Ep. 44 - From Scenes to Screens Mike Davello's Photographic Journey

Ever wondered how a photographer captures the charisma of celebrities and the allure of iconic brands like Nordstrom and Verizon? Get ready for an eye-opening conversation with Mike Davello, a man whose lens has seen it all. We share a taste of Lot B bourbon while learning how Buffalo Trace played a pivotal role in Mike's whiskey journey. Laughter flows as freely as the drinks, with anecdotes about Mike's love for gin and tales of his hectic yet colorful life behind the camera.

Our discussion meanders through Bentonville's bustling creative scene, where Mike and other visionaries have found fertile ground for their artistic ventures. Discover how Bentonville Creative has grown from snapping home renovations to staging impressive commercials, combining nostalgic flair with modern creativity. Stories of encounters with personalities like Chip, Joe, Dave, and Jenny serve up a delightful mix of nostalgia and innovation, where community connections are as valuable as the art itself.

As we wrap up, the entrepreneurial spirit of Bentonville takes center stage. From strategic business decisions in a fluctuating market to the collaborative energy found at Bentonville Creative, we celebrate the magic of building brands through compelling imagery. With exciting plans for the B-Team Podcast's upcoming season, we're buzzing with anticipation and an eagerness to create something extraordinary. So, pour yourself a drink, settle in, and join us as we revel in camaraderie, creativity, and the craft of storytelling.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:11

Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Safran, with my co-host, matt Morris and our permanent guest Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business. The B-Team Podcast. Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, josh Safran, with my permanent guest Rob Nelson and our co-host Matt Morris, and we're here every Thursday for all things business, bentonville and bourbon. And today we have Mike DeVelo in.

Speaker 2 0:40

That's right and what's up the one and only Yep One, and only that's it. Actually, I'm the second. Your hair's getting long.

Speaker 3 0:47

Yeah, it looks good. Yeah, you look for you.

Speaker 2 0:50

The last time I had a cut was at the gents place Shout out to you yeah. And I just haven't been back. Having that time, having that time, and it's been. It's now to let it out a little bit. You're so busy, yeah, busy, and just lazy.

Speaker 1 1:06

Well, let's just say you're busy. Busy, let's just say busy, because you're like the photographer of the stars. I am, yeah, and Matt, and.

Speaker 2 1:13

Matt yeah the stars and Matt. Yes.

Speaker 1 1:17

And mainly, I'm the king of the B-listers. We were on the B-team podcast, so it's perfect yeah.

Speaker 3 1:21

Yeah, like we cause. We were like, you know, we should try to get a photographer and we looked at a couple, a list ones, and I was like you know we should go with the B list. We're the B team.

Speaker 2 1:31

Yeah, we're grounded Grounds of more. You know we've been beat up a little bit yeah.

Speaker 3 1:37

But I did bring some lot B for all of us.

Speaker 1 1:41

I have a question for you.

Speaker 3 1:43

Is that not what I'm drinking. Oh, did you already get some too? I got some here too.

Speaker 1 1:48

But I have a question Are we sure, knowing your house, is it sure that's a?

Speaker 3 1:50

lot B. This was never at Bobby's house and it didn't sit in my car for three weeks in 110 degrees I just want to make sure that's not Yellowstone, because he bought another bottle and he left it in there and it blew open because it got so hot in there. But that was in the rental car, so it was fine. It's fine. Yeah, rentals. So I'm going to give you guys a generous pour.

Speaker 3 2:13

Well, I mean, if that was at Bobby's house, it wouldn't be here right now. It would still be there. He would have refilled it with some Yellowstone.

Speaker 1 2:25

There we go. There it is Cheers. Well, that's a good pour for our guests, yeah.

Speaker 2 2:30

Thanks, cheers, thank you for your generosity, matt.

Speaker 1 2:33

I mean it's the season?

Speaker 3 2:34

It is the season, yeah, that smells so good.

Speaker 2 2:41

It's good. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, much different.

Speaker 1 2:44

Smooth, yeah, yeah, in it's good. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, much different. Smooth, yeah, yeah, yeah, not the heat, not, not, no, what's the proof on this thing?

Speaker 3 2:50

I think it's like around 88 or 90 or see it's I like so well on, what's crazy is you know, some of this expensive stuff? 90.4. You, you try to, you know, you you wait all this time and you you hunt and find one and then you don't like it. Yeah, but this is one of those that you try and then you wish you had 10 well, we were talking a bit earlier that um, my gateway whiskey was buffalo trace that's a good one shout out to sazerac yeah, yeah, right well, yeah, all of it, and and uh, I'll tell you, I, because before that I had friends pour me very nice bottles of glasses of whiskey.

