Industry Partnerships with Glory Visuals [Ep182]

Podcast

Mar 8

In this episode we are talking to Darren and Austin from Glory Visuals about the ins and outs of partnerships in the industry.

Ariel Martinez (00:00):
On this episode of the ifilmmaker podcast, we have Darren and Austin from glory visuals, and we're
talking about how they make their business partnership work.
Ariel Martinez (00:13):
Welcome back to another episode of the ifilmmaker podcast. My name's Ariel Martinez. And on this
episode, we're talking with both Darren and Austin from glory visuals. They're the glory boys, if you
follow their podcast, but we're talking more about their production company and how they were able to
start it in partnership and how they make that relationship work, the ins and outs, the struggles that
they have and how they're thriving right now, because of the way that they manage their business.
Talking to both Dan and Austin, it was very interesting to see how the dynamics of their strengths and
how they're able to play into that and sort of compliment each other in this business partnership, both
Darren and Austin also host a podcast called the glory boys, where they talk about their business, video
production, and just all kinds of fun antics, just like we do here, an eye filmmaker podcast. So with all
that out of the way, let's go ahead and get into our conversation with Darren and Austin. All right. So
glory boys, Darren and Austin. Thank you for coming on the ifilmmaker podcast. Glad to have you guys.
Darren Clausen (01:15):
Yeah, dude. It's on, on, it's absolutely an honor to be on this podcast with you. And, um, it's you guys,
uh, you guys are killing it, so we're honored.
Ariel Martinez (01:25):
Sweet. Um, I've been looking at your feed, your Instagram feed for a while. Like what you guys have
been putting out, and I love that you guys are also faith based as well. So it really naturally attracted me
to sort of get in contact with you guys and see, uh, what you guys are all about and bring you on a
podcast.
Darren Clausen (01:41):
Yeah, it's awesome. How did you end up finding us? I guess initially I'm just curious.
Ariel Martinez (01:46):
I honestly do not know. I don't remember. I don't remember. I know I've been following you guys. I don't
even remember when it started. I just know you ended up on my feed. I saw it and I liked what I saw. So
here we are dope.
Darren Clausen (02:02):
That's awesome. I love that. Cool.
Ariel Martinez (02:04):
So, um, why don't we start by getting your background, how you got, how you guys both got involved in
video production, how you guys met and what do you guys have going on right now?
Darren Clausen (02:17):
Yeah,
Austin Hall (02:18):
Yeah, so I started, um, shortly after college, I was doing sales and did it, I was terrible at it. So I, uh,
picked up a camera in the meantime, wanting to be a tech YouTuber. So I was watching, you know, M K
B H D and all these guys, uh, doing tech reviews on YouTube, which is what I wanted to do. So I bought a
camera. Um, I had a pretty cool little computer set up, and then I realized quickly that that was the very
feasible cuz I had to buy all the products couldn't afford it. Um, so I kind of stopped doing that, but in
the meantime, um, got, started working as a second shooter to a, a local wedding filmmaker did that for
about six months. Uh, probably shot 20 ish weddings in that six month span with him. That's where I
kind of learned the ropes, uh, especially for weddings, but just shooting in general, started shooting
Sony. And then, um, kind of in that process met Darren, but that's kinda how I got started.
Darren Clausen (03:13):
Yeah. Um, for me, I, uh, I just like always had a passion for being creative. I was a mu musician growing
up. Um, I always enjoyed photography and videography, but I didn't really understand, you know, that
you could do that as a job. And so, um, about five, six years ago, um, I was encouraged by some mentors
of mine that were like, Hey, let's, uh, let's do this thing. We're gonna, you know, help you start your
company. And so I started to company called his glory productions in 20 13, 20 14. Um, and it was really
just an LLC doing literally everything cuz as a creative, I didn't really understand where my niche wanted
to. My niche wanted to be. I just wanted to do photo video songwriting, you know, you name it. I was
gonna do it. Um, I even did a couple jingles for some companies, uh, fast forward a few years, uh,
learned and failed forward a ton and uh, met, um, Austin at church and we started doing some content
for church and really just grew a deep passion for filmmaking specifically. And uh, the reason being, we
worked on a sermon series video together and uh, really loved it. And so we're like, yo, let's do this as a
job, uh, prayed about it and continued to lean into learning and growing in it and uh, approached our
wives and said, Hey, we wanna be filmmakers. Is that cool? And so we, uh, we, we dove in, uh, head
first, um, April of 2018.
Ariel Martinez (04:37):
Wow. So April of 2018 is when you guys started your business glory of visuals together. Yeah.
Austin Hall (04:43):
Yeah. So I think it was probably like November of 2017. We started talking about it. Um, so it was like a
five to six month process between us talking about it, getting we had to pick out a name, um, get a logo,
kind of get all the initial things together that we needed to start. So we did all
Ariel Martinez (05:02):
Exciting stuff.
Austin Hall (05:03):
Yeah. Yeah. It was fun. I still remember doing that and we love doing that for other brands still. Um, it,
there is something special about getting those first Instagram posts and yeah. Getting a Google business
profile, ready, all that stuff. So. Yep. But then yeah, April is when we kind of went full time.
Ariel Martinez (05:20):
That's very interesting. So what's the dynamic of your business does do one of you handle different
things and the other handles different things. And so what are you each bringing to the table for the, to
make this partnership work?
