Ever wondered how to catapult your non-profit's media presence into the stratosphere? We've got just the ticket. Join me as I host this discussion with Adrian Traurig from Vers Creative and Drew McMullian of Beamworks Audio Visual Resource Group. Adrian's journey from a worship pastor to a creative services wizard and Drew's deep dive into the importance of pristine audio and video set the stage for an episode brimming with expert advice tailored for nonprofit leaders like you.
Adrian and Drew reveal the nuts and bolts of creating unforgettable content across podcasts, videos, live events, and the omnipresent social media. They unravel the myth that high quality means high cost, showing how the right team can make your production dreams come true without emptying the coffers. We take a look behind the scenes at the strategy, optimization, and narrative crafting that's essential for stirring the hearts and minds of your audience—whether you're raising funds, spreading awareness, or aiming to forge a deeper connection.
As we wrap up this sonic and visual masterclass, remember that it's not only about the flashy gadgets; it's the pros like Adrian and Drew who ensure your message is not just heard but felt. Their collective wisdom is a guiding light for nonprofits looking to make a splash with media that truly engages. Tune in, and get ready to scribble down a ton of notes as your nonprofit's audiovisual production prowess prepares for a quantum leap!
Show Notes
The Nonprofit Renaissance is Powered by Vers Creative. An award winning creative agency trusted by global brands and businesses.
Follow @collinhoke
Follow @heredes
Follow @vers_creative
Work with Vers
Ever wondered how to catapult your non-profit's media presence into the stratosphere? We've got just the ticket. Join me as I host this discussion with Adrian Traurig from Vers Creative and Drew McMullian of Beamworks Audio Visual Resource Group. Adrian's journey from a worship pastor to a creative services wizard and Drew's deep dive into the importance of pristine audio and video set the stage for an episode brimming with expert advice tailored for nonprofit leaders like you.
Adrian and Drew reveal the nuts and bolts of creating unforgettable content across podcasts, videos, live events, and the omnipresent social media. They unravel the myth that high quality means high cost, showing how the right team can make your production dreams come true without emptying the coffers. We take a look behind the scenes at the strategy, optimization, and narrative crafting that's essential for stirring the hearts and minds of your audience—whether you're raising funds, spreading awareness, or aiming to forge a deeper connection.
As we wrap up this sonic and visual masterclass, remember that it's not only about the flashy gadgets; it's the pros like Adrian and Drew who ensure your message is not just heard but felt. Their collective wisdom is a guiding light for nonprofits looking to make a splash with media that truly engages. Tune in, and get ready to scribble down a ton of notes as your nonprofit's audiovisual production prowess prepares for a quantum leap!
Show Notes
The Nonprofit Renaissance is Powered by Vers Creative. An award winning creative agency trusted by global brands and businesses.
Follow @collinhoke
Follow @heredes
Follow @vers_creative
Work with Vers
Welcome back to the non-profit Renaissance podcast, where we help you go further and grow faster. I'm one of your hosts, colin, and I'm flying solo today. Actually, usually you'll hear me and H going back and forth a little bit. H is not here with us. H is a very big fan of the circus. He heard the circus in town and he said I know we got a podcast today, but I'm going to the circus and so you'll just have to do it on your own. So I said, whatever, that's fine, so it's just me, just me hanging out. But on today's episode we have two guests joining, so that evens it out a little bit.
Collin:We want this one to be, hopefully, a little bit more of a practical one. We want to help you get the most out of your audio and visual production, whether that's video productions that you're doing, whether it's podcasts or live events, whether it's really simple stuff. Maybe you got a TikTok or an Instagram, or you're trying to get the word out about your organization or whatever you got going on that way. Whatever it is, we want to help you get the most out of that. And so we've got two guests, two audio video experts, in the house today that are going to help us with that. Stop shaking your head over there. I see you. Be who you are. Be who you are, sir.
Collin:Speaking of this person I'm talking to, our first guest is actually the Creative Services Manager here at Verse Creative and my boss, and so he Verse first, by the way, if you don't know, is the agency that powers this podcast, and so he oversees all of the creative services that we offer here. So if you've seen anything Verse has put out within the last few years, chances are that's a result of Adrian's leadership and vision, and he brings more than 15 years of creative leadership experience to the world of team development, design and video production, and most of that, I will add, has most of that career was spent working in nonprofit environments. So he gets it, he understands, and so I want you to go ahead and welcome. Adrian Trowrig is in the house. What's going on, man? How's it going? Welcome, thanks for joining.
