario10:40It's like

Erik10:43It's like the rate has gone down and people need to be competitive and they'll say like, ah, I'll give it to you for like 60 bucks an hour or 75 bucks an hour. And then, and then, but then there's so many options that they don't actually even book them out. then there's just like so much availability. so like I would, I think even the busy studio spaces in town, they get booked up pretty regularly. I doubt that they would be making more than

Dario10:51that's… wow.

Erik11:11500 to 1 ,000 additional like dollars per month. Yeah, exactly. So then, and it's just like, and that's not passive income. You have to like facilitate and you have to clean it up and you have to, there's all these like additional parameters with security and things like that. So I feel like sharing space is just makes a lot more sense, at least for us.

Dario11:18That's nothing.

Erik11:39because we were about to go down that road. We were about to sign a lease for having our own space. And then when it came to an understanding of in order to make this work, I need to incorporate a business model that I'm additionally renting this out to people in order to offset some of these costs. Like once I really audited it, I was like, I actually don't think there's a business model here. I think that, yeah, I think the market has come and gone in Portland for that. So maybe it's a little bit of a bubble

Dario12:14We were thinking of signing an office lease back in 2019. We were starting to have conversations about that. I just think that, man, just imagine if we were going to do that maybe a year before, signed it in 2019. Like, let's say we had a year to think about it, then finally made the decision, started in 2019. What would have happened right after that? We would have been screwed.

Kyrill12:16Yeah.

Kyrill12:39Like what happened, it's like what happened to a lot of other product, a lot of other companies who jumped into leases. I knew of a company that jumped into a lease like in February of 2020, right before the pandemic for like three years. they had, and their lease was like 8 ,000 a month. And I'm like, oh my God. Like I felt so bad. I felt so bad. Cause their company got completely decimated as a result. But you know, the one funny analogy I was just thinking of is that,

Dario12:51my god, a month before.

Erik12:54Wow.

Dario12:58Holy shit.

Kyrill13:08essentially finding another production company to go into a studio space. It's like finding a roommate, like the business version of finding a roommate essentially, which is not too bad. You you split the rent, you both get all the amenities and you host your parties whenever you need. Make sure the other one is not booking one on the same day. That's it. But that's probably a good way to go for a lot of companies. I think I've seen a couple of different, kind of

Erik13:28Yeah.

Kyrill13:36almost like buildings or collectives where it's like a production company color it like a post production house, a colorist as well, like few different businesses that kind of help, they can kind of help each other all working within the same kind of space. That is also another model that kind of works, you know, that kind of help offset the cost because yeah, like, as a single production company, it's very difficult to do that. But when you have other people who have some skin in the game, you know, it can, it's much more doable,

Erik14:05Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Dario14:07When we were talking a couple of weeks back, I remember seeing that you were a certified B corporation on your site and we had an interesting chat about that. So for those that don't know, can you explain what a B corporation

Erik14:23Yeah, definitely. So getting a B Corp certification means that you go through a third party called B Lab that does a formal audit of your business and it looks at what you're doing to treat the environment, treat the community around you, like how transparent you are about certain values or practices and then how you're treating employees and contractors. And there's all these like pieces of guidance of, you know, if

Erik16:49just security with consumers trying to make that choice that, okay, someone else has gone in and they've actually done their homework and they've really researched that these people are saying what they're saying, or they're doing what they're saying. in Portland, we have the most amount of B Corps per capita than any other city.

Kyrill17:12wow.

Dario17:12That's what prompted me to ask him about that because a lot of the companies I had on my list, I was checking out their website. I'm like, OK, B Corp here, B Corp there. I'm like, what the hell is this B Corp thing?

