Episode #240: From Marine to Media Mogul: Jesse Sieff on Leading with Precision

Jesse Sieff is no stranger to reinvention. From military barracks to media production, he’s built a career on sharp pivots and sharper leadership. In this episode, Jesse breaks down how his time in the Marine Corps Drum & Bugle Corps instilled in him a deep respect for discipline, detail, and public representation—skills that now fuel his work at Sieff Studios.

Jesse’s leadership style blends strategic vision with creative execution. His studio isn’t just about producing polished videos—it’s about crafting media that moves people and delivers results. He shares how his military background helped him lead high-performing teams and why leaders should master the art of storytelling if they want to build trust and drive action.

Listeners get a behind-the-scenes look at how Jesse helps clients show up confidently on camera and how he integrates AI tools to strengthen internal communication and branding. Whether you're a business owner navigating change or a leader scaling your message, Jesse offers actionable insight on building systems that support clarity, confidence, and growth.

Want to learn more about Jesse Sieff's work? Check out their website at https://www.sieffstudios.com.

Connect with Jesse Sieff on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessesieff/.

Key Points with Timestamps

00:51 – Introduction of Jesse Sieff and his career highlights
01:33 – Jesse’s background in the Marine Corps Band and the importance of precision
02:44 – The dual music ensembles at the historic 8th & I Marine Barracks
04:44 – How attention to detail and discipline defined Jesse’s military experience
07:30 – Jesse’s musical origins and pivot from civil engineering to music
12:30 – The viral success of Jesse’s first composition, Chops to Courage
13:59 – Jesse explains the mission of his podcast, Life Designers
15:11 – Why transitions—especially for veterans—sparked his interest in storytelling
18:49 – How Jesse transitioned from music to video editing
21:11 – Jesse’s social media campaigns in the Marines reached 5.5M impressions
25:49 – The problem with overproduced videos in corporate settings
27:00 – Why authenticity outperforms polish on platforms like Facebook
28:14 – What makes a video ad compelling—emotion, tension, and relatability
29:01 – Sieff Studios’ unique approach: strategy, coaching, and production
30:00 – Jesse explains why video without ROI tracking isn’t worth creating
30:49 – How Sieff Studios integrates AI into internal and external communications
32:02 – Final thoughts and where to find Jesse online

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;22;03
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Jesse Sieff. He is the founder and CEO of Sieff Studios. It is a veteran owned media consulting and production firm operating from their custom built recording studio in Annapolis, Maryland. Close to where I grew up. Good part of the country. He has a podcast called Life Designers that empowers people to make their biggest career pivots with confidence and clarity.

00;01;22;06 - 00;01;27;00
Craig Andrews
He is also a classically trained percussionist, a published composer.

00;01;27;00 - 00;01;33;21
Craig Andrews
My favorite trade. He is a marine. He not only a marine, but he served in the Marine Corps Band,

00;01;33;21 - 00;01;41;00
Craig Andrews
in the prestigious eighth and I Marine Barracks. Jesse, welcome.

00;01;41;03 - 00;01;43;14
Jesse Sieff
Thank you so much, Craig, I appreciate it. You're

00;01;43;14 - 00;01;47;26
Jesse Sieff
very kind of invite me on here. So I'm excited to talk to you.

00;01;47;29 - 00;01;51;20
Craig Andrews
So for those that don't know what's what's eighth and I,

00;01;51;20 - 00;01;54;20
Craig Andrews
what's the Marine Corps band and why does that matter?

00;01;54;22 - 00;02;18;04
Jesse Sieff
Yes. So right off the bat, I will clarify. There are two premier marine ensembles at a marine barracks. So ace and I marine barracks is the historic barracks of the Marine Corps. It's the oldest post of the Corps. And that is where the commandant's house is. And that's where all of the ceremonies happen. That kind of represents the brand of the Marine Corps.

00;02;18;04 - 00;02;31;16
Jesse Sieff
So you've seen, probably the Silent Drill platoon on the billboards and on the commercials. That's where they call home. And the two musical ensembles I mentioned. One is the President's Own Marine Band.

00;02;31;16 - 00;02;42;25
Jesse Sieff
They were essentially established by an act of Congress. And John Philip Sousa is a famous director of that ensemble. So if you've heard of,

00;02;42;25 - 00;02;44;16
Jesse Sieff
the Stars and Stripes Forever,

00;02;44;16 - 00;02;48;05
Jesse Sieff
all of those marches that are that's the classics, right?

00;02;48;05 - 00;02;54;15
Jesse Sieff
The classic marches. That's why it's called the March King. He was associated with that band, the and. Yeah.

