Versatile Studios Sales & Marketing Strategy Session

I'm doing— service animal.

Okay.

Hey everyone.

Hey.

Hi.

Hi.

Michael, hello.

Hey guys.

Okay. So context setting, we have effectively cleared out all of the, like, low-hanging cost removal stuff that basically makes it— like, we know exactly where the bigger cost takeouts remain. And they're largely out of our control. As such, it really basically just clears the airspace to focus almost exclusively on offensive capabilities. Um, that has to be taken in balance with the available resources of the company. We've spent the last 4 or 5 months effectively playing racquetball with different marketing ideas as it relates to versatile studios around this, like, let's talk about it in February. It's February, let's talk about it. We are, for all intents and purposes, doing what we said we were going to do, where we're within about $50,000 from a revenue generation standpoint of goal of that 1.9. We also know that 1.9, because of those, uh, lost takeouts that haven't been realized yet, largely real estate Um, it's not the number, it's really like 195, um, currently, even with me, Garrett, and, you know, kind of these other ones not hitting the cash forecast. We're really thinking about this in terms of cash right now. Um, so, um, we are having this type of focused conversation in the various kind of like units to just really dive in. Versatile is different because versatile actually seems like marketing can help, like the customer segment for all the reasons that we've said. Um, so in parallel to that, we want to get as— we want to be as helpful, but we also want to be as like, you know, sanity check as possible. That we are going through kind of like a conventional sales methodology to maximize the snowballs that are working out there that can eventually turn into relationships, which, um, then get monetized. An example of that, I'm pretty sure it was like 5 months from like conversation start to Mike sending a signed deal on Friday for Apostrophe and Caravan Club and although there's holidays and all this other shit and back and forth along the way, is 5 months. To my knowledge, that's the only one of that kind that has been signed. I know there's been other arrangements and those types of things set aside. Um, there is ver— virtually nothing else that takes, like, focus above this as it relates to versatile. So this is really meant to be a working session. I don't think we're going to need to have it be biweekly forever, but I want as we get it started, as we build this muscle, I think the more time we can spend together week after week and the clearer we can make the action items coming out of it for each person, the more we're gonna get done faster. So that's kind of my thoughts around this clear act. One of the first action items we're gonna have to set coming out of this is what time on Thursday— my thinking is Mondays, so Monday afternoon, so that like, because it's a working session, if we wanna just like hit someone up right there, they're already kind of through their Monday nightmare morning where they're just catching up from the weekend and kind of in a space where they're a little more receptive. Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday gives us time to move the ball down the field. Thursday acting as kind of a check-in for the action items that we went through on Monday. And then any kind of last minute, like, oh, going into the weekend, let's try and get this set up for XYZ. So that's more about like projects, any type of things that, you know, we say collectively like, this is what, this is what we're prioritizing, moving on. Um, what I don't want it to be is what that fucking Monday call was that I begged not to have turn into, which was just this like, here's the, here's how the business is doing. Like, it's okay if we start— from my perspective, it's okay starting out a little bit just on Mondays, but just like, here's the dashboard for the business unit, here's the cash flow so we can know how much money we have to spend, um, and like allocate and go from there.

So that's my— do we want it to be like this combo meeting where we're looking at kind of performance and then talking about sales?

I think starting it that way— and look, let's evolve, let's have it evolve, let's find what's working and let's, let's adopt or— but like, yeah, I think it's like February being an example where the first week that versatile is showing 40, then it jumps to 60, then now it's pacing at 140. We expected it to go that way, but what if 2 and a half or 3 weeks ago by the nature of us having some conversation, we were able to make 140, 170 or something. Who knows? It's kind of that, like, you know, particle physics, like, something being observed changes the way it acts. So, um, so that's really kind of my thumb— what I don't want it to be though is the weekly update where we go through what's going on around the business. Like, it's not meant to be a newsletter, it's meant to be really tactical, and it's meant to act like if we want to take the balance of the time and just like get out our phones or pull up an email and work on it or pull up a website and edit copy, like, let's— we can do that. But, um, that's really kind of my thinking. So with, with that, I want to, yeah, I guess get us started lightly with just a quick Monthly dashboard, look at the versatile, gets trending

better.

Um, and oh, the other thing I don't want it to be is— and this might be contradictory to what I just said— I don't want to spend this time figuring out why something is not pulling out of RentalWorks a certain way. Like, let's, let's find other time to like deconflict the account, the system stuff. Um, and if we get down a rabbit hole, we gotta self-police, pull out, and then get to the main activity. Which I want— I would propose a big piece of this needs to be going through the sales tracker y'all built last year. And Mike, you're still updating as of last week. So, yeah, like, I want to— like, that's, that's what I would propose be the big piece of this. And picking, like, one of those kind of initiatives that I listed out there, like Sean, the commercial, like the Avon doesn't suck commercial. Like understanding what you need because you've indicated that's a big piece of what can help you have these conversations faster. So that's not a— that you don't need to explain that to me right now, but it's just like front and center, uh, Mike, the website stuff, understanding that this would be something where we actually can show you what we did in building out a landing page and website for HDR for the bathrooms. Still work in progress, but there's some stuff that we can potentially take and do that internally to either shortcut the amount of time that we need some outside source, or just take it all the way, get it 80% of the way, get the ball rolling, and then move

forward.

Um, what, um, yeah, can you share where you're at with the— with that landing page for the— for the trail— bathroom trailers? JD? Yeah, let me— and who's, who's actually working on that? JD.

Like, JD and I met this morning to like talk through where it's at, and like now it's kind of in my court for some stuff.

But yeah, like, you just doing it with WordPress, JD?

Uh, no, I'm doing it with AI.

Love it. Nice. Sick. Okay, well, now I'm very curious.

Yeah, where is it?

