We were lucky to catch up with Mike Basch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mike thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

For videography (which came first):

After college I didn’t have much direction. My family was set to go on a trip to Italy (which was a big deal for us) so I got super interested in creating a film of our vacation as a way to remember the adventure. Keep in mind that this was in 2013 when these type of films weren’t as popular. Now it seems everyone on instagram is documenting their travels.

I started studying a few channels I found online to see how they were making their travel films, and bought my first camera (Sony RX100). The video was just a little goofy beginner film of the trip, but a girl who saw it on my Facebook reached out, and asked if I wanted to film her wedding. This was my first glimpse into how I could monetize my hobby.

I filmed that first wedding and just ran with it. Word of mouth traveled. I started emailing and meeting with wedding planners and sold myself initially as a last minute affordable add on for brides that would regret not having a film made. As I booked more and more my portfolio, gear, skill, and price began to scale up. Slowly but surely its been an 11 year ride, and I have filmed 100’s of weddings all over the United States and abroad.

for Real estate:

Once I started making a little money with wedding films I began to save up a little next egg of money. I have always been very entrepreneurial, so when I began thinking of buying my first home; the idea of a multi family naturally came to mind. I wanted to own something, but not pay for it. With a little research I found my first property. It was a 4 family in the downtown Cincinnati neighborhood called (over the Rhine) which would eventually go on to become an area of massive resurgence in development. I got lucky. Bought the first property at the right time. I was inspired to do another one so I did. Bought my next building in the same neighborhood and turned it into 3 high end apartments. This one was my first complete gut renovation that I over saw, and learned a ton on.

After that one I bought another building across the street and gutted it and rebuilt it into 6 apartments. Rented all of those also, and have done it over and over.

I am currently working on a pretty high profile project in the same neighborhood. There was a famous German beer baron named Christian Moerlein who created the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company. My business partner and I purchased his old mansion that he built in 1870, and are doing a complete gut rehab into 9 apartments that we will keep and rent out.

I post a lot of our projects on my instagram Mike.basch if you’re curious to see.

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 feel Im the right balance of creativity and business sense / people skills. Both of my careers (film & real estate) require creativity. The interior design comes easy for me. Materials, paint colors, floor plans, etc. In film the creativity is a little different, but both require turning unorganized rough items into a polished product.

I feel communication & people skills may be one of the most important trait in a business person. Being able to communicate tasks to employees is an area that I have spent a lot of practice in. When you have really good communication skills (both verbal and nonverbal) sometimes even language barriers become easier. Until my Spanish improves this is something I experience often in my construction ventures.

What sets me a part from most? I really am not scared of any task. I grew up doing hard and uncomfortable things. I feel the highest achievers in life are those that aren’t scared of a daunting task. If people had any idea how big and time demanding these real estate projects we do are. I feel the most alive when I have a truly challenging task day in and day out that I have to bring my A game for. I don’t really question my ability to complete the tasks; however I certainly realize just how strenuous and profound these ventures are, and that I need to bring my best self on a daily basis or else I won’t succeed.

Being scared of discomfort and hard tasks handicaps most people in life. I am not one of those people. If someone out there is doing something – I feel I can too. This motto has served me well in life.

What am I proud of? I am a good person too. I have helped lots of people in my life. have given my time to countless people who wanted to learn more about real estate or being an entrepreneur.

This is a whole different story, but 4 years ago I found a homeless man in Nashville who was living under a bridge who has previous construction experience and I brought him to Cincinnati to work for me. 4 years later he is still here doing a great job for us.

How’d you meet your business partner?

after 8 or 9 years doing my real estate stuff solo a friend reached out to me wanting to grab dinner and learn more about what I was doing. His name is Stu, and was also an entrepreneur. He and a few partners had created a really cool business called “Pedal Wagon” in Cincinnati where you rent these little bike wagons and ride around town to different restaurants, bars, etc. The built that business from scratch and sold it in 2020.

Stu, his wife, and I got dinner one night and I just told him more about what I was doing. I told him I would happily go see some deals of his own with him and do my best to get him going in the right direction. After seeing a bunch of bad deals together I got a lead on the biggest project I had ever looked at, and Stu came along to see it too. Because of the scope of the project Stu and I just sort of looked at each other and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to partner.

We both bring different skill sets to the table. I had the previous construction experience. Had most of the tools, relationships with architects, contractors, inspectors, suppliers, etc. I have some skills in creativity and design amongst others.

Stu had a background in accounting, budget making / keeping, organization, management. It was a great marriage.

The day to day construction is only part of our business together. There is so much that goes into this beyond building stuff. Tax abatements, bank draws for construction loans, sourcing materials, etc. Having Stu involved has allowed me to envision growing our business to the next level – which we intend to do.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

I have multiple revenue streams in my life. I film weddings. This job for me is ideal because I can make full time money with a sort of part time schedule. As I have construction projects going on I can find the time to sneak off and work on my films and keep both jobs thriving. It absolutely can be stressful and overwhelming at times, but I do much better with being overwhelmed versus underwhelmed.

The real estate aspect of my life is more of a long term money plan. While I do make money now – the real money to be made with the real estate is years down the road when all the loans are paid off. I view it sort of a current income, and future pension.

When all of the real estate is paid off in 15-20 years I will be in a really good spot.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.squirrelweddingfilms.com
• Instagram: mike.basch
• Other: https://vimeo.com/791358706 https://vimeo.com/853889606 https://vimeo.com/870910045 https://vimeo.com/891526989

Image Credits
@amandadonahophotography @eleven11photo