Adrian Traurig:Good to be here. I am a little under the weather. Oh no, that's not good. You guys are just finding out. I think we are.
Collin:I'm very happy that we're so close. We're very close quarters here, so Paul's like scooting together get closer, can't see you in the frame. That makes sense why you were, just like you know, just inching ever so Okay, Well, sorry. Drew, you're closer than I am.
Drew McMullian:No, it's perfect. I took my vitamins last night. There you go, so we'll be good to go.
Collin:Awesome, Awesome. I know beforehand. You know, then we can bring like a shield or no. Well, we just gave it away. Our next guest is he's currently the operations manager at Beamworks Audio Visual Resource Group. He's got tons of experience as a production manager in the AV industry, managing teams of people both in the office and on live productions. Our next second guest brings an expertise to the world of AV that's difficult to come by from audio system design to live audio mixing and video production to show coordination. This guy does it all and he does it really well. Welcome, Drew McMullian. How you doing, man?
Drew McMullian:Very excited to be here. I thought we were going to have chips and salsa, but if you just want to talk, I'm excited to be here with that as well, so it's, it's all business, it's all business business here.
Collin:We're happy to be here.
Drew McMullian:I'm excited for the invite. I'm excited to talk to both of you guys. A little sad H isn't here, but At the circus again. We'll take that again.
Collin:Again, h tell, tell Barnum and Bailey. We said hi over there at the circus. Uh well, yeah, it is just me. So if you're disappointed in that, I don't know what to tell you.
Drew McMullian:I could be a little more excited because I haven't met H, so, uh, we'll keep that.
Collin:I was going to say you know, you don't even you could, you could, it's fine, he could be the worst.
Drew McMullian:This is actually a positive, isn't it?
Collin:The circus needed him, I think, I think it is.
Adrian Traurig:He's working the circus.
Collin:Maybe, that's maybe that's his side gig. He just didn't, he didn't, he didn't want us to know about it. Um, well, okay, so why don't you guys, uh, tell us a little bit more about yourself? Um, talked about quite a bit of experience. Tell, tell us a little bit more about, about that experience, where you come from, what you've done. Go ahead.
Adrian Traurig:We'll start with you, Adrian.
Drew McMullian:First guest.
Adrian Traurig:Cool. Um, yeah, I think, like you had mentioned um that number, 15 years. I got to think back now because it it's probably more than that it's probably an old bio.
Collin:We're going to say 20 at least. Maybe we're going for it.
Adrian Traurig:Um, yeah, a lot of my career I've worked in church. Uh, honestly, um, as um my degrees in music, and I was have been a worship pastor, a music pastor for most of my life and, uh, working in the church, working in ministry full time, and a lot of the churches that I had that position in, um, you know, we didn't have these full like robust, huge, creative teams, so there was always a need. It's like, oh, you're the worship leader, oh, and you're also the graphics guy and you're also the video guy and the ministry Unheard of. Yeah, Um, and so that is kind of where I was forced to learn a lot of the audio video production side of things in the church realm, Um, and so a lot of it's self taught, obviously, like music and creativity, um, and and, and being in that production world, they all.
Adrian Traurig:There is a tie in there, obviously, and so I was. It wasn't completely foreign to me. It's not like, oh, I need to learn accounting or do something completely different. Um, so for me, yeah, that's that's been. Most of my experience is just self taught. I'm taught learning from people that are better than me, Um, and then, yeah, just being a part of a few other organizations that, um have really uh, poured into me and and kind of showed me a lot that I that I didn't know, that I, um, you know, didn't realize that I even wanted to do Uh, and I ended up just being growing extremely passionate about it, and so that's kind of a little bit, I mean yes.
Adrian Traurig:There's not. You know, I can go into more detail as we, as we talk, I guess with, with, so that will be part two.
Collin:That will be part two. Life story. Life story How'd you meet your wife at now?