Speaker 2 3:29

I couldn't, I, I was not doing it justice, I couldn't. It didn't taste like it, didn't. They were enjoying it and I was like, yes, what is this? And that was my gateway. And now flavors have opened up, but only on the lower proof site, the ones that are heavier proof. I don't have the palate yet for that much.

Speaker 3 3:45

You got to do that. Kentucky Chew. Yeah, you like to swish it around on your mouth.

Speaker 1 3:50

Shout out to Russ yeah, I mean, he's not here today, so I got to you know, gee, all right yeah, once you do that, chew you can help you with the higher, the crushed vanilla and all the stuff you gotta get your salad ready for it.

Speaker 2 4:13

Okay, stewed bananas. Yeah, I miss rest. We're still missing. Us got to wrestle the stewed bananas. Yeah, but yeah. But now I'm catching up. Yeah, so now I'm, I'm, now I'm 50, 50 gin and whiskey like gin too, because I'm. I'm an avid gin drinker, not that I'm my alcoholic, but you know I enjoy it.

Speaker 1 4:23

We're all alcohol. If you're drinking gin and you're a cheerio, then there's a problem.

Speaker 2 4:27

Yes, Then there's a problem? No, I'm an aviation botanist. With gin, then towards the end of the evening, a splash of tonic, you know.

Speaker 1 4:38

So, mike, you are a photographer, I'm a photographer.

Speaker 2 4:41

So tell us about. I'm a photographer, so tell us about. I've been a photographer my whole life. I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of brands all over the nation, and you know, to name a few, I've worked with Nordstrom, mcdonald's, medtronic, verizon, hold on.

Speaker 1 4:57

McDonald's. Are you a McRib fan?

Speaker 2 4:59

No, In all honesty, I hadn't had McDonald's in a very, very long time and, uh, recently, just because there's not a lot around, I tried it again and I was able to keep it in on all sides and so, and so I thought so I kind of frequent it now.

Speaker 3 5:26

Yeah, yeah, it's not turned into a to a weekly thing Maybe you're definitely weekly thing Maybe? Yes, it is Well. They've kind of turned into like a breakfast place, I think, for most people.

Speaker 1 5:35

Oh yeah, yes, I think that's. That's their breakfast.

Speaker 3 5:40

I think you know it's more that hash brown.

Speaker 2 5:43

You know it's well that hash brown. You know it just coats your innards so well and it lubes it up.

Speaker 3 5:47

Oh yeah, it sets you up. It sets you up for that that's that, and some coffee and it's like we are digressing so quickly.

Speaker 2 5:56

Rob gets really he gets like he doesn't like it, doesn't like it.

Speaker 3 6:00

Yeah, really sorry about that, I'm great.

Speaker 1 6:02

Okay, let's go back so let's get back photography for.

Speaker 2 6:05

McDonald's. What does that mean? I've done campaigns like the McCafe campaign. I've done some work with that campaign, where you know the photos of.

Speaker 3 6:13

I thought it was just like you and Ronald McDonald.

Speaker 2 6:15

That is also that happens. That's off record. Yeah, that was that happened in the 90s. It's fine. But you know, uh, we just, you know, do a bunch of plates they call it a plate when it's several different photographs put together um, but we would do multiple different plates of, uh, whipped cream and then the product, and then the cup or the glass or the whatever. Um, yeah, we went through a whole series like that with them and uh, um. But I guess, telling you earlier, the last 10 years I have been, I somehow I've gotten into this hgtv world and I've done a lot of work with a lot of hgtv personalities, um, you know one in particular very well, um anyone.

Speaker 1 6:54

That's your favorite. I mean it's, and it's okay.

Speaker 2 6:56

Not everybody's gonna see this episode no, I I will say, and not because we're here, but uh yeah, dave and jenny are, hands down, probably the most transparent, true fun, down-to-earth people I've ever worked that's what not what you said when we were off air. I know, but this is on air so yeah yeah. Yeah, it was colorful back then, but now it's no, they're, they're fantastic.

Business Ventures and Personal Stories

Speaker 2 7:22

Um, yeah, I've been really lucky. I think, uh, pioneer women the drummond family was really wonderful to work with. Uh, it was probably one of my most memorable shoots with them. Um, yeah, they've all been really good. I haven't had, uh, too many personalities that were and when you do say shoots like.

Speaker 1 7:38

So for dave and jenny, are you photography of the homes of them all the above?