Austin Hall (05:34):
Totally well, our personalities cannot be probably further, well, they could probably further apart, but
they, we are very different people. Um, I'm of the analytic, uh, worry war, I guess you could say. And
Darren's the social butterfly, um, life of the party, just a joy to be around. And so it it's a good dynamic,
um, because on shoots, you know, he's kind of the one making sure everyone's having a good time,
everyone's in a good mood. Whereas I'm thinking a little bit more, um, through the technical stuff,
making sure details are covered. Um, things like that as far as operations of our business. Um, I would
say he edits better than I do. Um, the majority of our wedding films, um, Darren has edited. And so he's
more, I would say creative, I think he's a better editor, whereas I do a lot more of the administrative. I,
you know, I built out our workflows, automated email workflows, all of that stuff. I do all of our
bookkeeping. So things, things like that a little bit more on the, the, uh, organizational standpoint is kind
of my strength.
Darren Clausen (06:42):
Yeah. I would agree with that. I think, yeah, we've just over the last few, almost three years now have
really found where we fit best and really playing on our strengths. I know what he's good at. He knows
what I'm good at. And so we've really been able to grow and, and continue to push forward because we
just allowed each other to kind of stay in our lanes and lean on those strengths.
Ariel Martinez (07:03):
That's awesome. So did you guys knew that, know that move, uh, starting your business? Or is that
something that you gradually found out and sort of morphed your relationship around?
Austin Hall (07:15):
I think we're still discovering it and if anything, I, I think we're discovering it more now than ever. Yeah.
Um, I think, okay. There's something that happens when you hire your first full-time employee, which
we got to do last November. Um, where you just, yeah, it
Darren Clausen (07:31):
Was dude, it was the best thing that, I mean, what a dude, what a joy, it was to be able to like analyze
our year and our, our budget and the money coming in and the jobs coming in. And man, we've grown
this thing to be able to like take care of another human being and, and their being their resource and
their job. And that was just a big deal for us. I mean, it, it no longer was just Darren and Austin. It was
Darren and Austin and now more employees and people, um, to help kind of build vision of glory visuals.
And it, yeah, it was, I mean, it's a life changing experience when you get to be able to do that.
Austin Hall (08:05):
Yeah.
Ariel Martinez (08:06):
That's fantastic, man. And so you mentioned the vision of glory visuals. What is the vision of your
business and what is the basic overall scope of your work?
Darren Clausen (08:17):
Yeah,
Austin Hall (08:18):
That's a
Darren Clausen (08:18):
Great question. That's good. Um, initial thought, um, when we, when we started the company, our
bread and butter was always wedding films. Um, we happened to be pretty good at them, so we just
continued on doing them. Um, it pays the bills, it pays our salaries and, and it's, it's a great way to make
a, a living, but it isn't our absolute passion point. Um, so with that comes, man, we'd love to do some
more documentary type things or we wanna do more higher scale, higher budget, music, videos, or
commercial shoots. And so there's a lot of different things that we aspire and want to do, but I think it's
just taking the initial steps to get there, not rush into something. Um, and we just, haven't had a ton of
opportunity present itself, um, to be able to be on set with some people. Um, we live in Omaha,
Nebraska, and so it's not necessary the filmmakers capital of the world. It's, uh, it's a little bit different.
So we're, we have our different struggles and, and things here, but I think, um, we're going at the pace I
think we need to, and we're learning and growing a ton now, um, so that we would be prepared in the
future for, for something bigger.
Ariel Martinez (09:26):
That's terrific, man. That's awesome. Well answered.
Darren Clausen (09:30):
Thanks man.
Ariel Martinez (09:31):
I I'm assuming that, you know, you guys, obviously you're doing well having to hire somebody full time.
You're doing very well. You know, I think that one of the first things that comes to my mind when I think
of a partnership and people starting a business in partnership together, you have to make enough
money for both of you yeah. To live off of. Totally. Right. So in the little that I know starting off, that
could be a very big challenge. Yep. Did you guys find out to be the case or did you, you know, did you,
were you able to find a work to fulfill the needs that to pay both of your, uh, incomes?
Darren Clausen (10:08):
Yeah. Great question. That
Austin Hall (10:09):
Is a good question. So initially and everything from the beginning, when we set out to do this, it was very
much a 50, 50 we're in this equally. Yeah. Um, if you're at the office, I'm at the office type of way. Um,
and so we were just early on, I think we had a mutual understanding that this is, we don't have a backup
plan. Um, you know, we don't have I hustle. We're not going and doing jobs to pay our own bills on the
weekends. Like this is our hustle now together. Yep. Um, and we believe that God put us together,
which you know, that, that gave us confidence too. Yeah. Um, that we knew that the two of us are
specifically paired together for a
Darren Clausen (10:53):
Reason. You're my rider die. God okay.
Austin Hall (10:57):
Me,
Darren Clausen (10:58):
I was telling God gave me, you know, that song. Um, I sing it to him all the time. Yeah.
Ariel Martinez (11:03):
Yeah.
Austin Hall (11:04):
Love that song. Yeah. When I do this stuff, he doesn't want to do that's true. I'm just kidding. Um, but
yeah, we have, we have our own strengths, but yeah. To answer the question of specifically financially,
um, we, we just, we took it slow. We took our time. I would say we were very intentional with going fulltime and we both had full-time jobs for the first several months that we were building this. Yep. So we
only decided to go full time when we felt we were ready. We had talked about it. Um, you know, we'd
been in council with people that we have allowed to speak into our lives. Yeah. So maybe that's a big key
there, um, being in community, having people that can speak into your life and can kind of be that, uh,
sounding board yeah. Um, that you can trust. So we had that, so we were just, yeah, we were in council,
in prayer.