Adrian Traurig:Yeah, yeah. So anyway, all of that transitioned now into working for verse, uh creative, uh just at the agency here and taking all that experience leading creative teams, and um, that was the other thing I think for me, like from a leadership standpoint, is, um, you know, there were a couple opportunities where I did get to, I did have a couple of budget to hire people and build a team, a creative team, and so I think working with different designers and video producers and uh getting to, like you know, be in the thick of it, uh a lot with them and uh just solving problems and figuring things out, um really has helped like grow me a lot in that area. So by no means like what I call myself an expert, I guess, but I, you know there's things that you just pick up and that you learn over the years and just take it one day at a time.
Collin:Yeah, absolutely.
Adrian Traurig:Drew.
Drew McMullian:Well, I am an expert, actually, no, not at all.
Collin:That's why we gave you the center seat.
Drew McMullian:Thank you very much. I appreciate that. So I've been. I've been at Beamworks for 19 years doing this as a full time thing. For that long when I was, when I was very little, it always started a church. Like so many people in our industry and neighboring industries, do we get in there as kids? We want to help out, we want to do the fun things that everybody else is doing there. We see all the cool toys and that's how I got started.
Drew McMullian:I was I think I was nine or ten and the the audio engineer. Let me push the fader on the effects bus, which got me very excited and ruined my life by putting me into AV for the rest of my life. And now I'm stuck. And what is the coolest and most fun industry you could imagine? So ever since then I got going from there. I'm a drummer, musician, was in the studio stuff for a long time and, have you know, dabbled in other creative arts throughout the years, but always fell back to AV and realized that my passion wasn't so much doing all these different things but it was really people and working with people and solving their solutions, and I fell in love with the AV technology and so doing that through AV technology has just been a blessing and I really enjoy it and that's kind of what I specialize and put all my time into now.
Collin:Awesome, awesome. I mean we are definitely in a time where it's no longer arguable the necessity or value of video and a big part of that is the audio side of it too and being able to do that well is, I think, there. I don't know, there might be some people who look at it and they're just kind of like how hard could it be right? How deep could the rabbit hole go? What?
Collin:a silly question what a silly question, you know. But like so many things you know, when you really dive into it you realize, oh, this is an entire world and so it can be kind of overwhelming. So talk a little bit real quick, just about give. Maybe. Think of someone who's just kind of like they're running their organization, they're leading like they're. What they're worried about is like I want to do this mission that I'm on or that my organization's on, and I need to just lead this org and I don't have time to worry about this whole video audio side. I don't have time to worry about that. Maybe I don't see a ton of value in it. What actually is the value of video in today's day and age and what's the value of good quality video and audio and all the things that your, whatever productions you might be doing? Just give a what's the what's the value?
Drew McMullian:Yeah, so I think it depends completely on the medium right. So if you're talking about creating TikToks or Facebook marketing stuff or simple things like that, you're putting that in the palm of your customer's hands. Your potential, whoever you're trying to reach, is right there on social media.
Collin:From my side, which is way more in the live events portion, yeah, and talk a little bit about Beamworks as well, like what do you guys, what do you guys do?
Drew McMullian:Sure. So Beamworks is a live production event company, so we specialize in anything AV technology, from audio systems that are backyard barbecues to full-on massive corporate events, the concerts, screens and lighting, support for all of that, from creative all the way to just the necessity of lighting a stage yeah, and everything in between. So it's a very large market of different things that we do. Every job is different, every day is different, every need is different. There's no two jobs that are the same. There's no cookie cutter. You know here's a quote that that fits everybody's thing and that's what's so unique about it.
Drew McMullian:When you're saying people ask, oh, I could get into that. How hard is it? It's insanely hard, especially for people that have never done it, and so that's what we specialize in and that's kind of our thing. From rentals of equipment to small things. If they don't have the budget to bring us in, we do the rental side. If they want the entire production done, we do that from planning to all the way through delivering the actual product.
Drew McMullian:So from the video aspect in ours, you know, if you're putting on a GAL, if you're putting on a fundraiser, if you're putting on an event of any kind, it's because you're inviting people to talk to them about what you're doing or to ask them for funds to support your organization, and so many of those things are done through the delivering of speaking or the delivering of playing videos in your event and if that is done poorly it's very hard to correlate the conversation to those people. It's very hard to get people engaged. It's very easy for them to tune out If the audio is not good, if the video isn't done well. It's very hard for them to be captured by that and want to actually engage back with you.
Collin:Yeah, it can be more of a distraction, that's taking me away from someone actually engaging with what you're doing.