Speaker 2 7:44

I think at them, all the above, I think at this point, all the above we call them afters or stills afterwards reveals. I will go in and I'll photograph the properties after they're done, and those photos are used for multiple different things, from blogs to resources for vendors to use to promote their work. It's like a spider web of things that those photos are used for. But I mean up in. Recently I started to get into producing because there was a need for it here in Bentonville to have a production house, and my studio is big enough to be able to build a set to be able to produce a broadcast commercial from, and so in the last six months I've done a handful of larger scale broadcast commercials. That's awesome, yeah, which has been great, and they're ongoing, they're continuing, so it's been fantastic.

Speaker 1 8:36

My wife is not easily impressed, other than the fact that she married me, which is very impressive. But she said we're opening another business and she goes. We have to have Mike come in. We need him to do photographs of our new location. He's amazing.

Speaker 2 8:51

If I could hit him up for it.

Speaker 1 8:52

Yeah, hit me up for it. We were not quite McDonald's in Nordstrom, Right right right, but she was back. She was very impressed and listen.

Speaker 2 8:58

In all transparency, nordstrom was not like me working with like Pete and Orson back in the day. This is just me hitting up the Montclair Plaza in California to do glamour makeover day with mom and daughter, mm-hmm. So this wasn't like a magazine spreads, but it was just. I was 18, 19 years old and just hustling it and just trying to get business.

Speaker 3 9:17

Yeah, yeah, I interrupted your question. Well, I was just gonna say we didn't, we didn't, we never even said the name of your business, we just said you. You have literally the coolest logo, his business logo.

Speaker 2 9:29

I love it, it's Bentonville Creative. I am a huge, I grew up in the 70s and 80s. Shout out yeah, and so a lot of my studio and my branding kind of hovers around that era and I will say I really do wish that our culture would turn back to that a little bit. I think kids nowadays need more arcade time. You know, line the quarters up and play with your friends. We need that and we don't have that and flashbacks yeah, little galaga, have you been to flashback?

Speaker 2 10:01

I have. Okay, that's cool. I'm talking bigger scale, like you know. But yes, it's so nice to be able to stand out and play a video game. Yeah, you know Galaga and all this stuff. I'm trying to find me a joust machine.

Speaker 3 10:10

Oh yeah, like an authentic joust not the one that plays 75 games. I've got to even work to find that shirt and that coat. I love that coat too. You like this? Yeah, it reminds me of, uh, the, the outfits that they like. You need to go to abspin or something I'm concerned like what's going on yeah I was telling my wife that I I'm trying to that smell.

Speaker 3 10:31

It's kind of coming out of the shirt, so I'm like I'm trying to push it down. I think it's a little. Here's the. I think you got a little moldy, that's beautiful. Yeah, it's got like that 70s feel that 70 shows feel yeah, exactly right that's awesome. Did you bring some of?

Speaker 2 10:45

those shirts for us? I'll get you some. Yes, I didn't have the supply on hand, but I am getting hats made with patches Super cool. Yeah, make sure those go around to you guys. Do you have employees or are you a one man show? I'm a one man show. I do have some people that I call on a lot. I have a gentleman that works inside my studio. He's a fantastic camera operator and editor. I kind of lean on him a lot for stuff. He's been a valuable resource. I don't I didn't know anybody in town, and being able to call one person that's been there his whole life pretty much and can hire a bunch of people in my behalf and and bring together a good crew, that's been great. He really helped me kind of get the ball rolling and now I feel like I'm pretty well rooted and I and now I can kind of do things on my own.

Speaker 1 11:32

But, um, yeah, and you moved here recently for the show or what was the impetus, I moved well, I originally uh, la, then to waco.

Speaker 2 11:41

I worked a lot with chip and joe, and then, um, shout out yeah, chip and Joe, they're good people, this is a small world. But I was doing a campaign with a company called Lalloy Rugs. I met a girl there who was a photographer. Somebody here locally reached out to her to do a wall bar campaign with dave and jenny and they they're abandoned with this too much. And they said call mike, he can probably help you out. And so that's cool. They reached out to me and, um, next thing, you know, I'm on the phone with this marketing firm. Uh, dave and jenny, and I've got calls with walmart and a bunch of things that are going on and um, and that's how this whole thing started.

Speaker 2 12:25

It was a really random thing and I've never been to Bentonville previously. I've never been to Bentonville before that phone call Never. And then, when I started coming out to Bentonville to work with Dave and Jenny on some things, I fell in love with it. It's a fantastic town. It's like no one ever. It's so good, because Bentonville my gosh, I never thought in a million years, just this kid from LA to Waco. Well, waco's, no offense Waco. I'm not a fan of Waco.

Speaker 1 12:54

No offense, waco without Bentonville.

