In this episode, Katie Flynn talks with Executive Producer, John Marianetti, about what it really takes to run a profitable, people-first department. From managing margins without sacrificing morale to building financial fluency across the team, John shares his approach to balancing head and heart in leadership. They also discuss the art of building up your network, asking the right questions and picking the right person for the job.
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Katie Flynn: Welcome back to the podcast after a very long time. I think you may have been the second, second guest. And we started at the beginning of 2025 in January. So like what are, how many months are we in 10? I’m on, of course you’ve been behind the camera many a time. So you know what’s going on over here, but you’ve been a busy guy. What’s going on in your world?
John Marianetti: Well, we’ve been very busy, fortunately with some video work, a lot of travel, that sort of thing. So, uh, yeah, we’ve, we’ve got a lot of deadlines that’s getting towards the end of the year, everybody wanted work done before the end of the year.
Katie Flynn: So, uh, get those budgets used up,
John Marianetti: get those budgets used up. So we got a lot of calls in August and September, people came back from vacation saying, Oh my gosh, I have a lot of work to do and you’re just the person to do it. So, but it’s all, it’s all good. We love, we thrive on the, um, energy that comes with multiple deadlines.
Katie Flynn: Yes.
John Marianetti: Uh, well, I’d say multiple projects, very similar deadlines. That’s different, but yeah, it’s all good.
Katie Flynn: Yeah. I was just talking to a prospect yesterday and we were like, it’s so much better to be busy than bored, really, especially in the agency world. You get a little bit of time to yourself and you’re sort of like, what’s going on here? I’m either about to get a ton of work dropped on my lap, or I gotta go out and find something.
John Marianetti: Kevin and Chris always used to say, if you want something done, give it to somebody busy.
Katie Flynn: Yes. And I think that’s very, very true. Like if I have an entire day, like a whole Friday to just go pick up a prescription, I will not do it. But like five got 20 minutes at lunch. It’s getting done.
John Marianetti: Yeah.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Yeah. I can chip through a lot of stuff very quickly. I tell my wife, I should have been a farmer or a Marine. I can get more than done by nine o’clock in the morning. The most people do all day.
Katie Flynn: Sometimes you’re in early riser. Yeah. Well, good for you.
John Marianetti: Get a head start.
Katie Flynn: Love that for you. Well, all right. So lately we have been having conversations. I mean, as we’re speaking about like finding work and, you know, all of those types of things, about building your network and the importance of that in your career, and I think in advertising and in an agency in particular, it’s very important and in your role as an executive producer, it is of course, very important. Um, but I think it applies to so many different things. So we figured we’d just sit down and talk a little bit about that. Like, what does that look like? And for you specifically in your career, like what have you looked for in people while you’ve been growing your network?
John Marianetti: Yeah. Well, that’s, that’s good. Yeah. It’s a, it’s a good discussion and I have it with the staff a lot with the creative team a lot and you know, we, we’re always trying to elevate the work, right? We’re always trying to, we’re always being charged to elevate the work. We want to do it professionally, creatively, because that’s just what excites us. But we also owe our clients the best work that we can do. And by doing that means putting the best people on the team to help us accomplish that. And so building your network, at least in my world, uh, in the creative world is so important because you’re always looking for people that can bring something that maybe we didn’t think of. Right. So, but what I have found over the years is you see work, you see a, uh, something on Instagram or LinkedIn, you see some finished work, you fall in love with the work, but you don’t really know who did it. And so I’ve been trying to reach out to people over the years and saying, I really and, you know, admire the spot that I just watched where the, you know, something that I just saw, and I try to connect with these people and talk to them because yes, you fall in love with the work, but with all work comes a personality. Sure. Right. And so you get the personality that comes with the great work that you see. And sometimes it’s for good and sometimes not so good. Right. Um, so what you, what I ask a lot of people when I talk to them is tell me a little bit about your process. I try to do less talking, surprisingly, I try to do less talking because you don’t want to tip your hand, right? You don’t want to say like, well, we’ve been in a situation where this happened and that happened and this happened and that happened. What would you do differently? All I’m going to tell you is the opposite of what the experience that we just had. So I’ll cite something and I’ll say, I really liked that spot that you did. Tell me a little bit about that. How did you work? Where did you do it? How many people were on your crew? Right. That sort of thing. Because it’s, it’s, it’s important to know their process because you don’t want to get stuck and have a little buyer’s remorse, if you will, with somebody that’s going to bring a non-collaborative approach, a little bit of an attitude that maybe we don’t want to deal with because elevating the work is a collaborative process. And so you want to work with somebody who you’re going to enjoy spending time with, who’s going to help you, um, achieve the goal that we’re trying to get for a