So, not inside the scope of this today, but JD has also been building out different dashboards that pull from all the different sources that we have. It's not perfect yet, but he somehow got it to connect to Cars Plus and Rental Works so that we can kind of see it that way. HDR not being on it, but Garrett having developed this kind of intermittent visibility step is pretty

cool. So this is just the first shot with a little bit of, uh, like minor tweaking I wanted to see with the, the bathroom trailers. Think of this more of a proof of concept, like we can make this happen very quickly, um, especially if we're in the like iterate and figure out if it works or not phase. Um, I think we can throw a lot at it and kind of just see what sticks, but you can pretty much do what you need. I mean, what we would do here is we build a, um, build a quote engine, not necessarily show pricing directly on the page. James and I talked about that, but you would put your email in, we would get your email, we would give you a quote, um, right away, but we don't show it on the page. Now we have your email, we have a hot lead that we can go pursue, um, and some pricing. That at least gives them an idea of where, where they would be. Um, so all this— some of it is just AI, like color scheme and all that. Probably is— this is what we will land on. Um, I need to get with Garrett just to get the HDR master domain so we can link it, and then we can tweak from there. But things can be done from the outreach perspective pretty quickly. Um, so if there are things that you want to work on just from like an SEO or PPC, kind of framework, I think this would be a

good way to do it. And that is the one area where I would say JD and I do have some— I would say not zero experience in standing up like digital marketing and PPC type campaigns, SEO backlinks, those types of things. So it's not like the capability isn't, isn't zero. Um, And AI supported obviously makes that even, even more. But that's, that's a separate thing. Like, this would be something that, you know, doesn't relate to HDR in the bathroom. This is an outcome of our conversation with Garrett at the end

of January,

um, as like, this is something we need to get prioritized and done to help kind of like the revenue-generating opportunities of that business. Mm-hmm. Focusing it back in on versatile. Katie, do you wanna pull up the monthly dashboard or your other one?

Do you want the, the monthly revenue dashboard? Is that what you're looking for?

Yeah, I think we do that. I think we hit the cash flow quickly and then I wanna jump into, um, like the, yeah, the commercial and website kind of piece that they're talking through. And then leave some time to get that sales tracker pulled up and just get some hits identified.

Got it. Um, yeah, so this is where we're pacing right now. Versatile, I believe this is the most accurate view that we have right now. Um, based on what we're seeing and how we've typically forecasted it, I think I'm pretty confident around this number. I would defer to Sean or Mike if you guys think this is wildly off, uh, but this is about where versatile is pacing. Um, HDR is having a pretty good month, um, up month over month and year over year for February. And Avon is trending slightly under a million. We have some trailers going out, but on a combined basis, we're at 1.8 and change. I would say anywhere from 1.8 to 1.9 is probably realistic here. 1.9 is the number that we need to hit for the business that we said we were going to hit for the bank starting in March. Um, February being a 28-day month is probably the only reason we're not hitting that right now, um, because there is 10% less days of which we can rent assets. So you kind of extrapolate based on a 31-day month where we would be, at least on the Avon side. Um, on the cash flow perspective, we have a, uh, debt payment going out tomorrow, um, that we will be able to hit. We have some payroll obligations for both companies going out today, and then we have rents the beginning of next week. So it is a heavy cash burn, but we are, uh, for— forecasted that we would be able to hit it. So I'm just keeping a close eye on it, making sure there's no hiccups or unexpected costs or lack of collections. But from everything that I'm seeing, it looks like it will

be doable. So with that said, um, and you guys saw probably my screen grab from the cash flow forecast in my email last week, like sometimes it's a red cell, sometimes it's not a red cell, but it's within less than 6 figures. So it's— might as— for all intents and purposes, it's zero. Um, I would say that like, we can still influence outcomes for beginning of

April.

Like, or like, case in point, like, we've been chasing from an upside perspective a list of shows that we expected some of them to start in February. They're actually starting in March, but we're getting them. So Avon is pacing under a million, but we also have 2 shows starting with trailers, I think this week and next week, um, which will add another basically $50,000 a month to revenue, which would put us right about where we

would want to be.

Yeah, I believe that's Lincoln

Lawyer and—

what, uh, Lincoln Lawyer, uh, Bosch, Stardew Watch, and Baywatch. There's actually 3. Lincoln Lawyer starts today, and then those 2 come out later— or later in Nice.

All right, so all of this is to say, like, the things that we set out to go do, we have done. Like, we— or we are doing. Like, we can actually say we're going to want to go do this, and then we can make that actually happen. To that end, like, I guess Mike, you sent an email 3 or 4 weeks ago speaking to, uh, enhancing the web presence, I guess, of the Versatile Studios website. Um, and I don't think you put like an estimated cost on that because it might be— who the fuck knows?

Yeah, we gotta dig into that because, I mean, we know kind of what the needs are. But it's just more going out to a few different people and getting some quotes on it or talking about us doing it internally.

Yeah. So let's talk about that. What are the needs? I think it's— let's get an understanding of what the needs are because if we need to go source quotes, that's the type of thing that we can do some groundwork or like work on and pull you in as needed, when needed. Um, so it's not on you. The next— so what

are those? John, you want to speak to it

or you want me to? Uh, yeah, I think, I think part of the— well, okay, few things. We need a new order form for production supplies and grip and lighting. I think we should take our prices off the website because no one else has prices on their website. That could be getting us outquoted before we know it. Two, the imagery of the trucks that we had all those photo shoots for and the truck offerings I think if we're here in Hollywood and we're offering things like 4 and 5 tons, regardless of whether the truck says Avon or a versatile on it, we should have it there as an ability to order. That way it's just giving people context that these trucks

are available.

Uh, the— sorry, Sean, I want to make sure I understand that last bit. Is that get the photo assets that were taken or captured back in September onto the website and whether it says Avon or Versatile on the side of it, it's really more about just making sure that, um, website visitor understands these are options for them. Is that, is that accurate?

Okay, correct. And if we wanted to take the Avon logo off and put a Versatile logo on, even though it never really exists, it's very easy to do digitally, right? That way it's like, hey, we have 5 cuts. Even if none of the 5 cuts actually have Versatile on the side, It's

like, here's an offering, you know, book it.

