00:00
At that time, nobody believed in YouTube. So we just built up our platform and then we would premiere these music videos on our channel because Vivo wasn't out, the record labels didn't understand the monetization of this stuff yet. So they were like, sure, go ahead. As I continued down that path, you know, number one video, I think I had 11 number one videos within either a year or two years span, something like that. And as a creator, this is where the business and the creative...

00:25
So I kind of bumps heads because like as a creator, I'm not really worried about business most of the time. I mean, now I am, but as a young creator, I just wanted to create. So. ["Best Part of That Needed Studying"]

00:38
listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. Ryan Alford, your host. Talking content today. The king of content. Filmmaker, Matt Alonso. What's up, brother? Yo, what's going on? Pleasure being here. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, man.

01:05
I'm excited to talk content and you know, everything that goes into the power of video, man, they say content is king and video rules. Yep. That is very true. Pioneer on YouTube and you know, I guess we could name drop a little bit Justin Bieber, you know, just a few names. So uh.

01:30
You've been out there man. I love your story. My team brought me your name. I'm like dude I want to talk to this guy and you know doesn't hurt that we have a lot of the same beliefs so uh Decided to have you on and you know Just want to tell everybody a little about your story and talk a little bit about the business of filmmaking. I mean, it's It's a convoluted world out there. I know it's everybody want everybody thinks it's sexy and glamorous. It ain't always that way though, is it? No, absolutely not. It's kind of the opposite of that like

01:59
What is a good good from a business standpoint is not the sexy glamour stuff and then the sexy glamour stuff Is not necessarily the best for business. So yes It took me like 10 12 years to find a balance there, you know, so Definitely have some gems and jewels to drop. I know it's funny You frame it that way. I tell people that all the time. They're like You know, I mean I own an ad agency and you know, we do commercial work and it's not all you know, some of us

02:28
super fun and super sexy, but you know, some of the best paid gigs though, or just, you know, some bread and butter marketing, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, the ones that seem to be the fun ones are the big names that don't seem to pay very well, you know, but you do them and if you do them, do them with the mindset of them being, you know, a commercial for yourself essentially, and not necessarily worry about the backend on those ones, then then it's okay.

02:57
You know, so you have to be able to kind of like basically break, break each project down into, into different sections and then put it in its, in its slot and not think that they're all going to be the same. So it took me a little time, but I learned it. Well, it's like, and I teach that in some personal branding coaching that I do with called circle of influence and you borrowed leverage is what I call that. You know, you, uh,

03:22
Yeah, it may not pay the best but you're borrowing some leverage from the existing circle of influence of bigger names That then bring other opportunities that have bigger opportunity, but we can talk more about that The but Matt let's uh, let's give everybody I know you got a fascinating story. I know you're in LA And but let's tell everybody a little bit about Matt

03:49
All right, well, my name's Matt Alonzo. I grew up in Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, which is about 50 miles north of Los Angeles, nice little beach town. But my parents met each other about 16. One night decided to make me, and they didn't know each other, but they decided to make a family, create a family. They both were street kids, so we didn't have much growing up.

04:17
But the one thing that we did have, or my dad saved up to go get was a video camera. And he just had this video camera in my face constantly. He had no connection to film. He was like a 17 year old kid cleaning cars, you know? So he just wanted to document everything because he didn't really have a family life. So eventually he plugged it into the TV and I saw myself on TV, like, you know, some stuff he had recorded or he would do it. So it was live on TV. And I thought I was on TV and my mom would be laughing. My sister would be laughing. And so I realized I could.

04:45
could make people happy with this device. Um, and I learned that at a very young age, I don't think I like intuitively could spell it out for you, but I understood one plus one equals two. And so I started taking that camera and just creating short films. Then basically I learned how to, for lack of better words, manipulate people's emotions through this, through this box, started editing and, and, and putting together all these clips when I was like eight or nine. So that was pretty much my life. That and football.

05:15
and being 5'5", 112 pounds, like football was out of the equation at 18. So filmmaking was gonna be what I did. Unfortunately, first year I went to city college and it just didn't work out. And I was just gonna be working for the city of Santa Barbara, which my dad did. And my friend who I got into filmmaking at a very young age, he started going to this film school, excuse me. And I was doing his projects just casually on the side.

