A Pre-HGTV Home Show, Staying Ahead of Trends and Life on the Road

Katie Flynn: Welcome to the Flynn Effect podcast, where we dive deep into all things culture, industry news and history, all with the goal of helping our clients perform better. John Marianetti, welcome to the podcast.

John Marianetti: Thank you, Katie Flynn.

Katie Flynn: I’m so excited to have you. I thought we could take a little trip down memory lane if that’s okay with you.

John Marianetti: It’s a little different for me to be on this side of the camera, so be patient with me.

Katie Flynn: I hope the red light doesn’t make you too nervous.

John Marianetti: That makes me nervous all the time.

Katie Flynn: I bet it does.

John Marianetti: No matter what side of the camera you’re on.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, so you have been working at Flynn for, I think, over 20 years. Is that right?

John Marianetti: 21 years in April.

Katie Flynn: Okay, that’s amazing, first of all. But you’ve also been working alongside the Flynn, so Kevin and Chris, for even longer than that, right?

John Marianetti: Yeah, I was introduced to Kevin Flynn and Colleen probably in 1988, 89. When they came to a company that I was working for, called Telesis Productions, to pitch us if we were interested in helping them produce a show called Homestyles. And so it was, you know, I talk about it a lot is that, you know, now we have dedicated cable channels to this sort of content. But, you know, in the late 80s for this small advertising firm to create a show, a half an hour show that aired, I think, on Channel 8 at 4 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. Self-produced, not only the show, but all the commercial breaks in it. So it was a vehicle for them for their existing clients, but sometimes we had to create new spots to put in there. So they came to us with this idea that they wanted to do this Homestyles. And it was hosted by Colleen Flynn and Steve Hausman, legend in this community. And I remember them pitching us, and my boss was there at the time, and Kevin and Colleen left. And my boss said to me, “I’m not interested in this, but if you are, you can run with it.” And he said, “I don’t know if this is going to take off or not, but I don’t want to be the guy that said no.” So if it does. So you know, you seem to have a good relationship, and I think it would be great for you to do. And we did it. And I forget the exact numbers, four or six episodes they produced before they had to kind of pull the plug. And it was really kind of a sad thing because we had a ball. And never did we ever like roll our eyes or shake our head like, “What are we doing?” We were all in. All in. And we were giving them 110%, and we wanted it to succeed. But in the five or six months or whatever that we shot, we had a ball.

Katie Flynn: And to your point of it being ahead of its time, like I, Extreme Maker of a Home Edition is back. I don’t know if you know, but it’s with the home edit ladies, so they do all the organization. It’s amazing. I cry every single time.

John Marianetti: I see it.

Katie Flynn: I watch it. Yeah. And I think that pre-HGTV is what we’re talking about. And it was essentially going into homes in the Rochester area, correct? And touring them and speaking about the features?

John Marianetti: We would go to interesting homes, interesting architectural homes, the mushroom house at the Powder Mill Park, to a boat that this couple lived on, Lake Ontario. I think that was the last shoot we had. We all went out on this boat. It was summertime. I don’t remember shooting a whole lot, but we had a lot of fun on the boat because I think we knew that it was towards the end. But designers, window and door people talking about energy efficiency, architects, you name it, just how to paint, how to design. And so I remember being at RG&E, talking to people there. So they had a lot of guests lined up and it was, yeah, it was way before its time. And it was interesting.

Katie Flynn: I have this picture in my brain that I’m not sure if it’s, I have this picture of my aunt Colleen like turning around on a staircase, which I don’t know if I’ve just made this up.

John Marianetti: No, you didn’t make it up.

Katie Flynn: I must have seen it somewhere.

John Marianetti: You didn’t make it up. What I used to do to your aunt Colleen, because I was the shooter. I wasn’t even directing. I think we were kind of co-directing. It was Kevin, an associate that he had, he brought in on the project. But Colleen was the host. I was the director of photography, but I helped direct because I had to kind of work through the edit as well. And we just had fun. We helped each other. But I would do this every, every shot to your aunt Colleen and she fell for it every time. We say, “Colleen, can you just turn around? Just turn a little bit more, a little bit more.” Until she was completely facing the opposite way and you hear her voice go, “But you can’t see me.” And it never got old. It would laugh in. So, you know, it was pretty fun.

Katie Flynn: Oh, I love it. Yeah. She’s a riot. So I can only imagine.

John Marianetti: Yeah. Chris wasn’t involved as much because I believe he was still in college. And so every once in a while he would show up, but I didn’t really know him very well back then. It was just really Kevin and Colleen. But Chris was on camera talent at R.C. Shaheen talking about, you know, the price of paint. It’s pretty funny.

Katie Flynn: I love it. Well, yeah, let’s definitely dig some of that up. But to your point, you were working at a different company at that time and you’ve been with Flynn now for 21 years. So how did that come to be?