Austin Hall (11:54):
Our wives were involved in the process. And so when we were ready to move forward and go full time,
not, not that everything immediately was just easy, but we just, we dove in, we went all in. There was
no other option. Yeah. Um, for us. So we had to make it work. And luckily we had a, there we were very
blessed, um, because we served so heavily with our church. Like we were able to basically get a couple
months of buffer because we were kind of working full time for the church at the time too. And so, um,
that really helped us yeah. To be able to have a little bit of time to save up some money, to get some of
those first gear purchases that we needed. But it, again, it wasn't like a free handout or anything. We
were still working to, um, to get that. But, uh, yeah, we, we just believed from the very beginning that if
we serve people and really make that our focus that we'll be taken care of and that's pretty much been
the case. Yeah.
Ariel Martinez (12:51):
That's terrific, man. What an amazing story. And it sounds very, very, uh, familiar in terms of how you
started, how you sought council. Cuz I started the same way talking to my pastors and yeah. And still to
today, still talk to my pastors, have lunch with them all the time. Yeah. Awesome. Um, and those are the
ones that I kind of seek guidance from and these are not just pastors. These are business owners, our
pastors as well. So 100%. Yep. Uh, yeah. So they're able to help me in making the right decisions when
the time comes, like making my first hire, um, getting an office outside of my house, you know, moving
from my home office. So all that stuff, can't wait to do that.
Austin Hall (13:29):
You
Ariel Martinez (13:29):
Know, I don't take it. I don't take it lightly. Yeah. So it's awesome that you guys are able to get along.
Like, it's funny because recently I was talking to, uh, to someone that actually works in my same office
building and he's, uh, he, he was telling me how he has this partnership, where they share an office
space with somebody and they kind of, sort of agreed to, to, to find clients, to basically built a studio in
there mm. To try to sell it. Uh, but you know, he was, you know, he was complaining and asking what he
should do because these guys, the guys that he partnered up with, they seem to not just wanna find any
clients they're not putting in their part. They, they just wanna do their podcast in there and whatnot.
And, and I'm like, these guys sound like they were not interested to really work from the beginning.
Ariel Martinez (14:13):
You guys seem like you're unequally Oaked right. Cause the Bible says that you can't that's, can't be
unequally Oaked. And so I started kind of speaking into his life like that, but using the Bible as a
reference, you know, obviously it's talking about marriage and, and that, but it's talking about
partnerships as well. Yeah. So as long as you guys are on the same page, you know, and you you're in
agreement and knowing that you're gonna put equal effort into this. Yeah. Um, this is gonna turn into a
whole sermon this whole, this whole episode. No, it's great. So that's what I was telling him. And the guy
was, uh, you know, he was starting to understand that now where that's, where he's dropping the ball,
where you're getting into bed with these two other guys that are not interested or, or, uh, as committed
as you are. So yeah. 100%
Darren Clausen (14:59):
You
Ariel Martinez (14:59):
Expect what's gonna happen. You know? So anyways, that was just an interesting, uh, that you guys
were talking about that. So obviously your partnership is working, it's working very well. Um, so back to
whole, you know, making it work with the budget at hand, right? Yeah. There must be some instances
there have been, I know, cuz I get 'em too where the client has a budget, you know, but it's still kind of
low budget. How do you make your budget to work? How do you make it so that you're both profitable
on the projects that you do, you yeah, totally. What, what, what is sort of the, the first things or
variables that you consider?
Darren Clausen (15:36):
Yeah, I think first off we just go off, um, one, if the budget isn't where it needs to be or where we would
like it to be, um, is it, is it something that we want to continue doing? So if this client hits us up and we
love their work, we love their brand. We believe in what they do. We're probably gonna take it because
at the state of where we're at right now as a company, we're still building our P portfolio, especially, um,
in the commercial space. And so, um, that's a little bit of a different scenario, but um, if it's, yeah, if it's
something that's low budget, um, thank God we're in a place now where we can just say, Hey, we, we
don't wanna take this $2,000 random job here and there, um, be one because the budget isn't isn't
there, it doesn't make sense. Two. It's not something we want more work of. So why would we put it
into our portfolio and just being smart with that? Um, not that we're grateful for the work that get come
in or people ask us to, we're honored that people wanna hire us, but, um, we're, we're thankfully in a
place that we don't have to necessarily take everything.
Ariel Martinez (16:42):
Right. That's awesome. That's yeah. When you see that you can reject or decline work or kind of, uh,
outsource it to somebody else that totally know is capable of doing it, that's, that's a very, a comfortable
place to be.
Darren Clausen (16:54):
Yeah,
Austin Hall (16:55):
Absolutely. One hiring two is a whole nother dynamic too, because obviously the kind of the rate that
we would charge for our new hire is a little bit different than the rate we would charge if you're getting
Darren and I coming out to shoot and edit your project. And so that's opened up some, some wiggle
room, um, you know, we have a, a standard rate sheet that we work off of that's time based. And so
what I would say is if it does, you know, obviously we run into the instance where we pitch something
and then the client says, oh, okay. I only have this much in my budget. Well, we try to find that out on
the front end. Yep. Typically, um, because at the end of the day, if you have a $10,000 budget for your
video, I promise we can use all $10,000 of it.