Drew McMullian:Poorly done events is a way more negative thing than a well done event is good if that makes sense that's great, yeah, so Quote it. Yeah so you know.
Collin:Maybe, Is that a Quote button? I hit the quote button, there we go. But well, no, I think that's an interesting call out, right? So for a practical use, like your, your first priority is don't do it bad, Not do it best, but just don't do it bad. If I can hit average or if I can hit good enough, even that's better than just doing a poor job, because that can actually hurt your reputation 100% and I don't want to jump way ahead.
Drew McMullian:I know we want to talk about what's the real benefits of hiring people to help you out and all that later on. But you know it's very easy nowadays to take what you have in your pocket right. So everybody has a smartphone that's fantastic at shooting a quick video, but the audio is probably awful on it 90% of the time, especially if you had this idea. We did an event just recently where they shot all of their videos With a phone outside by a parking lot and so when it gets played on your phone back to you it doesn't sound bad, but when you play that through a PA system in a large room it is awful. And so now you have this amazing child talking about the super importance of why everybody's there and it's the big push for the end of the night, of why people need to give, and it's pulling on the heartstrings of everybody and nobody can hear it, or it's so distracting that nobody really captured the importance of what it was.
Adrian Traurig:Yeah, I think Drew was mentioning live events.
Adrian Traurig:A live event that is well done, that is well produced, that is well thought out, is really you're telling a story, right.
Adrian Traurig:So you're trying to captivate an audience, which is the same thing for a standalone video production. You're trying to tell a story and to bring the audience along a journey and, whether that's introducing conflict or different concepts that you want them to try to understand, ultimately you're trying to drive them to one takeaway essentially. And so I think that that's true in the live world, that's true in what we do, which is a little bit more of like the advertising and marketing, like scripted kind of world with audio video. But I would say, yeah, the quality of the sound, the quality of being very intentional, I guess, about the message that you're trying to portray and not letting that get lost in bad audio or bad, you know, these things that can really hurt and detract from the message, because you know, sometimes you just have that one shot to gain trust with your customer base or your audience and one of those things can just blow it and they'll never come back.
Collin:Yeah, which is huge. Those are big stakes, so let's talk for a little bit, right. So we've got, you know, people in a few different spots. We'll get back to talking about why maybe going with an agency or partnering with an org like Beamworks is a good idea. But what about the people who are just maybe? Maybe they just started, maybe like they're just getting into it and they know. They know I need to do some video that I've got to put on event. I know it's got to be good. I just don't have the resources to invest in something like that. How do we help them? What are some hacks? What are some tips? What's like? You know, if you don't get any other equipment, make sure you've got this so you can at least hit that level of good enough. Talk to them a little bit about that. How can we help them get to just good enough? What does that look like?
Drew McMullian:Sure, so I think it's a very wide conversation. I think one of the struggles a lot of people do is they'll go on and say, all right, I've got to put on an event. What does that look like? And the next thing they do is they start Googling events or they want to copy something that they went to because you know they were at this large insurance.
Collin:Probably like World Vision or, of course, a billion dollar like yeah.
Drew McMullian:And that's exactly the point. And then they go I want to put on this and they show you a picture of an event that costs, you know, $3.7 million to put on and they have a $4,000 budget and you go. It's just not going to happen like that and you should have goals and aspirations to do that right.
Drew McMullian:That should be what you're going for with the understanding that you aren't going to hit that this year. Yeah, I think you need to have a good audio system. Let's just say that you're putting on a event in a room of some type, right? So you need to have a good audio system where everybody can hear what you're saying, they can hear music played, they can hear any videos played. That's a very simple, doesn't have to be elaborate, it doesn't have to be expensive, but just a good audio system. That doesn't mean your neighbor who has a band down the street that plays in their garage borrowing that, right, so you can get with a company that can get you something affordable and good. The second would be, if you're going to be playing videos, at least a good enough projector screen set up that everything could be seen. And, most importantly, if you're really trying to play on emotions, is have some kind of colored lighting that can set the mood that you're trying to do.
Collin:If you can tackle those three things decently well, you're most of the way there, bam, and all of those things, like you said, can be done extremely affordably.
