Capturing the Wild: Building Brand Power in the Outdoor Industry with Jarrod Christmas
0:04
Importance of Visual Branding and Marketing
13:46
Building Brands Through Video Marketing
26:02
Importance of Personal Branding
Discover how visual storytelling can redefine brand identity as we bring you an enlightening conversation with Jarrod from C4 Media Production. Hailing from Diboll, Texas, Jarrod's journey from a manufacturing plant worker to a leading figure in outdoor videography is nothing short of inspiring. Collaborating with former pro baseball player Brandon Belt, he has crafted a nationally televised fishing tournament show, using strategic video content to enhance brand awareness. His story is a testament to finding and thriving within a niche—in his case, the fishing and hunting industries around Lake Sam Rayburn.
We also discuss the critical elements necessary for building a successful brand beyond just a compelling logo. Through Jarrod's experiences and insights, we highlight the power of a coherent brand story and the need for clear marketing objectives. Learn about the pitfalls companies face when video content lacks strategic purpose and the value of aligning operations, pricing, and execution. Jarrod exemplifies the importance of personal branding, showcasing how a robust narrative and genuine connections can elevate a brand's essence. Join us for a session filled with valuable branding lessons and the significance of quality partnerships.
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Speaker 1: 0:04
All right, welcome back Lemonheads. Today on the yellow chair you have Crystal. Let me stop. What's up, lemonheads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair.
Speaker 1: 0:19
I'm Crystal and today, even though it looks like we're in the virtual lemonade stand, we're actually probably just a few miles apart here in Dybal Texas. So I'm so excited to talk to who I would consider a friend here that's doing some really cool stuff in the outdoor videography space. I'm really excited for us to talk today about the importance of video in your marketing, the importance of understanding your niche, and guys, most of all, just like some really cool best practices. So let's sip some lemonade. All right, guys joining me today in the virtual podcast studio from Dybal Texas, which has a population of like 5,000 people.
Speaker 1: 0:59
But Jared is one of those 5,000, and so am I and his whole family, so together we probably make up a good chunk of all of those 5,000 people. So, jared, I'm so thank you for joining me today. He asked me. He said am I your first non-home service guest? And I said I don't think I've actually had very many, but for my listeners I want them to know, like, why should they care what you have to say? Cause I think you have a really cool story about what you do and how you do it.
Speaker 2: 1:27
Yeah, absolutely so. I feel like one aspect of what we do is the videography, and that always connects directly to brand awareness. It connects directly to marketing strategies and everything like that. We also offer, you know, photography services, whether it be for flyers or banners or, just you know, even social media marketing material. We do kind of everything. So, yes, I am in the outdoor niche, I am in the outdoor space, but these are all best practices that could be utilized by any of your listeners to kind of up their brand.
Speaker 1: 2:09
Absolutely. And then so you are the owner of what they call C4 Media Production, and so, but tell me, how'd you get into this, like, how'd you decide this is what I need to do?
Speaker 2: 2:20
Well, I was working at a manufacturing plant, and working a nine-to-five job, and inside of that manufacturing plant you come in every day to work. There's no windows, and I never got to see the outdoors, and so, as an avid outdoorsman, it was driving me insane. I used to listen to podcasts and everything else just about the outdoor industry, and I always knew that I wanted to be in the outdoor industry in some way, shape or form. I didn't know at the time that it would be through media production or through video production, I had no clue. I just knew that I wanted to be in an industry that I was very passionate about, which was the outdoor industry, and so, as a side job, I picked up a job working for a local bass fishing tournament trail.
Speaker 2: 3:11
I wasn't doing any media for them, but I was helping them set up for these tournaments, and one day they asked me. They said, hey, do you want to fly a drone for us? And I said, yeah, I'd love to do that, and so that kind of sparked an idea in my head that we have an untapped resource that's right here in East Texas, which is Lake Sam Raeburn. The fishing industry, the hunting industry, the outdoor industry as a whole, and I was looking for people that were in the video space, in the content creation space, and there was really nobody there. So I knew that that was a void that I could fill.