05:45
And he pulled my dad aside a few times and was like, you have to get mad into this film school. He's acing all my projects. He's doing all my work. Like he has to be here. And my dad just couldn't afford it. And six months later, he refinanced the house and just sent me to school. So I just put my head down and went to work and did internships. I did everything. I went above and beyond in every opportunity I could, just because I knew how much my parents had invested into.

06:13
into this opportunity for me. So by the time I graduated, I had a full-time job working for a small record company. I was making a hundred plus, thousand a year living in Santa Monica. And I just wasn't happy though. So one day I called my dad, he's like, what are you growing as a man? I said, nope. He said, are you growing as a, creatively? I said, nope. He said, okay, well, you know what to do. I don't think he meant this like literally, but I grabbed my bag and I just walked out with no savings.

06:41
no concept of like tomorrow in terms of like what I'm going to do or like strategy in terms of like, let me slowly get out of this job and put my two weeks in, let me save up some money maybe and then kind of sail, sail off into the sunset. But at 22, that wasn't, that wasn't necessarily the way that I, I moved operated. So we had walked out rarely works out that way. Yeah. Yeah. My car got repossessed. I was sleeping on couches, but I was like, I was at peace. I felt

07:10
completely comfortable in the chaos, because I just knew how talented I was, and I knew that an opportunity presented itself, which it would, that I would be able to show my talent. And I knew I was talented. And as cocky as that sounds, I had been working every single day, editing or shooting for four years straight, on top of what I did as an adolescent. So I just knew that no one had put in the work that I had done, so I was very confident in my skills.

07:39
Did a concert in San Diego for 150 bucks or $200 for this no name artist, but they happened to be opening up for Lil Wayne. I was able to film the concert, took it home, put it on YouTube that night, and it had like the first video to ever get a million views. And so like a month later, I was shooting the game featuring Travis Barker, and I had it on Jimmy Ideen's desk the next morning. So it was a pretty...

08:08
Like meteoric, like it was so fast from going sleeping on couches to sitting with Jimmy Irene, who was like the founder of Interscope records and, um, and shooting for the game and Dr. Dre and just the whole, so would you shoot the concert? Literally, would you stay up all night editing? Like, yeah. So I shot the concert in San Diego. You know, at this time I was just shooting on a little, a little camera with like little tapes. And at that time on YouTube, nobody.

08:37
YouTube 2007 just wasn't really used the way it's used now. So I labeled it official music video, Lil Wayne official music video, and all the outlets, MTV, BET, everybody took it as the official music video. So they place it on all their blogs or all their websites. So that really helped generate all the views. And then DJ Ski, who was Games DJ, had just started SkiTV, and we connected to Create SkiTV, which was one of the first popular YouTube channels. But you know.

09:07
He was obviously with game and Interscope. So he asked Jimmy Iveen, hey, give us like a, microscopic budget from what you're used to and let us show you what we can do. And so he did. And we kind of changed the whole music video industry with that one ask and that one delivery in terms of like before us, it was 200,000 was like minimum. Now it was like 10,000 minimum. We obviously didn't understand that. We just wanted an opportunity and we took whatever opportunity we had but we were just able to.

09:36
Give them the same product for that price, which unfortunately changed the game, you know, at least for that time being. The democratization of content is what I call it. It's like, you know, I used to do a 32nd TV commercials that took six months and cost $2 million and now the same things, you know, maybe a hundred grand in three weeks. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was, you know,

10:05
When we asked for it, they gave us like the game video that we were shooting, even the soldier boy turned my swag on song. That one went number one. It wasn't supposed to go to number one. It was supposed to be like a B side record. They were just like, here's 10 grand, here's 20 grand, which then was like craft services. And they were kind of laughing, like kind of almost giving it to us as a joke or like wanting to see us fail. Like not wanting to see us fail, but like kind of.