Austin Hall (17:38):
But if you have a $500 budget, then we need to think of how can we make this work. Um, and so I
always try to get the budget on the front end because it's hard to pitch without a budget first, right?
Because you could be way high or even way low. So we try to determine the budget first, but say, you
know, say the client has a budget that is lower than what we would want. Um, I just look for
opportunities kind of like what Darren said, is this an opportunity where, um, I can learn a new skill or
apply a new piece of gear or learn something new. If there's a, if there's a valid opportunity to learn
something new to me, that's, that's value that I may take a cheaper job because I have an opportunity to
learn something new or to have the creative freedom to test something, try something out.
Austin Hall (18:24):
Yeah. Um, those lower budget clients, they can't be picky with how you do things. So like you have a
little, a bit more creative freedom maybe with those cheaper, cheaper jobs. Um, is there an opportunity
for a portfolio piece to train and develop our higher? Yeah. And so really looking or like, is there long
term future opportunity in this client? And so that's like a whole nother podcast episode. I feel like our
series on like when to do free work and not do free work and cheap and discounted work, but yep.
That's kind of how I approach it. It's just looking for the opportunity and if I feel the opportunity
outweighs the sacrifice on the monetary side. Totally.
Ariel Martinez (19:02):
I love that. Uh, I definitely analyze all incoming inquiries in the same manner. Um, there are definitely
benefits out side of the monetary that I consider. Yeah. When accepting a job, you know? Um, is it just,
like you said, is this something that's gonna look good on my real? Um, is there an opportunity to sort of
get a retainer out of this maybe? Sure. Or can I just make a small little profit off of sending somebody
else out there? You know, so there's a lot of different opportunities and um, I think as you grow, uh, I, I
didn't always consider it that way. Yeah. You know, as you grow in the industry, you start thinking as a
business person and not just as a creative. Right. You know, and you could stay a creative for the rest of
your career. Uh, but you know, unfortunately your, your income would be capped. Yep. You know, at
some point you have to think about the business side of things and how to multiply yourself, how to
make more profit out of these products and services that you're providing for your client and the
different avenues to do that.
Darren Clausen (20:05):
That's absolutely.
Ariel Martinez (20:06):
That's terrific that you guys are considering that. Um, so hiring somebody out, how do you manage your
first employee? So, you know, you, you guys have a full-time person on staff. Uh, what was the mindset
going into that? Did you guys just have so much work that you couldn't do it yourself or, uh, what was
that sort of conversation like
Darren Clausen (20:30):
For me? Um, I have been thinking, I guess in the last year, more of the business side of things, just
looking into what we're doing, where we're going, what we're going after. And, uh, for me it was, we
kind of crunched some numbers and we said, okay, Darren and Austin, if we continue to do Gloria
visuals, us two only for the rest of our lives, how much money can we actually make? And we really
found that number to be way lower than I would ever want it to be. Um, I think it was like $375,000 a
year combined, um, that we could make. And I was like, that's not only well, okay. So
Speaker 4 (21:13):
I, I, I, no, no, I get it.
Darren Clausen (21:14):
I get, so, you know,
Austin Hall (21:15):
Potential
Darren Clausen (21:16):
Max
Austin Hall (21:16):
Potential.
Darren Clausen (21:16):
That's
Austin Hall (21:17):
Like our best month ever every month.
Darren Clausen (21:19):
So like if I have dreams and goals and aspiration to make that myself a year after taxes and then even
more, you know, um, I have big dreams. I have big goals. I have a big idea for me and my wife's life
someday. And if, if I can't attain that if there's always a lid that I'm gonna hit, I'm not gonna be
motivated. So we, we came to that conclusion and I was like, man, but if we added one person full time,
what would that do? And it just like blew the number up that grew the opportunity and the amount of
head space that we were gonna gain and the amount of not sitting at our desk time. Um, being able to
focus on other parts of our business, launching a podcast, which has been a dream for three years, we
just haven't done it cuz it wasn't the right time.
Darren Clausen (22:03):
And so it was just cool to see, kind of look at the numbers, look at the paper and say, okay, if we hire
somebody, this will make our world bigger. Yeah. And, uh, and I don't wanna build glory visuals on
Darren and Austin. I want to build a company that people can help build with us and take ownership in
and find a, a passion and a calling in and less about us. Just more about growing a really great company
that provide its quality, um, film and, and quality content to the world. And so that's really where we
started was like, man, there there's a cap on this, but we gotta, we gotta do something about it. And
yeah. And it was just like a no brainer we knew, um, right away that we needed to hire somebody.
Austin Hall (22:45):
And it was after much deliberation to, uh, we had spent months talking about it, trying to find out who is
the right person for this. Um, because choosing an employee is it's hard. Um, finding a good employee is
really tough. And so, um, I don't know that we approached it like most other people because the
employee that we hired we've known for several years and we actually helped really train and build her.
She was a part of our church team. And so, um, I think that by having that kind of kingdom mentality
from the start, we, we put a lot of work and a lot of time into people that didn't seem to pay at the time,
um, put a lot of hours into people that would just kind of dip go off and take what we taught them and
go do their own things, start their own company, you know, take that and use that for their own
personal gain. And so, um, but out of all of that, like after three years of building and training and gray,
Andre really grinding and editing tons of projects for church, um, there came a point where we were
like, this is a, no-brainer like she, she is proven herself and we know like how consistent, how committed
she is. So we already knew all of her qualities as an employee before we, before we hired her. So
Darren Clausen (24:10):
Yeah. And by no means, do we like pour into people and build people and love people to hopefully make
'em into a glory visuals employee? It just so happened to be, uh, one of our, our passions is to build
people and if in the process we can offer them a job and they're like, man, I would love to do this for a
living and we can offer that. That's just a bonus. Yeah.
