24 Hours With… Daniel Goldstein, director and co-founder of Visual Domain
24 Hours With… spotlights the working day of some of the most interesting people in Mumbrella’s world. Today we speak with Daniel Goldstein, director and co-founder of Visual Domain.
6:30am: I wake up with my six-year-old daughter Coco in our bed, which isn’t a bad result as usually both kids sneak in some time during the night.
I check my phone, delete 10 or so spam emails that I just can’t get rid of and am relieved to see the 200 or so work-related emails I get every day haven’t started to filter through yet.
The emails already in my inbox are from my business partner Renece Brewster, who works even harder than me and has sent me ideas for videos, products and general business updates at all hours throughout the night.
6:45am: Today I’m not on school drop-off duties so I head to Harold Holt Pool in Glen Iris for a quick swim. I’m in the pool by 6:45am – out, showered and dressed by 7:25am.
It’s just a short drive to our Richmond office so I tune in to 3AW to get my daily dose of news. Traffic isn’t too bad so I get a good run and arrive at work by 7:45am.
8:00am: I sit at my desk and look at my to-do list for today. I have two lists – the quick and easy and the not so quick and easy.
Daniel Goldstein and Renece Brewster
The items that require more brain power are the budgets and numbers and today I have a meeting scheduled with Renece, so I work on stats breakdowns for videos we’ve produced across different industries, average cost per video and average sale per account manager.
8:30am: I wander into the Visual Domain kitchen and make myself two black coffees, one after the other, which also means I’ve hit my caffeine quota for the day.
Judging by the amount we now spend on coffee pods for the office, we probably could have invested in a café instead. Having an office coffee machine means less time out of the office to buy coffee and it keeps everyone (including myself) very happy and able to work to such tight deadlines.
9:00am: The team begins to arrive and once all the Melbourne account managers are in we have a quick catch up. We have five account managers in Melbourne working across real estate, automotive, fashion and health.
Visual Domain’s Melbourne Sydney staff
Each person provides a quick update on the clients and videos they’re working on. Lara is in the process of organising a 5:00am shoot for Melbourne Aviation and they want to show their planes early in the morning, so we need to find a film crew willing to get up that early… bribes often work!
9:30am: What works in Melbourne doesn’t always resonate in Sydney, so today, I schedule a 15 minute conference call with our Sydney office manager, Arna, to get a quick rundown on sales, staff, clients and anything else that might be coming up.
Today we’re guilty of spending a bit too much time talking about our new favourite TV show, Fargo, as Arna enjoys binge-watching new TV series as much as I do.
10:00am: I’m currently developing original concepts for online and TV broadcasts, and today we discuss a project we’re all really excited about: it’s about talented mums who renovate houses for profit and we are very close to getting a series green lit – exciting!
2:00pm: Ever since we got an office pool table, break time is competition time.
Adam (senior editor), Travis (editor) and myself often compete, with the loser having to make coffee for the other person during that day. It’s a close game, but unfortunately for the guys I’m the undefeated champion… so, one black coffee, no sugar thanks!
It’s really important for the guys to have a release as everyone works incredibly hard, so once the novelty of the pool table wears off… we’re thinking about getting an XBox… maybe.
3:00pm: Time to catch up with my business partner, Renece to go through the numbers and stats I prepared this morning.
Renece and I started Visual Domain seven years ago. As we go through the numbers together today, we’re still surprised by how much the business has grown and as much as we love real estate, it’s thrilling to see the corporate work continuing to grow.
4:30pm: It’s been a busy day for everyone editing videos, so it’s not a surprise that the beers start making their way out of the fridge.
We used to have Friday beers but it seems to happen more frequently than Friday… and it seems to happen a bit earlier than 5:30pm, too – which might be something I need to address, but I think balance is more important.
Kyal and Kara from The Block with videographers Jacob Payne and Tom Roberts (and Daniel)
The guys work hard and keeping the team together and happy is the most important part of our business – it took a while to understand this but now we do, business has never been better!
Most of our videos are delivered within 48 hours so the pressure is on… I notice everyone relax a little when the beers come out, we keep working but the mood has definitely lightened.
We’ve been lucky to have great staff retention and that’s purely because they like each other so much and the work they do.
7:00pm: After a few hours responding to client emails, sales enquiries and watching a few videos – I watch every video that lands on my desk – I clock my 25,000th video. I suddenly feel very tired.
7:15pm: Fortunately/unfortunately my kids don’t go to sleep until after 9:30pm. Oliver, 9, and Coco, 6, don’t seem to believe in a normal bedtime and some nights they won’t go to sleep until 10:00pm, which means I get a few hours to play with them when I get home…
Oliver and Coco
Ollie typically picks the longest game to play (Monopoly) so I need to work out how to go bankrupt quickly… which is ironic as I spend my whole day trying to do the opposite.
10:00pm: Me time! The kids make their way into bed so I squeeze in an hour to myself to read every newspaper on the iPad – it’s a habit I picked up from my dad. I guess it gives me a well-rounded view on today’s stories. Tonight I read the Herald Sun, The Age, The Australian and skim the Financial Review.
11:00pm: Five minutes after putting the iPad down and I’m out like a light. Even though our kids will tiptoe their way in during the night, I generally won’t stir until 6:30 the next morning.
I knew Daniel when he was a producer of the Yvonne Lawrence program on 3AW in the late 1990’s. Great to see he has kicked on to bigger and better things.
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Dan taught me everything I know about being a TV producer. One of the best managers of people I know. He could never beat at pool though!!!!
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Great article, great guy.. delighted to see how well your doing Dan!
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I’ve heard of his business partner Renece Brewster. He mentions that she works harder, would love to read a story about her daily grind as well.
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