Riding Tandem

Transcription
Kyle Ranney
00:00:25 Part of the market. Like, you're going to have to do some of the things that they want you to do.

Vivian Kvam
00:00:29 Welcome back to this episode of Tandem Works Works. I'm Vivian. Excited to be here with you all today and have a great conversation with Kyle Ranney, who I have here. Welcome.
Kyle Ranney
00:01:11 Thanks.

Vivian Kvam
00:01:11
I think this is going to be fun because I've known you for a while.

Kyle Ranney
00:01:14 Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:01:14
So we can dig up like, all the dirt. Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:01:16
Maybe don't go all the way back.
Vivian Kvam
00:01:18
But I first met you when I was actually also doing video production, which is what you do now. And I was in desperate need of some editing help, and you came through with flying colors, and I think we maybe met. I feel like I might have made the story up in my head. I feel like I met you at one point in the parking lot, like behind the studio or something and gave you like a hard drive there. So it felt like a drug hand off or something.

Kyle Ranney

00:01:46
That's probably right.

Vivian Kvam
00:01:47
Yeah, it was always handing off hard drives back then.
Kyle Ranney
00:01:51
We meet what do you call it? I think everybody was super excited because it was like that moment where the moon goes over.
Vivian Kvam
00:01:59
Oh, was it that day?
Kyle Ranney
00:02:00
And I think it was on that day that we met. I don't know.
Vivian Kvam
00:02:06
That could be.
Kyle Ranney
00:02:07
I don't know who I was with, but I remember I had an ND filter so I could look up.
Vivian Kvam
00:02:13
Yeah. so that's funny because a lot of videographers photographers like, I don't need those special glasses. Nerds. Right. We all just pulled out our filters out of our kits, were like, oh, she's my turn, all the way up.
Kyle Ranney
00:02:24
And it won't burn your eyeball out when you look at it.

Vivian Kvam
00:02:27
Yeah. So since then and most recently, you've had a really big life change. Tell us about baby.
Kyle Ranney

00:02:34
Well, we had our son on January 5.

Vivian Kvam
00:02:38
Yeah. So how old today then? Not very old, almost a month. Oh, my goodness.

Kyle Ranney
00:02:44
Today is the 2 February.

Vivian Kvam
00:02:47
2 February?

Kyle Ranney
00:02:48
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:02:49

Kyle Ranney
00:02:51
Yes.

Vivian Kvam
00:02:52
So how's it going?
Kyle Ranney
00:02:53
It's going pretty good.

Vivian Kvam
00:02:54

First baby

Kyle Ranney
00:02:55
First baby. I feel tired all the time. I hear that's how it goes, but it wasn't like what people made it people made it sound worse than it is, I think.

Vivian Kvam
00:03:09
You think so?

Kyle Ranney
00:03:10

Yeah.
Vivian Kvam
00:03:11
Tell me how's it going, especially. What were your expectations and how is it turning everybody's?

Kyle Ranney
00:03:16
Like, well, your life is over and you're not going to sleep anymore. But I think I don't know. I'm excited because I have all these things that I want to do in the future, and I'm just like I'm just sitting here in the middle of the night and the kids up and I'm like, wow, this sucks. But someday it's not going to suck, not least in that way. And then you can go camping and do fun things with your kid or help them experience life the way you thought you did when you were a kid. That's super neat.
Vivian Kvam
00:03:47
That is cool. How is Kvam, your wife, feeling about it? Does she have the same perspective? This is easier than I thought.
Kyle Ranney
00:03:53
I think she's also tired, probably more tired because she does way more work than I do. And I don't know, I think she doesn't want to go back to work. But maternity leave is fun.

Vivian Kvam
00:04:03
It is hard, I would imagine, when you're like, oh, they're here, and you just want to hold and snuggle and sleep.

Kyle Ranney
00:04:09
Yeah. So we'll see how that goes.

Vivian Kvam
00:04:12
Yeah. I'm curious, as a business owner and running your own video production company and doing video production work, what was it like preparing for a baby? Coming as also the owner and running your business, were there any special things you had to think about or does business go as usual?

Kyle Ranney
00:04:32
I didn't book as much business for January just because I knew I would be busy and not want to work, and I kind of don't want to work right now, actually. I think leading up to it, I was super busy trying to get certain things done, and I didn't get all that stuff done. And so now it feels like it's a bit of a burden to try to still get it done.

Vivian Kvam
00:04:55
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
00:04:56
I'm not really behind on anything, but I'm just like, lacking the motivation to sit and edit and go do stuff like that.

Vivian Kvam
00:05:04
Do you feel like you're lacking the motivation because you're just tired from up through the night and things like that? Or is it more of, like, you're wanting to spend time with him?

Kyle Ranney
00:05:12
I think it's a mix of that. And at the same time, too, I also feel motivated because I want to keep growing my business and what I'm doing. So I can afford things.

Vivian Kvam
00:05:22
Yeah. Do you feel like priorities do shift quite a bit? I mean, everybody talks about that. I don't have kids, but everyone talks about that baby arrives, you hold them in your arms in the hospital, and it's like life changes.

Kyle Ranney
00:05:36
I didn't have that. Yeah, no, I didn't have that.

Vivian Kvam
00:05:40
No weeping.
Kyle Ranney
00:05:41
I was waiting for that and it didn't happen.

Vivian Kvam
00:05:44
Very practical.
Kyle Ranney
00:05:46
Many of my goals are still they seem to align with everything. I don't feel like all of a sudden I need to sell all my stuff to do other things, or huge momentum change. I mean, I feel more motivated now to purchase a house and do family dad things, but I don't feel like I have to cut off a part of myself and just throw it in a trash.
Vivian Kvam
00:06:12
Well, that's good. That's a win, I suppose, keeping all the body parts for today. That's good. What about as you were planning, knowing babies coming, you know, for nine months, right. That baby is on the way. Did that shift anything within your business aside from not booking in January? Were you thinking about long term? Like, was a house already on your radar or did you put anything new on, take anything off?

Kyle Ranney
00:06:39
I mean, we kind of saved up an influx of cash, but other than that, we didn't really adjust that much, I think.

Vivian Kvam
00:06:46
Yeah, I like that you're able to just I guess I think some people assume that life changes, like that means everything's going to go through a massive shift, but it sounds like you're just kind of incorporating it in as part of your life.

Kyle Ranney
00:06:59
Yeah, for sure. We have to figure new things out, like insurance and stuff, but it's not like the end of the road.
Vivian Kvam
00:07:06
How do you deal with insurance as your business owner and K teaches. Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:07:11
Yeah, we're still actually need to figure that out, but I think we're just going to do something on the marketplace for the kid because you can I'm not insured through Kvam's work.

Vivian Kvam
00:07:20
OKvam.

Kyle Ranney
00:07:21
She's covered by her employer. But it's like a mortgage to put me and a kid on there. I mean, it really is. It's like a lot of money. So I think that's the hard thing about being self employed is that we don't have all these benefits and we have extra taxes and all that stuff to figure out.

Vivian Kvam
00:07:37
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:07:38
But I think I'm just on my own plan on a short term plan, and then I think the kid will probably go on marketplace, see what's available there. I have no idea.

Vivian Kvam
00:07:48
Yeah, it's interesting. I think that's one of the biggest things that holds people back from pursuing a business, being self employed is benefits and insurance.

Kyle Ranney
00:07:59
Yeah, for sure.