10:32
Just throwing us off, right? Like it wasn't much, it was nothing for them to lose to the brand. So, but the fact that we had, we had, um, we knew the red cameras, which had just came out. It was like brand new. Oakley was still around like the glasses and you know, the Oakley CEO was the one who created red. So like no one knew how to use those cameras. We did, they were cheap and we just kind of bridged that gap. And it was an opportunity. We took it, but we just, we didn't understand the repercussions, but at the same time,

11:02
I wouldn't be where I'm at if we didn't take that opportunity. So it's good and bad. Yeah, it is. But you know, like the game was going to change, I guess, pun intended no matter what, right? I mean, you have this proliferation of software and the tools, you know, where, you know, what, 25, 30 years ago, you didn't have a hundred grand. You couldn't get a camera that shot at a good enough resolution or

11:29
in this editing software wasn't good enough 25, 30 years ago. So this marriage of software and technology was coming like a freight train. You just jumped on it early. Absolutely. And we had no concept of any of the other way before us. Our only concept of filmmaking was from these apps and these sort of digital cameras and stuff. So it was just natural to us. Um, but I didn't, you know, we, we really cut the music videos down for a long period of time.

11:58
actually things started to go back up but yeah there was no reason for them to spend millions of dollars when they didn't have to anymore and the quality was up to par so so that's so then I did a bunch of music because for for Interscope yeah yeah Pioneer on YouTube yeah probably like a G6 like I said and a bunch of other ones yeah so we what we did at SkiTV is we really just used music videos we're really a marketing company and what we really wanted was basically

12:26
but you're doing commercials. We wanted short form commercials that would be used like on YouTube because we understood that YouTube was gonna grow. At that time, nobody believed in YouTube. So we just built up our platform and then we would premiere these music videos on our channel because Vivo wasn't out, the record labels didn't understand the monetization of this stuff yet. So they were like, sure, go ahead. And so we just kept building and then we would go pitch to Chrysler.

12:55
and say, hey, we have a million viewers from 13 to 35. What car do you have that's in that demographic? And then we would go make some sort of 10-second, 30-second bumper for 50,000 or whatever it was. And we would kind of double dip on that. And that's really where we wanted to go to be more marketing and breaking products. So we were able to do that with a few products and really kind of grow that and then continue to get big music videos in. So.

13:24
So it was good from a business standpoint. So we go from the game, we've got opening for, was it Little Lane, someone to, when did the Biebs and all these other big names hit the fold?

13:43
So that, I mean, as I continued down that path, you know, number one video, I think I had 11 number one videos within either a year or two years span, something like that. And then I left SkiTV and I wanted to just, cause they wanted to go more into like a, into more of a marketing standpoint of business. And I really wanted to either just, you know, build on my music videos and then go into more narrative. So I went, journeyed off, created my own company and teamed up with

14:13
with another company called Happy Place and they pretty much started repping me. I had another rep called, uh, from, from hello company, Lark. She was a huge rep. So she repped me and the bill and a couple of other big people. So that's where all the big names started coming in where she was able to like, uh, go pitch for me and have meetings for me and be my voice. So that from a business standpoint was great. Obviously she took her percentage. Yeah. Uh, but I was happy to get happy to give it to her.

14:38
What was crazy during that time was that there was like six months where I didn't work because she was like, look, your videos are great, but you need to make money. So we're going to say your cap is or your starting point is 50 grand. I was freaking out. I'm like, 50 grand, no one's ever going to hire me. She's like, yeah, they will. But it's going to take a little bit of time. You know, so every month I'm like itching. I'm like, what's going on? I'm freaking out. You know, and then eventually they started coming in, you know, 50 and 60, 100, you know, before that it was like 10, 20,000.

15:08
She was like, we got to make a stance for you. You got to stand firm and it'll come. So thankfully it did. And so I started being able to believe in terms of setting my prices or my expectations for what was going to be my bottom line, I guess. I was able to see that eventually it would come to fruition.

15:36
But there's a good lesson to learn there for anybody listening. Like, you know, you got to set your value at a certain point, you know, and it doesn't mean you can just be unrealistic completely, but you know, if you've been in the business as long as you were going from 20,000 to 50,000, that's not, that's a reasonable like upgrade from where you were, you know, when like you went 20,000 to 2 million or something, you know.