Katie Flynn: Yeah, get the vibes high, if you will. Yeah, it’s interesting. So we’re actually interviewing for a couple of positions, which is great, you know, and, and it’s always nice when we’re like growing and adding new folks to the team and all of those things, but it had been a little while. And so now I’m sort of in this, this head space too, asking similar questions, right? Like an interview process is much the same as even when you go to coffee with somebody just to get to know them. Um, and a lot of the conversations I’ve been having too have been, okay, you’re not necessarily right for exactly what we’re looking for, for this thing. However, I think there’s a lot of opportunity more so now than probably ever for us to have kind of like a roster of folks that we can reach out to for specialized things like, okay, you’re amazing at healthcare campaigns. Great to know. Okay. You have, you know, launched direct to consumer brands time and time again. Great to know those types of things. Um, and I think post COVID there was this a little bit more of like a distributed model of like, okay, we’ve got our core staff. And then we’ve got a lot of specialists that we reach out to, to help us get smart or bring a new skill or a new style of shooting or whatever that might be. Um, to make that work amazing.
John Marianetti: you know, it is so important to build the network with the specialties that we’re looking for. And that’s what I’m saying is that I see something in some work and I’m going like, man, that is really cool.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: I don’t really have anything on my desk right now that we could use that for. Right. But I’m going to reach out to that person now anyway, because I want to get to know them a little bit and you kind of store that away and think, okay, when something comes across our desk, uh, a creative piece that you think like, Oh my gosh, I’m going to reach back out to so-and-so because he or she may be the right person for this opportunity. Um, you don’t want to be looking for somebody when you need to be looking for somebody, then you’re in a rush. You’re in a rush. I’m a little overwhelmed. I panic a little bit. And so what do you do? You tend to fall back to who’s safe, who you’ve worked with in the past, and they may not be the right person for the job. And so it’s nice to have coffee to talk if it’s local.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: But technology has made our world much smaller. Geography is really not much of an issue anymore. Especially when you’re reaching out to people. We had a conversation yesterday with a creative director who lives in San Francisco, um, just to kind of test the waters, see what you’re working on. Right. So just to kind of see if maybe in the future, this is somebody I may want to collaborate with.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: So it’s very important to do that work in our downtime. Like that’s when I have some time is I’m going to scroll the internet. I’m going to look around and see what’s out there, see what’s new, because we’re always trying to elevate the work in something different. What are people doing? Everything changes so fast. Yeah. But then who did that?
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: And then have a conversation with that person. And I’ve been very, very successful in reaching out and finding people that have helped us just bring the work up to a point where it was so much better in the finished piece than it was of what we concept it. Yeah. And I’ll give you an example. I found a director of photography and a director who specializes in golf. And just by scrolling the internet and I linked in with him and within 15 minutes, I had a message and it’s 10 o’clock at night. He’s on the West coast. My phone rings because we exchanged phone numbers and we talked. We ended up hiring this person for the job. It was great. He introduces us to a colorist because the look that we wanted to have, we thought we really want to reach out to somebody that has experience in golf.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Took that to a whole nother level. And then in the post-production phase, we realized we realized we needed something composited and we tapped into his network. Right. So we had a project from start to finish with three main players that we brought into our team that we didn’t know, uh, before the project.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: And it was amazing. The experience was amazing because everybody we got along, we collaborated and the personalities that everybody brought to the party was just as important as the finished work that we got.
Katie Flynn: Yeah. You know, yeah, it’s that interesting, like the interconnected web that can happen so quickly, right? It just multiplies really fast. You’re tapping into someone else. Yeah. And I think, uh, I actually just had two thoughts as you were speaking about that. The first is I do think a lot of people who are perhaps like younger in their careers and honestly, I’m guilty of this sometimes think, Oh my gosh, it’s going to be so awkward. It’s going to be like just so much work to go sit down and have coffee with somebody that you don’t know, but it can be really low pressure. You can say, let’s just meet for 20 minutes and get to know each other. And you know, it doesn’t have to be an hour and a half, like lunch date. It can just really be coffee.