Vivian Kvam
00:08:00
Has that always been on your mind? Have you been employed somewhere you've had benefits, insurance and gave those up?
Kyle Ranney

00:08:06
No, because I always had odd jobs until I kind of well, not odd jobs, but like college jobs. So I never really had the full time benefits. I guess I didn't know what those look like. But I also don't feel like I'm missing out on anything right now. But I'm also pretty healthy. I don't have any ongoing health issues, so I don't really have to deal with insurance really that much. I've been to the doctor like one time in the last three years.
Vivian Kvam
00:08:37
Is that a conscience effort to focus on your health or do you think you just have amazing genes?

Kyle Ranney
00:08:42
I think it just happened. I think I'm lucky.
Vivian Kvam
00:08:44
Yeah, that's definitely an area where I have thought actually a lot about. I'm a fairly healthy person, I would say at baseline, like genetically, but we still get to make life choices with what we do, with our bodies and what we eat and how we move it and things like that. I have thought a lot about focusing on my health in order to ensure that I'm the best I can be. I mean, obviously things can pop up out of nowhere, but that I am the best I can be because I am running a business and I need to be able to show up there well. So I do kind of think of it as part of my health plan, is also part of my business plan, in a sense.
Kyle Ranney
00:09:25
Yeah, for sure.
Vivian Kvam
00:09:26
Because if I can't be there and show up well, even if I can show up, but if I'm not showing up well, especially having team, a team as well, I just feel like it does a disservice to them and to me and to the business. And so I just made a conscious effort there.

Kyle Ranney
00:09:43
I think healthy people produce better results and they're more pleasant to be around, probably.
Vivian Kvam
00:09:49
I hope so. I do think about that though. I mean, people joke around about being hangry as a quick, easy example, right? But people who are hungry, hungry are kind of angry and they're not fun to be around. And then you end up saying something you weren't going to say. It can really take a toll on your business if you're showing up always hungry. Which actually it's funny to bring this up because that was one of my big things is I would not eat. Like running the production company when I first met you, I would skip eating all of the time and blood sugars would drop. And then you're just going through the up and down roller coaster of that. And I didn't think a whole lot about it, but now that I have focused more on, oKvam, take a rest, sit down and eat, don't do something at the same time. It has changed my health. It's changed my mental capacity and ability. It's just such a simple thing. Like you should probably eat some food.

Kyle Ranney

00:10:47
Absolutely.

Vivian Kvam
00:10:48
Yeah. We hired someone at one point to make sure that I ate. Wow, that was part of her job description.

Kyle Ranney
00:10:55
Who did that?

Vivian Kvam
00:10:57
I think it was Jessica. We hired a girl named Jessica at the time and I think MiKvamla, who's my business partner now but she also worked for that production company for a time as well. I think she also helped with that often. I don't think that was not part of her job description. She's just like, that where she's like, hey, you can take care of yourself. But that was part of this gal's position, was to go buy, like, fruits and vegetables and have them on hand and then to make sure that there was, like, an Apple sitting next to my computer. Because that was not her sole job, just to be clear. But it was a piece of her job description.

Kyle Ranney
00:11:33
Sounds like a fun summer intern.

Vivian Kvam
00:11:35
Yeah. Go buy groceries and make sure Vivian eats.

Kyle Ranney
00:11:39
I wonder what people do now that assistants are virtual.

Vivian Kvam
00:11:42
Right? Like, I ordered you panera. It's showing up.

Kyle Ranney
00:11:45
Yeah. Did they just order on Instacart and send it to your house office?

Vivian Kvam
00:11:49
I think you could. Why not?

Kyle Ranney
00:11:51
And then send you a text saying, hey, there's some blueberries on your porch.

Vivian Kvam
00:11:54
Blueberries. Don't let them freeze when it's the winter time. Yeah. I mean, it sounds kind of silly, but on the one hand, I feel a little bit embarrassed to even say that. But on the flip side, if that's what you need to do, then ask for help. You have to try and figure it all out on your own. Even if it's something that you're like, I should be able to do this. At the time, I wasn't.

Kyle Ranney
00:12:17
Well, I think that's important because there's a lot of industry stuff like working on film sets. And I know there's a big thing in weddings where you have, like, the hangover.

Vivian Kvam
00:12:28
Oh, gosh, yeah.

Kyle Ranney
00:12:29
That's just because you didn't drink enough water during the day.
Vivian Kvam
00:12:31
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
00:12:32
Where you didn't have any breaks. And then on some productions, you have mandatory union breaks and stuff like that. And then they have crafty.

Vivian Kvam
00:12:41
That's an important thing.

Kyle Ranney
00:12:42
You can tell how good a production is by their crafty.

Vivian Kvam
00:12:46
Explain crafty.

Kyle Ranney
00:12:47
For people who don't know, crafty is like craft services. Essentially. It's just catering. Except it can be good or bad.

Vivian Kvam
00:12:55
Sometimes it's like granola bars and water and that's it.

Kyle Ranney
00:12:58
Yeah. And then sometimes they bring in, like, a boutique and you get a huge tarcudu reboard. And it's like, wow, this client really cares because they're putting your physical needs as part of the shoot, which is important.

Vivian Kvam
00:13:13
I mean, when you're doing production work, you're on your feet. You're running around oftentimes you're using your body to make it up. You're down, you're kneeling, you're crawling. You're reaching, you're climbing. It can get very physical. Plus, there's the mental demand of how do I want to light this? What do I want to look like? Is audio working? Are people working together well? Are we on script. Do we need to change the script? Let's change the script on the fly. OKvam, never mind. We decide we want a dog on set. Somebody get me a dog. It can get pretty wild.

Kyle Ranney
00:13:44
It can.

Vivian Kvam
00:13:46
What kind of production are you doing right now? Because I know you've had the commercial side and then you also have Rainy Films, right? Rainey Film Co is what it is online. Is that correct? Yeah. Are you still doing that too, with the weddings?

Kyle Ranney
00:14:00
I don't know if we're going to do any of this here, actually.

Vivian Kvam
00:14:02
Really?

Kyle Ranney
00:14:02
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:14:03
What's that been like?

Kyle Ranney
00:14:05
I don't know. It used to be part of our revenue, but I'm kind of thinking, like, I don't need that anymore.

Vivian Kvam
00:14:13
So you might be leaving the wedding scene.

Kyle Ranney
00:14:15
Might be.

Vivian Kvam
00:14:16

You do some nice work with it.

Kyle Ranney
00:14:18
Yeah, I think it was good for a season. I think I would do it for another couple of years. I'd be oKvam with that. But I don't think it's like a lifetime thing. I don't know. Is it cool to hire a 50 year old to come and shoot your wedding? I don't know.

Vivian Kvam
00:14:35
You're a long way from 50. To be clear, people can't see you right now. They're probably picturing an old, old man.

Kyle Ranney
00:14:42
Yeah, I'm only 30, so I'm not that old.

Vivian Kvam
00:14:45
But anyway also, by the way, is not that old. As I'm getting closer and closer and.

Kyle Ranney
00:14:49
Closer, I'm like, it's not people freak out about their age and stuff.

Vivian Kvam
00:14:56
So yes, maybe they would like to hire a 50 year old.

Kyle Ranney
00:14:59
Yeah, maybe.

Vivian Kvam
00:15:00
I get it, though, I feel like so MiKvam and I also shot weddings for a long time, used to do video. Then we only did photography. And there's a piece of it that I still, to be completely honest, will drive by this is going to sound crazy, but we drive by somebody else's wedding, and there's clearly a photographer out there, and I get a little twinge of envy. And I'm slightly upset that they didn't hire me, even though we don't shoot weddings anymore.

Kyle Ranney
00:15:29
Oh, there it is.

Vivian Kvam
00:15:31
It's sad, really, when you think about it. I'm like, man, I need to work on that a little bit.