00;02;54;17 - 00;02;57;08
Craig Andrews
And isn't that one of the,

00;02;57;08 - 00;03;01;25
Craig Andrews
songs they play, like every 4th of July? I mean, everybody's heard,

00;03;01;25 - 00;03;06;15
Craig Andrews
oh, yeah, Stars and Stripes Forever. Everybody's heard it. Whether you know the name or not. Everybody's heard it.

00;03;06;17 - 00;03;23;28
Jesse Sieff
Yeah. And and if it's helpful, I'll just sing a few notes from it. Bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump. And the term didn't then. So if you didn't know the name of it, you probably would recognize the tune. But yes, it is. It is a classic.

00;03;24;00 - 00;03;25;11
Craig Andrews
Written by a marine.

00;03;25;14 - 00;03;26;25
Jesse Sieff
Exactly.

00;03;26;25 - 00;03;46;01
Jesse Sieff
So that's the Marine Band. The sibling organization is the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, and they are exclusively brass instruments and percussion. They don't have woodwinds, they don't have string instruments. And they are essentially,

00;03;46;01 - 00;03;54;20
Jesse Sieff
a support organization for the commandant of the Marine Corps. So we're torn from the country going all over the world doing performances.

00;03;54;22 - 00;03;56;24
Jesse Sieff
You know, we're doing,

00;03;56;24 - 00;03;59;23
Jesse Sieff
live television broadcast. We're performing,

00;03;59;23 - 00;04;10;11
Jesse Sieff
you know, for funerals, for ambassador arrivals, inaugurations for large events in Washington, D.C.. So that's that's essentially the roles. And we split it up between those two units.

00;04;10;13 - 00;04;20;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, and we you and I talked about this before, you know, of course, I was in the Marines and I was in a secure shop that you had to ring the doorbell,

00;04;20;13 - 00;04;29;20
Craig Andrews
to be led in, and you had to be escorted. And so everybody left us alone. We were, you know, we're in a fenced in compound, and then you had to get through more security,

00;04;29;20 - 00;04;31;19
Craig Andrews
to get into our shop.

00;04;31;22 - 00;04;40;24
Craig Andrews
And it was nice because we were out of the public eye. You were, like, on the complete opposite of that. You were, you know, you're next door neighbors coming down the Marine Corps.

00;04;40;26 - 00;04;44;04
Jesse Sieff
Yes, exactly. And,

00;04;44;04 - 00;05;00;02
Jesse Sieff
I also felt like I had a part time job at a dry cleaners because your uniform just had to be pristine at all times. We're doing edge dressing, painting our shoes black. Were snipping off every little tiny thread, making sure the buttons are vertical. So we were very much,

00;05;00;02 - 00;05;02;27
Jesse Sieff
in a culture of attention to detail and,

00;05;02;27 - 00;05;09;09
Jesse Sieff
essentially having that bearing, that presence that is a part of the Marines brand.

00;05;09;12 - 00;05;18;11
Craig Andrews
Now, something I heard, I never got close to that part of the Marine Corps. But one of the things I heard was, if you were there, you got accelerated,

00;05;18;11 - 00;05;28;21
Craig Andrews
rank. You know, you didn't go through, like Lance corporal, you know, private Lance corporal, all that business. You just kind of because of your skills, you're magically pinned on a few stripes.

00;05;28;21 - 00;05;30;07
Craig Andrews
Is that is that true?

00;05;30;09 - 00;06;02;17
Jesse Sieff
It is. And it it depends on which unit you're talking about. So for the president's own marine band, if you win that audition, you start at E6, which is awesome, right? And it's a civilian acquired skill. You have to win the audition. It's incredibly competitive. And because the president's own Marine Band is the only unit in the entire Marine Corps that doesn't have a secondary combat function, you don't need to go to boot camp, and they're the only ones.

00;06;02;19 - 00;06;04;14
Craig Andrews
So I didn't know that.

00;06;04;15 - 00;06;13;29
Jesse Sieff
Yes, they are the only unit in the entire Marine Corps that is not required to go to boot camp, because they're so existence is to play music.

00;06;13;29 - 00;06;27;18
Jesse Sieff
However, the Commandant's own, the unit that I was a part of, you do have to go to boot camp. So. And you do not start to be six. So you are likely to get promoted faster because it's it's own MOS.

00;06;27;18 - 00;06;55;22
Jesse Sieff
It's incredibly small. So, you know, at any given time there's between 80 and 150 members of this drum corps. But because of that, because you're a 5512 and that's your MOS, there's a good chance you're going to get promoted faster than any other unit in the Marine Corps. So you still start at private, first class or private, but you usually pick up right quickly.