Erik17:23Yeah. Yeah. And the reason it's become so popular is just because it is kind of become at least locally a bit of a social club. So especially B2B service companies that are working with other businesses that are maybe like B Corps themselves are like in the process of doing that. They are incentivized to want to work with other B Corps. And

Dario19:10Yeah,

Erik19:19If you're hiring for a company that is trying to spread some sort of message about the values that their company has and why you should choose them as a product or service above something else, then it adds a little bit more confidence that they have a B -Corp certification because it's like, okay, these people are dedicated to doing that for themselves. Thus, they're probably going to help me out in the same

Kyrill19:46It's like an, it's essentially like an external vetting process because like one thing a lot of companies have to do when they're looking for vendors or partners or anything like that, they have to go through a whole vetting process. They have to look through them. They have to talk to them. They have to look through references and that stuff can take quite a long time. And this certification could be a great way to kind of expedite and save a little bit of that time for a lot of organizations because then it's like someone else has technically already done a lot of the

Erik20:53I mean it's very concentrated here. I would say that if you ask other business owners in Portland if they know what a B Corp is, would say probably about as long as they've been running a business for a little while, I'd say like 50 to 75 percent they could tell you exactly what it is. But it still hasn't really penetrated much in consumer markets. think if you ask like regular consumers in Portland, like, do know what a B Corp is? I don't know.

Dario21:35Maybe if they go to the organic ones they'll see it. Yeah.

Kyrill21:38The organic ones, the very expensive grocery chains.

Kyrill21:45my god.

Erik21:50It's definitely growing in a lot of other cities. I think LA at this point has a several hundred B Corps. New York has several hundred B Corps. It's rapidly expanded in the past few years and I think it's going to continue to go in that trend as bigger companies come on board. Patagonia was a one early on but then now it's

Kyrill22:28Hahaha

Erik22:49processes to ensure like, okay, like if I'm someone who's trying to vote with my dollar for something, then I need to, I'm just not gonna have time to like actually do adequate research on this. And I still think it's gonna be a long time before it really penetrates B2C types of industries, but B2B, there's gonna be like, especially larger companies, policies

Dario23:58That's crazy.

Erik24:18And I think that if you are in a more progressive leaning city that is over 500 ,000 people and you are a B2B service company, I feel very confident that it's a good bet that you're going to get an ROI. And if you do not meet those parameters, probably not, at least not anytime soon.

Kyrill24:45Yeah, it was interesting you mentioned how like it's more prominent now in B2B versus like B2C. And I feel like because B2C is so much broader and so like massive, like a lot of companies also work outside of the US. Like, I wonder if like those kinds of audits would even be possible with some of those organizations. Like, can you imagine auditing Nike with this process? Like, I can't imagine all, and who knows, like you said Walmart maybe, but it's like, will Walmart

Erik25:06Yeah. No, totally.

Kyrill25:14past that whole process when you think about it with all the things you mentioned about how they need to recycle, need to encourage people to commute. I mean, I don't know what other specifics are involved with it, but it's interesting. I wonder if there is one like that in Canada. Yeah.

Dario25:29I was just Googling it right now. I think so. Like it's not giving me like a clear answer, but I haven't like I haven't really seen other companies like other production companies. No better businesses. That's something completely different. That's probably the most useless like thing you could do is the BBB has like no impact whatsoever on anything.

Kyrill25:42I've seen the Better Business Bureau. I know, I know, I'm just curious just to…

Erik25:53Yes, I agree, Mm -hmm, yeah, yeah.

Kyrill25:55Yeah, I've always wondered.

Dario25:57Yeah, it's dumb. Like, I remember making an account on it just cuz and then they're like, if you want to get like the official official one, you got to pay for it. I'm like, what am I paying for at the end of the day? So if someone doesn't like me, they can go there and complain about me. Like, what's this even there for? But yeah, it does seem that they have it in Canada. So maybe we should look into it, Kirill, after this episode.

Erik26:09yeah.

Kyrill26:09and giving them money for

Erik26:14Yeah, totally. Yeah, and I think that Beakrub's trying to

Kyrill26:21Or maybe if there is one, why not?

Erik26:23Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've, like when we became a B Corp, it was, it happened at the same time that we kind of upgraded a little bit of our gear, upgraded a little bit of our portfolio and then revamped our website. So it's hard to really trace what led to what, but we doubled the year that we became a B Corp. I very much don't think that was the only factor, but I think it was a factor.

Kyrill26:47That's great.

Erik26:52And I have had, since we became a B -Corp, I've had at least a dozen people explicitly express to us that one of the reasons they wanted to reach out to us was because we were. Which I was, yeah, I'm very interested in. Because I have, I really appreciate all the values myself, but I wouldn't personally do that. I would be like, I need a good quality product and I need to make sure that

Kyrill26:52It helps.

