We were lucky to catch up with Kyler Beal recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kyler, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge to profitability in our industry is actually.. the people!

Salaried employees are few and far between in the commercial video space, and really the entire creative space on the west coast – and for good reason. Salaries are consistent, and benefits are expensive while client work can fluctuate heavily on a seasonal basis typically without larger retainer contracts. We have quarters that feel like we need double the workforce while others feel like 2 people could handle the entire workload. That has led most production companies to employ as few people as possible and utilize the freelance and union networks to source crew.. which totally makes sense!

However, we’ve taken a different approach. We want our people to have a creative space for challenge, growth, and tinkering that’s also as stable and as sustainable as possible. We want to allow our people to grow holistically while working at Minivan Productions and in order for that to happen, they can’t be looking over their shoulder for the next project or be sidetracked worrying about what’s coming in my opinion. We want our team to have healthy boundaries, to make mistakes and learn from them, to bring more than a professional mask to the office… to care about their work, but also everything else that makes them whole.

Finding the right fit at work is hard. Taking on new challenges is hard. Pushing boundaries is hard. Creating a space that’s both profitable and hospitable is hard. You’ve got to choose your hard and for us, making people feel seen – their whole self – is what makes it all worth it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began to travel and document people of the world as a solo filmmaker capturing ‘advertorials’ – real people actually using products in rad places with brands – across the country as well as internationally. From Wyoming to Alaska and Romania to Uganda, if I was invited into someones literal or figurative backyard to hear a story, I was there in a heartbeat.

Now, our team offers one of the best project experiences of any video agency we know, both for our clients and the agencies we support. We are known for our ability to guide our clients through a proven process with a genuine interest in their organization! We love being a part of internal teams and cultures, we’re not looking to interrupt their flow.. just augment their teams’ abilities and capacity.

We take a lot of pride in our brand direction, our creative leadership, and concept development. We quickly understand complex subjects and have an adaptable proven process that we actually follow through on. With over 300 projects under out belt, we’ve consistently delivered on time and establish rapid feedback channels keeping the process seamless. Frankly, we’re really good at video production.. from commercials to branded testimonies, we’ve got a proven adaptable process we believe in.

We do so through through any one, or a variety, of the products we deliver:

– Commercial Content
– Customized Content Creation
– Branded Testimonies
– Capital Campaign Videos
– Social Media Shorts
– Brand Anthems

Minivan Productions is all about the people — wickedly talented creatives who never stop learning and are deeply invested in building meaningful relationships. Whether you’re on the hunt for commercial content or lifestyle testimonies, brand anthems or capital campaigns – you’ve come to the right place.

We partner with growing agencies that care about relationship development. We bring our full service capabilities to proven agency partners that are seeking a production process that matches their strategy quality and client experience.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Reputation is everything in a service based business and you can lose that in the blink of an eye. One poorly worded email, one quick witted comment on set, one meeting with a lack of intentionality and you’re back to square one. On the flip side, when you’ve established a credible, personable, genuine reputation, the world seems to operate a bit smoother. There’s more grace, there’s opportunities for further understanding, there’s referrals!

It can be hard to build a reputation as a conglomeration of people, products and services. For us, it’s always looked like being true to our own character. We’re not putting on a show at work or bringing our “professional” self – we’re bringing our whole self consistently! That’s our super power. Being real people and counting on our clients to do the same.

That means we hire people who care the way we do first and foremost. That means our first question when we’re wrapping a project is what’s “one more” thing we can do for our client. That means we look out for each other and have their best interest in mind. In means we’re honest and forthcoming. It means our process is transparent and our expectations are clear.

In a weird way, the most important thing we’ve incorporated into our reputation building is not overcomplicating it. Just be about it.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Be radically candid.. with your praise even more so than your criticism. Most high achievers are obsessed with what they do wrong. We learn faster from mistakes, so it makes sense to spend time making adjustments to how we do things. On the flip side is the vision that people need to filter that criticism. In it’s simplest sense, if you don’t know where you’re headed it’s pretty hard to adjust your course.

Praise is that guiding flag. “Great job in there” is not clear and is only slghtly encouraging. “I really appreciated how you led that meeting by holding both arguments equally and fairly.” Now we’re getting somewhere!

There is an astronomical amount of time spent in project feedback loops one way or another, and we’re often encouraging! The problem is the encouragement doesn’t amount to guidance. It isn’t actually candid, it’s lazy. We need radical candor in our criticism as well, but you first need to create an understanding that you care personally before you challenge directly as Kim Scott would say in her book ‘Radical Candor’.

Give people something to strive for by giving them detailed, intentional, caring feedback both when it’s criticism and, most importantly, when it’s praise!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://minivanproductions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/minivanproductions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/minivan-productions