Drew McMullian:Absolutely. I mean, you do need to have a budget of some short. It doesn't have to be a hundred thousand dollar budget, it doesn't have to be a $10,000 budget. You can rent and all of this obviously depends on the size of the room and your attendance that you're expecting. But if you're talking 100 people, a couple hundred people, you can do all of that within the sub couple thousand dollars, if not even significantly less than that as far as a rental goes.
Collin:Adrian talk to like video productions. What is that? You know, unlike the, if you want to have some type of controlled production, costs can get up there, right, if you're, you know if you're really getting professional equipment. But what is that? What does it look like on that end to maybe do it a little more affordably?
Adrian Traurig:Yeah. So I think the most important thing in I mean this may cost you money, it may not, it may just cost you time is just figure out what your message is, you know, figure out, sit down beforehand, put in the work to really write out, or at least outline. You know to some degree. What is it that you're trying to communicate, what journey do you want to take the customer, the audience, on, and what is your call to action Like, what do you want them to do with the information? Right? So I think it starts there, you know, it starts with.
Collin:You know, for for what we ever start making purchases, yeah.
Adrian Traurig:For what we do. You know, we write scripts and we write, we write concepts. It doesn't have to be a fully word for word kind of thing, but that you know it may cost you time. I guess time is money, but but I think it's like a very important first step is to get that part right. Because, everything else that comes after. You know you're going to end up spending a lot more time if you have to go back and redo things, and you know right.
Collin:Unless you don't have a computer, like you, you have the equipment to do this. To hit this. And. I love that point too, because I think if the messaging is good, you're able, your audience is able, to be a little bit more forgiving. If the production is a little bit lower, right, and so if you've got that doubt, and that's a great point. So once they've got that, then you know, just get me started. Right, I just want to have, I want a way to get decent video with decent audio. What do I need?
Adrian Traurig:Yeah. So I would just to kind of piggyback off of that previous thought here that writing that messaging and going through the edits of that script is very it's an easy thing. I mean I wouldn't say easy, but it's easier to make edits to that than it is later on, like once you've started like filming, whatever you're doing, or recording or however you're delivering it. So take the time, like we call it pre-production, take the time to kind of map out at least like what you're trying to accomplish first. So I would say, after that then it moves kind of into the production state of we're talking about like recorded content pieces for marketing purposes or advertising purposes. So I would say, if you're very limited on resources, how technical do we wanna be here? Like probably not too technical.
Collin:Yeah, yeah, I think.
Adrian Traurig:So I can keep it pretty straightforward and simple. One natural light is always gonna be the best if you have no budget to get good lighting. So I would say more than video I know this is ironic because we're talking about video but getting good lighting and good audio is actually more important than getting a good camera. So I think for me it's find a window, find a big, if you can do it outside and it's quiet and you can invest in like a lavalier microphone. I don't know Drew can maybe speak to specifics of like brands and things like that but I would say I've done so many videos like this where we're traveling.
Adrian Traurig:We don't have the budget to bring a ton of equipment or rent things, but we're in a hotel A lot of hotels have these like big ballrooms or areas of the even, like a suite or a room where you can open up the curtains and it's like just flooded with natural light. So make sure that move close to a window if you're filming something. And I think, from a video standpoint, iphone is fantastic. I mean the new version of the iPhone that just came out. I don't have it. I haven't like really played around with it, but I have been doing a lot of research. We've been doing research here. Even we're considering purchasing a few.
Collin:We are considering having some on hand to do some more like running gun stuff Exactly. Very legitimate option, but even, not just the 15. This right now is being recorded on a 13 Pro and it's not gonna be the best, but it's gonna be good enough Well, to piggyback on that.
Drew McMullian:I was at an event that had about 15 different news agencies at it and they were all talking and actually using iPhone 13s and talking about how that's the way to go and it's so much easier for them and better for them to use that, possibly with a microphone attached.
Adrian Traurig:Definitely a microphone yeah.
Drew McMullian:And it's phenomenal.
Collin:Yeah, I did a shoot a few months ago. It was a golf tournament and I was hauling our red Komodo around on like, on this gimbal and everything, and I had this giant backpack with a bunch of stuff, all the equipment I would need, and I was-, which is still a pretty lightweight rig for what that is. Yeah, even that was but, like my arms were feeling it right. So I mean to have like something like an iPhone 15.