And yeah, and if we find that Versatile sending a bunch of 5-tons out, then what's bad if 5-ton Versatile, right, Richard? Like, um, but that's, you know, to be seen. Okay, so it's change the pricing, change the order form. Order form is actually— order form can be a function of getting it onto RentalWorks and getting Storefront rolled out.

That's what I was gonna say is if we can get Storefront rolled out in like the next 2 weeks and we can apply that into this. I mean, most of the i-codes and assets, even though Garrett and I haven't finalized like our total pricing yet between both companies and trying to figure that out, me and him talked about it last week. I was like, it's not so much that we need to have an online estimator. It's nice that if you go to Galpin's website, or you go to a lot of other production rental places, you can see pictures of the equipment. You can— you— and you can have the online order form, whereas ours is just a PDF. And it just feels like— I guess if your website is your digital footprint for how your company is viewed, it feels like we're just not as well developed as those other companies are.

Okay, so what I'm hearing there is increase photo assets for the actual production supplies as well.

Yeah, and we, we wanted to do a shoot for that as well, which I think I did send you some test assets for it that were really cool. Uh, but we don't necessarily need to spend the money on the photo shoot.

Like, I know something that happened this weekend. Uh, Google killed about 100 different startups by introducing a new feature called Pompeii, where you can take whatever it is, hold it in your hand, take a picture of it, and Google will give you like 15 or 50 different photo shoot type assets for it. Yeah, great. So this has all gotten much easier, I guess.

So if, if we can do that with all the main iCodes for everything we have here where we have good images and we have an online storefront,

that would be awesome. Okay, so I'm going to distill that into an action item because that is ultimately a very— that's a substantial undertaking Yeah, wherein you have— so like, that would in effect, you need more or less like as a downtime kind of activity set up more or less like a shadow box or photo shoot type area. Not even photo shoot, where it's basically, it's like, here's the iPhone, we're gonna plop it on a table that takes this stuff because it doesn't need to be— because of how far things have come, it does not need to be the like guy with the, like, camera. Let's get something out, and if we want— if we're not happy with something, then we can obviously adjust. But, like, let's see where we can go. But that's that action item, right?

Yeah, I mean, I could literally— Richard, if you wanted to have Ronald come one day, we set up a couple tables, I set up a couple lights, and all they have to do is snap the picture, snap the picture, snap the picture, and pass it on. We can have all those assets shot in 2 days.

I don't think you need to do it, right?

Pretty much every day, right?

Well, here's what I

would say, like, correct it.

Look, I think that kind of detail stuff, I think this is for a

different conversation than from this, because the action item here is we need to get those photo assets captured and layered into RentalWorks so that when Storefront is ultimately linked to your updated web presence, you have that there. So that's kind of a— that's a 4 or 5 part kind of action item that are all kind of interlinked. I've not heard something yet that needs to be outsourced, which is good.

Yeah, um, go ahead. No, what's the job? So is, is Jay currently still working on Storefront, implementing that? Because the last time I talked to him months ago, he was like trying to figure something out. I had a couple questions for him on just like how it can be linked and where orders went, and if it actually like went into RentalWorks when somebody submitted a quote.

To be honest, I don't know where Jay is at that. I know that I asked JD to get a lot more involved in the Rental Works kind of project in general about halfway through January, and he's taken a heavier hand in just making sure that they're not going down rabbit holes and moving as expediently but comprehensively as possible. So I don't know where he's at. I would tell you that like if it's a problem, it's either hasn't It's either been solved or it will be

solved. JD, you're muted.

JD, if you're trying to— sorry, um, the— I have not talked to Jay about Storefront. That is not a part of the, like, phase 1 rollout, so I can't promise that that is anywhere close to

being rolled out right now. What I remember is that it wasn't far behind, and it probably had more to do with what I found them trying to do was figure out how to recreate what was happening in the Cars Plus Car Cloud fucking credit card processing triangle.

Right.

Um, and I was like, you don't have to do it this way. Like, just because this is how we do it doesn't mean you have to do it that way. Heard that before. But like, so that's where I found them. We kind of broke that up, and then that's when JD got involved. But really, it's more around just getting that baseline set up is what it sounds like.

I can have a discovery call and just figure out where we are with that. Um, I don't want to take— I

mean, I have some good questions for him too, just based on like, to actually get clients to use it. Like, is there— can they log in? Can they like pull up old orders? Like, will new orders that they place through the— through Storefront be like saved just so that they actually use it? Because then it's useful if they actually use it. But like what I was even telling Sean at one point was to go in there, build a whole order from new, and that's the only way you get your order in. It's just easier for a coordinator or production manager to just be like, here's my list, and just email it, right?

Yeah, you know, it's interesting, that was a similar point that Sean brought up when we were talking about the loyalty program type thing, um, which is like, it'd be cool if they were— they had the ability to go search back or see what they might have gotten for that. But kind of like in the same thing, uh Yeah, let us, let us run that down and come back to you. But beyond kind of like what you've spoken to there, getting the storefront, the photo assets, and, you know, kind of the— that— what else is there? Or is that enough for us to kind of fall back and pull some of that stuff forward?

Yeah, the only other thing I was going to say was more— I think at one point when I was emailing with Katie was Chad had sent her an estimate to shoot more assets, right? More of the vehicles that we didn't capture. I think a lot of them were Avon and HDR vehicles. Like, did we want to go down— I think me and her were going to revisit that right about now.

Yeah, that's correct.

I want to go down that.

No, it's about $14,000. I'd like to see what we can do with Pompeii.

Cool.

Yeah, um, because I think what we can do is take the style that they were originally shot in And then

yeah, we already have our base assets.

Exactly, take those base assets, take it,

take pictures with this. Just by Google launch this thing? Yes.

Uh, I think everything we— like, outside of the only things we'd really need to shoot for, for Versatile specifically, I think would be the interior of the wardrobe trucks. And I could probably do that myself relatively easy, just so it's— we have a shot for the website that, that we can't really send from anywhere else because it's very custom. And then maybe like a camera truck build-out or a couple camera truck build-outs that can like— because we're building them modularly right now, we can show like different layouts for it where it's like, this is how this camera truck comes, this is how this one comes, which is just so customers go, oh, that's fucking cool.

