Daniel Sagona: Shaping Nonprofit Stories Through Video and Strategy

Tasha: All right, this is perfect. So we’re going to start. Uh, Daniel, can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your nonprofit origin story?

Daniel: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Um, my name is Daniel Sagona Uh, I work in video production and creative strategy for nonprofits. My origin story is, um, probably similar to a lot of people’s in that, um, kind of being a young person, young, upstart creative.

Daniel: Um, I didn’t really know exactly where I wanted to land. Um, I started off working like in the film industry proper, uh, near New Orleans, where I’m from. And I worked on like Marvel movies. I worked on Tom Hanks movies. I was, I was a crew guy. Right? Did that for a few years. Um, and eventually just kind of was unsatisfied with it.

Daniel: Just didn’t feel like I was having, just didn’t feel like I was having a big impact theme, uh, at that point. So, um, quit that and sort of taught myself how to shoot, taught myself how to edit video. Um, didn’t really know what to do with that skill though. I just knew I wanted to tell stories. I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker.

Daniel: I just didn’t know how that was going to manifest. Eventually ended up working freelance for several years. Got a job running a video production company. Um, but it was mainly like industrial, it was mainly like construction and, uh, e commerce build outs and things like that. But kind of to what we were talking about earlier, um, this business, um, had a nonprofit that was attached to it that worked with, that worked with kids with special needs.

Daniel: And they were like, Hey, whenever you have free time, like whenever, you know, we don’t have any like big. Projects going on just go shoot stuff for them because they’re great and like just help them out. Okay, cool Well fast forward two years later. I had made like 65 short form documentaries for this nonprofit Learned a ton of things things about the special needs community and the needs there.

Daniel: We talked to parents, we talked to caregivers, we talked to medical professionals, we told the stories in all kinds of different ways. You know, it wasn’t always just like smiling faces and riding bikes. Um, it was like, you know, one time we went down the bayou and like filmed this kid who. Learned how to like, uh, crawfish and, and hunt gators.

Daniel: Like, and like, it, it, it became the content, the brand started to grow. I started learning how to build a brand.

Tasha: Yeah.

Daniel: Um, and um, through that I was like, wow. I was like, this is, this is kind of my passion. Like this is, this is kind of really what I wanna be doing. And, um, it got to the point where I was like, this is, it’s resonating.

Daniel: I’m really good at it. growing financially. Um, so like, I was like, I kind of just want to do this. So like, I kind of went to, um, my boss at the time and I was like, I kind of just want to do that. Um, and they were like, uh, that not, no, no, no, no, that’s not, that’s not what you were hired for. Um, so I was like, okay, I gotta, I gotta leave.

Daniel: And go do my own thing. I still have a great relationship with the folks over there. Um, but I was like, I gotta go build my own thing. So, um, left in like March 21 ish. Um, started my own production company. And kind of just been running with it ever since.

Tasha: I love that. I love that. I love how Sometimes, you know, I think mine was fairly similar where it was like the exposure to nonprofit just blew me away because I, I didn’t have, we’ve had a couple of interviews where people are like, oh, there’s this family generations of people who have done service work.

Tasha: And that’s super cool. I didn’t come from that. So it’s almost like the, what did I say? It’s almost like the, the glass shattering. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Right. You can’t unsee it. And I think that’s, what’s so cool about what you’re doing with the storytelling and the video and everything is. You are able to create an awareness through video.

Tasha: It’s very cool.

Daniel: I think it’s, you see it, but really you feel it. I know for me, I mean, It was a selfish act. It was like, I feel great whenever I can make these folks feel great. When I can make them feel seen whenever, you know, they watch a video and they go, Oh my gosh, that’s me. Like, that’s my story up there.

Daniel: Like, and that’s really important to me too. And we’ll get into that. But, um, For me, it was like that feeling was like addictive. I was like, I was chasing that good feeling.

Tasha: Well, and then maybe this kind of naturally goes into favorite thing about working in the nonprofit space. Cause you already just started.

Tasha: So let’s just roll into that.

