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Corey McCartney is the owner of AGA Productions and co-founder of FaceKC, a nonprofit organization that uses film, art, and music to address social issues. He has advice on film, bringing the community together to solve some serious issues, and also on how to approach doing something you’re passionate about. Plus, another tip in our ongoing series about prioritizing your marketing budget – this time we’re thinking about how we can better understand our customers. Find Corey and the videos we talk about here https://linktr.ee/Coreymccartney
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Transcript:
Jeff Randolph:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This Small Business Podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising and Marketing. We are going to talk about marketing. We’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs. We have marketing news and advice that business owners can use to keep moving forward, and this week we sit down with the co-founder of Face KC, a nonprofit organization that uses film, art and music to address social issues in Kansas City. We’ll roll that beautiful footage right after this marketing tip.
All right, we’re continuing our tip series on prioritizing your marketing budget, and we need to understand the customer because the more we understand about the customer, the more we’ll be able to talk directly to them and talk about their pain points. What are their pain points as they relate to your product or service? When do they need you? When would you or your product be a hero to them? That’s the moment you need to set yourself up for, so think about that moment in your customer’s lives. Put yourself in their shoes and really understand what they’re thinking about. Think about all the points that we might call a customer journey. That’s the way we can map out what your customer is thinking and doing and when they purchase your product and all the steps that it takes to get there. Is this a product that is routinely purchased so they don’t ever do research in advance, they just buy on impulse like chewing gum or toothpaste, or is this a more expensive and involved process like doing research before you buy a car or a computer?
The answer to that question helps you identify all of the places where you can impact and influence that journey that the customer is taking. In the case of a routine purchase, you may need to identify brand awareness opportunities that help people recognize your brand when they’re staring at the store shelf. You start thinking about ways to sway your audience at the last minute with in-store displays and bundled packaging or value pricing. The package goes a long way here. You need to make sure that it looks good. If they have more brand awareness so that they recognize your name as they’re staring at that store shelf, that has an impact. But what about if it’s a more involved purchase? Your product is more expensive, more extensive need for customers to research their choices. You may start to see paths where the right pieces of content can help people find you.
Do they comparison shop alternatives? Then maybe search marketing will help you put the right content in front of them at the right time so they can effectively compare you against a competitor. You may start to define where you shine against a competitor so you can highlight those differences in text and in images. In both of those extreme ends of this example spectrum, you’ll want to get into the mind of your audience. How do they talk about your product category? What terms do they use? What terms would they type in if they didn’t know enough to look for you by name? What features and benefits do they care about? Then what are their media consumption habits? What do they watch? What social media platforms are they on? What’s their goal once they’re on that social media platform? Are they just there to be entertained? Are they there to research things? Are they there for advice? That helps you figure out the best way to reach them so that you can start influencing their purchase decisions.
Now, we haven’t even started prioritizing one tactic over another in your marketing mix yet, but this foundational work will start to give you a list of who they are and what those people want to hear and where they need to hear it.
All right, welcome back to the show. We are here with Corey McCartney, a board member with facekc.org. Actually, you’re the owner of AGA Productions and founder of Face KC, a nonprofit organization that uses film, art and music to address social issues. First, welcome to the podcast, Corey.
Corey McCartney:
Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
Jeff Randolph:
Just start out and give everybody a sense of what’s going on with the organization. Describe your work with Face KC and what you’re trying to do.
Corey McCartney:
I have a social enterprise and it consists of the nonprofit Face KC and a for-profit, AGA Productions film and video production. Like you said, we approach the community using film, art and music to address social issues. We also raise awareness and we fight for representation.
Jeff Randolph:
When you say representation, representation of what? Where are you going?
Corey McCartney:
There’s a gap as far as representation with the minority community as far as film and video production, but also just in digital media in general, and so we’re always trying to basically close that gap and then raise our capacity in order to close that gap.
Jeff Randolph:
Gotcha. I am looking on the website and I’m seeing that it uses film as an incentive for communities to come together to fuel change, but it goes beyond the film itself, and you’re talking about how film connects all the people within the community and it goes well beyond just buying a ticket and showing up to an event. Your mission statement talks about NEERE, or maybe you pronounce it differently, NEERE. It’s the network, exposure, economic impact, resources, elevation. How do you see that working to engage people beyond just buying a ticket? What does that look like to you?