Okay, so a lot of time spent on just like What photo assets do we want? So what I hear there is just like, that's a breakout call. Like, when it gets time to— when we get time where that wireframe's built and we need— like, I think we need to just— it's probably worth having just a breakout call around photo assets is what I'm hearing. Is there anything else on the website before we move to Sean's Avon

doesn't suck commercial? Uh, no, I think that was it on the website.

Let me just look at Sean. You good?

Yeah, cool.

Hit it. Okay, so— and assume that everyone on this call has the context and like the conditions precedent for why the commercial needs to exist. This is more what do you need to get started and going and how much you think it's

going to cost. You don't want me to explain what the concept is?

Everyone knows.

We all know it.

Okay, great.

Cost-wise, I think it would take Under $3,000. Hey, I would say two, two camera operators and an assistant to help with lighting with that, and then whatever cost we need to do to do the post for it, which is just editing, which somewhat I can do myself. But if we were going to put it on someone else, we'd have to hire an editor. We could probably pay an editor $1,000 to do it completely, do the color correction— you know, do the layouts. If we shoot it both vertically and horizontally, we

could do both cuts. Okay, cost-wise, I think that that's a reasonable start. Like, obviously you want to have a good product out there.

Yeah, Richard?

Okay, regarding all of this sales item, tomorrow I will cover this with Sean and Mike in our meeting because I will be asking for list of the sales action items scope and price and all that timelines. Okay, that's part of our initial meeting.

Okay, that's follow-up to that. Cool. But from a, from a cost standpoint, and I think, Richard, what you're saying there is like getting a drill-down estimate of what that $3,000— and then really, is that who's doing what in that $3,000? Because can I— if I could read Mike's mind, it's, um, whoa, do we want Sean editing it? And I don't know.

Well, the, the— can I change your mind, Mike? Yeah, I mean, I just— yeah, whatever. We don't— I want Sean focusing on the setting up who we're going to send that to after. But I mean, we have editor.

I mean, we can get, you know, go ahead. Yeah, Richard, what I'm hearing is, and what I think you're saying here, is that like there needs to be greater substance and clarity of what the action items are here And maybe that's something you, uh, Mike and Sean can pull together just so that it's clear who's doing what, because we want to get this done as possible and know who's responsible for what.

Is that what you're saying? Yes, because what happens is that first of all, tomorrow we're going to address Code Tracker, right? What is going on in there? Then what the projects that these guys want to do in what order, right? And then we should have a scope. In other words, there should be some kind of documentation as far as What project you want to do, what timeline you want to do, what's your estimated cost, what is the scope of that project, right? Then we can all tackle that, because right now everything just fly all over the place because tracker is not even being touched at this point.

But that's a separate— we're also call 1 and 30 minutes in, but I'm trying— that's why I'm trying to talk as fast as possible to get us to baseline, just so everyone knows. JD built a bit of a custom tool that records the background. Um, so there is like— we are going— that's why I keep reframing things a certain way so that it could get captured. And that way I'll send a breakdown after the call.

Yeah, thanks. All right, so you're saying Call Tracker,

that's the— so Call Tracker is what you built, which I thought was great. Like the, the Google Sheet that you use to track last contact and he called it call tracker, but like what the Google Sheet that you use to track who it is, what was last contact, when was it, any notes, who it is, what— all of that stuff. I don't think you need more than that, and I don't necessarily want to invest in a CRM or anything at this point, um, to just get focused on that. And so that's, I think, what he means is like what we want to do is take these things like the Avon Doesn't Suck commercial and the website and all these things which are very real and meaningful, but we want to take them out of the orbit and run with what we can so that you two are— and us, but really you two are able to do what only y'all can do. I cannot go call Kat. Sean can. I cannot go call whatever the fuck apostrophe woman's name is. You can. So the more that we are able to take out of y'all's orbit, the more y'all are able to focus on that. So, JD, if you're able— like, that's about as good of a segue as possible. And, and Richard, I think you're probably right that just in the interest of time, making that what do y'all need for the commercial thing, a breakout session that you— y'all three can kind of scope out from a budget standpoint. That $3,000 is not all hitting probably at once. So if it needs to go up a little bit, okay. If you can get it done for less, okay. The point is that it's more getting done and that it's something that is meeting the goals that Sean said it needs to meet, which is something that he doesn't have to— like, it gives a picture worth a thousand words and he doesn't have to say it a thousand times to a thousand different people.

Right, Sean? Correct.

The, uh, the point of it was to be able to actually market the thing that I'm explaining in every conversation I'm having right now. So it, it'll change the temperature of how people feel about Avon when people have a traumatic history with them in the commercial industry that I've worked here for 20, 25 years. It has nothing to do with anyone there now. It has more to do with just perception. And the commercial is basically, Richard, to show the— like how well you guys have put together a manufacturing maintenance division. And like the quality of the vehicles as well. Because people in the commercial industry, every time I say, hey, well, they're like, uh, like, like, that's the reaction they have. And it has nothing to do with anything but the past. It has nothing to do with what

the company is now.

We're going to interview you, Richard.

Look at it this way, like, tomorrow during our meeting, right, James says, you know, this is the same thing what you and I talked about, is tomorrow we start with call tracker. How's it being used? Is it— if it's even being updated?

Okay, that I want to do right now. So you're calling it a call tracker,

and if we can— the call tracker, my app? Yes, it's your Google Sheet.

I'm like, what is call tracking? He's calling it

a call tracker. Yeah, so, so, and then obviously tomorrow we'll also talk about like how to document the projects you guys want to do, right? And this is where— so that we have actually a, a record of what we want to do, how we're going to do it, like, so you can plan it out. But also You're not going to attack 3 projects same time if none— if the first one is not even started or second one. Like, there has to be some kind of progress and measure, okay?

Everything's got to be measurable.

I think that's fair.

Um, right now it's not being measurable.

There's no measure, right? And that's really

the point of this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And all subsequent calls. So, um, I hope this does not kick me off.

Yes.