John Marianetti: To work at Flynn? Okay. So I was working at this place called Telus’ Productions. I left there in like 91. I worked seven years for myself. And Greatest Gig, you know, you work for yourself. It’s very rewarding. But I left there. I closed down my shop to work at Post Central. And at the time, in probably 94 when they opened, and I think I joined them in 97, they were there. And it was a post-production house. They had access to a film stage, audio music facility. But the Post Central team had all the edit facilities, computer graphics and all that kind of stuff, animation. So it was not unusual. You know, Post Central was named for a reason. Everybody worked there. So it wasn’t unusual to run into your competition. You run into your friends. And I would see Chris and Kevin. It would be, I’m editing in one room and they’re right next to our editing something else. After you see each other in the hallway, you see each other getting coffee, you talk. And so we always had this sort of mutual respect for each other. And I was there about seven years. And I got a phone call one time. It was in November of 2003. They came back from their retreat. And they had made a decision that they wanted to hire a full-time producer on staff. Okay. I’ve been at Post Central about seven years. I was brought on there to build that department. I was the director of client services. So I knew all the agencies. I knew all the producers. My job was to just generate work, review storyboards and scripts and help people get their jobs through the house. So we meet for coffee and it was nice because we hadn’t seen each other in a while. And they were saying, you know, we really feel like we’ve reached the point in our agency where we want to bring on somebody full-time. And of course, I’m taking notes and I’m thinking like, okay, so when we’re all done, I said, all right, well, let me, let me think about this. I’ll, I’ll think of some people maybe I can send you away. And, and, you know, hopefully it works out and I can find you somebody that would be a good fit. And Chris had, no, what do you, what are you talking about? We want you. Yeah. And I said, well, I have a job. Yeah. And I said, and I already had that job. I said, no, I don’t know. I’m, I’m not interested. And I really wasn’t. And so Chris kept coming around and coming around and we talked. And it’s not that I really, well, I didn’t really want the job, but I had so much respect for them. I go back to homestyles. They were innovators in 1994. I believe that was your Chris and Kevin invested in the first edit system. Nobody did that. Nobody did that. Yeah. But for the ability to be able to control the edit in-house, I know I sold at a time. I know what it’s like when you need more time. Right. We’re all behind closed doors going, ching, ching, and they’re going, oh my gosh, this is costing me money. So they brought it in-house and I thought, you know, there’s an, and they went from being the small little shop to having clients like Cooper vision, Harris interact or Harris RF communications. Xerox Xerox was my biggest client when I worked for myself. And I thought there’s something going on over there.

Katie Flynn: Yeah. That positive momentum.

John Marianetti: I, I feel like I have another opportunity to build a department that didn’t exist. And I can tell you this, if I was replacing a producer, I would not have come.

Katie Flynn: Sure.

John Marianetti: But to be able to bring what I know. And at the time I thought I know everything. And I clearly, I didn’t, but there was just something interesting about going, all right. I was a little bored at post central. The, the, the department was sort of running itself. I was very proud of it. And I thought, okay, I think I’m ready. Yeah. And so I came in April of 2004. So it took about four or five months. Um, yeah, Chris would come to my office and close my door.

Katie Flynn: Are you down?

John Marianetti: And yeah, he wore me down. Right. So, but it was good because we kept having conversations and I, and I thought, no, I want to be a part of this. So, um, but the reality hit in really quickly. Uh, we were working on projects here of budgets that I had never worked on before, especially early days with Dick’s boarding goods when we did everything for them. So that was a learning experience. Um, the travel involved, um, I. Went to post central because when I was worked for myself and prior to that, I traveled a lot. I have three little kids and I thought I really need a break. So seven years of being home. So my first day on the job here, I didn’t even report here. I flew to California and worked on a TV commercial with Robbie and creative director at the time. My one year anniversary, I was on an airport, on an airplane, flying to California to meet up with Chris. Yes. And I realized it was my anniversary date. I went back to my calendar and I realized I had traveled 90 days in one year, three months I was gone. So when Chris picked me up at the airport, I said to him, I was like, we have to talk.

Katie Flynn: Yeah.

John Marianetti: This has got to settle down a little bit.

Katie Flynn: Funny you say that too. Cause you know, when I was a kid, um, and there was a lot of production happening specifically in California, it was a thing for a couple of years where you guys would go kind of post up for a couple of months, but I think those years were full of some really fulfilling and amazing work. And so I’d be curious to know, like, I guess in, in the totality of the time you’ve been here, what’s your favorite stuff that you’ve worked on? And maybe some of it was during that time.

John Marianetti: Uh, some of it was during that time. Um, obviously, you know, the Dick’s Sporting Goods kind of built this place to a certain point. I really enjoyed that work. Uh, one at sports, it’s fun, golf, baseball, running. Uh, the locations were fun. It was a lot of work though. It was a ton of work, but fulfilling work. And I thought it was good work. And I was very proud of that because at that point we were the only agency production company, if you will, working for them. So everyone saw it. Everyone knew we did it. It was good. But I’m also extremely proud of the work that we’ve done for Canada, Gwen national bank, um, stuff we’ve done for Cooper vision back in the day. Uh, Xerox always near and dear to my heart. I mean, I built my company on Xerox. And, um, so we got to do some really good video work for Xerox. So it’s been great. It’s been really good. I think some of the work that we’ve done. It has taught me to work the same, whether I have $500,000 or $5,000. I can, we can do anything for anybody. Right. You know, if you kind of just discuss what the expectations are.