Speaker 2 12:55

Yeah, no, not even close, but it's, it feels home here. It's great. You have all the amenities of a big town, big city, but in a small town it's fantastic.

Speaker 3 13:10

I love it here. Yeah, you have the amenities without the problems. Most of the problem, yes, that's right, don't?

Speaker 1 13:14

yeah, and we're fortunate for now yeah, for now infrastructure, go back to that story so that you get the call.

Speaker 2 13:19

So I get the call and then, um, yeah, next thing you know I'm coming out um often uh, to photograph afters, photograph product in spaces for them so they can be used on different platforms. And then I did that for a couple of years. At that point I did leave Dallas, I did leave Waco and I was now living in Dallas, so the drive wasn't too bad and we were on set one day and there was a chatter about Dave and Jenny opened up a mercantile and my wife, uh, primarily managed me, helped me with all my stuff shocking, can you tell?

Business Ventures and Networking in Bentonville

Speaker 2 13:54

can you tell, yeah, um, I was just joking to jenny saying we should just hire my wife. She'll uh she'll do a great job with the mercantile. And jenny looks at me and goes done, let's do that. Best interview yeah.

Speaker 3 14:06

How did you sell it to Brynn?

Speaker 2 14:09

Well, brynn grew up in a family that owned a couple of retail stores in downtown Redlands and they did a lot of volume and she you know they would say when she was a baby they'd put her in a drawer, you know, and keep her there at the retail store. So she grew up in that environment of retail, small business but large volume, and she's really, really good at it and so she's like this is fantastic, sign me up, let's do it. And that was the catalyst for bringing me to Bentonville, now that my wife who I suffer now because I, you know, I'm without someone that you know does the, you know, collecting the invoices and writing emails, and I have to do all that on my own now but, um, he's adulting.

Speaker 2 14:59

Yeah, adult really sucks.

Speaker 1 15:02

He's an admin.

Speaker 2 15:03

I do, I do. Josh is good at it yeah, have an admin, you're the admin.

Speaker 1 15:09

Somehow it's like herding cats with these two, oh wow. I'm only the permanent guest, so I heard that my responsibilities are down here you have a host, you can only have one co-host. Right, we had to give him a job and we called him the permanent guest, because we're not sure if he's going to come back, like the band leader or like the, you know the guy behind the piano that interacts.

Speaker 2 15:31

He's like the court jester, court gesture that's sad that's, and these two.

Speaker 3 15:40

They fight all the time, and matt loves it, though, because he'll go and stir it oh, he's he'll just stoke the fire and then I just sit back and eat popcorn, because Matt doesn't like conflict. Wow.

Speaker 1 15:54

But he just likes to throw the grenade at me.

Speaker 2 15:57

Incredible. So, anyway, that's why now I'm here. But I'm also, as you probably know, I'm an accidental flipper. So my wife and I have flipped nine homes in the course of 10 years. We always just fall in love with something and then we renovate it. Sometimes we tear every wall down, we re-bulled it and then we go oh it's worth this much, you know, we're not emotionally attached to it anymore, let's sell it. And so the accidental flippers.

Speaker 2 16:25

And so when we moved from we moved from Dallas sold that property, didn't want to reinvest in Dallas because Dallas was bloated, people were paying stupid money over asking, so we had to reinvest into a town that wasn't bloated yet, which was back to Waco. So we put all of our money back in this property in Waco. We renovated and then, when the opportunity came where we would move to Bentonville, interest rates went up substantially and we sold our property. Instead of buying into a new home here with higher interest rates, I decided to take that money and reinvest it into my business. Yeah, and hence that's where Bentonville Creative came from. Yeah, of course I bought a boat and some land. Who'd be kidding? Yeah, I did buy some stuff. Maybe a dune buggy, maybe a dune buggy.

Speaker 1 17:09

Yes, so outside of Dave and Jenny here locally, what other client base do you have in town, anything you could share or who you're working with?

Speaker 2 17:15

Oh no, I've done some work for Bike Rack Brewery. I've done some work for the Waltons. I've done some work for Walmart Sam's Club, so it's hard. This town has got deep roots of people they've worked with for a long time, and I'm a new kid in town that I'm 50 years old.

Speaker 1 17:32

But you got a great brand recognition, like when you when you could pull out your resume of who you worked with you talk to a Walmart, it's like, wow, I want to work with this guy, that's true, and I'm starting to get some.

Speaker 2 17:41

I'm starting to make headway, people are starting to, so I am getting clients where I'm getting more diversified, because, having one client base, I love Dave and Jenny with all my heart, but you do need to be diversified, without a doubt, and so so what's like a perfect client for you, like someone who's watching this that owns a business or is in the corporate world, or whatever like what?