Um, ticket, ticket, ticket, ticket, ticket, ticket, ticket. Mike, it is the— it is the Google Sheet called VS Sales Tracker. Yeah, I have it up right in front. Um, I am also in the doc. And so like, I guess we're a little bit over on time. I think hopefully you guys have a little more, but like, this is really where I would love the meat of our first couple of weeks of our calls being. We want to bring— we can break out We have enough on our plate that we can schedule a breakout call specifically for that. But let's take these two things, the commercial and the website, and work on those in parallel so that this call, this twice weekly call can be spent majority focusing on this and understanding what we need. By the way, Sean, I finally like got a firm— no, it is not possible to get Midas Touch.

They don't make it anymore. Uh, yeah, I, I think that's what she had said. We— I've been— I would ask my beer guy and he's like, yeah, you

can't find it either.

What is Midas Touch? It's Kat's favorite— Kat from Caviar's favorite beer. Yes, got it.

I'm like, like the Midas Touch, like—

Yeah, that was the joke.

Yeah, but also— Yeah, okay. How are y'all using this? Are using this effectively in your perspec— from your perspective? Yeah, I mean, it keeps— what could

be done to either improve it or if needed? I don't know. I mean, I, I think it works well just to keep us organized on who our targets are, you know? And it's— I mean, again, this is what me and Sean kind of look at and talk about weekly when we're talking about who we're going after. So what— I mean, tell me time— what could be more useful? I mean, I think Obviously, if this was in like a more— we've talked about a more formal like CRM system that can like remind us and do follow-ups and like track emails, great. But we don't need it to be there yet because it's working just fine

how we have it.

But I think that's probably more helpful

once we get what thing in. Who's

responsible for what account? Uh, we could do that.

That's probably a good— I'll bring it

over if I hit that. But yeah.

No, that's probably a good column to add. Or alternatively, is it a commercial or a photo? I don't, I don't know if that's actually the segmentation.

Yeah, so I put— so there's a second tab that's print production companies and agents. So like apostrophe and caravan club are on that second tab. Is— got it, got it. So, um, yeah, so I mean, honestly, the, the first tab of commercial production companies is mostly Sean, right? These are mostly his contacts, people he knows. You know, but Partizan, like, that's something we worked together. That was something I got, you know, obviously Sean's had that relationship for a while, but that first Lakers game was from me— was from, uh, Quinn at Rapbook, who was based— we were like, hey, who's— who are Laker fans? We have a box for the Lakers, who should we take? And he was like, Andy from Partizan's a huge Lakers fan. And that's kind of how we ignited that one. So, but I, I mean, I like the idea of adding a column of

like who's whose target it is. I mean, if it's already segmented based off of commercial and print, then I don't know how, like, beneficial that is. But my question, I guess, would be, like, how many of these are you working at any point in time?

So, like, all the ones— all the ones kind of under negotiating are what we're working currently. So, like, actively having conversations, all that stuff. And then, like, target priorities or next targets are just That's kind of next on the hit list once we are either like stale on any of these ones under negotiating or, you know, have nothing to do, but we haven't really

gotten to that point right now. So as a baseline kind of like, um, action item here, can we go by our Thursday like re-engagement? Can we go back through and for everything we feel is stale, update, like, what's the status, what's the next thing?

Yeah, like, let's— like, um, yeah, I

can update fresh kind of on everything. It's a new year. Some of the stuff I'm seeing— and like, and then there's stuff like— and I— this is probably a breakout, and if it is, please tell me— Smuggler, where I know there is this other thing. That reminds me, Sean, Um, I have your contract on my stack to review tonight and get your commentary on, but that's, that's huge. Um, that's the smuggler one? No, the global AICP kind of like vendor thing. Um, but that would be good. But yeah, I think it's just bring everything that is in negotiating fresh because you've got how many here, you You got 12 under commercial, and you've

got nothing right now. Done again? Yeah, no shit. Um, Zach, I've actually just reached— but

you've got— I'll update some of this. Like, you've got Vela as an opportunity. I would say that you're on point, and I would put that under your studio's thing. And that's something that I think if we haven't already, I think we did send them that kind of whatever information last night.

It was actually— I was emailing with him today because he was— we're— I don't even know if he made it west this week either, if he left before today. But he wanted to come to— if once I sent that over, we were gonna bring him over to Satacoy so he could look at the fleet too. But, um, obviously I didn't get Wes. I don't know if he did. He hasn't texted me back yet. So, but yeah, that's, that's in the works. I could put that— I mean, I guess I can add, um, June— what

is it? Vertical Shorts. Um, that's the— that's my wife's Vertical Short. That's my wife's ancillary Vertical Short company where they want to have a sit-down at the end of March to um, explore kind of like an exclusive for their first— for really their projects. Um, and yeah, Sean and I have had some separate conversations, standalone, of just like how do you potentially capitalize on that. I think that's a breakout conversation, but, um, breakouts. Yeah, um, I'm gonna put that on there. And I need to figure out how to— okay. Um, all right, so by Thursday, do we think that we can have refresh status on kind of everything in— actually, can you explain

negotiating versus target priorities? I mean, negotiating is like we've, we've either sent them a contract or They're waiting on one or we're writing it up, whatever.

Yeah, we're editing it still. Like, just double— I actually just sent him a new version of it that is weird because it's— he wants it different than the way we do it, which we and JD have emailed about. But anyway, I just figured out with him he's going to send his first invoice for his rebate and I got— I'm getting set up on bill.com and yada, yada, yada. But it's, uh, that one will be done soon, but right

now it's still negotiating. Okay, so then it's refresh on negotiating, then get a better understanding of just like where current target priorities are, because I see like Radical Media, obviously we all know where that uh, went, but we still have, um, Sean, you were working on some like second chair.

