Sports Videographer Finds Slam Dunk with Production Agency

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Let's talk about mentorship. Now I have said before that I think mentorship, at least in a general sense, is overrated. Like we can all learn from everyone. It's not a question of you can't learn from someone. Like I can learn from every person in the world and so can you, but do you really need a formal mentor?

Personally, I think not. And of course that's my opinion. But the person you'll hear about in today's story has another point I agree with, but I've never considered before. Did he have a mentor? No, he had a number of what he calls anti-mentors, which is an interesting phrase that I've never heard before.

And he said, I think I had anti-mentors, people I've worked for or with who did things poorly or in a manner that I didn't care for. Watching how they operated and the mistakes and issues they had helped me figure out the type of business I wanted to run. So like I said, interesting. You can learn from an anti-mentor how not to do things. And this principle relates to the power of observation, which is another subject I returned to from time to time.

You can observe what you don't like about a business or just a group or a person, a practice. And it doesn't mean you're being openly critical or judgmental. You're not necessarily walking around all the time, like making criticisms with people. You're just noticing, especially in regards to a project, an idea or a product or a service that you want to create. So this story itself is about a sports videographer who finds a slam dunk with a production agency.

What starts as a web series about eating and drinking around the state of Maine turns into a full media production operation. That story's coming up in just a few seconds. Stay tuned. [Music]

Fresh out of university with a dual major in film and government, Kurt Groszter landed a job that many would dream of. He started working as a video production assistant for ESPN and NBC Sports.

He then spent five years filming, interviewing, and editing footage for some of the top sports personalities in the industry. Eventually though, the dream job turned into a grind and Kurt started looking for other opportunities. He ended up moving to Portland, Maine for another job he found on Craigslist. Unfortunately, he soon grew frustrated with this new position too. So he started moonlining, doing freelance work.

This allowed him to make some extra money and keep doing the creative video production he loved. Then one day he was on a train ride back from New York City with another freelancer and friend, Alex T. They started talking about how much fun it would be to make a web series featuring the food and drinks of various towns and regions around the state of Maine. Within a few weeks, they had hashed out the concept for Food Coma TV. It would build a small team from contractors and enlist a friend and personality from the local foodie scene to be the on-camera talent.

To offset expenses, they launched a Kickstarter campaign which raised more than $7,000. They also drove themselves and their crew to six locations, sleeping three to five people to a hotel room and arranged deals with some of the local establishments. While getting footage at a facility in Northern Maine, the manager asked them if they ever did commercial work. And Kurt thought about it. He had originally imagined Food Coma TV as just a fun project and didn't plan to make money from it, but he also admits that while they all knew the footage would be a nice addition to their portfolios, they didn't realize what they were really creating.

Once the series was wrapped up, Kurt, Alex, and a third partner brought all their clients together under the newly incorporated NAC Factory Production Agency. With contracts from international brands, athletes, and regional personalities, they had plenty to do. And the team did everything on their own that they could. To offset costs, once again, they negotiated barters with creative and business friends. When they needed a logo, they offered to do a brand video for a design agency.

For their website, they did behind the scenes content for a developer. This meant that their total startup costs were under $1,000, mostly on random things they had to purchase for shoots or their home office, or the occasional bar tab for their contractors after a particularly long shooting day. They divided tasks by the needs of the project, as each owner had their own specialty, and they each made about $10,000 in year one. The other two partners began to focus almost full time on NAC Factory, but Kurt waited a while. He had a family to consider, and with a small child at home, getting established enough to secure good health insurance was imperative.

So he would work for eight to 10 hours a day at his sports video production job, then return home to meet his family and Alex for dinner. Afterwards, Alex and Kurt would crack open a bottle of wine or brew a pot of coffee and work until one or two in the morning. They had to handle client strategy, storyboards, production schedules, and budgets. He pretty much used all of his personal and sick time to work on the business. But it was worth it, because by the end of year two, NAC Factory was bringing in well over six figures, and Kurt was able to make the move to full time himself.

With everyone now all in, they moved out of Kurt's dining room and into their first space in downtown Portland. It also served as storage for the small amounts of equipment they'd purchased, like desktop computers, external hard drives, and a few video cameras. This space was only 250 square feet and had a monthly rent of $500. It worked for a while, but they kept growing. One day, Kurt noticed an old farmhouse for rent on the outskirts of the city.

They moved the entire operation there and did a massive renovation. In addition to production space for their now six-person team, they also opened co-working desks and offered small offices for rent. This has helped with their own increase in rent and allowed them to build a creative and collaborative space filled with writers, brand marketers, designers, and more. As a bonus, they now host events in this space, often featuring workshops on all the things they wish someone had told them from the beginning. [Music]

Kurt's advice for our listeners, perhaps for you, maybe for myself as well, Kurt says, I would advise anybody out there to surround themselves with good people and knowledge, know that you are not good at everything, and don't be afraid to get help when you need it, because spending weeks on a problem that someone else could have solved in a few hours was a big lesson we had to learn and are still learning.

I would just add that I am learning that lesson myself, along with them and a lot of us probably, but I fully agree that knowing what you are not good at, well, first of all, knowing that you're not good at everything, but then in particular, knowing what it is that you're not good at and being willing to get help can go a long way in getting you unstuck. You're stuck somewhere and not able to make progress. You feel like you're plateauing. Spend some time looking at the problem. Ask yourself, okay, what is it that I'm not good at?

What am I struggling with here? And then, as I said, be willing to ask for help. All right, I hope that leads you to some action. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1049, 1049.

Also want to give a shout out once again to a new book called "The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur" by John Jantz. I mentioned it about a month ago, and I got some good feedback from several listeners. So ask for it at any local bookstore if you've not seen it already, or of course you can get it online as well. "The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur" by John Jantz. His last name is spelled J-A-N-T-S-C-H.

Okay, thanks a lot. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I won't spell my last name for you, but I will be back here tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the Onward Project.