Erik27:21like within the cost that I need it to be. But I think that in the mindset of larger companies, there's more internal pressures to meet some sort of value audit of adhering to making sure everyone feels good about how companies are spending their money. So when they bring in outside sources, they're going to use those as factors for those decisions.

Dario27:47That was probably the deciding factor for them, right? When it came to you, because they probably were looking at two other ones and maybe they weren't B Corps and you were and like the portfolios were good, you know? So they were like, okay, we can't make a decision. Prices might be the same or whatever. And they're like, okay, well, this one's a B Corp. So the other ones aren't, that could have been a deciding factor.

Kyrill27:47I… Yeah.

Erik27:54Mm

Erik28:06Yeah,

Kyrill28:08One thing I'm curious though about is that, like, mean, you're, obviously have a physical space. You guys have a, like a place of business that you, where you conduct in. How would this certified B Corp work for organizations like ours, which are more remote, right? Cause there's a lot of companies, a lot of production companies work in that model where they work remotely, they work from home.

Erik28:09Absolutely.

Dario28:32Well, technically we're not remote on Google Maps, Kirill. So that's what you're forgetting.

Kyrill28:36Well, yeah, yeah, but a lot of companies are technically remote, right? So I'm assuming that this isn't necessarily something for them or is this something that is trying to kind of like break its way into that as well? I'm curious about.

Erik28:36Yeah.

Dario28:52Well no, Kyril, he said they don't show up to your workplace unless you're like massive. So… As long as you're not that big.

Erik28:57Yeah.

Kyrill28:58Well, that's what I was asking about. That's what I was asking about. It's like, how do you measure it from a remote perspective versus, you know, like a company that you're…

Dario29:05Just make guesses, they're not gonna come to your room and double check that you've been throwing the batteries in the right garbage can.

Erik29:11Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well, it's

Kyrill29:11Well, that's what I'm saying. I'm like wondering what it is, like the parameters for one versus the other. Like, is it a different set of rules is what I'm getting at, Dario. That's essentially what I'm asking.

Erik29:21It actually is, yeah. Yeah, it is different set of rules. And it's both easier and harder because it's easier in the sense of there's certain things that you can't get docked on because it's like, don't have an impact. can try and dock about this in this way, but I don't know where the source of the energy coming through this apartment building is or whatever.

Kyrill30:36wow.

Erik30:46like completely irrelevant to a company like ours. So, yeah.

Kyrill30:51Yeah, that's what I was asking about. for example, you were saying, do you encourage people to commute? Where it's like, mean, we technically work from home. My commute is from the bedroom to the office. It's a different kind of parameter, technically speaking, right? But yeah, I guess it'll vary drastically.

Dario31:10In that case, you're walking into your office, so technically you are commuting.

Kyrill31:13But he said that you won't get a point for that technically, right? So that's the thing. Will we get a point for that? Do we get like plus 10 points for working from home? Like that's technically great for the environment.

Dario31:16They don't know though. They don't know.

Erik31:17Well, yeah, it depends, you know? Yeah.

Dario31:23Listen, that's it.

Erik31:26Yeah, I think it'd be things like, for instance, it'd be something like, when we go out and do a shoot with a client, are you carpooling or are you taking two separate cars to go to the shoot with the client? And then if it's like, say, yeah, yeah, so if you say yes, then it'll be like, okay, cool, well then you get .25 points or something like that. So yeah, there's little things that'll stack up like that.

Kyrill31:40Man, every car is a point deduction.

Dario31:54I'm just gonna ask ChatGPT to help me score the highest possible score on this test. Feed it to PDF, get the answers, gotcha.

Kyrill31:58Hahaha!

Erik31:59yeah, no, totally.

Dario32:41really?

Kyrill32:42Wow, they're strict.

Dario32:44Have seen those videos where people do like job interviews and they'll have like JGPT open and it'll be recording what the question is and then it'll like create the answer and the person starts reading the answer and the interviewer is like, yeah, that's really good. Like you tell them like very impressed and everything.

Kyrill32:56I've seen that, yeah. It's wild.

Erik32:56wow.

Kyrill33:06that, yeah, I guess it depends on what it is, but yeah, I've seen those.

Erik33:06Yeah.

