"You know better to do better," Camille MacDonald said about going out and starting her own video production and social media advertising company called Pop Media.
Most people will remember MacDonald for her work as reporter/anchor at local television station CKPG, which was her first real job out of journalism school.
"I've become one of those people who was supposed to be here for a year and now here I am - I think I'm a lifer," MacDonald laughed.
She said she never thought she'd start her own business but here she is today with hundreds of projects completed in the two short years since she started.
"I just saw what was happening in the social media world and I found it really exciting that people were using content in a new way," MacDonald said. "It was almost like a mixture of advertising and storytelling."
Things do evolve as a business gets more established and Dan Johnson joined the team a year ago when MacDonald started having to turn away business because she couldn't meet the demand alone. Johnson and MacDonald met at CKPG while they both worked there and each came from a different area of the Lower Mainland. At CKPG, Johnson was a writer and producer in charge of creating local commercials before he decided to join MacDonald in further developing Pop Media.
The two are also a couple who share a home together and have a cat. Linus is a rescue from the Humane Society. "We don't even like cats," Johnson joked. (MacDonald said they love their little lemon loaf.)
She said when she started the business she knew it was going to be Prince George and people centred.
"It was like news stories but with an extra kick to it," Johnson jumped in to explain what role the multimedia and advertising aspects contributed to the projects.
"A lot of what we do is about video content but also targeting that content to a particular audience which I don't think news has generally done," MacDonald said. "The first year was me trying to figure out so many things. I'd never been in business before so that alone was and continues to be a lot to figure out and it was pretty much a blur."
Johnson said that working as a journalist for television, MacDonald would be accompanied by a camera operator.
"Now she's operating the camera, editing and doing the interviews," Johnson added, who said taking the leap from the secure job at CKPG to independent business partner was a big one.
"But if I stayed I knew where I was going to be in a year," Johnson explained. "If I made this leap we didn't know where we could be and obviously that worked out because by the end of the year we were in New York working."
Locations included McBride, doing a major project promoting the opportunities and lifestyle offered in the Robson Valley, creating memories at a wedding in Mexico and, of course, the trip to New York.
"We've done helicopter weddings and tons of events," he said.
"There's never a dull moment," she said.
Ideally Pop Media would like to reach out to the northern part of the province because MacDonald and Johnson consider it untapped territory and the north needs its stories told, too.
"We create social media video campaigns," MacDonald said. "Whether that's one video or a series of videos we work with the client to understand their goals and who they're trying to reach and then we work backwards to create video that will appeal to their audience and we pair that with advertising on social media to reach more people online."
MacDonald and Johnson each brings something different to the table when it comes to making Pop Media a success.
"We have very complementary skills," MacDonald said. "We don't really overlap too much. Dan has amazing production skills and I come from a world of the daily story so he's really helped me understand how to plan and produce content in a more productive way than, you know -"
"Show up and see what happens," Johnson filled in the end of the thought.
MacDonald said she appreciates Johnson up and quitting his secure job to take a chance with her.
"I think it's normalized for him a bit because his parents and grandparents each owned their own business," MacDonald said. "I don't think it was such a wacky thing for him to do."
Johnson said he was looking for more, including the responsibility of going out on his own.
"I needed a light under my ass to go out and do my best work," he said.
"And nothing sets a light under your ass like -" she began.
"Having to pay your mortgage," he finished and they laughed together. "So lots of startups like this sees one person working as the other tries something like this. I think we're in a unique position where we put everything on the line to do this and we're kind of in it together at this point."
"And we're making it work," she said.
Johnson said he couldn't do this without MacDonald.
"Camille has this whole other part of the business where she's socializing and going and meeting the clients and it's sales but it's so much deeper than sales," Johnson said. "It comes from a true love of community and wanting to be involved - and not that I don't have that but I'm computer boy. So you combine all that with the journalism chops and I've set up the camera and she knows what questions to ask so the arc of the story is already being thought of in the moment as we're driving to the location and there's strengths where maybe the other person doesn't have those strengths and I think just being a team of two makes us super agile."
They've kept the equipment simple to allow mobility when it counts. The quality is in the equipment they have chosen and they know keeping it simple allows for the best approach when dealing with camera-shy people.
"What we are trying to capture is real life and that's the most amazing back drop of all," MacDonald said. "And it really does go to a deeper level than just running ads."
MacDonald sites Boogie with the Stars as an example. Tim and Carli Bennett competed in the dance competition and did a really sweet dance, she said.
"I just felt like wow, they're kids when they're grown up are going to be able to watch this and see what their parents were like when they were young and they did this cool thing in front of a bunch of people and isn't that wild," MacDonald said. "The work that we do is capturing memories in a way that our families have never had before and so that's just kind of our mission."