Speaker 1: 3:52
Yeah, yeah, okay. So you know, one of the things that we were kind of chatting about was we were getting the podcast set up is. You know, you've worked with some what which I call it East Texas famous, but you know we like Sam Lake. Sam Rayburn is one of the largest lakes. It's a very, very large lake. It's definitely the largest lake in East Texas.
Speaker 2: 4:10
It's the largest lake completely withinside of the state of Texas. Toledo Bend is technically bigger but it borders Louisiana, so completely within the state of Texas, Lake Sam Rayburn is the biggest.
Speaker 1: 4:22
Yes, so I know I have a lot of listeners that are like outdoor people. You know we live in the thick of outdoor life, like we live in the woods. Literally no matter where you live here, you live in the woods. But I love this idea that you saw an opportunity and it was in a niche and you learned kind of best practices for that. So then I mean you know, I know you from specifically when you know you had there was a famous athlete that kind of launched this promotion and then I really started noticing a lot of your work there. So tell me a lot of times like how important it was that the, the imagery and the way that you shot videos impacted, like how their brand stood out. Just you know how you kind of thought through that.
Speaker 2: 5:03
Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 2: 5:06
The brand that you're talking about is Brandon Belt Fishing and I was able to kind of get in with Brandon.
Speaker 2: 5:12
He's a former professional baseball player and he's a local guy.
Speaker 2: 5:17
I played against him in high school and so we knew each other, but I never really knew who he was or him on a personal level, and the tournament trail that I told you that I was working with on the side while I was at the manufacturing job, that kind of catapulted me and through my connections and my networking there, it connected me with Brandon. And so when he told me that he was trying to start up a tournament trail that he wanted to give back to the anglers but he also wanted to be able to scale and grow, that was when I said, hey look, I've got everything that you need here and we were able to sit down, go through strategies and go through kind of what he needed to do branding-wise and just social media content all the way up to we produced a nationally televised television show for him and put it on TV for everybody to see. There were so many different layers to his marketing strategy that we were able to help out with on the visual side with C4 Media.
Speaker 1: 6:25
Awesome. Well, do you think that maybe sometimes people like overanalyze this? I mean, I'm not a videographer. I'm the first thing to tell you that people need to hire a videographer, and I tell my home service contractors all the time. There is power in localized content. There is a lot of and I hate to say it again but power in like people seeing Brandon himself, so if he was going to promote this, this new tour, then he needed to be in a lot of the videography. So like overstaging it, like there's a fine line of making things appear very authentic, yet having some semblance of control on the back end, right, so you're out there trying to produce these things and I'm assuming it's this good balance of like we need to look natural, but also like let me kind of critique what's going on in the background.
Speaker 2: 7:12
Absolutely. I mean, it's a struggle a lot of times, and some of the times it's because the brand that I'm working with doesn't truly understand who they are. And that was kind of the case when Brandon came along he said, hey, these are my ideas, but really this is in the infancy and so help me out here. Let's kind of develop who we are as a brand, what we want our image and our brand to be, and so from that then we were kind of able to catapult his uh, his tournament trail and, like I said, we we took multiple different uh marketing strategies in order to do that. But yeah, as you mentioned, you know, the the fact of the matter is is that you have to understand who your brand is before really I can come in and help you.
Speaker 2: 8:07
And a lot of times what I've noticed is that I see brands or I see companies Let me back up, not brands companies that they have a great product, they have a great company.
Speaker 2: 8:23
They don't know who they are, they don't understand what their brand is, and so that's really tough for me to come in. I can make a high quality video for you, but it may not be on brand or it may not really represent who you are. And so I would say in that situation you need to get with somebody like a Lemon Seed Marketing or some kind of marketing firm that specializes in your field and really dive into the fact of who are we, because from there then we can really build the brand and start to get some traction. But if I go on your social media, if I see your commercial ads on TV or if I just see you in person and we're talking about your brand and you don't have an understanding of who you are, then I have a real hard time of connecting as the consumer to who your brand really is. You could be as authentic as they come, but if you don't have a true understanding of who you are, it's really tough to build on that brand and make you successful in the end.