16:01
Yeah, I mean, in the videos that I was doing at 20,000, we're really, we're really more of $50,000 videos anyways, as far as like the resources that we put into them. We, and as a creator, this is where the business and the creative side kind of, you know, bumps heads because like as a creator, I'm not really worried about business most of the time. I mean, now I am, but as a young creator, I just wanted to create. So like all the money could go to the screen. I would eat top ramen. I didn't care. Like it just, cause I'm an artist.

16:30
Is that what they say? Like it's called starving artists for a reason. Exactly. And I had to come to the point where I realized, look, you can be an artist, but if you want to be, you know, a financially stable artist, you need to be an artist for the brand or for the client. And the client is like whoever the actual brand or artist is. Like, I can't like sometimes I would get like a song and maybe a Bieber song and I would write this like very, you know.

16:58
artsy fartsy creative that didn't fit his brand at all, but I wanted to go with it because I'm such like an artist and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna decline the job instead of just writing something that is for this brand. It fits into the brand, but it has my little sprinkle on it and then make the money, right? Like, and so I think a lot of people get stuck there because they want to like, I'm an artist and they feel like, oh, I don't even know what the word is, but like, yeah, you can do that. You're just gonna be doing it for nobody, you know? So.

17:26
What's the Matalanzos style? I mean, you know, not the pigeonhole yourself, but what you know, do you feel like you have a certain style or you know, like, yeah, I mean my style is pretty like fast I mean, I've been editing since I was eight. So like I just like to I like to edit quickly like and I like to Like over I just like to keep things I have ADD like through the roof So like a couple frames my attention span like is gone so which is good now because nowadays like 15 seconds and

17:55
You know, even for me, I'm an old head, but like I even check out of a 15 second video, you know? So, so I would say just really fast and just a lot coming at you in a short period of time. I have a really hard time, at least at this point, like being slow. Like I just feel like, okay, I'm done. I'm bored. You got that Tick Tock brain. Yeah, for sure. And I had it before Tick Tock, so it's kind of worked out for me. You know, there was a time where it didn't because like Tick Tock.

18:24
brain for everybody else wasn't there. So that was a little bit of a rough patch, but I managed to survive. Yeah. So. I see a lot of effects and stuff in your stuff. I mean, is that working with others or are you a practitioner? Are you just like a jack of all trades? And I know you're directing some, you're editing some, you're filming some, like, you know, where does your skill sets kind of fall? I direct, I mean, I write and direct and edit pretty much everything.

18:52
I think I've one or two videos I've had other editors, but I started as an editor as a kid really. And then I started shooting and directing and everything in college. And so as a director and editor, it just helps on set. Cause you're able to kind of get in and out and kind of like combine shots. And if you have a problem, some directors are going to sit there. They're not going to really like be able to have the vision of how these shots are going to connect. They're going to take time. And I'm able to just kind of move along.

19:18
So my skill set really lies in, I would say more like leadership and then which was from a director standpoint, creating the vision and then also creating the vision in a way that is going to be executable for the price or for slightly under the price. So you're able to make some money, right? So like that's a big part of it, which it does fall on the creator. Like I used to think it was like business side, but it does fall into that. So I'd say that's a strength of mine as well. And then being able to like.

19:46
edit and all that stuff. And the effects, I would say 95% of them I do myself. And I do them all in one program. So I've just learned to, I didn't have much as a child in terms of like the top equipment and top software, top computer. So I had to make do with what I had and I had to improvise in ways to make things that weren't necessarily meant to be done on this computer or done on this camera. I had to find a way to make, find a way to be able to make them.

20:12
on these things. All right, I gotta make you, you gotta name that program because Nick and I are in the business. So I'm watching my producer, Nick, kind of light up. We wanna, what program are we talking about? I do everything in Premier. Yeah. But it's just, like I said, I've been, like I just find ways to make the program work for me as opposed to like going, you know, using multiple programs, which most people would do or they look at my stuff and they think like, I had to do all these steps, which I didn't do. I just.

20:42
My brain, yeah. Yeah. So, Hey, I like it. I like the mutant Jack of all trades. Like, uh, Nick, my producer is one of those where he can, he has the vision to direct and he can see it, but then editing that's a unique skillset, but you have to, I don't know, I think it's a relationship because it's a, keeps you in the box for like 18, 20 and I'll edit for like 72 hours straight. Sometimes.