Adrian Traurig:In that moment I'm thinking back like oh man, yeah, I would say for sub like $1,500, it is like by far the best camera setup that you can get right now, or the best camera for video, and you know there's ways you can look up ways to kind of set it up for professional video. There's a lot of like information and YouTube videos out there now about that and even how to rig it out. So like, if you are, you know, highly suggest, like I said before, audio and lighting are even more important. So if you're gonna splurge or you have a little bit more to put into something, definitely get good audio, cause you can find natural lighting. Most of us have some sort of smartphone like that that can record halfway decent video. Audio is, you know, that's half of the storytelling. If you have bad audio, you're really creating a distraction and pulling people out of what you're trying to accomplish.
Collin:Yeah, and you know I wanna point out as well that a lot of times we've mentioned this a lot of times what people will do is they immediately jump to the equipment. Okay, so if I wanna get, what equipment do I need? That's a good question to ask. But if you can answer these other questions we've talked about, like environment, right, if you wanna do a podcast, right, you can get super great shore microphones. Or you can spend $100, get a Yeti microphone and just make sure you're in a good room that doesn't echo a ton. And you know, you got your AC off, which is funny because our AC was going on during this at one point. But but you can also fix it in post if you know how.
Collin:That's right.
Adrian Traurig:Right, but like but the just being in a room that is conducive to getting good audio is very important, like Drew was saying, like don't stand in the middle of a high if you're trying to shoot a video, I mean you know there's some confidence that plays into that as well.
Adrian Traurig:Whereas, like, if you're recording with the iPhone, for instance, I know it has noise cancellation for some of that stuff, but, like he's saying, you go to play that in like a large event through an actual PA and there's just like nothing worse. Like you know, people just are want to walk out.
Drew McMullian:Actively see people turn their brains off.
Collin:Yeah, and we're done, and they're powering down, yeah.
Drew McMullian:So little things like if it's, if it's going to be broadcasted like that, turn your phone sideways and used to be widescreen. Don't develop a portrait video that's going to be put on a projector screen somewhere. You know the little things.
Adrian Traurig:Yeah, think about like the deliverable, like the context of where you're delivering. And I mean we just got done shooting a couple of videos here in the studio where we will turn them into social media, which will be portrait mode, but there we shot at landscape because it's going to be also used for like a web delivery, for YouTube or website. But that's very easy to if you know you give yourself room to say, okay, I can use this same shot and convert it to a vertical video after the fact and we can talk about like the post production stuff too.
Collin:If you want to get into that what you know. So we've talked a little bit about, you know, the pre-production and the production. Now, post production, what does that look like from an affordable, because that's probably even more so than the equipment. That's probably more left field for people who aren't in this? Yeah, definitely, you know what I mean, so help them out.
Drew McMullian:That's going to be more on your side. My post production has taken what you give me and making it amazing in a room. So I can definitely say that the pre-planning of everything that Agin was first talking about is so important. On everything we talk about, that pre-planning and pre-production is what's going to get you a final product. We always had a joke in the recording say we'll fix it later in the mix, right?
Adrian Traurig:Fix the post.
Drew McMullian:No, do it right in the beginning. Ask the questions. Don't jump to the products, don't jump to the hardware. Find people that you know, find people that you can find through your network that do this and ask questions. You know, take someone out to coffee or lunch. Don't waste their time, but use that, especially if they have the same heart or the same values as your organization. Use those resources, talk to them and get that information, because so many people are willing to talk to you and give you that. If you just ask nicely, if you buy them a cup of coffee or share the same values, they're happy to talk you through that.
Drew McMullian:So many of these people especially if you're a church person or you're involved in that so many of the people like Adrian and myself started doing that. I know, colin, you were involved as well that grew up doing that that do that. These church guys put on you know two or three quote unquote events every week. They're pros at it, they're in the studio, they're working with the other departments that they have, as some of these large churches that do video production, that do all this stuff. They'd be more than happy to talk to you, ask the questions and let them be in so that your pre-production builds to a great end product.
Collin:The resources are there Absolutely, if you're willing to look for them.
Adrian Traurig:The resources, are there yeah, I would say too, just going off of that idea in anything that we're talking about today. So, whether it be live events, like taking this content and putting on event with it, or even just creating content, there's kind of a principle there where that can only yes, you can sweeten it, there's things that you can do to fix it in post, but I mean, it really starts at the source, and so, whether we're talking about the messaging, whether we're talking about the quality of the audio or the lighting, whatever it is, that's all you have to work with.