Daniel: Yeah, definitely. Um, I would say, you know what, uh, uh, that’s actually not my favorite thing. Okay. That’s my, that’s my second favorite thing. I would say my favorite thing is the people that you get to work with. Yeah. Um, organization side, um, the people who are receiving the, uh, the services.

Daniel: Um, I love working with passionate people. I’ve always like I’m not someone who likes to work with people. I don’t tend to do well working with people who are like just in it for the money or people who are just motivated solely by some kind of vanity metric. Um, I was never good at that. My music video career didn’t go very far because of this.

Daniel: Um, um, but, uh, whenever you work in non private, like everyone there is there because they want to do an impact. They’re there because they want to see a change. Um, so that really feeds me. That’s really inspirational for me. It makes me want to work that much harder. It makes me want to make sure I deliver.

Daniel: And then when you talk to the people receiving the services, You’re just like, man, like, we gotta, we gotta make this great because we gotta, it has to live up to them and their story. We have to honor them. Um, so for me, it’s like, it’s really the people that you get to meet. Like some, my favorite people I’ve all met who work in nonprofits.

Tasha: It just attracts a cool bunch. Such an amazing space. Okay. And challenges of the work. So as you’ve serviced within organizations and then, you know, in your work in consulting and creating, you know, what are some of the challenges I guess you see across the board?

Daniel: There are many, there are many, I would say the biggest one.

Daniel: Is mindset. I would say the biggest challenge. I had the hurdle. I have to jump as mindset. I think for a long time, nonprofits and charities have, um, had this sort of we got it. And there’s some truth to this, but like, we got to keep our overhead as low as possible. We got to save every penny, put it all into the programming.

Daniel: Um, And, and not spend any money to grow, right? And, and simultaneously, uh, in our, in our storytelling, in our content, we cannot step one toe outside of the established box. Well, we know from the for profit world, we know from the way that that works, that that is a recipe for stagnation and ultimately plateau and eventually decline.

Daniel: Right. So we know this. Um, so we have to, a lot of what I do is giving permission to those folks. Like, yes, of course, your programming is the number one priority. I never want you to, To, uh, cut the head off of your programming to, uh, to fund marketing. Like that, that should not be the thing, but let’s get creative in the way that we fund that marketing, because if we do it right, and we’re willing to take some chances and we’re willing to take a foot outside of the box and take people’s heads somewhere else, then you’ll have way more money for that programming six months from now, which is ultimately my goal.

Tasha: Yeah. It’s. It’s super true. Like, I mean, I I’m still constantly trying to wrap my head around as a marketer in the nonprofit space, still wrapping my head around the fact that, I mean, there’s a perfectionism culture in nonprofits, very cautious, very safe. And I mean, most marketers and for profit are going to go.

Tasha: Let’s spice things up a little bit here. Let’s be a little controversial. And that’s actually sometimes how you find your

Daniel: people, right? We got to blow things up. We got to blow things up people. Let me tell you something. I teach I teach a class. I teach a video advertising class at the Miami ad school of Atlanta and all my students are in the like I’d say 20 to 25 ish age range.

Tasha: Okay.

Daniel: They, when they, when they hear that I work in nonprofit, they’re like, uh, they are so tired of this messaging. Um, and when I show some of the things that, you know, are, are out there in nonprofit, video. Uh, it’s just, it’s, it’s exasperating. You’re just like, this is begging. This is begging. This is desperation.

Daniel: This is the same message we’ve been hearing since the early nineties, man. Um, we need to, you know, we need to, every brand is different, but generally you need to be thinking about how can you entertain your audience. How can you educate your audience? How can you make your audience laugh? How can you make your audience cry?

Daniel: You need to think of yourself as a more holistic entertainment brand in your content. Um, because people don’t want to just sit there and be sold to people. Don’t just want to sit there and hear, Oh, we got this great mission and this is really important and we got to do this or otherwise this will happen.

Daniel: That, that there’s too much noise in the digital space. There’s too, there’s too many social problems that people are already feeling overwhelmed by. Yeah. Um, you’ve got to reach out to people on an authentic, emotional, uh, platform. Right to build that brand and that that brand building is worth so much more over a long period of time I think I went off the rails there.