00;06;55;24 - 00;07;08;06
Craig Andrews
Wow. That's cool. Yeah, I was parked at Corporal Forever. I was in the I was in an MOS where I knew everybody in my MOS, and I had to wait for a sergeant to get out for me to pin one. Sergeant.

00;07;08;09 - 00;07;15;00
Jesse Sieff
Yep, yep. It still works that way. It's just, you know, there's a lot more people in the pool of sergeants depending on,

00;07;15;00 - 00;07;17;04
Jesse Sieff
you know, if, if you have,

00;07;17;04 - 00;07;22;04
Jesse Sieff
you know, 50 people you're waiting for versus maybe 15.

00;07;22;04 - 00;07;26;08
Jesse Sieff
Yeah. But corporal was as a fun rank. Yeah, I liked I like being a corporal.

00;07;26;11 - 00;07;27;17
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;07;27;19 - 00;07;30;03
Jesse Sieff
Sometimes.

00;07;30;06 - 00;07;33;25
Craig Andrews
So, how did you get started in music?

00;07;33;27 - 00;07;59;21
Jesse Sieff
So I kind of fell into it. And my cousin was a drummer. He played in high school, and I think one Easter he left his drum pad and sticks over at my house, and I just kind of started to learn it and pick it up. But before that, I had been playing piano. So really my primary instrument that I had learned was piano, and most of it was by ear.

00;07;59;23 - 00;08;03;20
Jesse Sieff
I took a year of formal lessons. It didn't work out,

00;08;03;20 - 00;08;16;11
Jesse Sieff
super well, just because I had been learning by ear for so long that my teacher would play the thing that I was supposed to be reading, and I would essentially just pretend to read. I was probably like 8 or 9 years old at this point.

00;08;16;11 - 00;08;22;02
Jesse Sieff
So I was still playing fine, but it wasn't the reading that I was strong at.

00;08;22;04 - 00;08;25;15
Jesse Sieff
So from there, I,

00;08;25;15 - 00;08;44;23
Jesse Sieff
started to pick up drums a little bit more. Got into the high school drumline my junior year, so I actually started later than most people and played bass drum my first year, snare drum my senior year, and then I started playing in collegiate bands. So I was in the University of Pittsburgh's marching band after high school,

00;08;44;23 - 00;08;47;15
Jesse Sieff
while attending a community college.

00;08;47;17 - 00;09;08;07
Jesse Sieff
And from there I just met more people that were taking music more seriously than I was. So I always were like, okay, there's another level to this. There's another level to be had. And then I discovered the world of drum corps, which is like professional marching band. Right? You're touring, touring the nation, doing competitive style marching and drumming.

00;09;08;10 - 00;09;14;12
Jesse Sieff
And that was a bug that I didn't shake off. And sure enough,

00;09;14;12 - 00;09;34;03
Jesse Sieff
marched in the Glassman Drum and Bugle Corps 2011. I did some indoor drum lines, and then I eventually switched my major from engineering to music. So I transferred my credits from a community college and an engineering program, and then started at IUP as a music major.

00;09;34;05 - 00;09;34;13
Craig Andrews
What,

00;09;34;13 - 00;09;36;29
Craig Andrews
what type of engineering were you going into?

00;09;37;02 - 00;09;40;20
Jesse Sieff
Civil engineering. So a lot of CAD, a lot of,

00;09;40;20 - 00;09;46;09
Jesse Sieff
you know, Autodesk very tedious precision.

00;09;46;12 - 00;09;51;07
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, you know, I learned the expensive way that,

00;09;51;07 - 00;09;54;22
Craig Andrews
engineering is not a field that rewards creativity.

00;09;54;24 - 00;10;00;19
Jesse Sieff
No, no, no, typically not you. There's a lot of parameters. You have to stay within that,

00;10;00;19 - 00;10;01;25
Jesse Sieff
for good reason. For good.

00;10;01;25 - 00;10;07;04
Craig Andrews
Reason. Perfect. Yeah. I mean, when you make. I mean, I did well in engineering, it's just,

00;10;07;04 - 00;10;11;17
Craig Andrews
it's not a if you wouldn't be creative. It's just not a place to be creative.

00;10;11;17 - 00;10;13;27
Craig Andrews
Because when you get creative,

00;10;13;27 - 00;10;22;04
Craig Andrews
either in the case of civil engineering people die or in electrical engineering, you make multimillion dollar mistakes.

