I had the absolute honour and privilege of connecting with Steve from Moon & Back.
Steve & his team have become members here @CreativeCubes.Co so it was a great opportunity to have him come on the vlog and discuss all things going on in his business.
Moon & Back was born from family and close friendships spread all over the globe. Bound by a unique but shared vision, they’re passionate about the couples they work with and capturing their special day
They do some incredible work and if you’re in the market for a wedding video, or to capture a special moment, check out their work – flat out incredible!
Enjoy the vlog 🙂
Transcript:
Steve: Where do I start? So when I was younger, I always had a video camera in my hand since the first that I could remember. And myself, friends, cousins, family … short films, little mini films, horror films, whatever we could do just to pass the time, that was our activity growing up.
Tobi Skovron: Hey guys, we got kicked out of the Hustle room today, Flamingo wasn’t available, so my friend over here Steve from Moon and Back and I decided to jump into the GOAT room, I’m not sure if you can truly see it but Michael Jordan on the wall behind us, GOAT being acronym for greatest of all time and quite timely for our conversation.
Steve: Thanks Tobi.
Tobi Skovron: So Steve, Moon and Back, EO, tell us about who you are, what you do … or don’t tell … tell them who you are, what you do, how you do it.
Steve: Yeah. Where do I start? So when I was younger, I always had a video camera in my hand since the first that I could remember. And myself, friends, cousins, family … short films, little mini films, horror films, whatever we could do just to pass the time, that was our activity growing up.
Tobi Skovron: Very cool.
Steve: So you know, we didn’t have any scripts, just filmed whatever it was and we’d cut it together and have a bit of fun with it and that’s just how it all started. And then from there, you know, our cousin asked me to film their wedding when I was 13 or 14. And then it just-
Tobi Skovron: Very cool. Did you have a camera that you like had to fully put on your shoulder at that age?
Steve: Yeah. Well it was always a little camera, just a little … one of the little flip ones that come out.
Tobi Skovron: Very cool.
Steve: And we never looked at the industry, I just did it how I thought I wanted to do it just from watching movies every day and having a lot of background in film.
Tobi Skovron: So do you have aspirations of going to Hollywood or …
Steve: Well, look, that’s always I guess what every film cue dreams of, that was always part of the plan. And we actually, I guess from weddings and doing films as a kid got into competitive short films, you know, into my teens and school competitions and in the corporate world as well. I think wedding films is one of the things that I think everyone aspires to get out of as a videographer, they don’t wanna actually do it.
Steve: So we do a lot of things, we got into design, we got into corporate, TV commercials, and it grew and everyone sort of in my community, friends and family, jumped along the journey as we sort of grew this thing. And then I don’t know, it wasn’t probably five years into the journey, we started quite young, it all just fell apart, literally fell apart. We were too many people, we were spread thin, and just put the reset button on and I think we went back to that what are we passionate about?
Steve: And then we turned back to weddings which is like the last on the list and realized if we just did it our way which is going back to our childhood of just filming whatever is, no scripts, just doing it, weddings is perfectly aligned to that. We have full creative license to walk up to an awesome day with the sets designed, everything set up, the actors are there and we just press record.
Tobi Skovron: Have you seen the movie The Greatest Showman?
Steve: No I haven’t actually, no.
Tobi Skovron: You should see it.
Steve: Is that the Hugh Jackman …
Tobi Skovron: Yeah, Hugh Jackman. So I watched it with my kids on the weekend and sort of somewhat like what you’re saying is pretty much the storyline for that movie. A guy with a vision, a guy that really wanted to do something and pursue his vision, had some incredible success and then started to drift away from what he was doing and then it all kinda crashed and burned. He hit the reset button, went back to his town with the circus and I don’t wanna give too much away, but what resonated with me …
Tobi Skovron: Like I’m watching this, my kids are like doing the whole dancing ’cause it’s a musical, which is probably not my first choice for a movie. But my kids were dancing and I’m just like in awe of the story because I think here, we have so many stories coming from community. And if you sit down and spend some time with people, a lot of people here have had some great success, some of them had incredible success very early then it’s kind of all shat itself and they’ve had to reset.
Tobi Skovron: So I don’t think there’s any shame in that, I actually think … and some people that I’m coaching on the side away from the camera, away from Creative Cubes, you know, they’ve gone through some hard stuff and they’re almost like … they’re struggling to get out of that. They think, you know, they’ve been harped on by, this fell apart and I’ve lost my confidence. And for me, I think that that’s what makes you even … it gives you the opportunity to rise above the next time round, right?
Steve: 100%, yeah.