Speaker 1: 9:31
Right, right, right. So you have to have a curated brand story. So I tell everybody this little story. You know, a logo is one thing, but a brand story is completely different, like a brand identity is completely different. I see very, very successful companies with terrible logos, but they tell a good story. And then I have seen companies have fantastic logos that are successful that also have a terrible brand story. And so you know it really. It really is a combination of all of those things about how you have to control the narrative of your brand, like marketing support teams, like videographers or even marketers marketers like LemonSeed, like the strategy side of our business. You know, we only have what you give us to work with.
Speaker 1: 10:12
And so the more you understand who you are, and I know some people listening are like, oh my gosh, like this is so new, so corny, and actually it's not. It's not, it is. It is very impactful for your overall success to understand Like, yes, you're going to make a great video, the quality of the video itself is going to be great, no matter what. But the content that you put in is where the differentiator comes into play. And so you know, home service companies or outdoor companies, whatever you know, everybody has a story, everybody has something cool to say. It's all a matter of curating it to where it's marketable and putting it out there correctly. So if I go to you and here's a difference, and I think you'll agree with me on this but if I were to go to you and say, hey, jared, this is my company, they, we have a mascot that's a ladybug. We do pest control. Our vibe is very, our vibe is very upbeat and energetic and we have this bell that rings in our jingle here's our jingle for the radio and we just want to like educate and entertain. We want to edutain our community. You're going to be like awesome. And so you.
Speaker 1: 11:22
I feel like you would immediately go look at my social media profiles. Go look at my website. Listen, can you send me that jingle? Then, when you come to record us, you already know like. This is the energy level, this is the vibe, and now it's going to be that much better, versus me saying yeah, jared, I got a hidden air conditioning company over here. It's called Bubba's AC, but my name's not Bubba. I bought the company. Can you come out here, make some videos you're like? Okay, sir, number one, you sound like you got dip in your mouth and he very well may have dip in his mouth and are you on a flat bottom boat right now?
Speaker 1: 11:59
right in the nature's river.
Speaker 2: 12:00
So and if so, maybe you need to get into the outdoor industry. But the the you're exactly correct. I mean, it is so tough for me when I come in and it happens all the time and I work with so many different levels or so many different tiers of companies, from, like I mentioned, everybody or every type of company, from just people who want to start a social media presence all the way up to a nationally televised television show, and so I've worked with everybody in between and what I've found is that the things that start to set people apart are their true understanding of what their brand is, and that's something that I can try to help you with and try to help you understand, and that's something that I can I can try to help you with and try to help you understand but you mentioned it just a minute ago that the authenticity is truly what attracts people, and especially in in the industry that I'm in, in the outdoor industry, the authenticity is what attracts people to you and to your brand, what sets you apart from everybody else that's doing it. You know, to your brand, what sets you apart from everybody else that's doing it. You know, and then, once you can understand that that's what I do a lot of times when I come in, I have to. As soon as I have a potential client, I want to sit down with them. I want to make sure that they're a good fit for me morally, that they're a good fit for me and my vision that I have for their project, because there may be somebody who works in a little different space that might be a better fit for them and they're probably a buddy of mine and I can refer him some work because I know that it's going to be so much better if he does it. But I want to sit down and just make sure that we're a good fit.
Speaker 2: 13:46
The hang up that I typically have with companies when I go and sit down with them is that I ask them the simple question One what is your brand? And you've said it a hundred times and I've listened to this podcast for years now and heard you say it it's not your logo. What is your story? And then the second thing that I ask them is what will make this project or this video a success in your eyes? And a lot of times they can't tell me.
Speaker 2: 14:19
What do you want to gain from having this video made? Is it just brand awareness? Is it that you want to see an ROI on your investment? An ROI on your investment? An ROI on your investment? So, whether that be time, money, whatever it is, whatever it is. So I mean, what do you want to accomplish with this video? A lot of times people come to me because they see other companies out there doing it, or other brands that are in the same space or medium that they're doing it, or other brands that are in the same space or medium that they're in and they're producing videos. So they just automatically assume, hey, we need a video. They don't have any understanding a lot of times of what type of video they need to be most successful and what they're trying to achieve in the greater picture.
Speaker 1: 15:07
Well, let me tell you you preach on Well, because it's just having this understanding and I know that again, I know they're tired of hearing me say it, but I wish I could just like fast forward five years in their life, into a contractor's life, and look at them and say, aren't you glad you started five years ago?