21:10
Um, cause I, I wanted to get over, be over with, but I also wanted to like, I don't know, I don't know. I'm in love with it. So like, then I'm like, I miss half my life. Yeah. Oh, the, the editor's toil. So finish out that story, Matt. I know I've been, we've been having a couple of sidebars. I mean, where lead us up to now, like the last, you know, four to five years. Well, it's been, I know, I mean, COVID it's been difficult being in LA and battling through that for anyone that does live action and things like that. But

21:39
walked me through the last few years. Yeah, once COVID hit, I've been, the last few years I've been trying to figure out where I was gonna go. I didn't know really what I wanted to do, music videos. It's like, when you wake up on the first day of school, like those nerves and all that stuff of excitement, that kind of all faded away. So it was just kind of so easy for me. Or just not challenging. I wouldn't say easy because it's still difficult.

22:06
but it just wasn't challenging me. It wasn't like pushing my boundaries. And I was like, what else am I gonna do? COVID happened. And then, you know, I tried to work for a couple of record labels, like do some jobs. And I saw people wearing hazmat and like, you know, getting like 87 tests before the shoot. And I was just like, there's absolutely no way I'm gonna do that. And like, if I can't even touch my friend or like see my friend, I'm gonna be wearing this big suit and shit. Like I'm not gonna do that. Luckily, I had a lot of friends who are artists. And so they would just,

22:36
contact me and just, you know, we would just do side business or small business like stuff. So it's like small videos, five, 10, 15, 20 grand, like anything under like, you know, it's like the bigger videos for record labels are usually on the 40 to upper side. So like these were all considered smaller videos that I just did myself. And so that, that was kind of refreshing at least for me. And it was good financially. And then I was like, all right, I need to get a big boy job. Like, you know,

23:06
I'm getting up there in age. So one of the guys that started Skeetv with me, Kai Henry, he's over at FaZe Clan, which is an e-sports video game org. And I was like, something about that, I just had grabbed, it just started pulling me. And so I contacted him, like, hey, get me over there. What's up? And he's like, yo, it's a big boy job. Are you ready to come into an office every day? I'm like, I don't know. But let me just go over there and check it out. And so I went and checked it out.

23:36
And, you know, I've been here ever since, you know, it's a great, it's a great, a great place to be. Uh, and so I run all the branded content. We have like 15 brands from, okay. Luckily I didn't say that one because we're not allowed to say that one. Yeah, but we have, we can have these big brands who do business with us. And then we basically pump out content for them, uh, basically like commercials, but with, uh, our talents, like our video gamers and things like that, who, who star in these pieces. So there's a ton of.

24:05
deliverables that are Needed to be met and it's a different a different challenge for me in Because it pays amazingly compared to freelance. So it's been a blessing. It's definitely been a blessing something new and That's where I'm at today. No, that's awesome I'm very familiar face clan big one of the biggest name probably the biggest name in eSports We did a huge segment on the radcast. We had like a 10 guest series on eSports and So it's a huge I mean people

24:36
Oh, if they listen to the Radcast, they know how big e-sports are. Cause, uh, we made sure they knew the numbers behind it. How, I mean, it's fucking insane. Like how much money. It blows my mind. Like, like I'm going in some of this, like some of the stuff, a lot of the stuff we're doing is like, sometimes we'll do bigger pieces, but some of the stuff will be like just for Instagram or for like TikTok or something. And I'm looking at the budget going, holy shit. Like this is just for social media. But when I say just for that's cause I'm an old head because.

25:05
If you're a TikTok or Instagram, you know, in this demo of a 13 to 24, you don't even know what TV is. So it's not just for that is their TV, right? Like that is their bread and butter. So, uh, so the, I know, I know. So the budgets make sense, but for an old head like me, who still has like, you know, you know, someone's watching Monday night football on my big screen. Like it's, uh, it's, it's a little shocking. I was like, wow, but, um, but it's, it's great. It's, uh, it's, it seems to be a perfectly fit for my skillset.

25:35
And I have like five to seven producers underneath me who I'm able to kind of manage. And I love being like, being able to be a leader and a coach and a mentor. And I've done some film classes, I've done as many like tutorials or things where I can kind of give back as possible. So I'll be able to do that on a daily basis and kind of help these guys through struggles, not only with work, but some of the things that are going through with life and be able to kind of help them out.

