Cole Heilborn (00:00):

Welcome back to the podcast. I'm doing a solo episode here with a bit of an update for everyone. I wanted to inform you about some changes that are going to be happening on the show from here on out, but before I share what those changes are, I want to give you a little backstory, and I'm going to go back and share the story of how I started Portside Productions and ultimately why I started this podcast. Because in order to understand where we're going, I need you to understand where we've been. I fell in love with filmmaking when a friend of mine brought a little dad cam up to our local mountain bike hill, and we started making mountain bike edits of myself and friends riding on the trails. As I look back, those videos were terrible, but they were the entry. They were the gateway into this world.

(00:46):

After college, I knew I wanted to make money with my camera. I just didn't know how. It wasn't until I was hired for a hundred dollars to go film at the local Hotel convention center and filming that event and getting paid that day while a hundred dollars didn't go very far to rent. What it did do was it gave me momentum and it made me realize that it was possible to make money with a camera. That was a mind blowing concept to me almost 10 years ago. From that point on, I had this dream of building a production company that one day I could work for full time and pursue my passion of making things with cameras. So in order to make ends meet, I did everything, real estate videos, wedding videos, the odd commercial job that I could somehow find, and it worked. A year and a half later, I quit my part-time job and I went full-time into my production company.

(01:42):

And for many years, we just kept making it work. I kept learning, I kept growing, I kept making mistakes, and I did that for a number of years. Somewhere along the way, I knew that if I wanted to do my best work, I had to marry my love of the outdoors with my love for filmmaking. And from that point on, I decided we're going to serve the outdoor industry. So we wiped the portfolio of everything that wasn't outdoors related, realized we didn't have any work on the portfolio that was outdoors related, and quickly dove headfirst into trying to find clients, trying to build a portfolio, trying to build a reputation in the outdoor industry. But something that plagued me during those years was the question of how are our videos used? We knew how to make videos, but what I would frequently see from the variety of types of clients that I had worked with over the years was that many of those clients seem to have hit or miss success when it came to actually using those videos for their intended purpose.

(02:45):

And I'm sure this is a story that many of you can relate to. Making a video doesn't mean that it's going to be successful. In fact, there's a whole host of challenges in the marketing department to get videos to actually to be effective. All the things you've heard us talk about on this show, those are all the things that contribute to making effective videos. I realized that it was one thing to make videos, but it was another thing to actually be able to help clients create effective videos. If I wanted to learn more, I needed to learn from the people in the marketing department how they were utilizing the videos that I made that ultimately led me to the conclusion that I wanted to start a podcast. I wanted to start a podcast that would interview experts in the marketing department to help me better understand their world, the world of marketing, but then also try to understand how do the videos that I make plug into the greater marketing ecosystem.

(03:38):

That initial curiosity has led me to places that I could never have dreamed of, places that I'm mentally grateful for. We are approaching 200 episodes, five years. We've had so many incredible guests. We've had such an incredible team helping produce this show over the years. This podcast has led to an incredible transformation here at Portside. It has revolutionized how we find work. It's taken us to all corners of the country, crafting stories and creating compelling emotional content. But I have the feeling that we're just getting started, and this is the update that I want to share with you over those years. We have meandered into every corner of the marketing department. We've covered things like pr, we've talked about creative, we've talked about brands, we've talked about leadership. We've talked about a lot. And over those conversations, while I'm immensely grateful for the perspective that they've colored into my life and our process here at Portside, what I've realized is that we need to focus the show even more.

(04:39):

Now, you might be hearing that and saying, gosh, a podcast that's focused exclusively in marketing in the outdoor industry, isn't that niche enough? And I would say, yes, it is, but we're going to go even deeper. We're going to talk about how to produce effective creative content. As I've been reflecting on this journey that Portside has been on this summer, we'll be approaching 10 years in business over those years. I've asked myself a lot of questions, questions like, what makes us unique? What do we not do very well? That other companies do better? Questions that are foundational to every business that exists, and questions that evolve over time. And as I've been reflecting on these last 10 years, thinking about what do we want to be known for? But more than that, what's our unique perspective on the industry? Because there's a ton of amazing creatives out there, but what does Portside bring to the table that's uniquely us?

(05:33):

And the truth is, what's uniquely us is this podcast. It's the perspectives that we've gained about this world of marketing that helps inform our processes and allows us to create effective and emotional video content for our clients. And when I realized that that's the thing that made us unique, and that's the thing that I want to continue to strive and emphasize as we move forwards, it became extremely clear. In order to continue our own learning here at Portside, we need to focus the show into how to create effective, emotional, creative content. And why do I choose those two words effective and emotional? Well, because I believe that emotion is one of the greatest tools that marketers have. It's one of the greatest tools that filmmakers and storytellers have. And when you think about it, great marketing is built on great storytelling and what are stories, but just emotion.

(06:28):

And for me, emotion has always been the core at what we craft here at Portside. It could be a 70 minute feature film or it could be a 32nd commercial spot, but if we can create a feeling of emotion for the audience, then that's a win. What I've learned producing this podcast and what I've learned when working with clients over these last few years is that again, just making an emotionally compelling commercial doesn't mean it's going to be effective. That's what I think makes our production company unique, is because we understand what it takes to make effective content. We've interviewed almost 200 marketing leaders in the outdoor industry about what it takes to produce effective marketing that has informed how we approach our creative process to help our clients actually produce effective work. And if you want to learn more about that, I'd encourage you to check out our website.

(07:17):

We're rolling out some new updates, and you can learn more about what our process looks like to produce effective work. But I think that's the key is in this world of creative that is rapidly changing, audiences are changing, channels are changing, ai pick any of the scary monsters in the closet that's out there that we're unsure how to tackle. That's what this podcast is going to strive to figure out. We're going to wade through the mess of media. We're going to wade through the mess of marketing and try to figure out how do we produce effective and emotional creative that works in today's world. What I hope with this direction, with the podcast and the direction with the production company is that we can all grow together. So if you want to learn, if you want to continue to grow in this world of marketing, but specifically in this world of creative, I invite you to join us and settle in for the next 200 episodes. Okay.

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