Yeah, I said to him, I haven't gotten a word back from him, but I, you know, he had said that he'll put us in the book as a usable vendor for LA jobs. So yeah, I'll hit him up again this, this weekend, save myself a

re— binder right now. Okay. So maybe then, yeah. Um, bring some context to just like, if negotiating is basically like we're in an active conversation, like we've had the dinner, we've had the con— we've had, we've made the ask, we are actually trading paper. Is that fair? Yep. Negotiating is trading paper. Target priorities are we might have approached, but we're not actively trading proposals or paper. So it's really a function of like, how do we get stuff in negotiating to signed? How do we get stuff in target priorities to negotiating? So really the area of focus is for this, I've— and tell me if you think of a better way, but it's what's standing in the way of closing something that we're trading paper on. Let's, let's use this time to— let's actually use the time to clear whatever the fuck it is out, even if that means we spend the entire time working on one of these things. And then that leaves— that would mean that outside of the—

oh my goodness, hi.

You all right there?

Just a little gremlin. Hello, child. I thought— if you can't hear two little girls that keep coming in and grabbing stuff. Okay.

Hey, Joji. Hey, Joe.

Or Brooke.

Is Brooke still here?

No.

Okay, can you go find her?

Why?

Uh, because I want to call him. I want

to stay with you. Um. Is from Verstyle.

Uh, second.

Yeah, you said something. Do you want to go through some

of this now, or we're talking Thursday? Time dependent, honestly. Like, I'm— we— I would say our posture here, for all intents and purposes, needs to be like kind of a little bit at your disposal to make sure that this ball is moving.

So we're here to serve. Yeah. Um, I mean, let's go— let's just

go through the negotiating and then we can jump off. And then Richard, JD, if y'all need to hop off or whatever, I mean, like, JD, I would say whatever we can do to get your, um, to

keep your— yeah, I can stay on.

Yeah, no worries. And Richard, if

you're good too, then that'll be good. Um, so dream house They got— they've got a big job that they already— they're picking up, I think, what, end of this week for those wardrobe trucks. But, but Fridge Productions, Dreamhouse— I see apostrophe, really odd.

Well, WSM, so Dreamhouse is— oh yeah,

that's next week, that starts on the 6th. Yeah, so They have a big job. I mean, I sent this to him 2 weeks ago, checked in last week, and just, you know, basically said, hey, I want you guys to get credit for this big rental that's coming up. But so I'll follow up again before Thursday. Just— I'm not usually one to like press too hard, but we'll get that done. Um, also supposed— was supposed to have lunch with Walter Schufer, the WS and WSM, this week, but I'm not there, so If I can get there tomorrow night as planned, I'll have lunch with him and that'll probably get this to get expedited. Um, where are we at with partisan, Sean?

Uh, she's been sending the agreement. She needed to sit down with, um, Julie, the owner. Uh, they were a little disenfranchised by what happened with Coyotes, so they weren't like super hardcore into exclusive deals. But they really liked working with us and we had a great conversation, uh, so I will follow up. I was trying again not to be

pushy, but, uh, let's see, when

was the last email? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] 11 days ago. I sent an email back to her after— on the 12th, she said, waiting for Julie to get back into office. She's out until Wednesday of next week, so that would have been Wednesday of last week. Uh, so she's basically— Julie's been back to the office for 3 and a half days. I haven't hit her up yet to follow up, but I could probably do that like on Wednesday or Thursday, just say, hey, You guys get a chance

to look at it yet? So you sent them an exclusive, correct? All right, okay, all right. I mean, if— yeah, I guess what I ended up having to do with apostrophe and Caravan Club, if it's just like that preferred vendor rather than— they don't like the exclusive word, but yeah,

because they're really— I would change the terminology on it. Uh, just was more, you know, trying

to get their book. Yeah. And look, I mean, like, I think our deal term on that kind of accounted for that. Sean on a Saturday afternoon kind of walked me through the context on exclusive versus preferred, and that's where it's like, it's a signed piece of paper that once it generates $100,000 of revenue, it's kind of the same. And I would point to Apostrophe having a truck going out fucking tomorrow as it at least producing some semblance of results there.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, and, and ideally it's like, if the piece of paper means you're in the production handbook, most PMs and coordinators are going to just use that vendor.

Yeah, I mean, and that's— that was Kelly's thing too, because she got on the phone because at first they didn't want to sign it because it was exclusive, because Sean from Caravan Club was like, hey, some of my PMs have relationships with like owner operators, and like they won't be able to use that PA if we can't rent his stuff. And she like brought up some guy in particular that like, they're like, if we stop renting from him, he's gonna

go out of business.

Yeah, like, smile guy, whatever his name is. I'm not trying to put some guy out of business, you know? Yeah. And at the end of the day, Kelly wants money back, right? She owns both businesses. So she's like, you know, are you fine making it preferred? We'll put it in the— we'll put it in the production book. But if a PM wants to use someone else, I'm like, yes. Listen, at the end of the day, you're incentivized to rent from us as

much as that guy is probably going to go out of business regardless, so—

right, that's just a waiting game. Yeah. Anyway, um, Smuggler, that's— we got to get through that rental agreement before we can get them something.

Yeah. Uh, yeah, the rental agreement was what has slowed that down from the beginning.

Uh, which is fine.

Um, it's— I sent the AICP PERG agreement to James to say, can we just start using this as the governing

agreement for us, which we could just

put a personal name on? Because pretty much all the production companies will sign that, and I can just say it's word for word, basically the exact same thing. Uh, or we can just sign that as our governing agreement you know, and change terms later. But it's like, it's a very fair agreement.

I plugged into, you know, AI. That's, that's what's holding us up, right? So we don't want to— just to

keep us focused, I don't want to— yeah, but what's pulling us up is we haven't even opened rental terms.

All right, that's on me. I'll come— that's okay. I'll come on Thursday with like, um, with either commentary done and we know where we stand on it, or an

alternative to what we can do.

Done. Perfect. Panic Partners. Uh, so Nico's already been rinsing, he's already done a few jobs. Uh, I actually had a call out to him last week to finalize his agreement. Uh, that was before we had a template for the agreement. He doesn't really want to do— he doesn't really want to do a set template. He just wants to like go after the end of the quarter and go through all the jobs. So I was going to have a conversation with him about that.

But what does he mean? What do you mean by the template?