Kyle Ranney
00:15:36
Maybe you should do a couple of a year, just maybe satisfy that whole.

Vivian Kvam
00:15:42
I do miss it a little bit, but just we had to make that decision. Like you're saying, like, long term sustainability. Is this something we want to do all the way through? What's kind of the exit strategy for us with weddings? And frankly, we're actually not shooting even photography as much. We still are, but just even commercial photography has become less of a part of the business lately.

Kyle Ranney
00:16:08
Is that on purpose, or do you think it's just a gradual shift?

Vivian Kvam

00:16:11
Well, letting go of the weddings was for sure on purpose, and we're no longer shooting families photography. We're not doing senior photography. So right now we've retained the commercial photography piece, but we've definitely walked it back, and we're not promoting it. We're not putting like, marketing dollars into it. It's more as it comes, and we enjoy it. And I believe we still do a great job at it. But I'm not sure exactly where the future will go with that. If we'll spin that back up or if it's on like, kind of a temporary pause or if it will be something that we transition. We're not sure. We don't have all the answers yet. Kyle, so how are you feeling about the weddings for you? What are your thoughts with it right now?

Kyle Ranney
00:16:56
I like shooting them. I just don't like doing the editing. Not anymore. Not motivated to do it.

Vivian Kvam
00:17:03
Have you thought about outsourcing it?

Kyle Ranney
00:17:05
Yes.

Vivian Kvam
00:17:06
Not feeling it.

Kyle Ranney
00:17:07
That is just a huge undertaking and trying to find a person that is qualified and can kind of do what you want them to do. Most of the time they just kind of do what they want to do. It's interesting. I don't know. I got to explore that one.

Vivian Kvam
00:17:23
Yeah, it is interesting to figure things like that out with the families for a while. We had a fabulous young woman who came on for about a year and a half ish, I want to say, and she essentially took over the families, and so we thought maybe we'll keep this as a piece and she'll just really run most of it. She did a great job, and she's still shooting today, but she's gone back to do her own thing as well, or now instead, which is great. We love seeing people follow their passion and do what they want, but then we were like, oKvam, now we're sort of back in this. What do we do with this? It's a successful piece of the business, but we're not sure that MiKvamla and I really are wanting to hold on to it. So now, yeah, we're back in that. Hire somebody, push pause. What are we doing with it? Because it is difficult to find the right person and the right fit.

Kyle Ranney
00:18:22
It's hard to get people that want to stay around and do that.

Vivian Kvam
00:18:25
Sure. Because they're talented.

Kyle Ranney

00:18:27
Well, yeah, it's like when you hire creative as, like, an employee role, they'll do it and then eventually the like, I could just start my own business.

Vivian Kvam
00:18:34
Yeah, sometimes. And I think you have to be as a business owner, you either have to be oKvam with that or you definitely have to be building them up maybe from the start. Right. Where you're bringing them in pretty green and you're training them and then making sure that you're compensating.

Kyle Ranney
00:18:52
Well, yeah, I've stayed away from that model just because I don't feel passionate about trying to retain talent, it's own.

Vivian Kvam
00:19:02
Skill to be able to train people. Yeah, absolutely.

Kyle Ranney
00:19:05
I feel like I'm good at walking people through stuff, but as my business model, I don't want to do a volume kind of business.

Vivian Kvam
00:19:14
What kind of projects in that are you excited about right now? What are you working on, and what are you helping businesses accomplish through?

Kyle Ranney
00:19:21
I don't really have a lot of projects right now.

Vivian Kvam
00:19:23
Sure, yeah. With the baby.

Kyle Ranney
00:19:24
Normally I'm working on documentaries, and then I do a lot of testimonial work for local business. Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:19:32
Talk to me about the testimonial side, because I know you're kind of passionate about that. Doing testimonies.

Kyle Ranney
00:19:38
Yeah. I think a big measure of success for what I do is when a client comes back and tells me, hey, that video you did raised us or made this much sales, and you're like, wow, I should charge more.

Vivian Kvam
00:19:54
That is cool, though, right? Like, you help them reach a goal.

Kyle Ranney
00:19:56
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:19:57
How do you figure out what their goals are before you go into producing a video?

Kyle Ranney
00:20:02
Well, it's kind of hard because a lot of times people are reaching out to you and saying, I need this, I need that. And sometimes I think they don't need that, or they maybe need something else. And so sometimes that's hard to navigate.

Vivian Kvam
00:20:14
Sure.

Kyle Ranney
But I think most of the people I end up working with kind of like I try to just find people that kind of already get it. I don't have to rewrite a book or reinvent the wheel for them, because sometimes some businesses, I think, just don't get it.

Vivian Kvam
00:20:35
What is helpful to you? Like, if a business owner is listening right now and they're thinking, oKvam, I might want to do video, how can they prepare themselves to be ready to do that, to have a conversation with someone like you?

Kyle Ranney
00:20:47
I wrote this in my notes, but I think one of the biggest things I see with small to medium sized businesses, I'm talking, like, under 100 people.

Vivian Kvam
00:20:54
Sure.

Kyle Ranney
00:20:55
Like, maybe under 30 people is that the owner or the founder? They think they need to be the person on video, and they're totally not the right person to be on video.

Vivian Kvam
00:21:09
Sure.

Kyle Ranney
00:21:09
And I think a lot of people have a hard time letting go of that, and I totally get it because there's things that I do that I should totally delegate, but I'm just like, I can't and it holds you back.

Vivian Kvam
00:21:21
Do you think they have a desire to be there because they want people to know I'm the owner and I should put my face out there, and so that's my desire to be on there?

Kyle Ranney
00:21:31
Well, obviously, they started the business. They're passionate about what they do. Absolutely. It's just they might be the best communicator.

Vivian Kvam
00:21:40
Yeah. So what do you suggest then? That maybe they have someone else from their team hiring talent, and maybe they're like, part of Broll or what's your solution to that?

Kyle Ranney
00:21:49
Well, I think it depends on what kind of content you want to do. I mean, I see a lot of businesses today they're hiring creators to make everything. Like, for YouTube, a lot of businesses have a YouTube person for their channel, like Rei, like a character, basically.

Vivian Kvam
00:22:09
Like the geico, little gecko.

Kyle Ranney
00:22:11
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:22:13
Doesn't have to be animated.

Kyle Ranney
00:22:14
These companies have this person is making content, but they've hired this person to do that and they're, like, really good at it. And they may not be with that company forever, but they come in and they spearhead it for a certain amount of time.

Vivian Kvam
00:22:28
It makes me think of Flow from Progressive.

Kyle Ranney
00:22:31
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:22:32
I'm clearly on an insurance kick, I guess.

Kyle Ranney
00:22:34
Yeah. Like, if they put the CEO for Progressive on a commercial, nobody would buy it. But Flow is someone you can relate to.

Vivian Kvam
00:22:41
So for a really small business owner who might not be able to hire in talent because that clearly comes with a price tag, would it be a good solution to look to their team and see if there's somebody with a kind of a video personality, a dynamic personality they could use?

Kyle Ranney
00:22:57
Yeah, you could look for someone on your team, or you could look to make different kinds of videos that maybe you don't need a strong, like, front person for.

Vivian Kvam
00:23:08
Talk me through some of the different types of videos you're seeing that are successful for the smaller businesses right now.

Kyle Ranney
00:23:16
Obviously, TikTok and Instagram are pretty big right now.

Vivian Kvam
00:23:19
Everybody is like, I need a TikTok.