Speaker 3 18:03

what do you look for?

Speaker 2 18:05

I look for some, some company that I can help them build their brand. Right now, imagery is everything. Through social media, all these platforms, you need imagery. You need short videos.

Speaker 3 18:17

These two people right here. You need to start working for.

Portrait Photography and Natural Expressions

Speaker 2 18:19

That's what I'm saying. I'm not sure if I've asked you.

Speaker 1 18:23

Well, yeah, Well. And here's the thing yeah, I have a 2% discount for the podcast.

Speaker 2 18:28

So here's the thing, it thing, my prices always adjust. I'm not cheap. Who are we kidding? I do accommodate for budgets because I want locals, I want community to grow. If someone has a great brand, they just can't seem to figure out a budget to make their brand elevate. Let's talk because I'm okay with that, just because I have you know I seem to be very expensive.

Speaker 1 18:55

I also work with clients that I can grow something together with but I think there's something to be said for expensive, because you're paying for premium, right, and so if you have somebody like yourself and then you start price shopping around, you go, this is where you're at and this is where this other person's at. And then you start price shopping around and you go well, this is where you're at and this is where this other person's at. And then you start to look and you go Well, you always get what you pay for.

Speaker 3 19:12

Yeah, especially with that, with his kind of stuff, I mean it's a true talent and that's across all. I mean, give me a camera and I try to do the same thing you do, and it'd be like I'm not sure you're going to take the lens off. Probably not. Maybe just tap it really hard, tap it, it comes off. Eventually. I'd be taking pictures with it.

Speaker 2 19:33

I'd be like man pictures came out so dark, and that's you know. That's true with any industry you you work in, whether you're a, whether you're a framer or a drywall guy. You know you pay for what you get. That's right you really do. And so and people always say like, well, for me, I'm pretty fast at what I do Because I've been doing it a long time. I've worked out all the errors in my way. I screwed up a lot to get where I'm at, and so the people they look at you're so fast. How are you so expensive? It's because you're paying for my experience, my talent, my eye, my vision.

Speaker 3 20:06

So do you take pictures and then it stops there, or do you take it?

Speaker 2 20:13

done that. Yet there's a couple of social media accounts that I do run with imagery that I've already taken or established or I take new for. But no, that's something that I would love, obviously for me, I would love to create a filing cabinet full of assets for a company to pull from to use for whatever they need, whether it's website use for whatever they need, whether it's website social feeds, um marketing, magazines, whatever and I my entire life, I have never nickel and dime anybody. I have never had this like back-end pricing, where you get one thing and then down the road it expires, or down there trust me, because that happens yeah, it does your business, it does business, it does.

Speaker 2 20:57

And a lot of businesses, a lot of businesses. Images expire after a year or the modeling agencies expire their talent after a year, so you have to reshoot a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 3 21:04

I get that with modeling. I get that a lot. Oh, sure you do Like after a year.

Speaker 1 21:12

You gotta pay me your soft light that was something.

Speaker 3 21:14

Those were some tough times. It was sexy though.

Speaker 2 21:17

Charred for food on the table. The chest hair really made it shine. Yeah, oh boy.

Speaker 1 21:22

And we're off. Let's keep it on. It's not sitting on, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 21:29

We weren't going to talk about that. That's B-Team After Dark. That's right. Sexy. Yeah, that's really sexy. That's really sexy. That's when you've got to get that low voice and you've got to slow it down. Mars low voice. I'll check it. We get Josh embarrassed over there.

Speaker 1 21:48

Oh, I'm just thinking about you with your chest hair.

Speaker 3 21:51

That's when you just do a little. You know our viewers a little bit here.

Speaker 2 21:55

I've got the visual already. It's exciting.

Speaker 3 21:59

See, he's got an eye. I mean it'll go through the roof. I've got the visual already. It's exciting. Yeah, See, he's got an eye. I mean he already knows what he's going to look at. Oh yeah, I got it and he's leaving the room, Hair and all.

Speaker 2 22:11

Do you do portraits people? I do so. My background is portrait photography and interior commercial photography.

Speaker 1 22:19

So let me ask you a question, and I struggle with this. When you're taking the holiday photos of the family, how do you get them to smile? If you were to ask Bobby here to model and do a photo shoot, what's the trick to get somebody in their natural state? That?

Speaker 2 22:34

is a great question. Give them a bourbon Bourbon. So what I do? I don't do a whole lot of family photos. There's a whole niche for that and I fell out of that for a long time. But when I do a portrait of somebody, what I will do is I will talk to them and I'll be at somewhat of a distance and I will start to talk to them about family, children, their life, Like, let's do it with Bob, let's do it with Bob.