Dario33:09should do that. We're gonna do that, Carol, when we do this thing.

Kyrill33:14I don't think it'll work like that because what Erik is saying is that you have to provide all these different documents, like your financial statements you were saying. What other temperate documents would they be asking for aside from financial statements? Emails?

Erik33:26I mean, yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. They need to look at every email, every password. They're not kidding. Yeah, it is. It is mostly. Yeah, no, it is. It is mostly like financial or they'll like one. If you have like agreements with independent contractors, they might actually like show us that agreement, you know, and like what are like what are expectations for

Dario33:27It's private, you can't show that. Credit card numbers.

Kyrill33:33That's what I was like starting to wonder.

Erik33:53how you communicate certain aspects of like there's you can get a point for if you hire on an independent contractor and you are transparent with them about how much the total project costs that you're working on is so then you're not like yeah it's it's pretty it's very robust and you have to like prove that you share that with people which is pretty interesting so then it'll be like it'll be like all right

Kyrill34:16wow.

Erik34:22we worked on a $10 ,000 project, but then we paid everyone who worked on it minimum wage. it's just like, yeah, you're not going to get like great points for that. But then additionally, they're going to ask like, do the people who got the minimum wage, do they know that it was $10 ,000? You know, so then like they'll, they'll kind of like audit audit that. yeah, yeah. So it's kind of like, it's kind of like, yeah, it's like, it's like maybe

Dario34:43I don't want my freelancers to know that information. Why do they need to know that?

Kyrill34:51It's an odd thing to require. It's an odd thing to require.

Erik34:52Maybe I don't want to get a point for that one, you know.

Dario34:54Dude, thank God Toronto's not progressive so we won't be seeing that here anytime soon.

Erik34:59Yeah, yeah, we'll see. We'll see.

Kyrill35:00The thing with that is that it's mean, like every, yeah, it's kind of like, it's a little bit interesting how they're kind of like trying to force like everything to be like, here's my entire business model that you like, here are our financials, here are our statements. It's almost like, here's my skirt, let me lift it up for you. Do I get a point for that? Like essentially that's what it's almost sounding like.

Dario35:04It's all too private. Like I

Erik35:07Yeah, I know.

Dario35:22Hahaha

Erik35:24Yeah. Yeah. I mean, essentially, essentially it is. Yeah.

Dario35:27But I guess if you just do it the one time. But I guess once you get the certification, you just renew it every year, right? That's it? don't have – every three – Okay.

Erik35:35Three years. Well, you renew it every year, but then every three years they come back and they ask you to lift your skirt again.

Dario35:42my god, okay, wow.

Kyrill35:43My god, it's not a one -time thing there cuz I was just thinking to myself as you grow a business

Dario35:46Yeah, I thought it was like a driver's license. You know, get it once and that's it. You just renew it every five years.

Erik35:51Yeah, no. Yeah, it's just kind of like, all right, let's like, let's see what you swept under the rug this time, you know, so it's like, no, you you put the toxic waste in there, okay, you're losing the certain, you know, and stuff. yeah, it's a, yeah.

Kyrill36:06I

Dario36:07You threw the AA batteries from the lab into the trash. that's it, it's over.

Erik36:14Yep, yep, exactly.

Kyrill36:14It's over. So how many points do you need to pass necessarily? Is it like out of 100 or is it like 30 out of 40?

Erik36:23Yeah, you need, I believe it's 80, you need 80 and you can kind of like get those from a bunch of different places. But you can also like, can be, you can kind of almost do nothing, like barely anything more environmentally focused and you can be like amazing to your employees and you'll pass, you know. So you can kind of choose things from different categories. It's not like, okay, you have to do everything else. Yeah.

Dario36:46I treat Karel very well, so I think we'll pass.

Erik36:53But yeah, mean, like, they'll ask like, all right, like, what, like, what benefits do you have with your employees? Or like, what, like, how do you like communicate to them? And like, what's your expectations for like, time off and things like that? So I think there's different things that just not going to work for different companies. But then other other points will be like, okay, yeah, that's kind of something that we're already doing. So like, let's put that down.

Dario37:16Probably easier if you're a smaller company because there's less, I think once you get bigger, gets a lot trickier. Like it's just Carol and I, so like it'd probably be very easy to answer a lot of those questions.