Kyle Ranney
00:23:21
I need an Instagram and YouTube reels. But there's a lot of, like, silent content where nobody how does that work? I see a lot of woodworking people, they don't really talk in their videos. They just do the thing and they film it. And a lot of times they just go live and do it. So a lot of people just go live when they're doing what they're doing.

Vivian Kvam
00:23:43
To show the process of doing their woodwork or maybe baking or cake decorating.

Kyle Ranney
00:23:49
Or I was explaining this to there was a guy in Malvern at like, a church. He turned into an art studio. And I'm like, hey, man, why aren't you just streaming to TikTok or YouTube? He's like, you don't know what to talk. Play some music in the background and paint your paintings. People want to see that. And then they'll buy your painting because they watched you. They've been with you through the journey of you creating it, so they're going to feel more of a connection to it. And you didn't say a single word.

Vivian Kvam
00:24:17
Yeah. They're like, part of that story now.

Kyle Ranney
00:24:19
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:24:20
There's a fellow who does he does something like that. His name is Dustin in Omaha. You might have moved now, actually, I think about it. But he would do just beautiful floral arrangements and put together the whole decor for weddings and really set the mood through the table settings and the archways and just a beautiful interior design, basically. And I love to watch. He would just pop on his phone and wouldn't even talk to it, necessarily. Sometimes might comment and would just livestream putting a giant gorgeous bouquet together or an arrangement and I was always fascinated to watch that type of stuff. What if you are in a business where you're like, oKvam, that's great if you do something cool to look at, what about for maybe more service providers? What are you recommending for them right now as far as video goes?

Kyle Ranney
00:25:16
What do you mean by a service provider?

Vivian Kvam
00:25:17
Well, let's say you've got an electrician or a coach or somebody who's offering services as a lawyer or as a mental health provider, things like that.

Kyle Ranney
00:25:29
I mean, I see those things all over TikTok all the time anyway, like doing the same thing. But I think, again, if you feel like you can't talk on camera or you can't voice that, I think you should find people who can for you. And I think that's where testimonials come in super big because who's better to talk about your product than the people who are actually using it, right?

Vivian Kvam
00:25:54
That's true. And we talk all the time about how important reviews are. Just having Google reviews, having reviews on your podcast, side note, feel free to leave a review. I know, but just having those reviews is helpful and so testimonies is part of that. It's a review that you can do in a video format. Are you right now when you do that, are you suggesting that they book like a couple of people to come in all at once or you'll go out and do one at a time? What's a good strategy there?

Kyle Ranney
00:26:26
I have one client that I work for and I shoot testimonials once a month for them.

Vivian Kvam
00:26:30
Really?

Kyle Ranney
00:26:30
And they'll have people come in and it'll be anywhere from one to ten.

Vivian Kvam
Wow.

Kyle Ranney
00:26:36
Maybe sometimes more. And they're just really short. The whole interview is like five minutes, and I cut it down to like two awesome. Three minutes. And they're not like whatever anyone wants to say either. So that's the nice thing about video testimonials is that you can coach people kind of in to what they do. And what I do with this client is like, hey, what was it like before? How did you hear about it? And what's your life like now that you have this product? And then at the end, they all kind of say not like a mission statement, but just like, I do this and because I do this, I'm like this. And there's like a consistency to it. I think I probably did 100 of those last year.
Vivian Kvam
00:27:24
Wow. Maybe not quite 100, but how are they using those?

Kyle Ranney
00:27:28
So it's for a church.

Vivian Kvam
00:27:30
OKvam.

Kyle Ranney
00:27:31
And they show them on Sunday morning and it gets other people to also do that.

Vivian Kvam
00:27:35
That's awesome.

Kyle Ranney
00:27:36
And then they do the same thing and they raise a bunch of money sometimes, right. Doing that.

Vivian Kvam
00:27:42
What a great idea and a nice way to use everyone's time. Well, I think that's. One of the biggest things I've seen in my history with video is that it can take a lot of time for everyone. And so I think a lot of smaller business owners, well, even medium sized business owners, they're like, I don't know that I have the time or this is going to be so much of your time. It's going to be a very hefty bill. So when you can like series things or stack things, you're essentially like blocking the time to have ten people come in or five people to come in. That makes it very efficient. It's a great system that you're using there. I like that.

Kyle Ranney
00:28:20
Yeah. I mean, you really have to do it that way to make it economical.

Vivian Kvam
00:28:23
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:28:24
Otherwise it's like you're paying multiple thousands of dollars every time one person comes in versus getting it all in one. Really getting your bang for your buck.

Vivian Kvam
00:28:35
What kind of advice might you have for a business owner who's maybe not ready to hire yet? They're thinking about it, but they want to kind of dabble in this video space. Are there any tips you might give them as they're just sort of like trying things out, especially, and to be prepared to come to someone like you?

Kyle Ranney
00:28:53
Yeah, I mean, you probably have a cell phone that's capable of making pretty good video.

Vivian Kvam
00:28:58
They have gotten pretty nice.

Kyle Ranney
00:29:00
Yeah. You could try to do a testimony on your own or text people and ask them to make one and send it in to you.

Vivian Kvam
00:29:08
I love that.
Kyle Ranney
00:29:10
And they can even take it with your product. I think it's 402 Nutrition. Do you know them?

Vivian Kvam
00:29:20
I don't.

Kyle Ranney
00:29:23
I think they have a photographer that comes in to their store on certain days, but you can kind of tell what's like a professional photo, what's, an iPhone photo? Or at least we can. Sure, maybe the average person can't, but they have a lot of just posts that people take with their product. They do like, shakes and drinks.
Vivian Kvam
00:29:45
So it's like user generated content.Kyle Ranney
00:29:47
Yeah. And the thing about it is that you kind of have to set that up as like a rhythm for your business. The people that come in to the business, they want to do that.
Vivian Kvam
00:30:01
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:30:02
It's like a thing they see.

Vivian Kvam
00:30:04
It like, oh, I saw my friend do that, now I'm going to do it. Just kind of keep it.
Kyle Ranney
00:30:09
Yeah, it's become like a core value without being like a written core value.

Vivian Kvam
00:30:12
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:30:13
And that's similar to the client I work for that I do a bunch of testimonials for. People know that that's how they do that. It's like part of the process and they're really excited about it.

Vivian Kvam
00:30:24
That makes sense. It makes me think of with one of our clients, Barley's, who you're familiar with, of course, because you've done some video work for them, helped launch TikTok. They're still trying to navigate, figure that out. It's a lot to figure out a new channel, to be fair. But they started doing these meet us mondays with us. We recommended that we would shoot photos of their staff, possibly some guests, things like that, who come in and just let you meet them and Meet US Mondays by no means is our idea. Lots of places do this and at first they were worried. They're like, I don't know if people are going to want to participate. We have to pay people, we have to pay our staff to do this. And now, to your point, it's part of their rhythm and people who work there now expect it, so a new person will come on. They're kind of like, when do I get mine? When do I get to be part? Or we've had people say, I've been here x number of years or weeks or months. How come I haven't had mine yet? Because we haven't been able to schedule them all in, because we try to batch them as well. But it is it's just like part of the culture now and it just took a couple of times. I mean, I want to say we're maybe three ish in and perception completely changed. It's not pulling teeth at all. They're excited. Just fun.

Kyle Ranney
00:31:40
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:31:41
I've seen some businesses where they set up like an instagrammable wall within their business so as to encourage people to take photos with their products or together, things like that. If somebody had a space like that, that seems like it would be helpful as well, just to encourage that type of user generated content if they have a space.

Kyle Ranney
00:32:04
Absolutely, yeah. And it's super nice because you can just walk in and shoot things really quick.