Like the actual agreement? Yeah, he was more like he, he just wants to run the jobs, whatever discount he's going to ask for, he's going to ask for. And then like he's going to try to keep it as minimal as possible to get as much money as possible. And then he wanted to just review the jobs with me at the end of the quarter and go, hey, like, what do you think of this rebate total for everything?

And that seems like more work for you than it should be. Like, if he wants the rebate, he should just sign a rebate agreement.

If he doesn't, then he's just going to get discounts. Sure, I, I can have that conversation with him again. That was just how he wanted to do it when he brought it up, right?

Yeah, I'm trying to be amenable, of course. Yeah, yeah. But again, I mean, if he doesn't sign anything, then— I mean, if at the end of a quarter he's like, hey man, I want 20% this this month. Like, we also don't want to be stuck in that— we don't want you

stuck in

that situation, right? Right. Um, Josh, you talked about RSA.

You sent them something, right? Yeah, I sent them an agreement. They're gonna come by and do a tour here this week or next. Uh, they want to tour the studio and here.

And when was that? You sent it Thursday or Wednesday?

I met with them on Thursday, I think, and I

sent it on Friday.

Um, okay, they're touring this week. Uh, yeah, I'm waiting for them to respond back with the

time that makes sense. Okay, great. Uh, love song. I feel like you were— were you talking to Paige?

Why do I have that one up here? Uh, I'm talking— I was supposed to have lunch with her on Sunday last week, and then she canceled. Now our lunch

is

on March 1st.

So this, this Sunday.

All right, pretty bird, pretty bird. I haven't reached out to Andrea about that yet.

I know we talked

about it. Oh, okay. Um, Yvonne, I can hit up again about the deal. She hasn't done a job here, but

she will whenever she gets one. Sorry, what was the next step on Pretty Bird?

Well, we're getting work from them from Andy Atella. They're one of our primary PMs who spends a lot of money, but we haven't approached Pretty Bird about an exclusive preferred situation.

So should we move this to current targets?

That's what I was gonna say.

And, and ProdCo too? Uh, no, leave ProdCo where it is.

You can move Pretty Bird. But ProdCo, you've sent them something?

Or you've been talking about that? I sent a few things, yes.

We've been talking for a while.

Okay.

And when was the— I guess, do you want me to put last communication here?

Uh, yeah, you can put— Yeah, it's this week. I mean, we, we've been texting. We text every week.

She's a good friend. Who— oh wait, back on the Pretty Bird thing, did you

take Suzanne to the, um, Dodger— to the Dodger game? Thank you. No, that was Andrea. Okay, Andrea is a production manager, Suzanne's an EP. The person we'd be dealing with for Pretty Bird is probably not Suzanne. It would actually probably be Andrea Leonard, a different Andrea. But Suzanne is also on the board for me for AICP and is my friend. So I'm wondering if she can help

facilitate getting it done. JD, we have a decent amount of Pretty Bird revenue on the art department,

like a, a surprising amount, I would say. Yeah, let me see how much it is.

Um, standby. So My point there, Sean, is that for Pretty Bird, this is probably much more worth it to them than they might realize. Did you— with where they get these— there's like 6 figures of just art

department trucks where they get an Avon rebate and a Versa rebate, as I already said.

I'm saying

you would bump it in, right? Yeah. And then they don't have to pick up— they could pick up their 5

tons at In Hollywood? Yeah, I don't know about that, right? It's like, I think we would rather have them pick it up at Saticoy just because that's where our economies are, um, and just 5 tons of space vampires— goenga does not have a lot of space, right? Um, yeah, point being, like, there's more than just production supplies and slop trucks. Like, you've got And I would say that with— I would say that with at least Caviar, probably Hungryman too, there's a decent amount of like art department vehicles that moves through South Dakota Avon.

Yeah.

And that would— we give back— are

they not— are they— can you pull just kind of like the top 5, top 10 what we, what we've tagged as commercial customers. Yeah.

Um, for maybe 2025 or year to date. With Caviar, isn't she— didn't she sign with Galpin? Like, wouldn't they just be getting their

art department trucks there? No, I mean, you would think, but art department— usually art department, the production designer is given a budget and The people who are booking the art department trucks are not given a place that

they have to go. Did she officially sign with Galpin?

She hasn't returned my email or text. And, uh, Reno Positive basically were trying to move their business to, to Galpin to just keep John Vargas from having a job. What? Kat and Devin from O Positive, who had made friends with John over the last 2 years, 2 and a half years. They were taking their business to Galpin because they wanted to keep John

Vargas in a job.

Oh, that's O Positive?

Yeah, O Positive, correct. Okay, so all told, that means Radical, Caviar— I know Hungryman's been at Galpin— and O Positive.

These big four are now at

Galpin, correct?

All right, I'll clean it up, don't worry. Sorry, it doesn't mean they can't be got, it just means that's where they are right now. None of the— they're all on

handshake agreements anyway, but, uh, Radical Media felt less hand— less like Did not feel like a handshake.

Yeah, no, that was very— that was,

that was contractual, correct, for the— Caviar also does not feel like it would be a handshake. In fact, none of these big four

feel like they would be a handshake. Doesn't matter what they feel like, it matters what they actually do. And from most of the deals, the Radical deal I know is not because it's a two-year contract for Meta, but pretty much all these deals that have ever been done have always said, yes, there's a piece of paper, but they can be terminated at any time. It's not legally binding. They're not going to sign a legally binding document that says we have to use you. No production company would. I don't know why Radical Media specifically

needed a 2-year for that.

Well, because Apple wanted— needed it. I mean, I guess that's what Apple wanted, not Radical.

Um, I do have to jump, guys, but this is very helpful and I appreciate it.

Okay, really quickly, like On that, because I think, like, just went through negotiating, but we— on that current target priorities, and we didn't really even get to the print prod, co's, agents, whatever thing, which I have— we can do on Thursday. But just what I just heard from Sean is that these four, although they are signed with Galpin, it does not mean that we are like, obviously we're not precluded from continuing to go after them, but it does mean that, like, I would imagine that the approach probably needs to adjust.