John Marianetti: Right. And what you learn in that coffee, uh, meeting is a little bit about their perspective. How much experience do you really have? Like what, just because I liked the project that brought me to this point.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: And you tell me a little bit about that. You realize that, well, maybe we can actually help them.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: We can help them elevate the work a little bit, right? Because people just work in their comfort zone. And so they push us, we push them. Um, and it’s, it’s a great, it’s a great relationship builder to have those conversations. I have probably a half a dozen people that I’m just waiting to work with that we talk to all the time and you check in with them and you talk to them, but it’s just not right. Right. Right. But I’m waiting for an opportunity to go. I’ve got something right. Because not everybody is right for everything. Of course. And what you don’t want to do is give somebody a project that you’re technically then setting them up to fail.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: They’re not going to meet the expectations. So that’s the first part. The second part about getting to know their personality and their work process is because in our business, in the film and video business, especially in broadcast production, it’s one of the only times that our clients show up and watch us work.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: They don’t watch this concept. Yeah. They don’t hang over someone’s shoulder and watch them right. But when there’s a production, it’s showtime.
Katie Flynn: Yeah. So we love video village.
John Marianetti: We love video village. Right. And so people show up and now they’re watching and you’re exposed. Yeah. Right. So you want to make sure that everybody on the team that you’ve assembled is a good fit for us.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Isn’t going to embarrass us.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Isn’t going to put us in a situation that’s awkward for our clients because we want them to enjoy the process.
Katie Flynn: Yeah. You got to have the right person for the right job, you know, all along the way. And you’re in a position where there’s a lot of people that you’re putting into place, you know, for a production.
John Marianetti: Right. Exactly.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Where, you know, I think years ago, tended to just go back to the same people, right? We had a couple of shooters that we liked. We had a couple of photographers of it like, and we tried to fit these talented people into situations that they weren’t going to excel.
Katie Flynn: Right.
John Marianetti: And so you had to kind of expand a little bit. And like I said, you don’t want to be looking for somebody when you need to find somebody.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: So a lot of the effort goes in ahead of time and just get to know people. And we try to share, I met somebody and invite people in, share your reel, share your book with our team so that they can start thinking about it. Right. And like you talked about before that we become now part of their network. Right. So it’s really a wonderful experience because again, we can go anywhere and work with anybody. If you put the work in to finding those right people and then putting those people into the right jobs.
Katie Flynn: Yeah. And I think it’s a, the second thing I was going to say is it’s a great reminder of why it actually is very important to work on your personal brand as cheesy as it might be to call it that, which is something admittedly, I was very resistant to for a long time. A lot. I’m a lot more active on LinkedIn, especially because of this podcast. It’s really easy to just repost clips and things like that, that share perspective. Um, and for whatever reason, sometimes it’s easier for me to like speak my thoughts rather than, you know, type them out. I get over thinky and stuff. However, um, it has helped tremendously to grow the connections that I have on LinkedIn. I do have chats with people just, you know, in my messages and whatnot. Um, and so especially for people who are in creative fields that have portfolios or work that they can be sharing. Um, you know, it’s a great argument for putting more of that out there because. Yeah. How are people going to find you?
John Marianetti: Right. Exactly. Exactly. Um, yes, it’s very important for people to put their work out there, but then be open to discussing it. Yeah. Right.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: I think we talked about that the other day when I was in your office and you were talking about interviewing somebody and I said, don’t fall in love with the work.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Right. Yes. Don’t fall in love with the book because of course the book’s going to be amazing. that’s the table stakes. Everybody can do amazing work. It’s just that. What did it take to get there? Sure. Right. And so also you can double check these people with your own network. You can link in with somebody and find out that they’re a connection with somebody that we have in common. You can reach out to that person and say, I’m considering talking to so and so.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Tell me a little bit about that. Where did you bump heads? What, you know, what worked, what didn’t. And so you kind of know going in.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: Everyone has their quirks. Everyone’s going to bring a little something to the party.