Ariel Martinez (24:32):
Yeah. That's fantastic. It's something that I also considered as well. Um, you know, doing a lot of the
stuff for the church and the people that I've been able to train basically the same concept. Yeah. Uh, uh,
just, I didn't find anybody time that I was looking that would sort of suit what I needed to get done. Um,
but maybe for the next one. Yeah. You know, so that would be pretty cool, but that's awesome that you
looked in that field first. It's really awesome that you're able to, uh, to, to pour into your employees and
you all have the same sort of mindset, same base. Yeah. Uh, the same found so that, uh, you know, if, if
things go soft, there's never any, uh, or at least there shouldn't be any, uh, bad blood or anything like
that. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Everything should be pretty smooth, uh, throughout any obstacle. So that's,
that's awesome that you're able to, you're able to incorporate that into your business model.
Darren Clausen (25:25):
Totally.
Ariel Martinez (25:26):
What are some op obstacles that you have found yourself in that you probably would not have found?
Had you not been a partnership? Are there any setbacks that came across? Any, anything like that? Uh,
whether it's budget or finding the work, anything in that field?
Darren Clausen (25:47):
Yeah. I guess I, I can speak to this because before I met Austin, I had my own like production company
essentially. And there was a lot of holes and gaps and things I didn't quite understand. And it, and I
wasn't doing some things, right. I didn't have some of this automated systems and customer acquisition
that we have now and the professionalism and, and some of the, uh, even some of the bookkeeping, I
mean, just from a lot of the admin side of things and, and all of that, like when we started our company,
he really kind of took ownership in. And so because of that, I was able to really step in fully into my
strengths. Like I had mentioned earlier and it just kind of open doors. I'm like, man, I don't have to worry
about this, this and this. So I can really focus on this and get better at this. And so that just really, um,
allowed us to step forward and not have any road, as many roadblocks. I mean, there definitely are
some always, but that allowed us to really, like I said earlier, stay in our lanes and continue moving
forward.
Ariel Martinez (26:48):
Where do you think in the realm of partnerships and businesses, where do you think people go wrong?
And I think, you know, we, we mentioned, we mentioned earlier being unequally, yolked, where you
guys are not kind of heading in the same direction. Uh, but kind of aside from that, what are some
mistakes that you feel people would make, uh, that would make a partnership go south? Mm
Darren Clausen (27:15):
That's good.
Austin Hall (27:16):
Yeah. I,
Ariel Martinez (27:18):
I guess you guys haven't thought about that too much, cuz
Austin Hall (27:21):
It's a good
Darren Clausen (27:21):
Question. You better not leave me bro. It's hard.
Austin Hall (27:25):
It's hard to answer because I feel pretty blessed with how well we are able to work together. Um, but I
feel like mistakes people would make is rushing into it. Yeah. Um, you know, being
Ariel Martinez (27:45):
That that's a good way. One. How long did you guys know each other before you started a business?
Austin Hall (27:49):
Actually, not that long, but I mean, we worked together and were, we were developing our friendship
for over a year before we, before we went full time. So we had known each other and were actively, I
mean, from the very beginning, as soon as we met, we were pretty much friends and hanging out on a
weekly basis. So
Darren Clausen (28:09):
Yeah, just shooting, you know, going out on shoots together, learning about cameras together. I mean, it
was really like a developed relationship that was quickly developed because I mean churches every
Sunday. So we shot every Sunday and then we'd shoot midweek all the time. And so we just grew that
passion. It kind of, I guess, progressively got, um, got there faster than normal, but yeah, jumping into it
too quick. I think what I've seen, um, in the most recent years is there are tons of passionate people that
are like, man, I bought my first camera. Like we've encouraged. I think everybody at our church to buy
Sony, um, everyone switched from Canada and icon. So everyone gets us camera. I do the same. It's it's
awesome. We just now have affiliate links and I'm like, man, we could have made like $14 if we
would've, you know, had em buy from our link.
Darren Clausen (28:58):
Um, but uh, yeah, so everyone gets a great camera in their hand. They start developing this passion
because they're shooting at church or with us, um, you know, on a shoot with us and uh, they start
loving it, but then they're like, okay, I'm gonna start it on my own. Well, I don't know exactly what to do
Darren and Austin do it together. So maybe me and this guy we'll, we'll start something and there's a lot
of ideas and a lot of like, um, fluff around the idea of having a company. And, and I think it's a lot harder
than people think and it's a lot more work than people think. And so, uh, what I, like I said, what I've
seen is people are like, man, maybe we should do it together. You and me, we could start this thing. We
could do a photo business, you could do a video business. We could, oh, I could do photo. You could do
video. We could be a partner. Um, but not a lot of actual doing it. Um, but yeah, I just, I see it again, this,
this is a lot harder than it seems. Um, and it we've just been super fortunate and blessed to, to see it
work.
Ariel Martinez (29:56):
That's awesome, man. I, I think that just kind of seeing it on the, on sort of a, uh, a bird's eye view, I
think that you guys mentioned earlier, uh, using your strengths in your business, um, and just now
you're mentioning, you know, people have the idea of starting, you know, them doing photography,
them doing video and whatnot, but you know, having people do what they is, not, not really their
strength or just because to fill in that gap might not be the best method because no,
Darren Clausen (30:26):
Totally.
