Welcome to Creatives Grab Coffee, a podcast on the business of video production. Hosted by Kyrill Lazarov & Dario Nouri https://www.creativesgrabcoffee.com Produced by www.LapseProductions.com
#124 Trade Shows, AI Tools, and Pricing (ft. Cerious Productions)
Michael Cerdeiros of Cerious Productions in Las Vegas on undercharging and learning to hold your price, running a lean team with a 55-person contractor network, building on repeat trade show clients, and using AI to build the portal, CRM and white balance app that replaced his software subscriptions.
Full episode write-up, chapters, and transcript: https://www.creativesgrabcoffee.com/podcast/124-trade-shows-ai-tools-pricing-ft-cerious-productions/ (https://www.creativesgrabcoffee.com/podcast/124-trade-shows-ai-tools-pricing-ft-cerious-productions/)
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:25 A 2007 YouTube show with his uncle
2:34 From Staten Island to Las Vegas
3:07 YouTube University and a year and a half in LA
5:23 Starting Cerious Productions in 2015
6:35 Undercharging and learning to hold your price
9:35 A lean team and a 55-person contractor network
11:52 Repeat trade show clients as a steady base
12:55 Quitting the day job in March 2020
14:47 Why Las Vegas is built for event content
15:38 Competition in Las Vegas
17:54 Next: a warehouse studio for brand commercials
19:09 Rebuilding the website with AI
20:26 The portal that replaced Frame.io (http://Frame.io) and HubSpot
22:37 Vimeo, Google Drive, and a branded subdomain
25:55 Cutting subscriptions and the pressure on SaaS
27:25 The security risk of building your own tools
28:31 Kelvy, a white balance app for casino lighting
31:31 Lovable, Rork, Claude, and Codex
33:32 SEO, AEO, and standing out
37:25 Your boss is gonna love us: selling the experience
39:30 When retainers actually make sense
44:06 The story behind the name Cerious
Guest: Cerious Productions https://cerious.com/ (https://cerious.com/)
Creatives Grab Coffee is produced by Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company.
28 Oct 2026
#123 Referrals, Review Campaigns, and One Retainer Client (ft. BT Studio)
Doug Thomsen of BT Studio in San Francisco on building a video business that holds up in a crisis: keeping exactly one retainer client, earning referrals by going the extra mile, running a client review campaign instead of paying for SEO, a viral video that still sends links to his site, the limits of AI video, and the self-funded feature film Pride Jewel.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:29 From seventh-grade iMovie to agency life
2:15 Starting BT Studio with Adam Behrmann
3:10 Why the name sounds like a law firm
3:50 When a partner leaves during COVID
6:56 Keeping the business alive through the pandemic
8:56 Pride Jewel, a self-funded feature film
10:30 Two slow years, then three busy ones
10:55 Crisis-proofing: one retainer, many clients, a buffer
13:00 The next crisis and the AI question
14:01 What AI video still can't do: refinement
15:58 AI audio and when good enough is enough
17:43 Referrals come from going the extra mile
19:45 One retainer client, by design
22:13 Why small retainers rarely pencil out
25:48 Where the work comes from
26:25 Skipping the SEO budget for a review campaign
27:43 Getting clients to actually write the review
29:35 Paying for Clutch and ProductionHub listings
31:09 Dario's tip: log how every lead found you
33:05 Mining customer conversations with AI
34:03 The viral desk video that still builds links
37:25 A lean team: one full-timer plus freelancers
37:59 Living with an unpredictable pipeline
38:58 Slow periods as creative fuel
40:46 Living at home vs paying rent
42:19 Going full time at 27: savings, debt, and a reel
44:08 What's next: more commercial directing
46:19 A new feature about a wildfire evacuation
48:45 Finding a producer for the next film
49:41 Film grants in Canada vs the US
51:53 Nonprofit work: Hamilton Families and the SF Symphony
52:57 Internal projects and a relaunched website
55:41 FAQs, llms.txt, and getting found by AI
59:45 Fewer one-day shoots, more start-to-finish projects
1:01:04 What got you here won't get you there
1:02:26 Where to find Doug and BT Studio
1:04:26 Yes, he still does one-day shoots
1:05:14 San Francisco, San Diego, or San Jose?
Creatives Grab Coffee is produced by Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company.
19 Oct 2026
#122 Cold Calls, Claude, and Social Media Retainers (ft. STUDiiO)
Micah David of STUDiiO on running a Las Vegas video company at 21: learning the business side, a fixed workday over the grind, pricing from an hourly rate, selling social media retainers to restaurants and cafes, losing a Fiverr account, and role-playing cold calls with Claude.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:16 A fifth-grade YouTube bet that started it all
2:57 Running a company at 21
3:55 From hobby videos to paid work
6:38 Learning the business side
9:12 The details of selling yourself
10:49 Does being young cost you clients?
14:59 One thing a day compounds
16:14 Why the always-grinding mindset backfires
21:16 A website built in a trade for video
23:27 Claude, ChatGPT, and using more than one AI
30:12 The Las Vegas video market
32:16 Why social media retainers are hard to sell
34:14 Pricing from an hourly rate behind the scenes
37:47 Selling benefits, not features
39:07 Restaurants and cafes as retainer clients
41:00 Why retainers are harder with corporate clients
45:00 Video company or marketing agency?
48:51 Inbound leads vs cold calling
52:49 Instant verification on Google Business
55:43 The risk of relying on Google
56:57 Losing a Fiverr account and owning your leads
1:01:07 Role-playing sales calls with Claude
1:03:49 AI-built call lists and finding decision makers
1:06:06 Email and LinkedIn outreach is a volume game
1:07:11 Training AI on your books, calls, and emails
1:14:22 Why the next generation is ahead
1:16:06 Ten thousand hours in the age of AI
1:19:41 Where to find Micah and STUDiiO
Creatives Grab Coffee is produced by Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company.
Who has been a guest on Creatives Grab Coffee
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43,235
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
6 ratings
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5.0 / 5
18 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 72 / 100
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Quality
87
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0
YouTube
76
Engagement
68
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