26:04
is definitely more rewarding and fulfilling to me as Matalonzo as a person, uh, than anything I've done, you know, up to this point. So, uh, it's kind of a great mend of, of all these things I was looking for. Face clan. They still have the, if you, we could edit this, if you, uh, we're not to be able to answer, but they have a huge activation with the Cowboys or they did.

26:27
They did, I think. Yeah, we did lots of NFL as well. So, um, so yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It blows my mind. What's, um, give me an example of the types of like one of your latest projects, maybe, you know, like maybe for the listener, like walk them through, like, you know, a video or some type of content. So

26:53
I'll just say the last project that I did was, so we had MoonPay, which is one of the cryptocurrency brands, is one of our branded partners. So we put together a huge party for TwitchCon with MoonPay and events are part of events like competitions, all these things. So we did that with Travis Scott. So we filmed it, put together a video with all the biggest names and then just really

27:23
how to basically shoot a music video at a club without disturbing people. So there's a lot of different challenges. And really that deliverable is like a one minute video on Instagram, you know? So it doesn't even go to YouTube. So that's kind of like, kind of just, you know, one of the things that I just did recently. And before that, I did an Xfinity Nate Hill. So, which is a big, you gotta remember, I'm not a gamer. So.

27:52
these names to me, I don't really know yet. I'm learning, you know? Last we got to play was like Duck Hunt. So, I think there's some Duck Hunt on Twitch somewhere. Just showing my dad's TV, you know? But the content is the same. It's just the faces are different. So like we did, you know, did some, yeah.

28:17
They're like commercials, essentially. So we just try to find a way not to make them commercials. It just depends on what the client wants. But it's a lot different from that, from that to like a hundred girls running around in bikinis shaking their butts and alcohol being sprayed everywhere and you know. Dollars being thrown. Yeah, a hundred. Yeah, exactly. It's a lot different. I can't say it's as visually exciting, but.

28:48
You know, but it's interesting, you know, and I'm going to go down and put on my marketing hat for a second, but you, you said it, you teed it up. What, what some people haven't grasped yet is 13 to 23 year olds do not watch television, they've never watched television. And I mean, I'm not saying they don't watch the screen at home that's on the wall, that's not a TV to them. It's a content screen.

29:14
and they beam stuff from their phone there, or they watch Netflix, or they watch a ton of YouTube. And the only way if you're a marketer to reach these people is in video games or where they're at. And so that's why eSports is gigantic. That's why FaZe Clan's huge. That's why Twitch and all this stuff, and all these brands are spending all this money because you can't reach these kids, and eventually they're gonna be the leaders of the world, and you gotta have.

29:43
brand impressions and you've got to build that same brand resonance that, that, you know, Pepto Bismol could just run a commercial, you know, back in our day and yeah, but that doesn't get seen anymore. No, you want, you want their parents dollars right now, you know, like you want their parents dollars. They probably have, they probably have the ability just to press and buy. So, uh, so you gotta eat, like you said, you got to go to where they're at, you know, and, and I don't know how video gaming integration is, but

30:12
I know that if you have the best gamer using your product, integration is going to do well for you, you know, and at least gives you a chance. And I guess that's all you can hope for is an opportunity and a chance that they walk by your product and they happen to remember or sparks will be in them to buy it, you know, because without that you have no chance. I mean, you just have no opportunity. You're on scene, you're unheard, you know, out of sight, out of mind. So I get it. I get it from like the, from, you know, from a.

30:42
broad sense, but when I sometimes I just don't, I don't take that into account. I'm just going, what the freak is going on in terms of like budgets and like what we're doing creating. I'm in the business brother and I do the same thing sometimes I'm in the business every day and I step back sometimes and go, you know, like I get it, but I don't get it, you know, because just, I think about what our music video budgets and music video budgets were, were absolutely pennies. I mean, they still are pennies. You know what I mean? And like,

31:11
Sometimes the bigger the artist, the lower the budget. You know, I mean, a lot of times, like I was telling you earlier before we got on, a lot of the big, big things I did were more for recognition. Like it wasn't for, it was to bring in other business. You know, a lot of times that would bring in artists from overseas who just wanted to shoot with me because I shot with Bieber and they would pay me a disorbing amount of money. And so I was able to get jobs like that with that video would never be seen to the general public. But

31:39
I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to get that job if I didn't do this $5,000 video for XYZ, you know, and like $5,000 or 10,000 is nothing. Sometimes I do videos for free, you know, like just, just for the exposure. Um, so, but it was worth it. Because all that probably led to the opportunity today. Right? Absolutely. No, no, absolutely. And I tell kids all the time, like take it. Obviously you have to be strategic about it. Don't just do shit for free, like just left and right. You know what I mean?