Collin:Yeah, that's your cap.
Adrian Traurig:So it's like if you're starting out for quality, then it's only like I'll just shoot it in 720 and export 4K.
Collin:it's fine, yeah.
Adrian Traurig:Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I would say that. And then just along the lines of post-production, you know I used to be. I learned in Adobe and so, like the entire Adobe suite is fantastic for a lot of post-production work. I will say, about four years ago, five years ago, I did switch over on the video production side. I did switch over to DaVinci Resolve for video editing and color grade. Like all the more intricate post-production work, I did switch over to that.
Adrian Traurig:The reason I did number one is because we were working in non-profit environments and in churches and DaVinci Resolve offers a free version of their software and it is like they give you a lot in the free version. So check that out if that's something that you want to dive into. Obviously, there is a little bit more of a learning curve when you get into video editing and audio editing, so you will have to allow yourself time to research that if you're not going to look for to hire someone else out to do that side of it for you. But the way that they've designed it is pretty intuitive. It's like probably one of the most user-friendly interfaces that I found for post-production work. Then they do offer a paid version. It's actually not expensive I think it's like $300 or something and that gives you every single feature that they offer.
Collin:One of the great things about Resolve is it's at least right now. It's not a subscription-based model. You buy it once and you get all the updates that they come out with You're Adobe suite, which is a subscription, but again, davinci Resolve is remarkably affordable for what you can do with it. It's a pro-level software.
Adrian Traurig:You can definitely accomplish. So for what we're talking about, for content marketing and for lower budget advertising shoots and even podcast and audio edits and stuff, it's fantastic. Obviously, if you get into larger commercial shoots and things, you're not going to do all your work in Resolve. You're going to be across other different programs, especially for audio editing and things like that. But yeah, I think for the purposes of what we're talking about, that's a great option. They offer a free version that you can dive into and learn. That's the thing. It's like. You've got to make a choice. Once you get into it, do I want to continue down this path of increasing my knowledge on how to use it? Or it's like, yeah, I don't think I have the time for this. I need to find somebody that can at least take the content that we've recorded and get it into a presentable state.
Collin:Great segue because, as we wrap up here, why don't we talk a little bit about agencies that are out there, like Beamworks, like Verse Creative? There's a lot of people who legitimately aren't in the place where I don't have the resources for it. You slowly get into a place where you keep dragging that with you, even though you might be in a place where it's more comfortable to say I don't have the resources. But if it's something you really value, you're at a place where you actually can find those resources for those people, or for the ones who just they've got it and they're just, for some reason or another, not willing to do that. What is the value of being able to work with an agency or with an organization like Beamworks for your audio visual needs?
Drew McMullian:Yeah well, I think there's massive advantages. The first thing I'll say is the jump financially to go from having no money to do an event with people to assist to having the ability to have people run your event is not massive. It can be insane, it can go absolutely bonkers. There are companies out there doing millions of dollars on an event, but you can easily do it for not that much money. And so if you're already trying to raise money, find someone that can give a little bit more maybe, or put money towards that to have it, because the value is so much. It's like so many things. If you were to ask anybody who has no knowledge of something to go do something and then put a hundred people in a room and have that pressure on them to make it perfect, it's very not possible to do that. And so we mentioned earlier about I was thinking when you said it, we thought of people like to jump over to the hardware and the product. I want to go get the camera, or I want to go get this or that. That's fine. Every company that we compete with, every company that's out there, can go and buy the best speakers, the best mics, the best whatever. It's really the people behind it that are making all the difference If you don't have a technician that's been doing this for years and has experienced all the problems that are going to come, because every event has problems and it's our job to not let you know that something happened and your heart rate doesn't go up and everything goes fine, because your job is to be on stage or be behind the scenes making it happen. It's our job to make the production go perfect and the people behind that is really what's going to take that event from a very basic and novice thing to something that makes an impact.
Drew McMullian:If we're talking about telling stories, when you get to that climax, the AV has to support it or it never gets there. We talk about a lot of little things. When you plan out the event, you need people that are there to let you know. We shouldn't have a pull of the heart moment or a big message moment when people are eating dinner. The eating dinner portion should be a quiet time. It should be a music plan, social and that's it. You shouldn't be asking for money. You shouldn't be giving information when there's 20 servers walking around and people clanking silverware everywhere. Little things like that. You just don't know, unless you have people that do events for a living.