Katie Flynn: I sure do.
John Marianetti: Right. We all do, but it’s okay because we can work through that.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: But we have found situations and it’s, it’s rare. And I will never let it happen again where you hire someone and the person that shows up on set is not the person that we’ve been talking to for the past three weeks in prepping. They put you in a corner and it’s almost like keep your opinions to yourself. I’ll take it from here. And we’re like, no, we didn’t sign up for that. Yeah. We say, you know, they always tried to put video video village like a mile away. Yeah. So we can’t talk. We’re like, no, we’re, we’re front row clients.
Katie Flynn: Yeah. I like to be there.
John Marianetti: We’d like to share the director’s monitor. Is that okay with you? And we do. And we’re not shy to because we owe that responsibility to our client.
Katie Flynn: I agree. And I think that’s a big piece of it too is, is yes, it’s looking at the work. It’s looking at the process, but it’s also getting a sense for how you work and what sort of what your values are, you know, like you, it really is like a job interview, you gotta like dig into like, if I asked your boss, what your worst quality was, what would it be?
John Marianetti: Yeah.
Katie Flynn: Right.
John Marianetti: Right. Right. Yeah. Because you tend to work in close quarters. Like I said, you know, you, when it’s showtime, we’re on top of each other and I don’t care if you have a crew of eight or a crew of 38.
Katie Flynn: In long days.
John Marianetti: In long days. So you want to be with somebody that you trust. I mean, it’s a lot of money, right? And, and it’s a, and it’s a, sometimes a short amount of time to accomplish so much that you owe that to your client and they’re sitting there and they’re watching you and you try to go in as efficient as possible, but having a great relationship and being buttoned up when you go in there, you can get through things quickly. And what that allows is to try things now.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: So you’re not having these little arguments of, um, you know, well, that’s not really what we wanted while the director says, I really want to go this way and we’re going to say, well, we really want to go that way. You want to be on the same page because now you find you have some time. You go, Hey, let’s try this. And that’s fun. And sometimes that’s where the magic happens.
Katie Flynn: I guess I didn’t realize John, but you’re, you’re kind of a showman, you know, you’re kind of putting it on for an audience.
John Marianetti: I, yes. I have had that conversation like, why does everybody show up and watch me work? Why does everybody show up?
Katie Flynn: It’s a lot of pressure.
John Marianetti: It is a lot of pressure.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: It is a lot of pressure because you have to be on.
Katie Flynn: Right.
John Marianetti: And so they say about executive producers as we solve problems. You didn’t know you had ways that you’ll never understand. So, you know, part of the job is to make sure like we don’t have any problems. And if we do, I can solve them and not draw a lot of attention to it. But so that’s why the other is so important to just have the best people to know that everybody here I trust and it’s, it’s like a sports team, right? You want the right people on the field for the right play, for the right strategy, for the right move that you’re trying to, trying to win.
Katie Flynn: Yeah. And hopefully we do. Yeah. Any other tips or tricks, John?
John Marianetti: Uh, no, that’s really kind of the hot button that I’ve had for a while.
Katie Flynn: No, I love it. It’s super helpful. I really, and I really do think for people who are in the beginning stages of their career, starting that early is just so helpful.
John Marianetti: It is, it is. You know, that’s the other thing too, is like, I love meeting with younger people. Right. Some people that have a little bit of experience that are out there trying to do their thing.
Katie Flynn: Yeah.
John Marianetti: The work is good. It’s more accessible now that it never has been to get into this business. Right. I don’t want to sound like the old man of the, of the industry, but you had to have a million dollar edit suite and you had to have a lot of money to start up. But now the point of entry is so low that there’s so much more to choose from. And because of that, you don’t have to work with somebody that’s going to bring a bad attitude. Your work is good, but so is his or hers. But you know what? I kind of like them a lot better. So I think I’m going to go this route. And I like working with younger people to give them an opportunity that maybe they would never have had. Kind of makes me feel good to go like, no, you come with us.
Katie Flynn: And some mentorship.
John Marianetti: Yeah, it is a mentorship. And I really do like that at this stage of my career is to bring people along, teach them, show them. Uh, and we’ve had people who are like, I don’t know if I can do this job. You can absolutely do this job. I have a hundred percent.