32:09
for you in terms of like you see steps after that, absolutely do it. Some people tell them not to do it. And I'm just like, why? Well, cause you're worth more and stuff like that. Well, you're actually worth nothing right now because nobody knows you. You have all the skills in the world, you're still worth zero because you are just not a commodity. So you have to make yourself a commodity and trying to make yourself a commodity and make money at the same time, it's almost impossible. I won't say it is, but it's almost impossible. So the tagline for my coaching.

32:38
is it pays to be known. And because of you ain't known. You know, you know, you know, and you don't have to be famous. You don't have to be famous, but you got to be known to the right people. No, you have to know your skills have to be have to be wanted. No, you have to be a commodity. And obviously, you know, is the more you're wanted, the higher your you know, your prices can be, you know, in anything. Right. So.

33:06
And I had a good understanding of that. Like I said, once again, I couldn't, I couldn't verbalize this stuff early on, but I just knew that was how it works. So I was able to take that concert in San Diego for free, drive back home that night, edit it all night, use split screens, all this crazy stuff, post it knowing that, or hoping, I guess I was hoping that I would start to get known, right? Like, and I knew if I started to get known, then opportunities would come in and then I can build my leverage up and start bidding more.

33:35
So talk to me about your perspective on TikTok and Instagram and reels and vertical video like You know, let's go down that rabbit hole just a minute as we close things out. Like what's your perspective on? vertical video and and the like

33:54
So when vertical video first came out, as well as like square video, I was completely like against it. You know, I did everything in my power not to fall in line with this sort of, you know, deliverable. I was very like egotistic. I was like my head up in the air, like no cinematic film is only this way. And then I realized like I'm fighting something I'm never gonna be able to win the battle against and I'm hurting myself or the

34:23
clients or the brands that I'm working with, I started studying a little bit more about the algorithms. And so, and how, you know, if you, if you stay back in, you know, old head Bill, then your, your content is never going to be seen. Right. And the more you take up the screen and all these things on all these, you know, these algorithms. And so I'm like, I want my content to be seen. I want to grow. I want, you know, I want all the things that come with, you know, exposure.

34:51
So if I'm hurting myself by staying in this old lane, because just because I feel like it's so precious to me that I'm retarded. I'm just, I'm not using my head properly, you know? So what I did was I started challenging myself to find ways to still, to shoot in, to shoot square so that I didn't have to reframe my shit later. And I didn't have to like make something out of something that would make a different video that wasn't supposed to be that way. So I started shooting vertically

35:20
taping my camera off so I couldn't see, you know, I couldn't see it square. And so I started challenging myself to shoot cinematic that way. But also just doing that framing really helped me so that, so later on I wasn't trying to figure out which portion of the frame I wanted to show and feel like I was losing something. Once I did that, then it all became just intuitive and like natural to me. And now I'm like the more vertical, the better for me. I don't care, I'll push the limits like anywhere. But I shoot, I shoot.

35:50
I first figure out what the deliverable is going to be or where I want this video to live and then I shoot accordingly. So that seems to help out tremendously. But now I'm all for it because I know that's just if you're 18 or 17, you don't even know what your live stream videos are like for movie theaters, which are like drive driving theaters to us, you know, like it just doesn't really register, you know? So the yeah, I had to change. I had to change.

36:18
I think we all have, but it's been interesting watching the, you talked about the short form video and how you were ahead of your time a bit with that. But now, I mean, everything's like 10, 15, 20 seconds. You got to, you know, I mean, if, if it's a video, like a music video or something with a big star, you certainly got more leeway on length. And as long as you're entertaining, but maybe, for me, for me, for me, I'll even, even if I like it.