Speaker 1: 15:27
One of my clients that I've had literally since I first started and we've been in business almost five years started just met him through another contractor and I remember the first day he was like I don't know, everybody's telling me I should do it, let's just do it. And he's opinionated but he's also very trusting and he leaned into what Lemon Seed was offering as far as strategy and thoughts and listen, we're a new company too, so we were working on things. But he really leaned into like owning who he wanted to be known as and he got this mascot created this last year and he just gave away a new heating and air conditioning system and he took his mascot to the school Because I think the guy was like a school resource officer and the video will literally make you cry. But I more wanted to cry for my contractor because I was like man, he has waited. He has diligently built his brand for this moment because, all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: 16:24
He's always been a good technician, he's always ran a very solid, ethical, honest company, but now to see his diligence and his consistency pay off has been amazing. And it didn't matter if I was talking to a videographer, a strategist, a social media person. If you don't have any identity to yourself, like you're saying, we sure are not the answer, we're not a Band-A, for I really am trying to figure out who I am, you know as a company. And so that's great.
Speaker 2: 16:57
Well, and you hit on something that I just want to speak about shortly, and that's the fact of he took his time and he was patient with it.
Speaker 2: 17:07
There's so many times that people come to me because they just want a home run ball right Not to be cliche with the whole baseball thing, but I'm just saying that a lot of times people are expecting for one single video that I produce for them to completely change their entire company and their brand.
Speaker 2: 17:25
And I can give you a very high quality video. I can give you very high quality brand photos and everything else. But if you're not going to utilize them and be consistent with those, then there's not a lot that that video is going to accomplish with you, because people aren't going to go back to the one video I made for you two years ago and look at that one single video. So if you're not consistent with it and you don't truly invest into your marketing strategy and a lot of that for me is video for people then if you're not going to invest in it and take the time that's what that meeting with me is about. A lot of times I'll pass on a project like that because I don't want that client to turn around and tell someone else well, he made a video for me and nothing happened with it. It was no good. No, your marketing strategy wasn't any good. The video was great quality.
Speaker 1: 18:23
Yeah, that's right, Everything was great. And again, same thing happens on this side. I'll talk all the time and I'll say if your operations and your pricing and your strategy, all those things have to align.
Speaker 2: 18:36
Your sales team, everything.
Speaker 1: 18:38
I can make great content and have great ideas, but it's the execution that dog hunts both ways, absolutely. Also, marketers that take credit for a company's success. I'm like, listen, you are a part of the piece, but that owner, he had to drive the operations, he had to do the really hard boots on the ground work. Strategizing is one thing, but you're right, you're right on that. And another thing I'll point out too is a lot of us want to be considered high-end brands. We're not necessarily chasing after the low-budget guy. Many of us will take a wide range of clients, but for the most part, none of my clients are going after the low ball tire kicker guys that we say. We are definitely going after high-end clients. Well, when you use high-end vendors like C4 Media Productions, that gives you that high-end quality, it only reiterates the high-end that you are.
Speaker 1: 19:41
So, yes, I could go shoot the video on my phone. Would it get the job done? Yes, would it be second rate? Probably be second rate. Probably so. When you can afford to invest in quality things, it teaches our market that we are a quality company.
Speaker 2: 19:58
But ultimately, crystal, what it does is that it puts the perception out there of what you are right, and you and I both know that sometimes perception is reality, and I want to give an example of that. When I first started in this industry, the way that I began was through that, working the side job with the local fishing tournament. They let me fly the drone for them to get a little bit of marketing material for themselves. Fly the drone for them to get a little bit of marketing material for themselves. But one of their anglers came to him and he said hey, do you know anyone that has a drone that could come and film me for my YouTube channel? And so the owner, he didn't want to do it. So he contacted me and said hey, do you want to make a little side money? Borrow my drone and go make some money. And I said yeah. So he put me in contact with this guy drone and go make some money. And I said yeah. So he put me in contact with this guy and after talking for a little while, he said, hey, do you have a camera? And I said, yeah, I've got a camera, crystal, I didn't have a camera. He asked do you know how to edit. I said, yeah, I know how to edit. I didn't have a clue how to edit and so I bought a $10 light off of Amazon because I knew that filming in the dark and early mornings for hunting and fishing that I was going to need some sort of artificial light. It was a $10 light that took two AA batteries and I borrowed a camera from my mom and I went to film for this guy. I went to film for this guy.