Kyrill37:18Yeah, so that was one

Erik37:29Yeah, no, for

Kyrill37:29Also I'm wondering, do they interview any of the subcontractors that you work with to kind of figure out, because you said how do you communicate with your employees? How do you communicate with your freelancers? Is that an aspect of it as well, or were they interview people or no? Or they just take your word for

Erik37:48Yeah, they do. No, they do. I believe we had when we first went through, we had one contractor that they talked to and then they talked to one of our clients as well. So, yeah, that's, yeah. And that's the thing is just like, there's so many things that are like it, but this, this one is like, they're actually going to look, you know, so which is, which is cool. Yeah. It's legit. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Dario38:11Legit that's how you know it's legit because they actually check

Kyrill38:13They're really looking. They're really looking up the skirt. The flashlight and everything, you

Dario38:16Yeah, yeah.

Erik38:17Yeah, they're really shining a flashlight.

Dario38:21Let's move on to something else. We were just talking about teams. So how big is your

Erik38:23Yeah.

Erik38:30Yeah, we have a mix of employees and contractors. So we have two employees other than myself. And then we have a group of regular contractors that we work with. There's

Dario38:46Now, contractors or freelancers or like are they the same for

Erik38:51it's, it's, mean, we use the term contractor, but, yeah, we have a variety of people that will pull on kind of out of blue. be like a project here and there, but then we have some independent contractors that we will work with typically every single week, you know? So, but they're balancing other projects too. And they like being contractors in the sense that they have that flexibility.

Dario39:58Okay, so who are the two? You said you had two employees then,

Kyrill40:02What are their rules?

Erik40:02Yeah, yeah, so definitely I mean as a smaller company we everyone wears a lot of hats but we have Elaine and then Cheetah. Elaine is a content manager and so they'll do like editing and animation and a little bit of project management, a little bit of production assistance, a little bit of assistant directing, kind of some just like additional filling of roles.

Dario41:51Okay,

Kyrill41:51And that's a freelance role that they're networking for

Erik41:56Yeah, yeah, and it is pretty freelance. I think the only general consistent expectation I have is we'll meet once a month and then I'll just say, hey, let's fill out the social media calendar. Show me what you're gonna post here and then I'll give feedback on it. I'm like, yep, that looks good. And then as far as the networking goes, essentially they get a hourly

Dario43:01How successful is she usually in at least landing you the lead?

Kyrill43:03Yeah.

Erik43:08Good, yeah, she's doing really well. She's got a pretty robust background in high -end fashion sales, which I didn't necessarily think was going to translate well, but it does. so, especially in our community, it's kind of an expectation that we'll show up at some spaces. You can't really get much out of sales with in -person networking

Dario44:41So you hired her with the intention of hiring a salesperson or was it just an additional thing that you're like, juggle the sales. Can you do some sales for

Erik44:50Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like we need the social media, you know, like, but very passively. It's not something that we need to be super active with. I don't really generate a lot of sales through social media, but when but with the sales, it's kind of like if it leads to a contract, we just would not have had otherwise. And it's like a low hourly impact.

Kyrill46:31I have a question then. If she's been able to get you like a good amount of work and it's been consistent and she's handling all your social media aspect, why keep her on a freelance kind of like a relationship? Why not bring her in full time? Like it sounds like if she comes in full time, like she'll be unleashed, she'll do quite a bit for you. Or is it kind of been like financially it hasn't made

Dario46:53Maybe because it's networking sales, like it's, cause if you're just going to networking events, it's different from doing something like direct sales. Maybe that's why.

Erik47:02Yeah, yeah, totally. It's kind of like, I have no success from cold outreach, like doesn't work. But then, yeah, I've tried it for like a variety of iterations. I do not think it works now. I think it worked really well for us maybe three years ago, but it's different now. Like I will wake up in the morning personally, and I will do and I'll look at my email and I'll be

Dario47:14Have you tried it? You must have tried it, right?

Erik47:32Okay, yeah, have like 30 emails from random crap. People just like reach out and be like, oh, if you talk to us, we'll like generate 2X sales for you and things like that. Or yeah, yeah, or just people who are like, oh yeah, you can outsource editing to us or oh, know, stuff like that. So I don't personally believe that there is a good cold outreach strategy. And we've tried like Google and LinkedIn.