Corey McCartney:
Well, first it’s the idea that the film itself or the product itself is not as important as its method in its development, and so the NEERE program is rooted in an idea called asset-based community development. Basically, it’s who are you, what are you good at, and how can we utilize that for the project? When you go into the community with that mindset and you have this idea of a film, it allows you to draw people in, especially if they’re not willing to have conversations otherwise. A good example of that is the Disarmed Project. We did a video with Kansas City Police Department. At the time, police and community relationships weren’t the best, and we wanted to try to heal that gap. It was very difficult to get people from the community to come and have a conversation with the police. They’re not showing up to the coffee shop or to the boardroom to have this conversation, but they would show up to a music video shoot.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Corey McCartney:
That’s how we use this element, this cultural driven initiative to get people to the table.
Jeff Randolph:
Excellent. Yeah, that is, looking at it beyond just buying a ticket to something or how to engage somebody, that really is a more well-rounded circle of looking at that entire ecosystem. I like that a lot. Let’s talk about video for a second though because you work through video quite a bit. When we look at it from a marketing perspective, of course, the power of video is tremendously compelling. You can motivate somebody, you can tell a story. Film can change the world. When we as just regular mortals dedicate resources to video, we’re saying, “Hey, you need to hear this story and engage with it.” We want to communicate something that inspires actions. First you have that cause or a story. Then comes the tough work of telling that story effectively enough to move the needle. When you have a project like that, how do you approach that kind of visual storytelling? What does your brain do? How do you think about, hey, here’s how I’m going to tell this story?
Corey McCartney:
Well, it really depends on what type of work we’re going to be doing. Is it client work? Is it corporate storytelling? Is it some type of commercial or interview, or is it something like a feature length film, or is it some type of proof of concept that we’re trying to expand? If it’s the latter, and it’s a film, I mean as a producer and a production manager, it starts with just getting what’s on the page. Writer director hands me a script. I look at the script and I automatically just figure out everything I need to bring that script to life, plain and simple.
Jeff Randolph:
You see it. Yeah.
Corey McCartney:
Yeah. You just have to see it. It requires a creative fuel with the director and any of the other producers in order to get everything that’s needed for a script. Client work, it really just comes down to listening. I have a sales background, so I kind of break things down into a five-step process. I got taught in one of earliest sales job, and it’s a method of solution selling. You get facts, you find opportunities within those facts, you find problems within those opportunities, underlying solutions that may not be talked about, and then you find a solution to all of that. Then once I have all of that information, I can create the video just outlying basically that five-step process.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, no, and that’s a great way to approach it. I’m curious if you, that’s the feature film. I think this way. I get a script from somebody if it’s this other kind of work. Do you have a favorite kind of work that you do that is, man, I love these projects?
Corey McCartney:
Oh, movies.
Jeff Randolph:
Movies. Just straight up.
Corey McCartney:
Straight up movies.
Jeff Randolph:
Well, that is a good work to have if you can get it.
Corey McCartney:
Oh, yeah. When it comes to making movies, there’s two parts of it. You can be hired like production services. I’m a producer, production manager. I have a bunch of gear and equipment, be hired to make someone else’s movie, or make your own movie. Then you have to come up with the finances to make your own movie. Then, if you’re making someone else’s movie, you really, it’s an easier job, but that’s what it is. It’s just a job. Then when you’re doing it yourself, you have to do it front to back, start to finish. Even utilizing relationships with distributors and sales agents and things that you wouldn’t have to do if you were just hired. There’s a couple different parts of it. But yeah, just getting on set and getting the wheels turning and seeing all the departments moving, that’s what gets me excited the most.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, for sure. Let’s talk about one of those films. You’ve done some fun video work for the Kansas City Chamber’s Annual Dinner opening video last year. A great short that we saw, and we’ll link to this in the show notes, a great short about a flight attendant who can’t get passengers to take a seat, which then morphs into a why Kansas City kind of motivational piece to kindle the flame of ambition. Walk us through that project. I assume there was a goal to that at the beginning, but you’re collaboratively working. Tell us about that one.