Ariel Martinez (30:27):
If they get tired of it quite, they're not gonna wanna continue to do it. Nothing's gonna motivate them
to, to get better at it. You know? And so, uh, that's just one thing that I kind of sort of see. And when
you guys started, you played on your strength. One of you was better at editing and the other one's
organizing. And so you guys sort of were able to compliment each other on that. Yeah. On that part. So
totally. That's why the partnership
Darren Clausen (30:50):
Works and there's kind of a, a level of weight on both of us because I mean we're 50 50 partners. So I
mean, right. I piece out like I'm kind of screwing him, he pieces out he's screwing me and we just really
to figure, figure out you got, if you're gonna partner with someone, you gotta say, Hey, this is, I'm laying
my life down for this thing. Like we're giving it our all blood, sweat and tears. And I mean, we've had
countless weeks, countless months of grinding together and really getting through the tough seasons.
Yeah. Um, we actually just did a podcast. We recorded it today and we'll be posting it soon, but about
how, you know, some of the hardest times in our first year of business was like not getting all the taxes
stuff. Right. And having to pay tens of thousands of dollars in the next year and, uh, living a paycheck to
paycheck or no paycheck for a few months and what it did to our, our lives and um, how we affected our
wives and our home life. And, um, but it's all a part of the process and we learn from it. And we're never
going back there,
Ariel Martinez (31:50):
Let's talk about your production process. Like, so you guys get a job, the budget fits, everything goes
well. Yeah. Who takes what role in each project love? Is there a director? Is there a DP? Like how do you
guys split that? Yeah.
Austin Hall (32:04):
So back to like dis deciphering and kind of figuring out our roles, this is something that we're, I feel like
really making headway on figuring out right now is I think early on, we kind of, uh, figured out what our
roles in the business are. Yeah. But up until recently, we did share a lot of the same skill sets. As far as
actual film king. We both are musicians. We both are pretty decent at doing, you know, modifying songs
and doing music stuff, sound effects, stuff like that. We're both pretty close to the same level with
editing, shooting all of that stuff. So it did take a little while for us to really decide what we want our
roles on set to be. And I think most recently, um, I've been really loving the more, I guess you would
probably call it like a DP role. Um, I don't know that it really would warrant that tie I on the small sets
that we're doing, but basically, um, you know, my passion is lighting, um, camera, movement, lensing,
um, all of that stuff. Yeah. So that's kind of what, when I walk into a room, my focus is how can I make
this look good? Where am I gonna put lights? How am I gonna modify 'em all of that stuff? Um, yeah. So,
yeah.
Darren Clausen (33:21):
Yeah. And then I guess, like being a small team of two people and now three, um, obviously when you're
on a film set, there's a ton of roles to be filled. So we're actually just now learning even what those roles
are, what they should be, what they're called and even what, what they're called, the ones that we
operate in and what they're called. And so I would say I've grown a passion for like directing and, and
storytelling and capturing the moment and really telling, Hey Austin, go here, do this shot. Hey, we need
another take of that. And just calling the shots and that, and we've just kind of naturally fell into those.
They weren't like, oh, we watched a masterclass and that's what we want to do. It was just, we were
kind of naturally it in like an unprofessional type of way. And then just started leaning heavy into those
cuz we're saying, Hey, this is your strength. This is my strength. Let's continue this journey. Let's, let's
figure out these roles.
Ariel Martinez (34:12):
That's awesome, man. And you know, that, that is actually a really good reason why they should not
rush into a partnership because you wanna allow each other to know what each other's strength is and
just fill in those gaps and that being able to, uh, compliment each other in that way. That's phenomenal
for sure. You know, and I think that that's really helping you guys continue to flourish in your business
and, and continue to grow. So that's really cool to, or that
Austin Hall (34:41):
Totally. Yeah. You have to have the right fit for sure. With the partnership. Um, even down to like there's
things on set that he cares about like wardrobe, how people's hair looks, makeup, which couch we're
using, like stuff like that is things he cares about. Yeah. There's things that I care about. And so, yeah, it,
it's, it's tough to find a partner, you know, if you're both too opinionated on the same types of things, or
if you have a lot of the same strengths, then you might be butting heads quite a bit. So luckily our, our
strengths are pretty, pretty complimentary. So there's very few things that we're both like super
passionate about that we disagree on.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
God gave me, yeah.
Ariel Martinez (35:25):
We're gonna play that in a background for this episode. Let's
Darren Clausen (35:27):
Go.
Austin Hall (35:28):
Uh,
Ariel Martinez (35:30):
Darren, you mentioned earlier that I think this is a question that I had forgotten earlier. You mentioned
earlier that you had a business before you partnered up with Austin, right? Yeah. What was that like?
Did you have to say goodbye to your old business and put everything on this new business, new logo,
new everything.
Darren Clausen (35:47):
Yeah. So I did. Um, but it was more of like an upgrade if you will. Um, we kind of carried, okay. We kind
of carried, we really took all of my, of social media accounts that I had built, switched them over to glory
visuals. We took a ton of the clients that I knew in relationships that we still work with today, um, from
those past, um, older relationships. And, uh, yeah, the branding that I had was terrible. The name was
long and ridiculous. I was doing photo video. Like I said, I was doing everything under the sun. I got hit
up to, to record a birthday song, um, with this lady that didn't know how to sing, but wanted to sing a
birthday song for her husband had her in the studio. It was a hot mess. So, um, you mean
Ariel Martinez (36:31):
You like those kinds of jobs what's wrong with
Darren Clausen (36:33):
Uh, yeah. God bless all jobs that come through. Uh, yeah. So long story short, it was a, it was actually an
upgrade. It was a, it was a blessing to really dial in our focus, dial in a new brand. Uh, there was a
freshness to it. There was a simplicity to it, but also a whole nother side of ideas to it. So it was just a, it
was just a fun new adventure to go on.