Speaker 3 23:00

I think you should do it with Matt, because you guys are, we're all, because the camera won't work, it's all be off my deal, Like you guys are lying.

Speaker 2 23:09

Let's hold hands, josh. I'm going to hurt you. But I ask about family, like you know, like, uh, tell me about your wife, or tell me about your kids. You know what are they in, they encourage and then. And then they will interact and they will say things like all right, someone's gonna get hit, but I will see. I will start to see their, their body language change, because they're talking about yeah and during those moments I actually have my.

Speaker 2 23:35

my trigger to my camera is off camera. Oh, that's smart. So I'm talking to them as they're talking to me. I will then take the photo and I will get them in their natural state. Oh, that is so cool. So nothing's really. It's semi-posed. I'll tell them where to move their body, how to move their face or chin, but when it comes to their actual, the way they look and their feelings that just comes from my conversation with them also about your wife, I mean.

Speaker 3 24:00

I I think, well, she's amazing. Yes, right, she is um but you know, I'm more than that. You'd yeah, yeah, like she's the woman of my dreams. He's trying to get. He's trying to get you in your natural state. Yes, I mean, I, I think we should have a session.

Speaker 2 24:19

He's trying to change the subject, come on.

Speaker 3 24:21

I think we should have a session for the three of us yes do it Calm down.

Speaker 1 24:24

I would love that Updated photos. He's very expensive. No.

Speaker 2 24:28

I think he's going to do it. My treat, my treat we're going to bring some bird. Maybe we do like an in-deep thought kind of. Thing.

Speaker 3 24:36

Yes, in deep thought kind of.

Speaker 2 24:39

Yes, you know kind of you're like I put josh in the headlock, we'll sexy, I'll sexy it up with some lighting, some dramatic lights and smoke make bad.

Speaker 3 24:43

I look like machine little chest hair well, I'm sorry, chester, I can wear my jorts yeah, we want to do a summer photo shoot, or what are we talking?

Speaker 2 24:52

I mean it's winter. I think we do like a white, a white, uh sports coat with the sleeves rolled up With the chest out.

Speaker 1 25:00

I feel like B-Team Season 2 premiere kickoff photo shoot.

Speaker 2 25:05

Let's line that up, we'll get it on the calendar.

Speaker 3 25:11

We'll get that on the calendar.

Speaker 1 25:12

We'll call him tomorrow and he'll be like, yeah, the calendar is full, don't call us, we'll call you.

Speaker 3 25:19

I'm going to look at some dates and I'll get back with you guys, you're going to die.

Speaker 1 25:23

No, let's do it. That'd be fun. David, Jenny are really busy. Yeah, they really are.

Speaker 2 25:27

They're scheduled all over the place, all right.

Speaker 3 25:31

So there's a rumor out there Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's just a simple you know you could deny it or, you know, confirm it. Yes, go ahead that you've been asked to do some photo shoots for Taylor Swift.

Speaker 2 25:43

No, no, no, we'll squash that. Yeah, only if Kelsey and them stay together, I'll shoot their wedding, got it? Yeah, is that true? This is funny and I'm going to want to rob some money here because of my wife. You don't have to go there.

Speaker 1 26:01

No.

Speaker 2 26:01

We're just going to leave it at that, he's fine. It's a funny story though. So you can't deny the fact that Kelsey and Taylor have a thing that's you know, got some popularity, and my wife fully believes that it's political and they're together politically there's no drinks involved during this whole yeah, very little. We weren't there yet, and so my wife was so confident that they will be broken up after the election, by the first of the year.

Speaker 3 26:36

Oh, Ooh, because if you saw, it.

Speaker 2 26:38

she kept saying that if Trump wins, or she was like trying to recruit all the votes. Anyway, he took the bet and sure as heck it's going to be my wallet it comes out of.

Speaker 3 26:53

So what you're saying is Rob's going to pay for our headshot.

Speaker 2 26:57

Yeah, that's it, that's it. I'll donate, a little bit for our headshot. Yeah, that's it, that's it. I'll donate a little bit of that dough back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shed that back to me, it'd be great.

Speaker 3 27:03

I'll bring a nice bottle of bourbon. Yeah, for the viewers. Rob keeps up on Taylor Swift a lot more. It's a little weird, he knows all the stuff going invested in?

Speaker 2 27:13

Yeah, but more. I am an adult man that is a bit of a Swifty, and my daughter my daughter is basically it's on all the time.

Speaker 3 27:22

Josh, can you sing? A little talent for us and it's so catchy. Yeah, I mean you were singing earlier.