Dario47:42those ones, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get a lot of those, yeah.

Kyrill47:43Hey,

Erik48:02I'll kind of revisit it every year or so. But I think this last round we've done a pretty robust cold outreach campaign too on both email and LinkedIn probably sent out 500 to 600 or so inquiries and nothing came of it. It took a while to find the right email, right good copy that we know that we'd tested in the past that did work for

Dario48:41saturated.

Kyrill48:43So saturated, yeah.

Dario48:47Yeah.

Erik49:03and then I'll tell her to go to three of the five, then these events are like a Thursday at four o 'clock. And so having an employee that will work, like only has to work at odd hours, handfuls of hours here and there, it doesn't quite make sense. And she does kind of like other work that she likes to do. So she wants to the flexibility to say,

Dario49:21Yeah, it doesn't make sense to have them full time.

Kyrill49:22Doesn't make

Erik49:32you know what I got a lot going on this month I only want to go to one or like actually I'm really kind of trying to go hard on sales this month like I want to go to 10 and stuff and so her her consistency of like how much how many leads and how many closes she gets from when she puts the effort in is good enough that I'm like yes scale up and down accordingly

Dario50:25How much do you give her in commission? 10 % or less or

Erik50:29Uh, depends on how she, if it's like purely sourced through like her own genuine connections, then we'll do 15. And then if it's. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, sometimes it goes like she, she did that where she had just like a very personal friend that had his own business and he was like opening up like a cider, um, tap house kind of like tasting room. And so she's

Dario50:39That's pretty high.

Dario50:56nice.

Erik50:59Hey, yeah, like, we're gonna do this. And she pushed that relationship that she had already had before. So I'm like, okay, yeah, that would have come nowhere close to being closed. Like he wasn't even interested or looking at a video, you know, so, so we're before she pushed that. it's like, okay, yeah, let's do 15 % for that. it's, if it's like she's going out to a networking event and just talking with people that was already pre established, then it'd be 10%. Or if she

Dario51:27standard.

Erik51:29Yeah, or she is like just helping me tip the scale to something that we pseudo already sourced, then it'll be 5%. So that's kind of like the sliding scale that we decided upon. And there's a cap. if it's like, I don't remember off the top of my head exactly what it is, but I think it's something like a 2K cap per project or something like that. So yeah. So if

Dario51:43Interesting, okay.

Dario51:56okay.

Erik51:59sell like a hundred thousand dollar project then it doesn't she's not going to get fifteen thousand dollars for that but you know but if it's like something that is because like the cost of producing something that is going to be so much higher that like that chunk that chunk is going to be like really difficult to yeah exactly so yeah

Dario52:14Yeah, it's yeah, your margin. Yeah.

Kyrill52:19Gone.

Kyrill52:23And it's on the first project, right? Or do you do it like, it's only like the first one that she brings in, right? And then if you've built a relationship with the client, does she continue to get a percentage or is that kind of like handed off? I know, but some people have different relationships.

Dario52:26Probably just the first.

Dario52:35No, it's always only on the first Carol.

Erik52:38No, no, it actually, no, it is. Yeah, it is. It diminishes depending on where it came from. So like, for instance, the cider one, when we do our next one, she'll get 5%. And then if we do a third one, she doesn't. like there is like a bit of it because that was like a long standing relationship she had prior. So that's something that it's like, okay, like, like we really appreciate you. Like, you

Kyrill52:53Okay,

Erik53:07have like bringing that on so I want to have you feel continued to feel really incentivized to look for those opportunities because that's going to pan out the best for you. And of course like that just makes the sale so much easier if you already have that personal relationship and stuff. yeah, it kind of leaves a bad taste in someone's mouth. Like for instance, like if it's like, okay, let's do the first project and it's like 5k and then I was like, okay, cool. I'll give you like 15%. Okay. The second project is 20k.

Dario53:22Yeah. What do do for the,

Erik53:36and you get nothing, then it's like, oh, well, shit. So it's good to have a little bit of that. It's same thing, it's like 10 % for the networking, but then, no, not for the second one, yeah.

Dario53:40What do do for the networking ones?