36:46
I get to about 20 seconds and I register it as like good video, but then I click off. Even if it has like another two minutes to go, I just, and I, and even if I like it, I just, my attention span is like, okay, what's next. Yep. So, so you have to basically, so if you're listening at home, the key there is get that braiding in early. Yeah, no, for sure. For sure. Like if you watch any of my content, it's like five seconds. First five seconds are like,

37:15
You know, just like, just to at least keep you there to the, to, to 15. I was reading these studies and they were saying like 85% of your viewership is gone by like six seconds or something like that. So if you started looking at these analytics and these are like analytics from actual, you know, real living human beings who are checking your content. So, uh, it's very telling on, you know, it gives you a lot of information on, on how to edit or how to create something. You just can't.

37:43
You can't be so stuck in your ways or so like, you know, stubborn that, oh no, I'm going to show my logo at the end of the video. It's like, well, it's never going to get, no one's ever going to see it. You know? So having all this data and having these like facts that you can literally just take and then implement, uh, is a great thing if you're able to kind of like, like I said, not be so stubborn and hard headed, you know? Um, but eventually I guess the numbers will tell as, as you lose customers or lose and you don't stop merging this or whatever. Hey man.

38:11
Marry marrying the art. I just think is there Yeah with that and you got to get it out there I mean that's a good point

38:24
Go ahead, go ahead. No, but you got to get it out there because you got to that's the thing now. Like people fall in love and if you spend three weeks doing something, you could have already learned if it worked or not done four other things, right? I mean, that's the key now is like, get it out there. I saw an artist during COVID. I managed like a huge TikTok artist. I was able to get, get his Spotify from like 200,000 to when I, you know, we started working together. It was like 2.5 million.

38:50
monthly listeners, you know, I got him a deal, singles deal and everything. But like any song that he would work on for longer than like a few weeks, I was just like throw it away or save it for later because you're attached to much to it. And it's, it's like, we gotta just throw stuff out. And the stuff that he didn't care about, I was like, okay, I'll just put it out right away. It did, it did really well. And the stuff that he would babysit a little bit longer, just never, and it wasn't because people knew that he put in more time or anything. It just,

39:18
I don't know what it is, but the more you work on something, the less likely it is to be successful for whatever reason. I'm not saying like just throw trash out there. No, but I'm saying I think everything has like a 90, 10 rule. Like once you get to a point, and I'm a perfectionist to the fullest, I've had to give money back because I've done like 10 versions of an edit and I still didn't feel comfortable sending it to a client. I've had to send money back. Like here's your money for your project. I just can't edit this. I mean, I can't. I don't want to send it to you because of my perfection.

39:46
perfectionism so crazy. So me as a perfectionist being able to say this, like you have to be able to put it out when it's 90% to your liking, it shows the growth, but it also shows like how important it is to do that, you know? And like it's not those days of like putting all your energy into one film or one single or all that stuff. It's gone. It's gone. It's just like you said, you have to just throw shit out there, see what sticks, see what doesn't and then be able to adapt and just continue to do it. Out of sight, out of mind and you know,

40:16
Instead of doing like one thing where you put all your energy and all your eggs and all your budget, do 10 things and you kind of spread your resources, which is kind of opposite of the way I learned, but what works right now. You know, a lot of wisdom there. Hey man, I've really enjoyed this. Where can everybody keep up with you, Matt, and follow along with with everything? Where's the best place to get you? Best place is probably Raya Bumble.

40:40
Just kidding. Uh, Matalonzo. Matalonzo.com. Everything's at Matalonzo, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. So, uh, keep everything pretty, pretty easy for people to find. I love it, man. Really appreciate your time and your perspective and a lot of good insights, man. I appreciate you having me on here and, uh, hopefully we dropped a few gems for, for some people. I know. Maybe we'll get to work together down the road. I'll get in touch with you. Hey guys, you know where to find me.

41:09
I'm Matt Ryan, offering all the platforms. We're at theradcast.com. Search for Matt Alonzo. You'll find all the highlight clips from today, all the stories about Matt and great perspective here. We'll see you next time on the Radcast. ["The Radcast Theme Song"]