00;10;22;06 - 00;10;27;24
Jesse Sieff
Right? Both of which are bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;10;27;27 - 00;10;32;05
Craig Andrews
So cool. And so then music. What what did you pursue in,

00;10;32;05 - 00;10;34;25
Craig Andrews
music when you switched over to that?

00;10;34;28 - 00;10;43;25
Jesse Sieff
So I was in the percussion studio and also drumming and I say drumming very broadly. So percussion is the,

00;10;43;25 - 00;10;55;19
Jesse Sieff
the technical term for a professional who hits things professionally, and that could be anything. So a percussionist, you can play playing timpani, xylophone, marimba,

00;10;55;19 - 00;11;06;16
Jesse Sieff
snare drum, gong, triangle, cymbals, rocks, anything. Right? If the piece calls for a percussionist job is to figure out how to make it sound good.

00;11;06;18 - 00;11;24;15
Jesse Sieff
My primary instrument was marching snare drum, and that's because of the background in drum corps and marching bands. So that was essentially my primary instrument. I learned all of the other ones, learn how to read music a little bit better, but yeah, it was it was a really,

00;11;24;15 - 00;11;35;12
Jesse Sieff
immersive experience, going to college for music and just being surrounded by people that were doing the same thing or eating, breathing, sleeping music all day long.

00;11;35;15 - 00;11;51;19
Jesse Sieff
And it was in that environment where I had my, first, I guess, urge to start writing and start composing. So that's where that that kind of took off. And,

00;11;51;19 - 00;12;02;00
Jesse Sieff
the reason I actually got into the Marine Corps is because of a piece that I composed, and it was for the audition. So they said, you can play anything you want.

00;12;02;00 - 00;12;06;11
Jesse Sieff
You there's your here's all the required stuff. You can play anything you want,

00;12;06;11 - 00;12;17;21
Jesse Sieff
as an additional piece for your audition, but we just have to have the sheet music to it. So I'm like, okay. And and that was the reason that I decided to notate out this piece that I was,

00;12;17;21 - 00;12;27;01
Jesse Sieff
written over String Quartet number eight by Dmitri Shostakovich and combining snare drum with,

00;12;27;01 - 00;12;30;17
Jesse Sieff
you know, strings hasn't really been done before, apparently.

00;12;30;20 - 00;12;53;10
Jesse Sieff
And I named that piece Chops to Courage. And it's on YouTube. It has has like, you know, half a million plus views on it. And it's it's one of the most widely shared and bestselling pieces of snare drum literature of all time, which was surprise to me because it was the first thing I'd ever written. So that's what launched me into,

00;12;53;10 - 00;12;54;06
Jesse Sieff
the Marine Corps career.

00;12;54;09 - 00;12;55;15
Jesse Sieff
That piece.

00;12;55;17 - 00;13;02;12
Craig Andrews
That's cool. So of the various eras of classical music, what is your favorite era?

00;13;02;15 - 00;13;16;04
Jesse Sieff
Oh, that's that's a tough one. Honestly, I have I have a thing for Russian composers. So I gotta say, just like late 80s, late 1800s, early 1900s, like the Stravinsky era.

00;13;16;05 - 00;13;25;12
Jesse Sieff
You know, even Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, like I mentioned. So I don't know what it is, but that's that's probably what I would say.

00;13;25;14 - 00;13;37;28
Craig Andrews
Yeah. My cutoff is kind of in the romance or I love, you know, I love Tchaikovsky. But as soon as it goes into the 20th century, there's just something that's not my thing.

00;13;38;01 - 00;13;40;26
Jesse Sieff
Yeah, a lot of dissonant harmonies and,

00;13;40;26 - 00;13;47;21
Jesse Sieff
Yeah, it's interesting. I, I appreciate the, the contrast, too, because a lot of things are happening in that time.

00;13;47;23 - 00;13;59;03
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. Oh, cool. Now, one thing that's kind of interesting, I'm sure this will tie in here pretty quickly. You have a podcast called Life Designers. What's that about?

00;13;59;06 - 00;14;29;03
Jesse Sieff
Yes. So that is about the intersection of personal growth, career and business development and lifestyle design. And to to sum it up with the three bullets there. And essentially I'm interviewing people that have undergone major career pivots. They have gone from one thing that was, you know, for sure going to be their trajectory. And then something happened and now they had to change everything.

00;14;29;06 - 00;14;44;29
Jesse Sieff
So the point of the podcast is to capture those stories and share some of the resources and insights that those people used to navigate change. And we're interviewing entrepreneurs, business owners, coaches,

00;14;44;29 - 00;14;48;16
Jesse Sieff
people in talent acquisition because they have a unique perspective,

00;14;48;16 - 00;14;54;28
Jesse Sieff
from inside an organization, seeing people going through those changes. So some of the things that they're looking for,

00;14;54;28 - 00;14;55;25
Jesse Sieff
but it's been interesting.

