We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gregory Standal a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gregory, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My overall mission as a video content strategist is to position myself and my company as an expert at implementing video profitably and effectively. My objective is to determine if my company is the right fit for whatever prospect I am engaging with. Video is the king at communicating value and should be viewed as an investment rather than an expense. When implemented effectively, a video campaign can have a tremendous return on investment. The problem, however, is coming up with strategies that will allow a business to see a measurable return on investment comparatively to their video production budget.

For years my team and I would produce videos for clients with no real way to determine the tangible results the videos were yielding. Our content would look great, sound great and the messaging would be on point but without a system in place to use the videos to solve actual problems, the results would be lackluster. In shifting focus to a more results driven approach, it is not uncommon for some of our clients to see a 3:1 to a 10:1 return on investment using our video strategies in their marketing funnel.

Now that we shifted focus, our number one commodity is no longer video but value creation. We have shown to clients and to ourselves that video is the absolute best way to scale a business with consistency. It just comes down to understanding what types of videos a client needs and how to optimize them for their audience.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up in northern New Jersey with a camera in my hands and my passion for film making has never outgrew me . By the time I graduated high school that passion was still very much alive which was when I decided to pursue my craft further at the New York Film Academy in Manhattan. After I graduated film school I began working around New York and New Jersey as a production assistant on various shows and films. In 2011, I founded New Cape Pictures in an effort to get an independent feature financed. While that ultimately ended up falling through, I was able to use New Cape to leverage my first commercial production in 2014. Since then I have gone on to produce hundreds of branded commercials, direct response commercials, product videos, company overviews and more.

At first it was great. I was making more money and had more responsibility than I was ever used to. I had purpose in my life and was being paid to do what I love. However over the years I learned that just being a good videographer isn’t enough to ascend to the level I wanted to be at. I take pride in all my video work but admittedly was shooting from the hip (no pun intended) for the first several years of my business. I would assume what the best video for a client could or would be and would move forward on that. I never took the time to ask deep questions and understand what the core conflicts were for my clients and how I could utilize my skills as a video producer to alleviate these conflicts.

Since this paradigm shift I have seen a night and day difference in what I can offer clients. We are helping product manufacturers connect with their market and scale their revenue through powerfully effective video based solutions. Unlike video companies who do anything and everything , we focus on the specific needs of our clients first and build relevant strategies around their specific situation. I am also a member of the Performance Driven Marketing Institute, Adsphere Group, Video Business Mastery and Next Level Creators Alumni as well as the recipient of the Silver Ace Award at the Las Vegas Film Festival.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Undoubtedly one of the major struggles facing creative professionals is being able to quantify the value of their work for themselves and for their clients. The unfortunate reality is that most prospects and some clients will not see the monetary value in video. They know they need it and they know the overwhelming positive effects it can have on their business but at the end of the day a lot of video prospects out there are ‘price shoppers’ ie: people looking to gather a bunch of proposals so they can make a decision based on who submits the most attractive offer.

To counteract this as a creative professional, I no longer use time as the metric on which to charge for our services and rather propose pricing based off the results we guarantee. If the video solutions we are delivering are yielding a 3:1, 5:1 or even 10:1 return on investment, our compensation should reflect that value.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I have learned since starting out as an entrepreneur is the simple fact that no one cares about you, they only care about what you can do for them. Humans are self motivated, self interested creatures. It isn’t a good thing and it isn’t a bad thing, it just is. As a video producer I always assumed it was my video expertise that would lead me to the promised land. My success would come from my portfolio and from using state of the art film gear. This could not be more untrue. The true value I could offer a creative professional was to assume the role of partner and consultant in my client’s business and operate as someone who was trying to help with their specific issue, not just someone who can create a cool overarching video for them.

Once I began shifting my energies towards my clients was when I noticed the difference. I began asking intricate questions in meetings in an effort to unravel their problems and from there try to determine how I could use video to solve those problems. When approaching video production from this strategist perspective, I have been able to offer actual value for my clients and watch both of our companies grow as a result.

Contact Info:

• Website: newcapepictures.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/newcapepictures
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newcapepictures
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorystandal/

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