Tobi Skovron: I’m sitting here listening to you and I’m racking my brain … I spent eight and a half years in Los Angeles, I don’t know if you knew that. Yeah, I lived there for eight and a half years and I know a lot of people in the space. So I’m racking my brain like who can I introduce you to, who can I … so let me look through that, a couple of my friends … one of my friends, she’s the writer for the LL Cool J TV series and it escapes me right now. I’ll have to ask … I’ll be thinking about it. Yeah, there’s a whole bunch of people like in that world.
Steve: It’s such a community in LA when I went.
Tobi Skovron: You know what, I was in LA, it was like … you know, walk up, you’re like hey, you know, “what’re you doing here, are you part of the industry?” I’m like what industry? What are you talking about? “The industry,” the thing that powers Los Angeles. No, I’m not, I’m just an Aussie with an idea just living out here. So very cool and you’re part of EO, how long have you been part of EO?
Steve: It’s been three years now. And I think a lot of that is that turning point of figuring out, alright, it’s broken but what’s our passion and let’s focus on that, let’s focus on the clients, people we work with, I think that was the biggest one. Who we wanted to work with was the turning point for us, once we niched down in that …
Tobi Skovron: And who is that now?
Steve: It’s just a type of client. I think it’s a couple that relates to our values-
Tobi Skovron: Okay, so it’s not in a category like you talk about wedding videos.
Steve: Yeah, it’s in the wedding space, but it’s the type of couple, it’s the type of person that shares our values as well, that we can get along with, have fun with. So it has to share that sort of fun value as well so they’re not hiring us to like … not a supplier. They’re hiring a friend, hiring a guest. And that enjoyment sort of would allow us to grow in that trajectory and, you know, fortunate enough to be able to join EO. And then learn a whole ‘nother set of lessons.
Tobi Skovron: Yeah, yeah. So EO for those of you that don’t know is Entrepreneur Organisation. There’s hundreds of chapters of these organisations worldwide. I think they break it down city by city on a global scale. We are fortunate enough to have Steve and talent like Steve here on pretty much a weekly basis. I think that EO are in here using meeting rooms, hanging out. Dean, who’s the incoming president, he just emailed me this morning about a bunch of things that they’re doing here. We just love what EO is all about.
Tobi Skovron: And actually when I started setting up Creative Cubes, I reached out to Dean. I was like I want the people in Creative Cubes to be hand in glove with the people that are at EO. And so I think so far, so good. Have you enjoyed your time here?
Steve: At Creative Cubes?
Tobi Skovron: Yeah.
Steve: I loved it, yeah. We’ve always been in our own space, we’ve always been secluded in our own office or studio space. And I’ve enjoyed that, but coming here … we still have that. It still feels like our own space except there’s a community of people around.
Tobi Skovron: What I love about it and really why I started it was, you know, I was in Los Angeles actually at the former Google headquarters in Santa Monica and what I loved about it was I was there running my own business, i.e. Moon and Back, and I was focused on doing my thing for my clients and all the rest of it. But the guy next door, well, he was a tech developer. And actually there was an idea that I had that I wanted to bounce off him so I bounced off him here, we make a dog walking app.
Tobi Skovron: The girl next door was in PR, the guy upstairs was a outsourced cloud computing accountant. And so basically even though I was renting like a two person office or a three person office, whatever the number was, the reality was the second I stepped out of that door, I all my supplies, our whole audience was right there. And so from a operations perspective or from a growth perspective, these people helped me really go fast ’cause they didn’t have to organise a meeting, travel across town, everything was right there under one roof.
Steve: And I feel that straight away, even … I mean, I sort of feel like everyone’s quite trusted I think that you’ve chosen to be a part of this community and then I guess be … I already spoke to the legal team and, you know, the other people here, you sort of just trust them to do a good job.
Tobi Skovron: Yeah, I mean, we wear that as a badge of honour. You know, we’re probably at about 70% capacity right now. We could easily be over 100 but we’re not accepting everyone because we have a responsibility. Now that you’re part a member … part of the membership group, to make sure that people in here aren’t wasting your time and chipping away.
Tobi Skovron: Very cool, so I’m gonna link Moon and Back details. I think you’ve got some … I think there’s a video on our forward slash events page that you did for Twosix Wellness-
Steve: Oh yeah … yep, Taylor did that one.
Tobi Skovron: … yeah, so we … we’ve actually got that live on our events page now. The work, the detail, the attention to detail from what I’ve seen is fantastic so full endorsement here guys.
Steve: Thanks Tobi.
Tobi Skovron: I’ll put all of Steve’s details, links, and all the details from Moon and Back in the description below. Love to check in with you in a month, two, three months time, see how things have progressed. And absolutely if … I’m trying to rack my brain, seeing my wife will know more people than I when it comes to this, but if there’s anyone I can help introduce you to or help you guys literally get to the Moon and Back, it would be an honour and a privilege.
Steve: Love it Tobi, thanks man.