Vivian Kvam

00:32:09
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:32:10
And there's a huge barrier for the person you're including in that. Wait while I set up these lights in the background and then they left because lunchtime is over.

Vivian Kvam
00:32:22
Right. Capturing people in the moment is huge.

Kyle Ranney
00:32:25
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam

00:32:26
So are you doing a lot more with clients now, helping them figure out doing reels, shooting vertically, doing TikTok, being on YouTube shorts? Or are you still primarily doing a lot that's like more website based or live use, like the church work and things like that?

Kyle Ranney
00:32:46
I do a lot more freelance contracting, so I'm not really necessarily a part of the posting and the review and stuff. I just come in and I shoot the content and send it out. I think when I do most of the social media stuff I do is actually with you guys.

Vivian Kvam
00:33:01
Oh, nice. Awesome.

Kyle Ranney

00:33:03
Yeah. Most of the vertical shooting, that is.

Vivian Kvam
00:33:05
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
00:33:06
Well, that's not true, I guess I've had a couple of other vertical shoots this year, but it's becoming far more common.

Vivian Kvam
00:33:13
Are there production companies out there that just do vertical? That's all they shoot?

Kyle Ranney
00:33:19
No, I don't think so. Usually people do both.

Vivian Kvam
00:33:23
Yeah, I mean, it's nice to have both because there's so many different applications that you can use them for. But shooting vertically is kind of different for your brain, isn't it?
Kyle Ranney
00:33:35
The framing is quite a bit different. I just shot last year with Formatta. They were doing a documentary I shot like BTS and what would you call them? Like hot takes, I guess, from some of the talent in the documentary. And we shot all of that in vertical. And I think the people I was shooting with maybe a little bit didn't. It was different because when you shoot vertical, you see more of the waist and what their feet are doing and above their feet. So it's like a different framing. So sometimes people are like, oh, but I see all this other stuff. And I'm like, yeah, you do, but that's kind of how it goes, right? So sometimes you have to work out the framing versus the horizontal. Sometimes you can hide more with the horizontal.

Vivian Kvam
00:34:25
That's interesting.

Kyle Ranney
00:34:26
So you got to look out for different things, especially with lighting and set backdrops and that kind of stuff, because.

Vivian Kvam
00:34:34
You can see all the way to the floor, basically from ceiling to floor. If you're in a room, it makes.

Kyle Ranney
00:34:39
Sure your shoe game is on point.

Vivian Kvam
00:34:41
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:34:41
You can't be like pulling a Kevin O'Leary in the office and not wear pants.

Vivian Kvam
00:34:46
Right. Whoopsie not going to work. That was vertical, right? Unless, I guess you're getting really close and you're just shooting like a portrait. Kind of feel interesting. When people are using phones by themselves, is it oKvam just to hold it? Or do you think they need to get something to study at a tripod or something?

Kyle Ranney
00:35:10
I don't think it matters that much.

Vivian Kvam
00:35:13
Yeah, so many people are worried about not looking professional, though.

Kyle Ranney
00:35:19
Well, I mean, there's so many things that you could just move to the other side of the room, get close to a window, and then you don't need to have lighting or anything like that.

Vivian Kvam
00:35:28
Yeah, I agree. I often encourage people like, just try it, get started. And then as you experiment with that, you'll reach your limitations with it, or you'll realize what is working and what's not. And then when you go to hire somebody like yourself, they're a little more prepared for, I want to try this, or I don't know how to do these things. Could we focus on that? Because it's just outside of my time ability, my skill set ability, my equipment ability, and then they can really take it to the next level versus when you have somebody first come in and they're not sure what they want to do. With video, it can take a while to figure it out. And that can cost money to experiment.

Kyle Ranney
00:36:13
It can take a while to figure.

Vivian Kvam
00:36:14
Out what's your style, what's your voice, what's the vibe, how are we going to do that? So being able to experiment on your phone beforehand, I think is super valuable.

Kyle Ranney
00:36:25
Yeah. And I mean, we did the work with Barley's and certain videos perform better than others, even though I think both are good content. But when we were making videos with Ben and he was making the drinks and stuff, those performed like way better than on the street stuff. Even though the on the street stuff.

Vivian Kvam
00:36:45
Is hilarious, it is pretty funny.

Kyle Ranney
00:36:48
But also, too, we started with one thing and then we changed and either the viewership preferred the other thing or maybe TikTok and the algorithm was like, oh, what the heck?

Vivian Kvam
00:37:00
Right? I do think video takes consistency and you have to do it for a period of time so it's consistently showing up within the days and weeks. But then you have to do that and let it build to really figure out what's going on.

Kyle Ranney
00:37:13
And then the other thing is just like trends. I think a lot of business owners are like, well, I don't want to make a video of me and my team doing this silly dance. I'm like, yeah, but that's like, what you do. Yeah, it's part of the market. You kind of have to do some of the things that they want you to do.

Vivian Kvam
00:37:32
It is interesting to figure those pieces out and we'll talk with some clients and go try it out and see if it's for you. Right. If it is just so against everything, that's also going to feel disingenuous. And so you don't want to go that far, but don't be afraid to try something. Fill it out and see if you can make it your own. And you can use some of those trends that help with algorithms in order to get where you want to be. But there's so many different types. You can find what works for you and trends within your industry or is appropriate for your audiences. That still feels good. It's not like there's only I think that's a misconception. There's one trend out there, and if I'm not doing that one dance or I'm not using that one song, then I'm sunk. There's a lot of trends out there.

Kyle Ranney
00:38:26
Well, and there's so many new ones all the time. And it's so easy because a lot of the times there's like a little thing you can click on, it says, like, copy this, right?

Vivian Kvam
00:38:35
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
00:38:35
Or you can stitch this as well. If you're like an insurance person or like you do real estate, you can stitch from someone else's video and comment on it and add value to it or be like, hey, this guy is in Texas, but here, I do this in Omaha.

Vivian Kvam
00:38:52
Here's my perspective.

Kyle Ranney
00:38:52
Hit me up.

Vivian Kvam
00:38:53
Yeah. So you're kind of piggybacking off of each other's content.

Kyle Ranney
00:38:57
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:38:58
So if you don't like doing the dance or you're not sure how to put it all together, you could go comment on it instead.

Kyle Ranney
00:39:05
Yeah, exactly.
Vivian Kvam
00:39:06
I love it. Well, I'm curious. What got you started with video production and owning your own business. What's that journey been like for you.

Kyle Ranney
00:39:18
Like, all the way from the beginning?

Vivian Kvam
00:39:20
How's that ever back? You want to go? I like stories.

Kyle Ranney
00:39:23
Well, I went on a medical trip to Haiti, and before I did video, like what I do now, I did a live sound and live video production. So the people I went on this trip would assume that I was good at the other side of it, but they're, like, way two different ball fields. But some of the skills transfer over, and so I spent, like, two weeks down in Haiti working with the medical team and some creighton kids. Creighton university here in Omaha, and we were just working in the hospital.

Vivian Kvam
00:39:59
What was that like? Have you been out of country before at that point?

Kyle Ranney
00:40:03
Yes. That was my second time in Haiti, actually.

Vivian Kvam
00:40:07
Vivian Kvam.

Kyle Ranney
00:40:08
It's very hot. There's not always electricity, so you have to plan for batteries and stuff. Interesting fact, but sometimes when you take a picture or video someone in Haiti or in Africa, if they are of a certain religion, they think that because you took their photograph, you own their soul.

Vivian Kvam
00:40:32
Oh, wow.

Kyle Ranney
00:40:33
So you might have to get on the back of your camera and delete some pictures. Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
00:40:38
So do you walk up and ask for permission, or how do you handle that when you're doing pictures in Haiti.

