This was a great interview that I had with Rob Delantoni, owner and founder of Circle Video Productions in Burlingame, CA.
http://www.circlevideo.com/
I arrived at Circle Video for my interview with Rob, promptly at one o’clock. The facility is in the lower lever of a first class office building on Bayshore Blvd in Burlingame, CA. From the ground level entrance, I took the elevator down to arrive on the lower level. As I made my way through the hallways, I encountered a full service deli/cafe, situated right across from the entrance to the Circle Video suite. Adjacent to the cafe there was an entrance to the building that led up a set of stairs to the outside, at the ground level. I could have easily used this direct entrance to come down to the Circle Video suite.
When I entered the suite, I was greeted by Angel, who was friendly and personable. She informed me that Rob was not yet there, but he was expecting me, and on his way.
I waited a short time. After the phone rang, Angel informed me that Rob was having car trouble, but he expected to be there soon. I had a chance to chat with Angel about Circle Video and their operations. I accepted a cold bottle of water when she offered me something to drink.
The suite was impressive. The walls are decorated with awards, and wallpaper of classic film strips. The entrance area is set up like a comfortable living room with a sofa and a coffee table, relevant and current magazines presented on the table. I felt right at home as I waited, checking out magazines about digital video production, the Mac, editing, and so forth.
Beyond the entrance area, there was an opening to the production suite where Angel had retreated to get back to her editing and production work. Behind this ‘lobby’, there’s a door to an office which is set up as a conference room.
The phone rang again. This time Angel came to tell me that it was Rob, and he wanted to speak with me.
Rob’s car was stuck. He couldn’t start it. He asked if I could meet him, at the Burlingame Tennis Club, a few miles down the road. I got directions and headed out to meet him. It was a short drive.
I found Rob in the parking lot behind the Burlingame High School, where the Tennis Club shared parking with the high school. He greeted me, and led me through the Club entrance. This private club was quiet, and Rob knew the people there. He offered to buy me something, so I asked for a Coke. He asked for it, and got himself a Squirt. He filled some paper cups with ice and we sat at an outside table by the tennis courts..
I set up the recording device....
Eric- Okay, hopefully this works...
Rob- Hopefully it does, because I don’t chew my cabbage twice!
START- (seated comfortably at an outside table by the currently quiet tennis courts, we began the interview.)
Eric- So, Rob, could you tell me about your business?
Rob- Circle Video Productions is a video production, post production, duplication, company. We make movies for businesses, and lawyers primarily. For businesses we produce trade show, advertising, sales, marketing, a little bit of commercials, training, seminar, that type of thing. We record it, sometimes edit it, sometimes duplicate it. For lawyers we do depositions.
Eric- Sounds like you have a pretty broad offering of services. Is there a particular service that you specialize in?
Rob- Well, we specialize in making movies... mostly the movies we make are about businesses, but we’re in a bunch of niche markets. Industrial corporate video production is one, deposition shooting for lawyers is two, video teleconferencing is three, tiny bit of film tape transfers is four, and just run of the mill DVD, CD, tape duplication is five... that’s about all the niches I can think of.
Eric- Can you tell me how you got started? Tell me about your first jobs, first camera... go back to the beginning.
Rob- I fell out of bed, saw stars when I hit my head, said ‘movies are for me’... I was unemployed looking for something to do with my time and I had a camera, and was making home movies as a hobby, and thought, maybe I could make a living at it. So after trying to find businesses in the real estate market, I met a photographer who suggested weddings, and started doing a lot of weddings.
Eric- So you started doing weddings, how long was it before you decided to branch out beyond that?
Rob- Oh, immediately. While we were doing weddings we had a couple of corporate clients, was advertising in the yellow pages, so we were getting all kinds of calls for copies, a little bit of editing... But the primary production work we did was weddings. Eventually we stumbled on a guy who wanted a deposition, who had a big case, we were lucky, and suddenly we were doing a years worth of depositions for him and we got into the deposition market, and that’s when we really turned the corner and started to get profitable. That was about the third year I was in business.
Eric- What year was that?
Rob- ’87... ’86 maybe.
Eric- So over the years, how has your business grown? What kinds of things have catapulted you to the next level?
Rob- I don’t know if we ever got to the next level! When we started making money in depositions, we dropped weddings as soon as I could, because it wasn’t very profitable and it was a lot of work, and a lot of grief. The work wasn’t grief, but the clients were difficult. Brides make difficult clients. And their mothers... So, by the early ‘90s we were all corporate legal, and stayed there right up to the present day, and have pretty much been corporate legal.
Eric- Have you been in the same facility sense then?
Rob- In ’84 I was in my kitchen... by ’85 I had grown into my dining room and my living room... and in ’86 when I was encroaching into my single bedroom, the whole house was now filled with video gear and stuff, and I had no place to go home. So I rented a small space in downtown San Mateo with a photographer who I had met at a trade show. We shared space in downtown San Mateo until I think ’93, when I moved into where I am now.
Eric- How do you like the space you’re in?
Rob- The space is great. The rent is great, for the space. It’s a first class triple ‘A’ executive office building, as you’ve seen. I wish we were on the top floor instead of the bottom floor... the rent’s a lot more up there. The space is real fine, I’ve tried to move a couple times, or I’ve looked into moving and I can’t find anything... I can afford that’s even close to the snaz that that place has...
Eric- It’s definitely a nice little suite, plus you’re right across from the cafe for the building...
Rob- There’s a cafe built in, there’s a gym built into the building, there’s a hotel across the street, there’s a Sizzler’s next door... it’s next to the airport, we do have clients that’s important for, they fly in... and it’s about four blocks from what used to be our biggest legal client, which made him very happy as well.