00;14;55;25 - 00;15;06;13
Jesse Sieff
Yeah. I think we're like 38, 39 episodes in right now. And it's it's been very interesting to to talk to all those people.

00;15;06;16 - 00;15;11;11
Craig Andrews
All right. But what was the inspiration for that podcast?

00;15;11;14 - 00;15;24;12
Jesse Sieff
Well, I mean, a lot of my own story was radical career pivots. I mean, you know, as, as we've been talking like, oh, yeah, going from engineering to music would raise a few eyebrows. It's just like reading it on paper.

00;15;24;12 - 00;15;33;14
Jesse Sieff
And then from Marine Corps to entrepreneurship was was another one. Everyone has a military transition story that they can tell.

00;15;33;17 - 00;15;37;11
Jesse Sieff
So I think a lot of the,

00;15;37;11 - 00;15;46;08
Jesse Sieff
exposure that I had had to the veteran community and the military community, especially here in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area,

00;15;46;08 - 00;15;54;27
Jesse Sieff
there's a lot of military bases. There's a lot of government agencies. I went to a ton of networking events and really just started to meet people and understand,

00;15;54;27 - 00;16;01;21
Jesse Sieff
just the variety of stories and experiences that people have as they transition out of the military.

00;16;01;23 - 00;16;18;14
Jesse Sieff
And I wanted to make that a part of it, but not the theme of the podcast, because I didn't want to exclude nonmilitary people. So that's I think what I, what God had in my head is this idea of transition, this idea of change and evolution.

00;16;18;14 - 00;16;23;09
Jesse Sieff
Everyone, probably everyone has a story there, right? Everyone has a story.

00;16;23;11 - 00;16;29;14
Craig Andrews
You know, when I got out there, I committed to myself there. I went and jump out of an airplane or from any other,

00;16;29;14 - 00;16;39;18
Craig Andrews
tall height for at least a year after I got out, because I had seen it, you know, folks would get out and they discover life was, like, incredibly boring.

00;16;39;18 - 00;16;40;27
Craig Andrews
And they look for ways to go.

00;16;40;27 - 00;16;46;14
Craig Andrews
I had interest back in their life and they'd injured themselves. And

00;16;46;14 - 00;17;00;04
Craig Andrews
so I, I made that commitment I remember. And that's when bungee jumping was first becoming a thing. And I remember seeing one of those I'm like oh that looks fun. And I was like nope, nope. Sticking to my commitment.

00;17;00;07 - 00;17;00;29
Jesse Sieff
Good.

00;17;00;29 - 00;17;07;07
Jesse Sieff
It's a it's a high bar to set jumping out of airplanes. Yeah. For thrill seeking.

00;17;07;09 - 00;17;09;21
Craig Andrews
What's funny is when I got out,

00;17;09;21 - 00;17;20;15
Craig Andrews
you know, I, you know, I transferred up to NC state. I had been going to a community college and one of the very first classes, first semester, one of my first classes was,

00;17;20;15 - 00;17;27;13
Craig Andrews
calculus, and the professor had passes a sheet around for everybody to write their name, and I write my name.

00;17;27;13 - 00;17;44;09
Craig Andrews
They I pass it to the guy sitting to my immediate right, and he's looking at me. He's got long, shaggy hair and a big mustache, and he's like, were you in the Marine Corps? And as soon as I heard his voice, I was like, brick, well, we can't. We used to work together like years ago.

00;17;44;09 - 00;17;46;25
Craig Andrews
But, you know, he looked different.

00;17;46;26 - 00;17;47;28
Craig Andrews
He didn't have,

00;17;47;28 - 00;17;53;01
Craig Andrews
didn't have a marine Corps haircut and definitely didn't have a marine Corps mustache.

00;17;53;04 - 00;17;54;07
Jesse Sieff
Not super cool.

00;17;54;10 - 00;18;01;29
Craig Andrews
Yeah, but we were sitting there, like, side by side, and we used to be in the same class fight shot back in the Marine Corps.

00;18;02;01 - 00;18;10;07
Jesse Sieff
Wow. That just goes to show how well you get to know people that you serve with. It's like you can recognize their voice and,

00;18;10;07 - 00;18;12;16
Jesse Sieff
know in their face, even if they're totally different.

