We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Domenick Nati. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Domenick below.

Domenick, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

I remember in 2005, when I was 27 years old, I moved to Charlotte, NC. I was looking for big opportunities but at the time I was just a wedding videographer and a TV Producer for a small cable show. I started visiting every video production company that was listed in the Charlotte area and handing out my resume. One place I visited told me about a NASCAR movie they were going to start filming in a few weeks starring Will Ferrell. I told him I would love to work on that! He said. “Yeah everyone in town would.” Then he said, “Here’s the fax number you can send your resume to, but honestly, you’re probably not going to get in.”

He thought my resume wasn’t impressive enough, and he was right. I took the post-it note with the fax number and went back to my apartment. I considered what he said and thought, He’s right. My resume is not going to stand out in a pile by a fax machine. So I googled the fax number and found the address of the production office. The next day I went to the office and walked up to the first desk I saw, handed them my resume, and said, “I would like to apply for any available position.” He chuckled and was very surprised. He said, “Well, what do you do?” I told him I was a camera operator and Producer. He looked at my resume and smirked. Then he said, “Please forgive me, we don’t have people just walk in here with a resume like a McDonald’s”

I started to tell him how skilled I was with a little exaggeration. He didn’t seem impressed. Then he said, “Look. We have one last position to fill. It’s a transportation position. You have to pick up Judd Apatow from his rental house and take him to set and back.” I said “I can do that!”

The next day I received a call from the transportation department. He said come in for an interview this afternoon. Here’s how to get here and started giving me directions. I wasn’t listening but I remember saying, “Can you give me the physical address?” He gave me the address and I printed out directions and went to the interview early. When I arrived I was informed that the other person that was going to be interviewed was late. He was now seven minutes late and the door flew open. It was the other guy to be interviewed. They said, “You’re late!” He responded, “I know my car broke down and you gave me the wrong directions. I ran a half mile to get here!” They argued about the directions that were given and I got the job!

This was my big break! I was now working on a major movie with Will Ferrell and assisting Judd Apatow! I learned so much working on the film. I wasn’t a wedding videographer anymore. I was now on IMDb. I played basketball with Will Ferrell and the crew on Saturdays. I met big names in Hollywood and drove Judd Apatow, Leslie Mann, Adam McKay, and Amy Adams to the set and the airport. I was in! The movie didn’t have a title at the time but later it was given the name “Talladega Nights” and I worked on it!

Later, I called the guy who gave me the fax number and asked if he remembered me. He said “Yeah, did you ever fax your resume?” I said “No, I went down to the office and they hired me. Thanks for the help,” The last day of filming I said goodbye to the guy who hired me and thanked him. He said “Well, you were early. Even after I gave you the wrong directions.” I was confused. He said, “That other guy was right. I always give the wrong directions to see who can figure it out. You passed the test, kid.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

After working in production on TV Shows and movies I began dabbling in public relations. I was a TV Producer and a camera operator for the Charlotte Hornets at the time and I wrote a press release for a TV project I was working on. I sent the press release to the local news and FOX and ABC came and did a story on me and my project. I couldn’t believe that I was getting national news coverage from sending an email. I then realized that I may be better at PR than I am in TV.

Soon I was hired by one of the Charlotte Hornets to handle his PR. Then I was hired by NASCAR to help with PR for their charity events. I began to build a client list in sports and then I moved into music. My first music client was in hip hop, a well known rapper with a troubled past named DMX. What an educational and wild ride!

It has now been 17 years of handling PR for celebrities, athletes, corporations, and up and coming artists and entertainers. I love it! There are a lot of challenges to overcome, but the thrill of being a part of the growth of exposure is an adrenaline rush for me and my clients.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I was 24 years old I was still working at various restaurants as a chef. I was not good at it, but living in Buffalo, NY made it easy to find a job in a restaurant. I had over 40 jobs and was fired 12 times. Clearly I was the problem. I didn’t like what I was doing for work. At night I would make videos on my desktop computer and I loved it! I knew that the only thing I really had a passion for was media. I wanted to be an editor or a cameraman but I was broke. I couldn’t afford a camera or a studio.

I discovered that there were 80 businesses in Buffalo that were listed under photo and video. I visited all 80 of them with my resume and called and emailed every one. Out of 80 locations I met one guy. He looked at me and said, “So you’re a cameraman who doesn’t own a camera?”. I made some excuse but he didn’t buy it. Then he said, “Well I have a video camera. You can use that.” He was a well known wedding photographer in the area and said that a lot of people don’t purchase the video package. He said he’d let me film the weddings and edit them and then see if we can sell it to the couple afterwards and if we do, he’ll split the money with me. I said. “I’ll take it!”

It worked out well. We sold almost every video I filmed and edited. The brides loved them. I was now a cameraman, I still didn’t own a camera but I had a reel I could show people. I also learned I could rent a video camera from a local company. I started getting hired by event companies to film dance competitions and pageants. I made it all work with a rented camera, an old computer that someone gave to me, cheap editing software, and a tripod. I now owned a film production company held together with duct tape, but the finished product looked professional!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My social media success and advice is not what you would expect, however it is effective and accurate. After 10 years of owning my business I decided I wanted to show more of myself as a person instead of being behind the scenes. The problem was that I was representing celebrities and high-profile clients, but I was not the polished professional people might be expecting. I’m just a regular guy with a twisted sense of humor. I’m a goofball who happens to be good at PR. If people saw the silly side of me it might end my business. But, I want to entertain people. I want to create content that makes people laugh. But if my clients or potential clients see it, they won’t want to work with me because I’ll seem unprofessional.

Despite all these fears I started releasing videos of me on social media. They showed the real me. I’m not the Hollywood snob people were expecting. I’m a regular guy that doesn’t take much seriously. I thought, “Who cares? No one’s going to watch these videos anyway.” Then some of my content went viral. They were seen by millions of people, and my clients saw it too. To my surprise they loved it! They said, “Damn, even my publicist is in the news.” I started to get a lot more people wanting to hire me. They said, “You seem so approachable, so I reached out to hire you”. I realized that being myself actually made me a real person to new clients and made them more comfortable. People don’t want to hire a logo, they want to hire a human.

Soon I had a radio station offer me my own show where I interviewed celebrities. To date I have interviewed over 3oo celebrities. Some of them loved the interview, some of them didn’t like my questions and hung up on me. All of this exposure, negative or positive, proved to clients that I know how to gain exposure. So my advice to people is no matter what business you have, it needs a face and persona that people can gravitate to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://DomenickNati.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DomNatiShow
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DomenickNati
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/DomenickNati
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KingOfContacts
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/DomNatiShow
• Other: https://imdb.me/DomenickNati