Speaker 2: 21:28
While I was filming I think it was the second or the third time I had ever filmed I saw somebody at the boat ramp and this gentleman was the president and owner of a national lure company, a very big company, and I walked over to him and I said hi, I'm Jared Christmas and if you ever need any kind of video work done, I live here locally and I would love. I know that you have a bunch of anglers that are here around the Sam Rayburn area and I would love to shoot a video for you. He said, matter of fact, I do need some video content. Do you have a card? I padded my pockets like I actually owned a business card and I said I don't have one on me, but I know someone that has your email address. Would it be okay if I email you? He said yes, I worked with that national brand for years until and they were my first real client as far as a company and a brand that I had to work with.
Speaker 2: 22:31
I worked with them for years until another company bought them out who had their own media team. But the funniest part to me, crystal, is that later I think it was like two years later me and the owner were at an event and somebody said how do y'all know each other? He told the story of how he met me at the boat ramp that day and he said I knew when I saw that light on his camera that he was legit. He had no idea that that was a $10 light that I got off of Amazon and that was a borrowed camera and I had no idea what I was doing. Perception sometimes is reality, and so if you can perceive yourself as high quality, that's the kind of people that you're going to attract.
Speaker 1: 23:18
Oh gosh, I love that. Well, you know, imposter syndrome is a lot of things that people worry about, a lot, which I do have the pleasure of knowing, you and your wife and me and my husband both, you know we all have. We don't really lack in the confidence area, right Like. We all tend to have pretty good confidence. We're all talkative and loud and fun together. You know, we've kind of run in some similar circles and you know I've never struggled with that.
Speaker 1: 23:45
But one of the things when I opened Lemon Seed was kind of the same boat. Somebody would say, well, do you know this? And I would be like, yes, and I would immediately go home and read, read, read, read, read. And now when I say yes, I'm fully versed on all these things, but at the beginning I just couldn't know everything right. But I had to go at it with aggression and be confident and know that what we were trying to do was build up Lemon Seed for what we were good at, which was being creative, keeping the brand in front of the right audience and being strategic about where we placed our dollars.
Speaker 1: 24:18
I'll be honest, I'm not the best digital. I'm not a digital marketer, I'm not a direct mail company. My job is to make sure that your brand looks really good. And you know, again, we all lived and learned many, many lessons, and so I really, I I really appreciate that story, because it's very true. It's true for a lot of people here. They got handed a heating and air conditioning company, or handed a plumbing company or something along those lines, and so all right. Well, jared, just in case anybody here wants to like, I want to know more about what Jared does, or you know somebody. How do they get in contact with you?
Speaker 2: 24:53
Yeah, absolutely. So. The best way to contact me is either through our social medias you can see it there on the screen at C4MeteorPros or you can contact me at Jared J-A-R-R-O-D at C4MeteorProscom, and you can contact me that way. We also are. You can also contact us by calling the office here at 936-304-0707. And so those are just a few ways that you can get a hold of me. But, yeah, if there's anybody out there that you know, yes, I work within the, and I know that you say riches are in the niches, but if there's anybody out there that needs it, we also offer we took this project on in 2024 that we are expanding into the social media content creation space for retainer clients, and with that we've expanded outside of the outdoor industry, and so not only do we offer things for people within the outdoor industry, but any of your listeners too. We can help them out.
Speaker 1: 26:00
Awesome, I love it. Ok, all right. Well, guys, I don't know about you guys, but I like to say that Jared learned something from me, but I think he already had a very good foundation here on on brand, and I have seen his work. He does a phenomenal job, he has a precious family and so, jared, thank you so much for taking time to meet with me today. I do want to remind you how important it is for you to have a solid brand story and also a great logo, but that brand story and why you are who you are, is so important. So, thank you so much for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. If you have loved what you heard, I would love to have some good reviews. Share us on social media. You know, just hook a girl up and let us know if there's something that we're missing that you'd love to hear. If not, thanks for sipping lemonade. We'll see you next time.