00;18;12;18 - 00;18;29;00
Craig Andrews
Well, it was fine. We didn't overlap a lot. And he was like, oh, I'm surprised you remember me. And I was like, Rick, you're a legend. And I start telling that story about something that happened. Well, he's now at this point, he's married with young kids. He's like, no, no, no, no, we don't need those stories coming out.

00;18;29;02 - 00;18;31;01
Craig Andrews
So I leave that in the Marine Corps.

00;18;31;03 - 00;18;38;10
Jesse Sieff
Yes. They're probably for the best. Yeah, there's there's always a handful of stories that are best kept for the,

00;18;38;10 - 00;18;41;10
Jesse Sieff
you know, the the saloon. Only with marine buddies.

00;18;41;12 - 00;18;49;17
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So anyway, well, your pivot, you went from music to video, which I find fascinating.

00;18;49;20 - 00;18;51;02
Jesse Sieff
Yeah.

00;18;51;02 - 00;19;15;12
Jesse Sieff
I guess the chops to college piece that I mentioned was the first music video that I had created, and other musicians that I was going to college with were taking auditions in different ensembles. So helping them create videos and learning editing was really the first part of that evolution and precision editing. And fortunately with,

00;19;15;12 - 00;19;20;16
Jesse Sieff
you know, an associate's degree in civil engineering, I understood generally

00;19;20;16 - 00;19;26;00
Jesse Sieff
how to navigate the digital tools that a video editor inherently has.

00;19;26;02 - 00;19;59;15
Jesse Sieff
So there's a lot of overlap there. And if you think about the synthesis between AutoCAD and engineering and music, a natural combination of those is movie making and video production. Because you're still storytelling, right? You still have to hold people's attention. They're still elements of tension release right. Resolution developments. There's a beginning, middle and an end. And all of that.

00;19;59;15 - 00;20;02;14
Jesse Sieff
I applied to

00;20;02;14 - 00;20;27;20
Jesse Sieff
all of what I learned in music. I applied to visual arts and just started to pick it up and basically when I was in the Marine Corps, they recognized that I had this core competency in video editing. And like the Marine Corps and most government agencies do, they will find people that have creative competencies and they will exploit them to the fullest extent.

00;20;27;23 - 00;20;37;23
Jesse Sieff
Which which I was grateful for because it just gave me an opportunity to continue learning, producing, you know, getting reps, creating videos, telling stories. So I actually served,

00;20;37;23 - 00;20;40;18
Jesse Sieff
a B billet in the public affairs office,

00;20;40;18 - 00;20;49;17
Jesse Sieff
for, for three years while I was in. And that involved running the social media campaigns and doing video promotions for our, our show tours.

00;20;49;19 - 00;20;50;05
Jesse Sieff
And then,

00;20;50;05 - 00;20;58;07
Jesse Sieff
the battalion was interested in there, like, hey, you have a, you have somebody in your unit that's producing all of these incredible videos. We want that too. So,

00;20;58;07 - 00;21;03;28
Jesse Sieff
quickly, that became my main focus is the public affairs role,

00;21;03;28 - 00;21;06;20
Jesse Sieff
in addition to being a musician. So,

00;21;06;20 - 00;21;11;20
Jesse Sieff
by the end of my enlistment, we, we do these things called fit reps.

00;21;11;22 - 00;21;23;25
Jesse Sieff
Write your fitness report, like, look back, track your progress, what have you done? And what results have you gotten for our unit that usually puts you up for an award?

00;21;23;25 - 00;21;29;15
Jesse Sieff
I ended up tripling the social media following and reaching like 5.5 million,

00;21;29;15 - 00;21;35;12
Jesse Sieff
impressions with the video campaigns that I had done. So that was essentially my first case study,

00;21;35;12 - 00;21;37;21
Jesse Sieff
working in a military unit.

00;21;37;23 - 00;21;59;00
Jesse Sieff
And, you know, they gave me the, you know, Navy, marine Corps Achievement Medal. They're like, you know, good job. And what's cool was like, when I tracked that it was 2020. And those videos are still being used, right? They're still published online, continuing to compound in value, even after I left. So I was, super grateful to do that type of work.

00;21;59;02 - 00;22;01;00
Jesse Sieff
That is continuing to benefit,

00;22;01;00 - 00;22;02;25
Jesse Sieff
the unit in the brand.

00;22;02;28 - 00;22;13;11
Craig Andrews
Yeah. That's cool. And, you know, when I look at video, you know, I have I have the tools have Premiere Pro, I have,

00;22;13;11 - 00;22;30;21
Craig Andrews
some other tools. You have the full Adobe Suite and the one thing I know is I have I can tell the story, but I don't have the chops to do the video. There's just something different when a pro does it.