Eric- How does your business, the way it is now, compare with what you envisioned when you were getting started?
Rob- ... I envisioned making motion pictures, features... some day, for theatrical release... and right now we’re on the edge of bankruptcy, struggling along doing depositions, and little corporate jobs... So it’s a mile from the big vision... a few miles..
Eric- Do you think there might be a feature production in your future?
Rob- No. Retirement is in my future. I’m trying to find someone to take over the business to work with James and my contractors, so that I can collect social security and maybe take a little draw, shoot some deppos, and hang around here most of the time.
Eric- What are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced in building and maintaining your business?
Rob- Well, the big challenge, especially in the beginning was just eating. I was fortunate back in the eighties to live by myself in a condo, where my entire nut was 600 dollars a month. So I didn’t need to bring in a lot of money just to pay my rent and feed myself. That helped. The biggest nut was trying to get some business when I had no experience, was one of the big obstacles, so I started giving away work, and spending every day calling people from the yellow pages, going to trade shows where it looked like I might meet people, keeping my ear to the ground on who’s out there, and where they went to have lunch, what networking groups they were in and just knocking on doors and calling people, and trying to get connected in this small video community in San Mateo. And it didn’t pay very well, so I was loosing money month to month, when I could make six hundred dollars in a month it was a big celebration, because I met my nut. But I had some savings, so I went into it all the way. And it lasted for three years until I was able to turn a profit. So turning a profit was a big obstacle.
Eric- Yeah, so three years before you were actually able to turn a profit?
Rob- Yeah.
Eric- Wow. And, since then, have you faced any other notable challenges?
Rob- Oh, the, Nine Eleven was kind of tough, when business died for a couple months... This year has been kind of tough, this is the first year it looks like I’m gonna have a loss since the late eighties. This year doesn’t look too good, because of the economy, that’s rough... Two, three years ago we had a very flat spot, I had to lay everybody off, except James, the two of us ran the whole company, then I got called for jury duty in the middle of that and we almost went under. That was an obstacle! But frankly, since 1993, since we’ve been in that building, although it goes up and down and up and down, it’s been fairly steady. Just until this year, it was really bad this year. And you’ve seen it, it’s a lean operation, so during the big meltdown of five years ago when a lot of video companies just went under, we have so little overhead, that I didn’t go under, I just came down to two people and my rent was still small, I stopped advertising so much, and was able to stay afloat.
Eric- What was the big meltdown five years ago?
Rob- The economy, if I recall correctly, the economy went crazy, bad.
Eric- That was 2004?
Rob- Well it, it was bad in 2007, 6 or 7 that it was just James and me, so there must have been a big flat spot there, leading up to the big financial meltdown.
Eric- Which we had of course, last year...
Rob- Yeah, 2008.
Eric- Maybe we could talk about something a little more fun, like your accomplishments.. What are some of your accomplishments, some of the things you’re really proud of?
Rob- There aren’t many, but..... I started a business from nothing, and 25 years later, it’s still ticking...
Eric- That’s quite an accomplishment...
Rob- It sounds good on paper, but considering what I hoped it would have been 25 years later, it’s very disappointing. But it’s still ticking, so that’s something!
Eric- That is something!
Rob- I kept it alive, somehow... And, James is a great guy, he’s like my brother, so I’m grateful I met him. He’s a great guy to work with.
Eric- How did you meet James?
Rob- A resume, he sent me a resume, he was lookin’ for work. He was workin’ in a restaurant at the time. He came in, early 90s, and I hired him.
Eric- And he’s been there ever since, the rest is history!
Rob- The rest is history, he stared out just doing little duplication things, I trained him how to shoot depositions, he did a good job there... Month after month, year after year, he was punctual, reliable, honest, straightforward, motivated....
Random Guy- His car really does run... Don’t believe that, he just got you to come up here....
Rob- I’m telling him the story of my life, get outta here!
Random Guy- That’s okay, what’s your name again?
Rob- Eyeahh.....
(laughter)
Rob- ...and, um, loyal, and industrious, he took a lot of pride in his own work, and his own accomplishments, was easy to motivate, he was self-motivated, so I think he’s the guy everybody wants as their partner. He’s just a great guy, he’s kept Circle alive.
Eric- And you talked about passing it down to him...
Rob- Well, yes... Actually, not really passing it down, he needs a partner, see he’s developed a strong skill set in editing and shooting, working with clients... and all of that, but I kept bookkeeping, vision, and sales and marketing, and overall management of the business. So he’s not familiar with those areas. He’s a doer instead of a manager type, although he’s got a lot of management skills, but he needs a.. He needs someone to fill in the gaps. And it’s too much for one person to do, so he needs a good strong partner. In my retirement I’ll keep the bookkeeping and I’ll shoot a few deppos, but he needs another good shooter, editor there, to work with him, take the load off of him.
Eric- How did you get inspiration, what goals really motivated you to keep going for 25 years, I mean that’s a long time...
Rob- Yeah..
Eric- How did you keep going?
Rob- Well, most of the time I liked what I was doing... I mean it’s not a bad job... And I discovered I liked self employment more than I liked what I was doing, so I thought really, self employment is really the best thing... I’ll sell shoes as long as I’m self employed. I liked having my customers as my boss. And being the King of the company. I like it.
Eric- You are the King!
Rob- It’s a very small company, but I’m the king of something...
(laughter)
Eric- Well, that’s all the questions I have for today, and I just want to say thank you for your time, and it was really nice having this conversation with you.
Rob- I’m glad we could get together today, I want all your listeners out there to know how much I appreciate serving them and serving the community, for so many years, in my capacity as the Video King of Burlingame, and hope that we have many more future good years together as well.
Eric- Thank you very much!
END