Kyle Ranney
00:40:43
Or you're doing I feel like there's, like, two kinds of different people. The kids always want to see their photos because they just like, maybe they don't believe in the superstition or they don't care. They just think it's cool to see themselves. And there's people that want you to take photos of them. They're like, this is cool. And then there's, like, people don't want money. Oh, interesting for you to take those photos.

Vivian Kvam
00:41:03
Well, I mean, people do get paid.

Kyle Ranney
00:41:05
For their face with a camera, and they just come up to you and ask you for a dollar.

Vivian Kvam
00:41:09
Yeah, nice.

Kyle Ranney
00:41:10
And you're like, what, no dollar? That's where I started. And then I came back and I shot a friend's wedding, and then I started doing that. I just kind of just kept building on that and then got into the commercial stuff. I don't even know how I think I just started meeting people, and then they're like, oh, you can also shoot other stuff. That's the thing that's cool about video. It's not like I don't just work with one thing, one client. There's, like, lots of different things you can do, and you usually don't stay in one spot. You kind of move around.

Vivian Kvam
00:41:51
I'm curious, though, because having known you now for a number of years, I feel like you do kind of dabble and everything at first, right? And that's what you did. You started with weddings, and then you kind of added some commercial in, and now you're doing a little bit of social media, et cetera. But I also feel like over the years I've seen you hone in on some strategies as well.

Kyle Ranney
00:42:10
Like what?

Vivian Kvam
00:42:11
Well, I remember talking with you at one time, we were just talking about pipelines in order to have clients come in and you've put some things together that have made your business more streamlined, more strategic than just I'm just kind of waiting for the phone to ring and maybe I bump into somebody. You've really started building systems into your business. What are some of those systems over the years that you've built in?

Kyle Ranney
00:42:35
I would say that was mostly for wedding stuff, but I mean, it applies to most anything. I think most of my freelance now is just word of mouth, but I still am listed on multiple different places where people can help find you, like your SEO and other searches. But as far as pipelines, what kind.

Vivian Kvam
00:42:56
Of systems did you put in place for the weddings?

Kyle Ranney
00:42:58
I had a CRM that I still do that I use for all my invoicing and stuff like that. And then I have different email sequences and I was like right about to redo all this too.

Vivian Kvam
00:43:11
Oh yeah. So perfect timing thinking about it.

Kyle Ranney
00:43:14
But I think there's a lot of tasks that you can automate that kind of help you take care of things. I remember last year I had covered and it was pretty bad for a couple of weeks because I had everything in my CRM. It's like one click and here I am still making money even though I can't get off the couch. The only thing I had to do was get on the phone and talk to somebody for like ten minutes and everything else was done. I didn't have to go to my computer. It just happened in the background. Like payments, like follow up emails, what to expect next, all this stuff that's probably normally 5 hours of work. It just kind of happened on its own.

Vivian Kvam
00:43:56
How did you get to that point? Like for somebody who maybe has never said anything like that up, how did you set that up? You just sat and thought about the whole process and what needed to happen and things you were repeating again and again.

Kyle Ranney

00:44:11
I think for me, I had tried a couple of other CRMs, but before that it was so hard to keep track of contracts and different payments and stuff. I'm like, I just need something that I can have all the stuff ready to go on so that way I can keep my life. It's so hectic trying to do it on your own, especially if you don't have an employee to worry about your accounts and stuff.

Vivian Kvam
00:44:36
Right, we found the same and also one of the learnings that we had is I found I was having the same conversations. OKvam, can I make this more streamlined? I'm sending the same types of emails. OKvam, can I turn this into a template? And at first what I was doing is I was just copying and pasting it to like a document and then when I would need it, I could copy and paste it over. And that felt like what a relief. I'm not having to retype the same thing because I'm giving clients the same types of information, maybe a tiny tweak. And then I realized, oKvam, I could put this into a CRM. I didn't know what that was at first and realized then that I could turn them into automations where, like you're saying, after the call I basically click a button and say start this automation that I've built. And they start to get the three emails to prep for them and then they get the reminder that we need to set up a call. And then they get an automation that says book on my calendar with a link. Like not having to do the manual scheduling of calendaring. Huge. That was game changing. And so over time we've just built those out for each one of our services and product offerings. And it's been wonderful. It just makes business so much easier.

Kyle Ranney
00:45:55
I think my favorite part of this CRM is that when people forget to pay me, it reminds them, reminds them a lot by the way.

Vivian Kvam
00:46:04
Yeah, because we forget to remind people.

Kyle Ranney
00:46:06
Yeah, because we don't have a monthly or bi weekly paycheck that just drops. I think I have one invoice from last year. So that hasn't gotten paid well to you. But my CRM knows that, so I know that. But if I didn't have CRM, oh my gosh, I could be just not getting paid for something, not know about it. That's a huge deal.

Vivian Kvam
00:46:32
That's a huge deal. Yeah, for sure. I agree. So having the reminders is so key. And then did you ever set up automations or sequences when somebody would say inquire for a service to follow up with them a couple of times before.

Kyle Ranney
00:46:46
They book, it happens automatically. I don't even have to think about that.

Vivian Kvam
00:46:49
Yeah, we did that as well. And that's again, just a beautiful thing. And I can't tell you how many times I've had people say to me within their businesses, oh, I'm not booking work, whatever their work is. And I'll ask, well, how many times do you follow up with them? And they're like, well, just the one time. And we found that to be key. As we would set up, I want to say the steps for when we did weddings, as of for example, we would have it set up and I think it followed up with him five or seven times. Almost always down to a science. It was almost always that third follow up I would get an email back of oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I meant to reach out to you. Yes, we still want a book or we've found someone else, et cetera. It was almost always that third one. So much business is lost by not following up.

Kyle Ranney
00:47:36
Yeah. And I would say even more than just following it up just to double check, you should probably exponentially grow your actions that they can take. I think a lot of people make the mistake of just trying to follow up, but you never give anyone an actual actionable step. So imagine if you went into a store and you're like, I'm thinking about buying this. And he said, oh, cool, well, take a look around, blah, blah, blah, and we'll get back to you. And then you get back to them and be like, hey, what did you want to buy? Or what do you think? A lot of times, people just like, I don't know.

Vivian Kvam
00:48:12
I don't know what to think.

Kyle Ranney
00:48:13
They don't know what to think. They don't know what they need. But I think a lot of people, especially in the creative industry, it's like you should have one email and try to get them on a call and kind of figure out what they want. And your next email should have a proposal that they can sign and pay and book you. Why wouldn't you offer that right away?

Vivian Kvam
00:48:31
Right?

Kyle Ranney
00:48:31
And I think a lot of people won't do that until like the fourth or fifth or until they get a reply back. But I'll actually email people, and I'll be like, I'll do one follow up or one initial reply, and my next follow up is like, hey, here's everything laid out for you. And you can go ahead and select and book whatever you want whenever you're ready, because then it's in their hands. And then the third time I follow up, either they're probably going to do it or they're not. And then it's like, you're not wasting your time or their time with like four or five emails. A lot of times, I think people just get deer in the headlights. They're talking to other vendors and they've made a decision and they just want to tell you no, right. And they feel bad about it, but you're not giving an option to opt out.