Daniel: No,

Tasha: I love it. I love it. No, this is fantastic. Well, and you know, we had that impact up event here in Toronto and one of our five, a bunch of five people came, which is great. It’s super cool to meet people in person, but one of the things that was so cool is one of, one of the big problems we’re talking about big problems in the space.

Tasha: And I’m a fellow marketer who works in nonprofit is like nonprofit marketing is wildly unsexy, right? Like it’s super unsexy and it’s a weird term. And I think we often divorce. As if it’s like, it’s a bar that’s weird and up here. And in, in, uh, Toronto, especially there’s, I don’t know if you ever heard sick kids foundation.

Daniel: I love those at there that I was actually going to say those. Like, I was like, that’s a great example of people who are doing it. Right.

Tasha: Yeah. And well, it’s a partly for us in the, like working in the marketing Toronto ecosystem for the last, how many years. Everyone uses those. Every nonprofit comes and says, that’s the bar.

Tasha: We want to look like this. And I mean, there’s are like 3 million ads. Some of them, right. So, but there

Daniel: doesn’t have to be, they’re converting and it doesn’t have to be, that’s, that’s,

Tasha: yeah, but you could add a little bit of that Ryan Reynolds pep to your marketing step without having to use Ryan Reynolds, right?

Tasha: Like that’s the thing is great for sick kids. That’s how they, they roll. And they. But they didn’t start there, but they have some great ads from four years ago that cost a fraction of the price without Ryan Reynolds in them. So like, right. I don’t know. You have to start somewhere. Okay. So yeah, we, you and I’ll have to have our little marketing mastermind later, but yes.

Tasha: Uh, okay. So next question was, you know, how in this journey of nonprofits, have you found like, how does peer support work for you as a consultant, as someone working in the industry? Like, Um, what’s the value of that to your work?

Daniel: Peer support. Yeah. Uh, probably something I haven’t sought out enough to be completely honest with you.

Daniel: Um, uh, I find that I tend to personally just be a little too siloed. Um, and the, the, the peers that I do have that work in nonprofit, um, in, in the, on the marketing and the creative side. We all seem to kind of be like stay back, you know, we tend to build walls Um, and i’m saying I maybe have done that a little bit as well.

Daniel: Um, so I think I think peer support is actually something that I need to, uh, that we, that we all need to be doing more of, but really me, I think I’ve built up, I’ve built up some walls. Um, and it’s that scarcity mentality, right. That we just talked about. So it’s funny how even I’m sitting here saying, Hey, we need to break down the scarcity mentality.

Daniel: And yet I know that I participate in much of it as well. Um, so. That one’s going to be, that one’s a little tough for me. I don’t

Tasha: want to say

Daniel: so

Tasha: funny. You say that because you’ve been a hive member for how long now you’ve done how many chats. So in many ways, that’s kind of funny that you would say that because people give such glowing.

Tasha: reviews after chatting, chatting to you about what you share and what you, you know, about your knowledge in the sector.

Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I love doing the Hive chat. Like, I mean, obviously here huge supporter of it. I think it’s, it’s so, so needed. Um, and what, that’s what I love about it is it kind of like forces you to like, get out there and communicate.

Daniel: Um, And, and not, uh, pull, pull back in. Yeah. Um, so, um, I think I’ve had some incredible experiences with the hive chats. Um, you introduced me to Khalid. Uh, we’ve gotten to work together. I actually, he just, uh, he just approved the first round of videos that we did for them. And he was just absolutely glowing.

Daniel: Like it was like, I sent him like a week ago and I was like, sitting back, like I didn’t hear anything and the email wasn’t open and I was like, Oh, cool. Did we did we miss the mark like way off and then like at like midnight last night. He was just like, oh my he was like, these are incredible. And I was like, you know, um, so anyway, I’ve met I’ve met some great people.