Corey McCartney:
Well, we won the contract and then we are in the first meeting and we’re looking at a lot of people with the chamber over a Zoom call. There was, talk about the regional economy, highlight some of the growth that we’re experiencing. But the most important thing is to get people to sit down. It was for the opening dinner. There’s probably 1500 people in the room, and in the past they said the opening video usually just doesn’t get seen. Most people are still congregating, drinking, buying drinks, not taking their seat. They said, “No one ever remembers it.” I was like, okay, well, what are we going to do creatively to get people to take their seats and watch the video? It basically became two videos in one, had a whole skit dedicated just to get people to take their seats creatively. Then once that happened, people started to take their seats. We were successful. I would say 95% of that room was at their table by the time that that video ended, which they say has never happened before.
Jeff Randolph:
No, and getting, when you’re working with client work like that, the client will frequently give you a wish list of, I would love it if it could do all of these things. If we can cram everything into one amazing video that would be great. But you accomplished the first goal of get everybody to sit down and then went and actually got the points across after that. That was well done, well done video.
Corey McCartney:
Thank you. Thank you.
Jeff Randolph:
I do encourage everyone to actually go into the show notes and click on that and take a look at it. We’ll link to your reel. Talking about entrepreneurs, you started facekc.org and you had a lot of passion around that. If you could give advice to other entrepreneurs specifically about finding something that you’re passionate about and following that, what advice would you give?
Corey McCartney:
Two things. If you can start early, that’s great, and then understand that there’s going to be a process and there’s going to be time involved in order to get where you want to go. Just having a mindset early. I didn’t know I wanted to do this early on, so I took a pivot and I had a 16-year sales career before I decided I wanted to do this. Me and my business partner, we always have a saying that if you want to get into this or some type of other business, make as much money as you can and then spend that sh!t.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s solid advice no matter what.
Corey McCartney:
I mean you’re going to have to figure out a revenue stream in order to put into your business, and that becomes very important. We were able to have a lot of success out of the gate because of not only our finances, but our business experience in other areas that we could take from and then utilize in this business. But at the end of the day, we were able to start crewing up, buying gear, and doing what we had to do as far as video production because we had careers in other areas, and then we proxied those finances right into our small business.
Jeff Randolph:
Man, put your money in your wallet where the passion is.
Corey McCartney:
Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
Would you go back the other way? Would you give it up now that you have it?
Corey McCartney:
If I could go back, it would just be to change my mindset at the beginning on what’s important. I knew that I had a passion for this stuff, but I didn’t have a clear vision on how I would do it. If I didn’t have the finances or the vision on how I would do it, well, I was just like, I’ll take the sales route and safe bet and make my money that way, and maybe I can do this later.
Jeff Randolph:
Right. Retire and then have a passion project when you’re retired.
Corey McCartney:
But I had to do it before I retired though. Yeah, it was risky, but it’s been working out.
Jeff Randolph:
Excellent and congrats, the stuff looks good. Everything you’ve done is a lot of fun. In fact, it seems like we ought to go into a lightning round so that we can explore a few other kind of projects and things that you’ve got going on. Are you ready for the lightning round?
Corey McCartney:
For sure.
Jeff Randolph:
All right. Corey McCartney, you’re into the lightning round. What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Corey McCartney:
Specific to the film industry and being a producer is that there’s no blueprint. There’s no blueprint on how to get these things done. Every project’s different. At the end of the day, I just boil it down to there’s words on a page. I need to figure out how to bring these words to life so figure it out. Every producer has a different blueprint on how they got to where they are.
Jeff Randolph:
And you find one that works for you. Tell me, so let’s say we have one of those big projects that you’ve wrapped on, or you’ve just had a premiere of something. How do you celebrate a big win?
Corey McCartney:
First thing, it’s kind of like Andy Reid style. I go and find a big cheeseburger.
Jeff Randolph:
I’m so excited to hear that quite honestly. I would do that too.
Corey McCartney:
I love to head, where’s the best cheeseburger spot in the area? Right here, I would head down to Town Topic. You know what I mean? So yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
I also like the way that you localize those results so that wherever I’m at, there’s got to be a cheeseburger somewhere.
Corey McCartney:
There’s got to be a good one somewhere.