Is that fair, Sean? Yeah, yeah. Well, did— where did we land with Frank on, like, a side deal though?

We were gonna— he was saying that earlier, he sent it to him, he

hasn't heard back from Frank. Yeah, technically

that's still here.

Yeah, uh, I'm gonna follow up with I guess my point here is that whatever we can do to bring clarity, specificity, urgency in this current target priorities piece, um, because like, John, do we know— Hungryman was another one you were saying she was waiting until the new year to sign her deal so she could have a meeting with

you. What happened there?

Which one was that?

Hungryman, I think. Uh, she replied to me on January 20th saying, thanks for being patient with me the last few months, but that's for us. I reviewed both the custom deck and the general. It looks great. That said, I want to be transparent right now. We're going to stick with Calvin in terms of who we primarily use, but I will push my teams to use Versal as a second option. By doing that, we can try Versatile out and can get the teams used to using you. I hope that makes sense. I said, thank you, blah, blah, blah. And nothing's happened since then.

So, yeah.

That— when was that email exchange?

January 22nd. Okay. So, for these, come up with some type of, like, I guess, cadence that makes sense to, like, reengage, follow up. That was January 26th. It's February 23rd. Sean just said nothing's happened. Do we want to wait, um, like, for those— basically, it's like, what is the cadence at which we're— because if it's not a no,

it's not right now. Um, and maybe this is something you can answer, JD, but the, the CRM kind of thing that you created, will it help with that, that kind of cadence and like reminders to follow up? Uh, no, we were putting that all in— like, basically we put all this call sheet, whatever Richard was calling it, the call— what was it? I like it though.

I'm gonna name

it the call assistant.

Call— yeah, but, um, no, it— but

yeah, like, can we do this in, in the CRM and then actually set reminders for us?

We— I totally can. Um, if you feel like a CRM is going to be a, like, useful tool in this outreach, I'm happy to incorporate it. Um, and I can even build it into our email if we want, just so that kind of stuff gets automatically logged. It'd be a little bit more of a project.

I think that's just a, uh, yeah, I wouldn't want to put that on you. I think what you're doing with the

website is probably better use of time. Here's what I would say. If like, if we added another column of just like, if it's not already there, like next contact, like next, next action, next contact, whatever. By nature of just living in this document and constantly reviewing it and just keeping it organized, you'll know when that is. And like that, because I think like CRMs just have so many whistles and bells and there's all these things like, and if we just like keep this as targeted and easy to use as possible, we have less things to set up and then even less things to

fucking now stay

on top of, right?

Okay.

Um, can you guys see the, the screen I just shared? Or the— this is the top commercial customers we have by revenue. Um, Hungryman, Park Pictures, MJZ, O Positive, Pretty Bird, Smuggler Milk, Moxie Epoch, Kelly Infield. Those are top 10. Um, so it's not like there's a

lot of overlap there.

Milked.

Interesting.

Yeah, milked quite a bit. Yeah, they, they rent a lot. I actually spoke with James last week. I'm gonna go over there this week and talk to him too about subbing equipment, but I don't think it'll be a super, you know, large amount. It'll just be if we beat the rate of set stuff or whoever else he subs from, then they'll come to

us for their subs.

It's sad stuff. Yeah, I mean, the problem with like— that's like again one of those stepping over two dimes or two quarter— a quarter to pick up two dimes. It's like the amount of— I mean, if we get $10,000 of subs from Milk, is it worth all the emails and quotes and all the things that go through to do it? I mean, yes, $10,000 is great, but it's not going to be a,

a lot of money. Um, it's not worth your time. That's what I mean. Yeah, like, it would— so what you're saying there is that, like, those types of relationships, making sure that there's a kind of robust sales ops kind of team that's just, like, quote

botting for you, right?

Yeah, I mean, I think the idea was initially, like, even when me and Mike started, was let's not try and serve the whole community, let's try and serve just the, the the production companies that have good budgets to take the bigger jobs and work with those. Now we're in a little bit different situation because we are a hub

now,

but it's like, you know, uh, and something that Richard and I will talk in ops tomorrow just about, like, my capacity to rental agent while also doing other stuff is just— there's a certain amount of emails and orders that come in and I gotta finish them all by the end of the day. And like, coming in on Saturday for me to finish the lighting truck, like, it was— I was like, no one

but Mondo.

And, and, um, even then, like, no one really knew the— all the equipment that was on this truck because it was lighting, grip, and Profoto stuff. So I went to the Profoto vendor and dealt with it because I just wanted to make sure the order was perfect because they were shooting in Palm Springs. I did that on my own time. That was whatever. But my point is, is the amount

of accounts, then the bandwidth that gets taken up by having to gener— like, do the 15 revisions of a quote or a sub-rental in the case of milk care, correct, is substantial and grows and compounds as more of these move from target to negotiating to sign, right? Correct. It's like understanding that there needs to be like proportionate infrastructure and resources that scale proportionately. And I keep using that word, that the resources are there proportionately with the basically performance of the business. So it's not like we have 5 quote bots. Forgive me for using that term. It's just how I think about it. Like, yeah, just like people that can do the quotes and those things until we can build actual quote bot. Um, so understand, and I think maybe then that is— yeah, I think as we need to get a better sense of like how, what, what that volume looks like, and I think Richard is digging into some things on his own there as well. But hear you loud and clear, it's

a piece of this. Yeah, it's a piece of the scaling puzzle that it's just tough because if we were already hitting 400 a month, I would be completely underwater every single day of my life, but it would justify us hiring, you know what I mean?

If you were hitting 400 a month, you would have— you would have a lot of people. We'd have an actual quote bot. Yeah, we have a robot.

Let's— well, let's get it.

Um.

I gotta go, guys.

I got— I do as well. All right, this is helpful. How do you think of things to make this more useful? This is an open channel. Um, let us know. We'll reach out and schedule times for Thursday, um, following this. But— and then JD will follow up with kind of the running list of

action items that we took out of this.

Yep.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, everybody.

Talk tomorrow.

Bye.