Dario53:46And then 5 % for the second one.

Dario53:52So only for like the close relationship ones, it's the second project they get something.

Erik53:59Yeah, yeah, exactly. she also like for the networking events, know, sometimes it costs money to go to these. It'll be like, all right, like $40 ticket or something like that. And so we'll cover that and then I'll give her a little bit of hourly on top of it. So because I do want her to go and even if we don't necessarily immediately land a sale from something like it's good to have this consistent person out in the community.

Kyrill54:55Yeah, it's good to get yourself embedded in some of these organizations or like, like marketing communities, even sometimes like that, where they have events consistently. And then you go there, you get to know the people. And then even though there might not be something that yields a result right away over time, you build enough of a relationship where they know you as like the video guy, someone that they can come, come to and help. And, and then eventually when a potential big project can come through, then you can come in

Erik55:27Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Kyrill55:53it really works for you in that sense. You've invested in a person who builds those networks within these events. And because of that, they get to know you through her, right? So in business, you have to find a good balance of everything. Google can only get you so far. Sometimes people just need to see a face that they like, you know? So.

Erik56:04Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Erik56:12Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And like we're, we're having like a meeting later today with like a very major local book bookstore chain that she like just met at the networking event. was like, wait, what? You met the CEO at that? Like, why was the CEO at that? And you know, and so, but it's just like, I never would have gotten in touch with the CEO of this company just randomly online, you know.

Kyrill57:18Out of curiosity also, what are these specific networking events that you have found a lot of success in? Is it like marketing organizations, advertising organizations, or like is there anything specific that you look for in these events?

Erik57:34Yeah, mean, there's tons of different types of flavors of events. There's B Corp networking events that we've gone to and then things that are similar to that in nature. There's marketing events or it's like marketing company meetups. She will go to emerging women professionals.

Kyrill58:11Yeah

Erik58:33or something like that. We're not just talking to someone who started their cafe like a few months ago. So yeah, there's a variety of really good spaces for it. And a lot of the time we don't necessarily immediately just make some sort of sale. show up and say, hey, here's a card. I need a video. Let's hire you and stuff. It's more so, I really, really like you. And I'm friends with like someone high up at this other company. Let me make an introduction, you know, just because like I want to help you

Kyrill59:18Yeah, the key is to help connect people and try to help them first before looking for them to help you. That's what I found is the best way to kind of like get it started within these, when you're networking, but sometimes it's difficult. And I've found these other organizations that are very like focused on networking and like building relationships between companies. But to be part of those specific groups, they have like mandatory like recommendations as well that you have to have, which I was

Erik59:56Yeah, exactly.

Erik01:00:04Yeah, and I was part of a group like that for about a year and I had high hopes for it at the beginning, but then I think over time I found that our credibility was starting to get hurt, you know, because it's just like, I'm like, I'm not recommending you this company because I actually think it's a good fit for you. I'm recommending it because I'm worried about repercussions of not recommending them, you know? So yeah, and I think it works if you're in

Kyrill01:00:18That's,

Kyrill01:00:25I have

Kyrill01:00:30think I know which organization.

Erik01:00:32Yeah, I think if you're part of a group like that where you genuinely think that everyone else in the group is really good at their shit, then awesome. And if not, then it's like, you kind of trap yourself into being someone who is going to rapidly tank your credibility with your community.

Kyrill01:00:53Exactly. I went, I attended like one of those intro meetings just to kind of see what it was about because I heard a lot of good things from other organizations and I think it really varied on like what circle of people you're in. Not every circle like you said is, has got A plus people there. It's like I'm not going to feel comfortable recommending people to others in my network if I don't 100 % trust them as well. after that meeting, I was just like, you know what? I don't think this is going to be helpful for us.

Erik01:01:24Yeah, no, for sure.

Dario01:01:28Okay, I think we can end it here. guys, if you want to find Erik, just go to bridgecitymedia .com and your socials are at Bridge City Media. So make sure to follow him there as well. And again, he's based out of Portland, Oregon. So if you've got a shoot there, make sure to reach out to him. So Erik, thank you for coming on.

Kyrill01:01:31Yeah, we got a whole hour.

Kyrill01:01:41Ready?

Erik01:01:50Yeah, thanks so much for having me. It's good to be