Ariel Martinez (36:57):
That's terrific, man. So I love that. That was not getting rid of it. That was an upgrade instead of, uh, kind
of tearing down the old, that was, that's an awesome way to put it an awesome way to see it. So that's
really cool. So you guys have a podcast called glory boys. What is that about
Darren Clausen (37:17):
The glory boys? Um, it's just about boys. Really? What we're talking about now is like inspiring and
encouraging, um, you know, new filmmakers up until aspiring or very seasoned filmmakers. Um, just to
not make the mistakes that we have to, uh, maybe try out the gear that we try, um, to help 'em give
them tools. I mean, what else do we talk about?
Austin Hall (37:43):
Yeah, we've talked about weddings. Um, in the future we have a lot of ideas for episodes, but it's really
just a raw inside look, um, at a lot of stuff. Uh, our personalities, you know, we really want the podcast
to be, to feel like us to be, to let people in a little bit on our personalities. So it's, it's kind of equal parts,
educational and professional, equal parts, fun and silly and, and, uh, kind of looser. Right. But
Darren Clausen (38:16):
A lot of silly. Yeah.
Ariel Martinez (38:19):
So a bought the mistakes that, that you have made. What are some of the mistakes that you guys have
made? Yeah,
Darren Clausen (38:27):
A
Austin Hall (38:27):
Lot. Uh, the, probably the biggest mistake that we made is
Darren Clausen (38:30):
We accidentally bought an a 71 once.
Austin Hall (38:34):
Okay. That was the biggest mistake we've
Darren Clausen (38:36):
Ever made. We were on Craigslist. How, how
Ariel Martinez (38:38):
Do
Darren Clausen (38:39):
Go ahead.
Ariel Martinez (38:39):
How do you accidentally buy in
Darren Clausen (38:42):
Seven one? So first of all, hashtag new, um, I didn't have, when we started our company, we only had
one, a seven S two and that was, Austin's what he brought into the company. I had a can six D we
weren't trying to do that game. We were like, okay, next purchase is an a seven S two. But at the time
they were like 17, 1800 bucks. We were on Craigslist one night, just, I mean, every night, really just
looking for the next purchase, something used. And, uh, Austin's like, bro, I found an a seven S two for,
Austin Hall (39:10):
It was a, I thought it was a, a seven S mark one.
Darren Clausen (39:13):
Oh, got it. It's
Austin Hall (39:14):
How I read it. It got it. So we, and it was for like 3 75, which the a seven S was a pretty, pretty great
camera. Um, and it would've been just fine for us. So we meet up with this guy at dairy queen or
something. And I remember he leaves after we buy the camera and everything and I'm setting it up and
all of like my video modes are gone because it's the a seven, uh, I didn't realize it. So I like looked at the
camera and I realized there's no S on it. I'm like, oh, dang it. Cuz they all look the same. No,
Darren Clausen (39:44):
Yeah, bro.
Austin Hall (39:46):
We thought it was a deal, but it was too good to
Darren Clausen (39:47):
Be true. So thank God we actually like flipped it like that week for like 50 bucks more and moved on with
life. But that was, that was pretty epic. We shot,
Austin Hall (39:55):
We shot one job with it.
Darren Clausen (39:57):
Yeah. We did shoot a job that week. It
Austin Hall (39:59):
Was like, it was due, it was two angles with the a seven S two and the a seven and like the a seven angle
was so bad. Oh
Darren Clausen (40:05):
It's it's trash
Austin Hall (40:06):
10 80. I it's real. It's real bad.
Darren Clausen (40:11):
So lessons learned,
Austin Hall (40:12):
But yeah, that was a big mistake. Um, probably the biggest mistake that, that heard us the most
genuinely, um, is not setting up all of the proper taxes, getting, you know, QuickBooks early on. We used
a, a site called and co I don't know if you've heard of it or have used it at all, but never I've
Ariel Martinez (40:32):
Always been on
Austin Hall (40:33):
QuickBooks. Yeah. Um, it's great. Uh, I think for freelancers, maybe like sole proprietors, um, but it's not
really true business software. So that was, that really hurt us. We didn't really set aside money for taxes
our first partial year and then our first full year. Yeah. And, uh, it came back, we had to, we ended up
having five months. We were on a five month to pay off $35,000 in taxes. Yeah. And so we were paying
$7,000 a month. Every 15th of the month would just automatically get pulled out of our account for five
straight months. And, uh, that was, that was tough. During that time it was terrible. Like Darren said, like
there were times where, um, we didn't get paid. We, we didn't get paid on time and mentioned this in
the podcast too. But you know, through that time we just stayed the course and stayed, faithful, kept
serving people. And I remember several times during that, uh, those five months where we would have
little jobs come in, something come up quick opportunity or, you know, bigger paychecks, but they
would come in always just at, at the right time. Um, and it would be just enough to get us by yep. To pay
the bills always would be at the right time. So it was, it was a really cool, um, faith builder, honestly, to
go through that.