00;22;30;21 - 00;22;36;21
Craig Andrews
Versus may have never been able to put my finger on what that something is, but it's there.

00;22;36;23 - 00;22;48;16
Jesse Sieff
So you can visualize what you know. You want it to look like. But it's like the application. It's the technical doing it. You know how knowing what buttons to push and where to put things.

00;22;48;18 - 00;23;03;20
Craig Andrews
Well, there's there's actually an element of art there. I know the story. I want to tell, but getting, you know, I and I actually did this for some my I took a video and I, you know, we recorded like,

00;23;03;20 - 00;23;13;24
Craig Andrews
our, our a video maybe it was 40 minutes and then I chopped it down to about three, three minutes.

00;23;14;00 - 00;23;25;08
Craig Andrews
I think, you know, to tell the story. And maybe there was some of the technical execution doing the sound balancing, doing the transitions. Yeah.

00;23;25;11 - 00;23;26;22
Jesse Sieff
Both important.

00;23;26;25 - 00;23;37;09
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And yeah, it just and we hand it off to a professional and what they came back with was just so much better.

00;23;37;11 - 00;23;50;18
Jesse Sieff
It's, it's interesting because especially whenever you're editing your own stuff, it's hard to have a third person perspective just inherently regardless if they're a professional video editor or not.

00;23;50;18 - 00;24;06;16
Jesse Sieff
But the big advantage of having someone work on your videos is that they have probably created a lot of them in the past. Right? And they have the repetitions piecing together, like you said, the transitions.

00;24;06;18 - 00;24;08;25
Jesse Sieff
Right. How are we holding attention,

00;24;08;25 - 00;24;18;25
Jesse Sieff
across time? What emotions are we trying to elicit from the story? And there's some esthetic things to like the color correction, the lighting.

00;24;18;25 - 00;24;22;22
Jesse Sieff
The sound design is surprisingly very important. If it's,

00;24;22;22 - 00;24;32;08
Jesse Sieff
you know, if it's going to create an impact, you want to be mindful of all of the senses that you're going to be engaging for the viewer.

00;24;32;11 - 00;24;42;22
Jesse Sieff
But yeah, it's I don't want to say it's a skill that can't be learned because it absolutely. Video editing can, of course, be learned.

00;24;42;22 - 00;24;52;04
Jesse Sieff
But there is kind of an artistic element to it that makes it just just better if you know what you're looking for and how to do it.

00;24;52;06 - 00;25;11;25
Craig Andrews
You know, there's a, yeah, I watch, like, YouTube videos and there's this ad that keeps popping up, and I look at that, I just think, you know, it's for some small business and Hvac business. I'm like, don't you have any friends in your life that that love you enough to come up and say, dude, pull that thing down.

00;25;11;25 - 00;25;13;18
Craig Andrews
That's that's hurting your business?

00;25;13;21 - 00;25;49;16
Jesse Sieff
Oh yeah. It's it's interesting because it almost it depends on the industry because there's also such a thing as overproduced. Yeah. And you see that in talent acquisition in nature where there's just like super polished company brand videos and employee testimonials that are just like 4K resolution, perfect lighting, studio settings is like, oh, you're you're doing a great job with the video, but the point that you're trying to convey is inauthentic, which is bad, which is bad for your actual goal.

00;25;49;18 - 00;26;04;05
Jesse Sieff
So I think that's even, you know, that's that's one level above professional video editing is understanding the purpose and the context and what success looks like for that video. And that's one example like you mentioned for,

00;26;04;05 - 00;26;13;14
Jesse Sieff
a contractor, it might do them a service to have a better produced video because that stands out from everyone else in their industry.

00;26;13;14 - 00;26;15;02
Jesse Sieff
So it just depends.

00;26;15;04 - 00;26;20;02
Craig Andrews
Well, the writing was bad. The probably the best thing in there.

00;26;20;02 - 00;26;23;20
Craig Andrews
Not the best. The audio picked up was it was echoey.

00;26;23;20 - 00;26;31;27
Craig Andrews
But the writing was bad. It was a bad story. And it just bad acting and echoey.

00;26;31;27 - 00;26;44;00
Craig Andrews
Yeah. The recording wasn't real clear and. Yeah, but the, you know, you bring up something and it's it's one of the things that's kept me off,

00;26;44;00 - 00;26;45;28
Craig Andrews
doing a lot on YouTube.

00;26;46;00 - 00;27;00;17
Craig Andrews
Yeah, we do a lot of marketing. We do a lot of stuff on Facebook. And I love it because if you do something heavily produced, if I'm running an ad on Facebook with a professionally produced video, it's not going to perform as well as an amateur video.