Collin:But it sounded really good when we did it. It sounded so good.
Drew McMullian:In half hour. We didn't want to waste. That seemed like a great place to put the big ask at the end of the night. People do this all the time. We know there's companies out there like Qtego that do fundraising, the network and the software for people to do bidding and stuff on their phone and all that. Companies like that are amazing. Nobody knows about it unless they're reaching out. There's so much that we do all the time that we can help with just by simple questions. If you don't utilize an agency or a production company and ask those questions early on and trust them, don't just say, hey, I need speakers and a projector, We'll see you next Saturday. Ask them to be a part of the planning process and the amount of knowledge you'll get that is so invaluable. They don't charge for that kind of stuff. The questions they don't charge for.
Collin:That's huge. As you're talking about, you can run up the bill if you want. If you want to get really extravagant with, you can, or you can keep it more affordable. With both of those costs, you're getting the same expertise.
Drew McMullian:Absolutely, it's the same people. Absolutely.
Collin:What a huge value to be able to pay for that type of expertise that someone's put in at a pretty affordable rate.
Adrian Traurig:I would add to that it's the diversity of the expertise. At least from an agency standpoint, you're getting a diverse team of experts that are very niche for exactly what you need. I used this analogy before about the Legos. If you're a Lego piece and you bring yourself to the table and you know, yeah, like you can, maybe maybe you bring two or three pieces, let's put it that way yeah, you can create some things right with two or three Lego pieces. Yeah, but when you start bringing, like an entire team and they all have two or three of their own pieces and you bring it to the table together, like the things that you can create and the things that you can build that go beyond what you yourself may have limitations of of getting to, that is where I think the value comes in, because you know you're talking about bringing in, you know, expert like strategists and people that are working with keywords and and Optimization things, and then you're bringing in copywriters that that write scripts. You know, like they know how to story, tell and and create that arc for where we ultimately want to Bring your client. You know whether so, whether that's like a, you know the.
Adrian Traurig:The purpose is to get them to To really back the vision of the organization. Maybe the purpose is to get that, hey, we need to raise this much money, so it could be donation based, it could be awareness or testimonial storytelling, like. There's so many different angles, and so I think, bringing bringing people on board that Can really bring their, their diverse expertise to the table that is where I would see the value coming in, as opposed to, yes, you can do it internally, but you also have a million other things that you're worried about and that you have to do, and if you have the time to do it, do it like you know, experiment with it and and and learn it. But I think that that there's so much value in having an, an entire team of people that can come to the table and really put all the brainpower behind the project and what, what it is that we're trying to accomplish.
Collin:Yeah, so good, so good. Any, any last, any last things that add, any last tips, tricks, anything that you're like, you know what, if you're trying to do this, this was mine, belonging for me, anything like that which got Adrian anything great.
Drew McMullian:Oh, man, I Think you need to talk with people. I think you need to to find people that are whether it's at your church, that are tech people, call a production company, just ask questions. But if you can Especially we're talking about nonprofits Find people that do have the same core values as you. Find people that do have the same heart. Yeah, buy a lunch. Yeah, I can't tell you how many times you know, we've seen texts on the backside of events that could care less about your event and they're just there because that's their job and that's their money and they may do a great job. But when you find people that are aligned with you, you get. You get so much more care and passion out of it and you feel it through the end product.
Collin:Man. This has been an incredible episode. Hopefully, hopefully, for our listeners. There's a lot of really practical Info. I think there has been you guys. You guys brought the a game for sure. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you, adrian, thank you, drew, for joining, joining us, for being those people who are willing to share your expertise. And you know, I'm sure People should pay probably a lot of money for what some of the info you guys just gave, but but you're very generous with that. So, listeners, thank you for tuning in every single week. We will be seeing you next time on the nonprofit Renaissance.
Outro:Thanks again for listening to the nonprofit Renaissance. We hope it ignites a Renaissance in you and helps you go further and grow faster. Be sure to share, rate and subscribe and if you'd like to recommend or be a guest on our show, send us an email. At podcast at first, creative comm.