Vivian Kvam
00:49:13
Yeah. Or they haven't just got around to saying, yes, we've had that happen a lot too, where they're like, oh my gosh, I meant to get back and did it. And it's kind of that first email that's there, they're like, yeah, we liked all of these options. But you're the email sitting there. Let's go with Kyle. Kyle's responsive. He's going to be on top of things. He makes me feel comfortable because he's being proactive. That's good. About the other step, I'll add to that, we also work into those emails sometimes after sending the option to book, for sure. But if we're doing other follow ups after that, sometimes we're inviting them to check out a blog, or if we know the style of what they're looking for, we'll direct them to go check out so and So's Gallery, who also had a barn wedding. So just something for them to engage and look at more work and go, yeah, these are the right people. And that's something that, even outside of the wedding industry, we've been building in, is having these sequences because I think it serves people well. And that's one of the things we want to do. We want to make things easy and answer questions before you have them. And email sequence is a great way to do that.

Kyle Ranney
00:50:27
Yeah, and give them a time limit, too. Hey, this is only good for seven days.

Vivian Kvam
00:50:31
Sure.

Kyle Ranney
00:50:32
So that way they have to know in a timeline.

Vivian Kvam
00:50:36
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
00:50:36
And that's the other thing. A lot of people don't give their clients, like, a timeline. So we do that in the first email that we send out for anything. It's like three steps. Hey, you're going to book with us. We're going to figure out all the other stuff, and then we're going to do your project and edit it. Yeah, I like that, just laying that out. It answers so many questions. It does for people.

Vivian Kvam
00:50:58
And I like that you're answering questions before they even have anything to ask.

Kyle Ranney
00:51:02
And because you're the professional, not them, you should be telling them how it works.

Vivian Kvam
00:51:09
Yeah. Guide them down the path. That's part of the service you're offering.

Kyle Ranney
00:51:12
Because if you don't provide them with the answers, then on the back end, they're going to be like, emailing you about everything and they're not going to trust you as much.

Vivian Kvam
00:51:20
Right. It is a trust building thing. Absolutely. I love that you brought that up. That's kind of a gold piece right there. When you're doing that, even in the sales process, you're serving them. It's not about getting them to write you a check. We want a check that is helpful for the business, but can we serve them in getting to that point? Do they feel well served? Even if they don't write you a check, do they feel like they were well served? They had what they needed. I can't tell you how many times people have said, even outside of the wedding industry, with what we do now, this isn't a right fit for me, or we're just not ready to invest in this type of service yet. And then they refer people over.

Kyle Ranney
00:52:04
Oh, absolutely.

Vivian Kvam
00:52:05
All the time. Because I think I hope my desire is because they had a great experience even not booking us.

Kyle Ranney
00:52:13
So I've booked a couple of things off of a retargeted ad as well.

Vivian Kvam
00:52:18
Interesting.

Kyle Ranney
00:52:19
A lot of people are like, I don't want to do retargeted ads. I think they're like bugging people, like, blah, blah, blah. Well, this girl that we ended up working with, she worked in marketing and she's like, I'm booking you because I saw your retargeted ad. Nobody else did that. So I know that you are more professional.

Vivian Kvam
00:52:34
Interesting.

Kyle Ranney
00:52:35
And then from that, we've had probably three more bookings just off of what we did with that client.

Vivian Kvam
00:52:43
That's awesome.

Kyle Ranney
00:52:44
Yeah, cool. A lot of stuff matters.

Vivian Kvam
00:52:47
Yeah, it does matter. One of the other strategies, total shift here, but I love this part of your story, one of your other strategies for life, and I'm guessing business, but I'll let you talk to that, I guess is just getting out of debt. You've had that as a goal. Why talk to me about the getting out of debt story?

Kyle Ranney
00:53:11
Yeah, well, we paid off all of our debt early last year and I think we had like $60,000. And there's just like all the normal things that people have, like student loans, credit cards, car loan. But I think when we first started doing it, I don't think we understood as much. But when I got halfway through it, I started to realize that having debt on everything was like eating away at any profit you could make. Because I think all of our minimums that we were paying added up to like $1,500 a month or something like that. And it's like, how can you take care of your own mortgage and your business while you're making another mortgage payment to things that you don't even know off the top of your head? You can't even think of what it was, right.

Vivian Kvam
00:54:02
How did you guys decide, how did you and Kvam decide to get on this journey of paying off debt? You want to just come home one day and go, I'm done, no more debt, we're paying it off.

Kyle Ranney
00:54:13
So our father in law would always buy Dave Ramsay books and stuff like that. And I think when kind of COVID hit and I didn't make any money for like three months, literally, like nothing, because nobody was working, there was anything to shoot because COVID right, and at that point it wasn't even bad yet. But people were just afraid. We were like, well, we have to do something and we're going to not make it. So we kind of started doing that and I mean, we started small. That's kind of the whole principle. If you do the Dave Ramsay thing, you start small in it and builds and compounds and you get really excited about it and all of a sudden you're like, you find extra thousand, $2,000 in your budget and you're just like clunking away at all the debts to you and then you get done. And then it's like, oh sweet, I have like half of the bills I used to have, so it's nice. You don't have to worry as much.

Vivian Kvam

00:55:15
When you say start small. Practically. What did that look like when we first started?

Kyle Ranney
00:55:21
We only paying like $200 a month. As you pay off different debts, you compound the minimum payment you were paying on that and then you add it into the next thing that you're paying.

Vivian Kvam
00:55:32
On because you were already paying it.

Kyle Ranney
00:55:34
I was already paying it.

Vivian Kvam
00:55:35
So now you're just snowballing it.

Kyle Ranney
00:55:36
Then when you're budgeting, you just pretend. Like you're still paying it. You just pay on something else. So then it's like, we're good. Yeah. So then you just keep building it up and it goes away faster and faster, and you get excited, and then you finally reach your goal and it's like, really awesome.

Vivian Kvam
00:55:54
How long did it take you?

Kyle Ranney
00:55:56
18 months, roughly.

Vivian Kvam
00:55:58
Would you say you were being pretty aggressive or yes, very aggressive. Yes.

Kyle Ranney
00:56:03
More aggressive than most. I think that would do the same kind of journey.

Vivian Kvam
00:56:08
Why did you choose to do that?

Kyle Ranney
00:56:11
Probably for security and, like, a renewed hope for the future.

Vivian Kvam
00:56:18
I'm just so curious. Were you and Kvam both on board day one?

Kyle Ranney
00:56:24
She was. I was not. Yeah. Took me a while to come around to that.

Vivian Kvam
00:56:28
So was it her idea?

Kyle Ranney
00:56:31
I mean, it was kind of like.

Vivian Kvam
00:56:32
This is being recorded, kind of her.

Kyle Ranney
00:56:34
Idea, but I also saw that it was time to take care of it and make a change.

Vivian Kvam
00:56:41
I'm curious because I think a lot of people think about things like this. Getting out of debt. I think it's just so valuable for anybody but especially for a business owner and somebody who's early on in their business or later in their business the same is true. But if you can do it early in your business I just think of the stress that is relieved then for the long term has got to be so valuable.

Kyle Ranney
00:57:13
Yeah, I don't really have any stress. I don't have to worry about anybody coming to take my car because I forgot to pay my bill.

Vivian Kvam
00:57:23
So how have you both worked to maintain staying out of debt? Because what happens, I mean, I'm thinking especially with business owners, they can have, as you've mentioned already, cash flow goes down, cash flow goes up, cash flow goes down, cash flow goes up. So do you ever find yourself having to make a decision where you go, well, we do need to buy these things. We could put it on a credit card or how do you navigate those?

Kyle Ranney
00:57:51
I just won't buy it. Or I'll rent it, which often works out to be more economical anyway, because a lot of the times, the things that I think I have so many pieces of gear that I was like, I need this, and I haven't touched it in years. I used it one time. I have a stop motion software with a remote control for a camera, and it's like five years old. It's, like, worthless now. But it was like $600 back then.