Daniel: Um, I Who I’m actually who I met on the hive chat yesterday, uh, last week. Um, I’m pulling into a bigger campaign. We’re trying to get funding for a national campaign, some marketing dollars and have them run that. Um, so I’ve got, I’ve gotten a lot. I’ve met so many great people through the hive chats. Uh, That have really helped me kind of build up my, um, knowledge and also resources, you know, because we try to be in nonprofit.

Daniel: We try to be everything to everyone. What do you need? What do you need? And trying to, I’m trying, I’m up late at night trying to learn new skills and stuff, because there’s a limited amount of people to do these things. But I think the more we can build. Um, be able to have in our network like niche and specialist service providers.

Daniel: Um, that’s going to help us grow this industry. That’s going to help us break down that scarcity mentality, get better results for our clients. Um, and also just like, Be able to, uh, communicate about these problems more freely.

Tasha: Well, I think what’s cool about the Hive chats and why I really feel like consultants have been such a blessing to have as part of this network is not only the knowledge they’re bringing, but oftentimes too, in the same manner that I have worked in some agencies where.

Tasha: There’s eight different vendors on a nonprofit clients project, right? And you’re just like, this is insane. There’s eight marketer marketing agencies. One’s got direct response. One’s got ads. It’s all over the place. Right. But when you don’t know those other key players and you didn’t get to kind of choose who’s on your marketing team, you have no idea what you’re bringing to the table for your client.

Tasha: Cause you’re like, I can provide the best video possible, but I don’t know what your person in ads is then doing with said video. Like what’s the plan? So it’s cool. I think even for consultants to kind of. Get to organically meet. That’s what the plan is. Not the plan is not to make a collaboration, but when they do happen, it’s because really this person was exactly what I was looking for.

Tasha: I feel like we connected beforehand and I feel pretty good about this. This is great versus. Accidentally ending up on the team with someone.

Daniel: Oh, absolutely. I’m so glad you said that. And you know, candidly, this actually, this part you can cut out just because I haven’t launched, I haven’t launched it yet.

Daniel: Sure. Um, is that, that, that is a huge problem. What you just said of like the eight different marketing agencies, each owning a piece. Um, and that’s actually why I’m rebranding. Um, and the direction that I’m going is basically like agency for nonprofits, um, where we can have kind of a little bit of holistic service, um, that has some of that copywriting video.

Daniel: Um, brand design, uh, I’ve been slowly building up the team. We’re still going to be like video first, like video is going to be the primary service, but like I get, I have that all the time. I like where I, I might make a great video and then it gets posted in the wrong aspect ratio or it gets, you know, used in the wrong ways or it doesn’t get used at all.

Daniel: Um, so I think the more that I’ve done this work, the more that I’ve realized That’s really the need. They need, they need someone who can really. Guide hand, take you by the hand and walk you down the aisle. I was

Tasha: gonna say, that’s super cool. I want to, we have to explore this a little bit more. I’m going to ask you after a bit more after.

Tasha: Okay. The one thing I’m going to wrap this up with the fun. So, uh, Daniel, people getting in touch with you, people want to learn more. Can you give us a quick blurb about what services you offer and how they can find you?

Daniel: Yeah, absolutely. Um, best way to find me is on LinkedIn. I’m always on LinkedIn making a low effort content for the masses.

Daniel: Um, but, um, the, the main services that I provide are creative strategy, creative development, and video production. Um, so helping you kind of define first, figuring out what the goal is, what the marketing goal is, uh, building creative that’s designed specifically towards that, um, to accomplish that goal.

Daniel: And then producing video content, um, in a number of different ways based on where your budget is. Um, could be in person shooting, could be a remote video, uh, to, to accomplish that. So, um, I kind of consider my, I kind of use the term like video consultant and a little cheesy, but, um, it’s not a one size fits all kind of thing.

Daniel: Uh, I try to build it very, um, hub and spoke because every nonprofit’s needs are very different.

Tasha: Absolutely. That’s awesome. Okay. Well, thank you so much for doing this with me and, uh, appreciate you.

Daniel: Yes. You as well. Thanks Daniel.