Speaker 1 27:28

I'm a big singer. But what's a good Swifty song? I have no idea. You can go old school.

Speaker 2 27:32

Give us a little Swifty, Some from saying Mike no, God no.

Speaker 1 27:35

Neither can I but I just bailed out of creative 18?.

Speaker 3 27:37

Well, didn't she have a song about being 18? Or 10 years old?

Speaker 1 27:41

We're not talking about the women that you date. Oh dirty.

Speaker 2 27:48

I'll let you do it.

Speaker 3 27:49

Edit that out. He won't edit any of this.

Speaker 1 27:53

No, it's all this is gold.

Speaker 2 27:55

Any other scoop?

Speaker 3 27:58

We'll get the text message on the Sunday. Hey, I'm editing this video. I'm over here peeing my pants. He loves it. You wear a diaper when you do it. So lately he's had to because of me, you're walking again.

Speaker 1 28:15

We'll definitely have to edit this part out, how's?

Speaker 2 28:16

the bell.

Speaker 1 28:18

The bell's not the problem now. The problem is I can't get to the bathroom fast enough in the middle of the night. I have the little urinal next to my bed.

Speaker 3 28:25

She won't empty it anymore.

Speaker 2 28:28

Are you getting used to that? It's fantastic.

Speaker 1 28:30

Is that something I can give you? Is that what you said about this? Do you know how lazy that is?

Speaker 3 28:36

How do you know how lazy that is? Yes, hey, honey, empty my urinal. So disgusting. But you can't get to the bathroom fast enough in the middle of the night. Well, because I have to get the crutches, and I have to have the.

Speaker 1 28:44

It's a process.

Speaker 2 28:45

You can't hold it. It's a process.

Speaker 1 28:47

I can, but it's like if my wife's going to empty the urinal in the middle of the night.

Speaker 2 28:51

He's a cripp of pain you can't make that shit up.

Speaker 3 28:56

You can't edit that out.

Speaker 2 28:58

It's amazing. Now, do you have like the steel bowl, or do you have like the Just?

Speaker 1 29:01

a little plastic.

Speaker 2 29:02

That's so weird, why you're even curious about that. I'm trying to visualize him in the environment.

Speaker 3 29:07

It's a photographer. He's thinking about photo shooting. Oh, we'll do a photo shoot, we should do a photo shoot for Christmas and we take a picture of the urinal yeah, give it, give it to.

Speaker 1 29:18

Emily as a gift. Think about this right. I could see Mike in like three in the morning sitting in the corner of my room as I'm getting ready to pee.

Speaker 3 29:25

Yeah, gosh, tell me about your wife when I'm peeing in the thing.

Speaker 2 29:27

Yeah, we're having a real joke. Yeah, I don't think it would go straight.

Speaker 3 29:31

Yeah, if we start talking like Don't look me in the eyes while you're doing that, just look the other way.

Speaker 1 29:36

I need a solid stream, mike, bring us back, bring us back.

Speaker 3 29:39

All this is getting edited out.

Building a Creative Community in Bentonville

Speaker 1 29:42

Or not. Mike, bring us back. All right. What's in the horizon?

Speaker 2 29:45

for you, the horizon for me, other than filming me peeing, all right. So I would love to build community with all local talent of my kind, like photographers and artists and whatever, because in our industry there's this weird kind of people that do well, don't share how they've done well, they don't share their formula with anybody, because I don't know why. Maybe it's a fear of them hijacking that and then doing the business on their own or insecure, don't know what it is. But I would love to be able to create community where people can artists can get together, share ideas, work together, collaborate and grow the community. So working with other people in your industry yeah, I think that's.

Speaker 2 30:30

and with that said, um, bettenville creative will be open to the public very soon. Okay, so I will be. I will be allowing photographers, videographers, artists to occupy my space, to be creative and to do things on their own and to build brands. So recently I just enclosed 750 square feet of my studio. It's now a it's it's not soundproof, but it's pretty soundproof-ish Big steel door so people can go in there, and they can. I mean, what are we talking about?

Speaker 1 31:06

It feels like if Matt was going to get in there, he'd be like yeah, that's where he wants to go.

Speaker 2 31:09

That's where we do our shoot. In locks on the inside, no, but I'm going to make it open to artists and the public. Where's the location? It's off of southwest or southwestern too much this way by. It's right by in vaughn, right. It's right off on. It's on a southwest regional airport way to the airport, right by, perfect location. It actually is great because a lot of my clients that come in can just get out. You know, get right, get off the airport, right there, come on over. It's a mile and a half away. They can do what they need to do and they leave. So they just in and out. And my studio he has a helipad there too. I do right on top. You just fly over, you just fly right on top of it. Easy, of course, very cool. That's how Snoop comes to see me. Do you have any Snoop? But it's all really just paparazzi work that I've done with him. When he used to come into town I would Does he really smoke weed?