Vivian Kvam
00:58:22
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:58:23
I think I used it for, like, one thing, and honestly, I probably didn't even need it. Probably just could have done something else.

Vivian Kvam
00:58:30
Right.

Kyle Ranney
00:58:31
But you buy it and you're just like, oh, I need this. I need to give this to my clients. I think the trap that people fall into is like, you think you need to give it to your clients, but it's like, either you can rent it, or a lot of people want to buy it because that's just, like, what they come to. And they're like, oh, I can lease it, or I can put on a card. But if you weren't going to charge your client for it originally, then it's almost like you're just buying it, and then you're losing money on it because the client is not really compensating you for whatever thing you thought that would put you ahead, that you bought. That makes sense.

Vivian Kvam
00:59:06
That does make sense. And I'm thinking about especially in your industry and knowing that industry, there's a lot of very expensive equipment.

Kyle Ranney
00:59:13
Yeah.
Vivian Kvam
00:59:14
Everybody rents it, and you need it. All right, like in your case. But you can rent it.

Kyle Ranney
00:59:19
Yeah, and everybody rents, especially the high dollar cinema cameras. Everybody rents it. Even if someone has it locally, and you can rent it out locally, you're probably still going to rent it from somewhere else and bring it in. Interesting, especially on these bigger shoots, because they're coming in from California, New York, so they'll go to a big rental house there, but actually they go in and they have a prep day. So they'll get their rental items, build the camera how they want it, make sure it works, and then they'll get the bill for that, and then they will fly it out. Even if the same thing exists here, they're going to fly it out because it's more economical for them to rent and prep it where they're at because it's cheaper. They don't have to be here for as many days than it is to do it here. And also, they're kind of taking a risk because they're like, what this guy omaha doesn't have this part or this part? So a lot of people following the mistake of like, well, I'll buy it because I can rent it out here. But can you really rent it out here?

Vivian Kvam
01:00:16
Right. And then you have the whole will people rent it? And that's another whole business model. And is your insurance set up for that? And how are you going to market that? You have this for rent? Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
01:00:28
And then you have to pay taxes on that item, too.

Vivian Kvam
01:00:31
That's really a good piece of advice. And even I think, outside of the production industry, in any industry, there's a number of things where equipment will come up. And can you consider renting? Do you need the software? Maybe you do the trial at first and see if you're really going to use it. And then I love what you said about if you're not billing it in, that's a red flag, right? So maybe you do buy something you need to be thinking about. Are you billing that into your services now, moving forward? And at what point would that be paid? How many services would you have to sell before that piece of equipment, software, or whatever that is? That asset you've brought in is it an asset? Are you billing for it? Or have you just bought it and your pricing stayed exactly the same, but now you're using it and so how are you paying for that? So I love that because when you rent it, you put it on the invoice to them, I rented this for you, you're going to pay for that. And that makes sense.

Kyle Ranney
01:01:35
Yeah. You're not even factoring in profitability. You're just like a lot of people buy it on a card and they're like, I'll rent it out so that it pays for itself. But if it pays for itself, it didn't make you any money. And cameras come and go so quickly. It's like the camera you bought, people aren't going to run and rent it for like two or three years.

Vivian Kvam
01:01:56
Sure.

Kyle Ranney
01:01:57
And then there's going to be a new one and no one rent that. Sure. You had the camera and maybe technically it didn't cost you anything, but you took on a risk.

Vivian Kvam
01:02:07
Right.

Kyle Ranney
01:02:08
And you didn't really make any money off of it.

Vivian Kvam
01:02:11
And the equipment depreciates so fast, it's like a car, you're driving off the lot and it's not worth anything, you know?

Kyle Ranney
01:02:17
Yeah. Well, as soon as the next model comes out, as soon as there's a version two or a new one that shoots an extra K. Right.

Vivian Kvam
01:02:26
Good lessons to think about and definitely applies across a lot of different industries.
Kyle Ranney
01:02:31
Absolutely.

Vivian Kvam
01:02:32
Sure. Thinking about, is it an asset? Are you billing for it? Can you rent it? Is there another way? Or does what you have work? Right? That makes me think of slightly related, slightly unrelated. I've had people say, well, I can't have a business if I don't have a logo.

Kyle Ranney
01:02:51
Sure you can.

Vivian Kvam
01:02:52
And I'm like, Well, I have billed and received a nice amount of money with no logo.

Kyle Ranney
01:03:01
I have a logo, but it doesn't matter.

Vivian Kvam
01:03:02
Yeah. So it's just thinking through things like that, the equipment or the branding, I love a beautiful logo. I'm all about that. It's great. But are you holding yourself back in your business or are you putting money into things that you don't need yet? Right. Can you do it without? And that kind of scrappiness, I think is great, especially at the beginning, but it needs to continue through your business. You can hit a point where you're like, I could just afford it, I can afford it. And then the next thing you know, you can't afford it anymore. Right. It gets a little bit hairy. I know you really like the profit first model. Yeah, me too. I've been reading through that book again and it's so helpful and it's something I recommend to people all the time at any stage. And one of the big things is if you keep doing things like we're talking about where you're just buying the things, you can't pay yourself, and that's a big deal.

Kyle Ranney
01:03:57
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
01:03:58
You got to pay yourself.
Kyle Ranney
01:04:00
Yeah. The things you buy depreciate.

Vivian Kvam
01:04:03
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
01:04:04
Cameras don't go up in value, right?

Vivian Kvam
01:04:06

For sure. I'm curious. As you're looking back, we're kind of wrapping up here. As you would look back on where you started and where you're at right now, is there any piece of advice you'd give yourself or is there anything you'd go? Now that I know that I would have done that sooner or I wouldn't have done it at all.

Kyle Ranney
01:04:24
What did I write down?

Vivian Kvam
01:04:26
I don't think you have any notes on that. I'm throwing a curveball at you, my friend.

Kyle Ranney
01:04:29
What would I do sooner?

Vivian Kvam
01:04:31
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
01:04:32
Not buy a bunch of stuff you don't need. That's probably the biggest thing. I would say get more friends. Can't do it alone.

Vivian Kvam
01:04:40
Yeah.

Kyle Ranney
01:04:41
Like, you need other people just to run business ideas by talk to you and work with other people who are in the same industry as you. They're not necessarily your competition, but they're like your peers.

Vivian Kvam
01:04:56
I love that. That's a big piece of this whole podcast. It's just fun to be able to hear from other people and what they're doing in their work. And there's so much to take from each other's stories. Even if you're not in video production or if you're not offering mental health services, there's so much that can be taken from mixing with other people who are trying to build something. That's really cool.

Kyle Ranney
01:05:22
Yeah.

Vivian Kvam
01:05:23
Well, thanks for hopping on here. I appreciate your stories.

Kyle Ranney
01:05:25
You bet.

Vivian Kvam
01:05:26
And I think if there's anything for people to take away, it really is that having those systems in place, thinking about your cash flow, do you need it? All those things. I think that's some real gold there for people, so thanks for sharing.

Kyle Ranney
01:05:41
You should throw on that SpongeBob clip.

Vivian Kvam
01:05:44
The SpongeBob clip?

Kyle Ranney
01:05:45
Yeah, where he's, like, trying to go with that water.

Vivian Kvam
01:05:47
I don't know this one.

Kyle Ranney
01:05:48
You don't know? Look it up. Like all people know.

Vivian Kvam
01:05:51
The SpongeBob clip?

Kyle Ranney
01:05:52
Yeah. All right. I don't need it. He finally gives up, and he's like, I need it. He, like, runs for the water.
Vivian Kvam
01:06:02
That's funny. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it.