Ariel Martinez (41:48):
I, I feel like that's one of the few things that at every creator does not talk about, whether it's a
YouTuber or podcaster when it relates to filmmakers or any creatives really is taxes. Now I have been
dying to do an episode only on taxes and sort of what to stay away from and all that stuff. But I'm still
figuring that fought on my, on also today still. Yep. So I don't feel properly equipped to do that and what
I would normally do. Like I'm still trying to find the, I've been kind of cycling through accountants, trying
to find the right one for me to do everything. And once I find one and establish one and I can can for
sure trust them, I would love to bring 'em on the podcast and talk about,
Austin Hall (42:37):
Yeah,
Ariel Martinez (42:38):
That'd be awesome. Accounting, accounting for freelancers, you know how to incorporate yourself, how
to track your stuff. And right now, thank God that my books are clean as a whistle. Um, I just need to
find the right accountant to just handle the yeah. But that's something that I had not done even in the
beginning, just like you guys. So it's a, it's an easy trap to get into and it, but it's such a painful one to get
out of. So absolutely. It's something that for sure, anybody starting a business, whether it's a partnership
or sole proprietor, whatever. Yeah. Uh, should always keep taxes in mind. There it is. I can bite you into
butt. Amen. Uh, you guys, uh, did you ever hear about the fresh start program at all? Or? I don't think
so. You ever never. So I don't know if I, I don't, I wanna say it's not a full Florida thing.
Ariel Martinez (43:35):
I think it's, uh, I don't know what it is, but basically I was set up with that cuz I kind of had the same issue
as well, where I went two, three years, uh, with just a mess in my books, not paying taxes, et cetera, et
cetera. Um, because I didn't know, like I, again, it wasn't in my head, so yeah, I, I owed not 37,000, but I
owed, uh, something like 20,000 roughly. Yeah. Uh, but then through the fresh start program, I was able
to consolidate all that, make a deal with the IRS and they allowed me to just pay it off in a fourth
thousand dollars payment. Right. Yeah. Uh, they brought the 19 or $20,000 down to 4,000. Oh wow. It's
called the fresh start program. Um, once I paid that the deal was now I have to do my taxes quarterly.
Right. They don't allow me to do it yep. Annually anymore, which kind of helps. I was already thinking
about doing it. Yep. Quarterly anyways. Uh, but that was just part of the deal. So, um, that's good. I think
anybody that's probably listening to this and thinking about taxes and thinking that they haven't paid
taxes in years, look into the fresh start program. It's something that the government does all offer to get
people that, you know, may have messed up to, to kind of give 'em a fresh start and it's a, it was a really
big help. So yeah.
Austin Hall (44:59):
That's really cool. I love that. Wish I would've known about that.
Ariel Martinez (45:02):
It's right.
Austin Hall (45:03):
It's okay though. We're we're never going back. So it's fine. Yeah. Being a escort, we switched to Corp,
uh, after that whole fiasco and that's been really helpful. Really. I know it's, there's like a threshold you
have to make over a certain amount for it to really be worth it. But the nice thing is you pay yourself
payroll, so it gets taken outta your paycheck. Like a normal job would. So that's honestly been helpful if
you're like us, that some people just aren't very good with money. That's me right now. I wasn't raised
to be super great with money. I'm getting better and I will get, I will be good at money someday. Um,
yeah, but if you're not, then you have to put those safeguards in place where like being in S Corp helps
me out a lot because I don't have to put the money aside. I don't have to, it gets done for me. So it
almost takes the power out of, out of me. So if you're like me and you look at 20 grand in your bank
account and think of all the ways you can spend it on gear, um, do some of those safeguards or set up a
automatic draft where it puts a thousand dollars into a account you can't touch or just something don't
let yourself get two years, uh, without paying taxes and let it come back and get
Ariel Martinez (46:11):
You. So that was a ton of great information. Um, I wish we had more time. We definitely wanna do
another episode that talks about taxes and SCOR and LLCs and all that stuff we can get into all of that.
Yeah. But for now, um, can you let us know where to find you guys, your website, social media, and tell
where that people can, your podcast as well?
Austin Hall (46:34):
Yeah. Yeah. You can find us at, uh, so you can find our company at glory, visuals.com. Um, you can find
our podcast at the glory, boys.com. Um, we're on any place that you consume podcasts. YouTube is just
glory. Visuals, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, glory, visuals, all that. Yeah.
Ariel Martinez (46:53):
Awesome man. Well, Austin, Darren, thanks so much for coming on the eye filmmaker podcast. We're
super happy to have you and uh, great conversation.
Austin Hall (47:02):
Thank you so much for having us. Yeah. Glad to be here, man. Thanks so much.
Ariel Martinez (47:05):
So there you have it. There's my conversation with Darren and Austin of glory. Visuals. I hope that this
episode was as enlightening to you as it was for me. I know I learned a lot and I can definitely, uh, say
that we are gonna be having them back on the show. Cuz there was a lot of stuff that we wanted to get
to. We just did not have the time to do it on this episode, but we'll be bringing them back to talk about
other aspects of our production companies and how we both kind of get through different obstacles and
kind of hit the highs and the lows and whatnot. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'll be putting links to
all of their stuff that they mentioned on the show notes for this episode, wherever you listen to the
iPhone maker podcast, you'll see it on the show notes for this episode. So thanks for joining us. Don't
forget to like and subscribe if you're on YouTube or just leave us a five star rating if you're on iTunes or
any other podcasting platform until next time, my name's Earl Martinez and this is the iPhone podcast.