Speaker 2 32:03

Is there any truth to the rumor? None, very clean, clean weed Smells like bounce fabric softener. The guy shows up with a cheese puff, costco size bucket of wheat Whoa With a red cap. You know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 32:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2 32:26

And it's full of wheat, and he that's like Rolled already. No, no, it's just raw product. I'm not a weed smoker. I don't know, there's Dave Morris right there, no, but so but. But yeah, it's massive and uh, but he rolls them in this like almond paper, so the smell is not horrific, it smells pleasant. So he doesn't doesn't reek of the typical marijuana skunk smell that people talk about. Um, but no, I've, I've, uh, I skunky almond. That skunky almond almond overpowers a little bit, though yeah, it's not not as bad. I was definitely high, though um contact doc in the room. Oh yeah, it was hard not to I saw him.

Speaker 1 33:11

I was at the ledger for a meeting and he was in the next room over and I was like I think that's snoop. Yeah, looking in the meeting room.

Speaker 2 33:17

Yeah, the whole room is a cloud of I was, I was in that room. Oh, I was like yeah, you just couldn't see it.

Speaker 3 33:22

I was like, is he really the whole room?

Speaker 1 33:25

was all around his back hot box room, the whole room was bad during the meeting.

Speaker 2 33:28

Yeah, yeah, well, they have they have a conference room. It was a conference room table, there's a little kitchenette and little lounge area, but, um, they had those filters cranking like crazy. But yeah, that was, that was it. I mean, I was.

Speaker 1 33:40

I was definitely, uh, not walking straight out of there, that's for sure so leave us with a, without naming names, because you work with a lot of celebrities. Give us a funny story, good story, something that you go. You would not believe this pg-13, and you don't have to tell us who it was. Just I mean particularly and jenny, don't tell us, because Matt will be upset, but tell us, give us a good something.

Speaker 2 34:03

Okay, I was with a personality, a handyman type of guy, and we were at a home doing a commercial. It was for a company, it was for a primer company and at the end of the shoot, like paint primer, paint primer, paint primer. At the end of the shoot, paint primer, paint primer, paint primer. At the end of the shoot, he thought it would be hilarious to take the gallon of paint and throw it in my direction, landing on your gear, gear, you every, it's primer. It's not coming off. So that was really funny to him.

Speaker 1 34:35

Funny part. Yeah, where's the funny part?

Speaker 2 34:37

yeah and we got an invoice for everything else, but no, but, um, that was a, it was. It was a very fun experience. That was, yeah, fun for him for him.

Speaker 2 34:47

Yes, sounds like something josh would do. Yeah, but, but, but I'll tell you, I'll leave you with a memorable like yeah, you're right, that's cool, I'll leave you with a memorable one. Yeah, this was, this was my uh, uh, I was. I spent the weekend with Lad and the Drummond family, mm-hmm, and I spent one day being driven around the back of a pickup truck by Lad's father, who's no longer with us, watching their family corral their cattle. That's cool. From morning until night, him and their kids were working the land and you know he's he's, you know he's well-to-do and they have a lot of land, and to see someone that is that dedicated and that hardworking was just spectacular to watch and to see, and to see, you know, the dad's face or the rearview mirror looking back. It was just, it was. That was very memorable and very cool experience for me.

Speaker 1 35:39

Oh, that's super cool.

Speaker 2 35:40

Yeah, way cool, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 35:41

If, uh, if folks want to get in touch with you website, instagram, yeah, all the above uh, bentonville, creative is my website.

Collaborating on B Team Podcast Season

Speaker 2 35:47

You can reach me through there Um my personal, or less just my studio space. Ok, very close off that.

Speaker 1 36:04

And then dates for the B team, season two.

Speaker 2 36:07

Oh, that's going to happen, bobby work, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 36:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2 36:10

Have your team reach out to my team and we'll. Yeah, my team will call your team, we'll figure that out.

Speaker 3 36:14

I'll also call you. That means me. Yeah, I mean, it sounds cooler the other way. But basically you can call me.

Speaker 2 36:20

Yeah, we'll set it up. Maybe we'll do it in the next couple of weeks. I've got time That'll be good.

Speaker 3 36:24

Yeah, it'll be fun.

Speaker 1 36:25

Cheers. Thanks for coming in, cheers, great spending time with you, yeah.