Katie Flynn: We scale our approach.

John Marianetti: Yeah. The work we’ve done with the insurance companies through, you know, mass mutual, John Hancock, you met life bank at the time. Um, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve built a wonderful network of resources. Um, I always feel ready if something comes at me to kind of go like, Oh, I think I’m gonna call them or whatever. So it’s been very, very, very fulfilling. That’s great.

Katie Flynn: Yeah. I got a glimpse into some of the bigger insurance stuff that we did. Yeah. When I first joined, you know, however many eight, eight-ish years ago. Um, and I loved that stuff. We were doing a ton of DRTV at the time, just direct marketing for them. Um, and you still like long format, lots of shots, lots of different concepts. Cause we were doing so much creative testing. Exactly. And I always thought that was so fun.

John Marianetti: Yeah. Yeah. It really was. It was a good time. It was the subject for the, for what it was for the subject matter. I think we made them very interesting. And again, I will take it back to Flynn, uh, that we sort of created. What I see a lot now. Yeah. And I don’t think, um, I don’t think it’s as good as the work that we were doing for them. I can see certain things where it’d be like, I would have never cast her. That’s the wrong kitchen for this demographic, right?

Katie Flynn: Well, right. It was very well thought through. I mean, every tiny detail was sort of not agonized over, but thought through in a big kind of way.

John Marianetti: You had to, because this was, you know, we were talking about final expense life insurance, we’re talking about, you know, people spending, you know, very little time to try to get something for that. And so, you know, we were shooting just outside the production zone of New York city and, um, you go, you go to these beautiful homes and I needed the room to work, but we needed to make the room small. Right. You know what I’m saying? You kind of compress the room. You put people in the corner, you kind of take this big, huge kitchen and you sort of make it a nice, modest kitchen and believable that these people live in this home, right down to the casting, right down to the wardrobe. And, um, that’s again, that’s the challenge. That’s what keeps it interesting.

Katie Flynn: Right. Right. Absolutely. Um,

John Marianetti: and they were good. They were very effective.

Katie Flynn: Oh, I think so too. You know, we all, we often talk about it and I, you mentioned Robbie McGee earlier. We talk about how that, that formula is something that a lot of other, you know, insurance companies follow now. Um, and I know we like to think our ourselves as a bit of a trendsetter in that space, but I think there’s some truth to it.

John Marianetti: There’s a lot of truth to it.

Katie Flynn: Pat us on the back for that one. Yeah.

John Marianetti: Yeah. And I, and I don’t think that Robbie will say like, you know, they took our spots, verbatim, that’s not true, but they definitely took that concept. Sure. They took that scenario. They took that backstory and tried to make something of it, but I don’t think as well as we did.

Katie Flynn: Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with you. Yeah. Um, in terms of any other, you know, memorable experiences in the last couple of decades, like anything fun that you would want to share from your time here. I can see you smirking. Are you going to tell a, do you have something on the TV?

John Marianetti: No, I spent a lot of time. No, I mean, I hit a ball. I, you know, it, it sound like I’m leaving.

Katie Flynn: Yeah. I was just going to say, do I not know something?

John Marianetti: No, no. Um, it’s been great. Chris was a wonderful, wonderful mentor. Uh, you know, he’s, um, Chris is Chris and we have a ton of laughs. We can just kind of finish each other’s sentences. Um, but he was great when I came here because again, like I said, I thought I knew everything. Like I’ve had that job. And I came here and went, Oh my God, I have no idea what I’m doing. I mean, in certain areas I’m like, this is bigger than anything I’ve ever worked on before.

Katie Flynn: A little imposter syndrome.

John Marianetti: Yeah, really. Oh, probably arrogant and cocky really. But he was just like, no, we’ll get through it, you know, and you learn it. And you kind of think, okay, well, this isn’t totally different. It’s just grander. Right. But we’ve had plenty of, um, great times. You know, when you work in production and you work with lots of people in close quarters for long periods of time, yeah. You there’s a lot of memories, a lot of laughs, a lot of good times, because you know, you’re kind of all shoulder to shoulder, you’re doing it, uh, together. And when you see the final results and you’re very proud of it, it’s exhausting. Uh, it can get a little contentious. There’s some tempers and, um, power struggles, but at the end of the day, you’re all kind of marching towards that one final goal of just delivering great work that your client is going to be proud of, but that we’re also going to be proud of as well.

Katie Flynn: Absolutely. Yeah. I think that’s great advice. Well, thank you, John. I really appreciate your time.

John Marianetti: Thank you, Katie.