Jeff Randolph:
Do you have a favorite in the metro?
Corey McCartney:
Probably not a favorite. I’m a fan of a lot of different cheeseburgers.
Jeff Randolph:
There’s a time and a place for everything. There’s a burger that fits that mood, that lifestyle. I get it. I get it. On your LinkedIn profile, you mentioned earlier that you have a sales background, and I can see how that works into the business side of your work as well, but it also, I think may help you think a little bit differently. On your LinkedIn profile, you have a two and a half year stint in sales at a major copier machine company, and that industry is one of the toughest cold calling and repeat calling industries you could be in. I noticed you moved to healthcare in sales right after that. I’m thinking about how that impacted your career path. Did you learn something valuable from those copier sales days and then move on? How did that help your career path go forward?
Corey McCartney:
Oh man, I learned so much from those days. Number one, you have to wear the soles out of your shoes sometimes in order to get business.
Jeff Randolph:
Hard work. Yeah.
Corey McCartney:
Hard work. Knocking on doors, carrying the bag. That’s what it taught me. But it also taught me a sales process in order to listen to the client in order to deliver a result. At the time, it was listening to document management needs and then figuring out the right piece of hardware to sell them. But that process can translate into multiple different industries. At the end of the day it’s solution selling. I fall back on my sales process a lot when I’m creating videos to clients because basically creating videos for clients is finding problems and then finding solutions to those problems that can be solved with film and video. Then I also learned, I learned a lot of things as far as just tricks of the trade on how to deal with certain organizations like dealing with nonprofit organizations in the way they spend money, dealing with government organizations in the way they spend money, how to respond to an RFP, how to get in with someone to help write the RFP to your exact specifications to help you win that one, to help you win that. I learned a lot before I transitioned over to healthcare.
Jeff Randolph:
That’s good. Well, and like I said, that industry can be a grind, so you definitely earned your stripes on that. That’s a good one.
Corey McCartney:
Yeah. It was fun though. I made a lot of good relationships there.
Jeff Randolph:
Excellent. Well, that’s good to hear. I’ve got a question about another project on your portfolio link because, and obviously we’ll have that link there, but a video project about Kansas City barbecue legend, Ollie Gates. What did you learn about Ollie Gates and/or Kansas City barbecue that the rest of the world should know?
Corey McCartney:
I ended that video with a quote from him, and that quote is what I learned. It’s basically his advice to the young people was “Be your own man. If you find a fork in the road, just take the fork.” That resonated with me. It’s just being sure of yourself and not letting too many people deter what your vision is and get you off of your path to where you want to go. That hit home for me. I really appreciated those words from him.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, I mean, not only good at making delicious barbecue, but visionary as well. Inspiring too.
Corey McCartney:
Crazy businessman.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah thanks Ollie Gates. We appreciate you. All right. Corey McCartney, the founder of Face KC and AGA Productions. Where can people find you?
Corey McCartney:
Man, I’m most active on my Instagram. My Instagram will take you to my link tree and everything else. There’s a lot of links out there.
Jeff Randolph:
A lot of links.
Corey McCartney:
My Instagram is actually my middle name, Taron, T-A-R-O-N. Then shorten last name. Last name’s McCartney, but on Instagram it’s just Mac and Taron Mac is actually an old stage name from when I was an actor.
Jeff Randolph:
No, so let’s pause for a second and find out about this acting thing. What were you acting as?
Corey McCartney:
Well, I started acting in LA. I took training in a technique and then started doing scene study. Then it’s like, okay, well you’re getting casted for roles. What do you want your name to be? At the time, I didn’t necessarily want it to be out there that I was getting involved in this entertainment industry. I was like, there’s a lot of actors that have stage names that are not their actual name, so I was like, let’s go with my middle name and then short for my last name, Taron Mac. You know what I mean?
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah well, Taron Mac on Instagram and facekc.org on the web for finding all kinds of links. Corey McCartney, thanks for being with us today.
Corey McCartney:
Of course. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
Jeff Randolph:
That is our show. Thanks to our guest, Corey McCartney. We appreciate you being here, and thank you for listening to the Small Business Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe. Leave us a five star rating and review. Drop us a line on the website at eagadv.com if you have any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.