00;27;00;20 - 00;27;01;22
Jesse Sieff
Yeah.

00;27;01;24 - 00;27;05;09
Craig Andrews
And the and see the same thing with like,

00;27;05;09 - 00;27;05;18
Craig Andrews
just,

00;27;05;18 - 00;27;11;07
Craig Andrews
pictures, you know, something that's, you know, a really, really nice picture,

00;27;11;07 - 00;27;27;26
Craig Andrews
professionally taken will not perform as well as some things somebody snapped with their iPhone that's even framed not perfectly framed, you know, that's that medium. But when you move over to YouTube, at least my perception is, man, your videos need to be dialed in.

00;27;27;28 - 00;27;39;06
Jesse Sieff
Yeah, it's it's really important to be mindful of the platform and in the purpose. Right. Ads versus content for customer education or

00;27;39;06 - 00;27;51;20
Jesse Sieff
you know, any other utility you need to know what like like we said, success looks like there. And yeah, some of the best ads are people holding their phone and walking. And that's I see you I'm sure you've seen that all the time.

00;27;51;21 - 00;27;58;04
Jesse Sieff
It's like, yeah, here I am in my house just walking through it, telling you about this thing that's important. And,

00;27;58;04 - 00;28;14;05
Jesse Sieff
I'm going to capture your attention because you don't know where I'm going. There's just like, there's a subconscious element of rawness and realness that the algorithm rewards, and that human attention is automatically programed to want to find out what happens.

00;28;14;05 - 00;28;17;01
Jesse Sieff
And that's the recipe for a good ad.

00;28;17;03 - 00;28;24;23
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. In that video I told you about before where I was doing the story part, there was one part where I actually put in,

00;28;24;23 - 00;28;29;21
Craig Andrews
that the client had there's just this awkward little laugh, and it was,

00;28;29;21 - 00;28;33;19
Craig Andrews
not awkward in an irritating way, but awkward in a,

00;28;33;19 - 00;28;44;17
Craig Andrews
he's a little uncomfortable here. And, you know, and put that in only in one place, but it was just to humanize him.

00;28;44;20 - 00;28;56;20
Craig Andrews
You know, to make it feel, you know, make it a little bit more real, a little bit less polished, while also trying to make sure that the guy who polished up the video did a really professional job polishing it right?

00;28;56;22 - 00;29;00;13
Jesse Sieff
Yes. Now it's it's good to have people looking out for you there.

00;29;00;13 - 00;29;01;25
Jesse Sieff
Yeah.

00;29;01;28 - 00;29;07;04
Craig Andrews
So tell me what you do at your at Sif Studios where you guys have go in there.

00;29;07;06 - 00;29;20;23
Jesse Sieff
Yeah. So we have a physical studio here in Annapolis, Maryland area. But our focus is really video strategy and media coaching. And that's kind of what sets us apart from other studios is we have,

00;29;20;23 - 00;29;33;20
Jesse Sieff
the only system that combines strategy, coaching and production together and basically where we're helping leaders show up on camera right in a way that they feel comfortable and confident.

00;29;33;23 - 00;29;39;22
Jesse Sieff
Kind of like these examples that you're mentioning. It's like, oh, if only they were better prepared with their messaging.

00;29;39;22 - 00;29;53;25
Jesse Sieff
Or only if they had someone kind of guiding them through this, it would have just been foundationally better. So we we do a lot of that and, you know, coming to a recording session means we've already done our work.

00;29;53;29 - 00;30;00;12
Jesse Sieff
We have already done our our pre-production. We have a really great understanding of your brand,

00;30;00;12 - 00;30;26;25
Jesse Sieff
your brand voice, your client acquisition process, and exactly what are the videos that we need to drop in that will have the highest impact for you? So we do all of that upfront before we even come and start recording stuff. Because if we don't have a results, a like a results mechanism in place to track the ROI of the videos, then we're probably not a good fit to create them, right?

00;30;26;28 - 00;30;42;23
Jesse Sieff
Like I would say, I I've recommended that people go check out videographers, you know, freelancers if they are just looking to record something. If it doesn't have a business application like a wedding video, for example, it's like, we don't we don't we don't do wedding videos, we don't do birthday parties.

00;30;42;23 - 00;30;45;22
Jesse Sieff
It's always in the context of, of business.

00;30;45;24 - 00;30;46;05
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;30;46;11 - 00;30;47;22
Jesse Sieff
So that's, that's,

00;30;47;22 - 00;30;49;12
Jesse Sieff
a roundabout,

00;30;49;12 - 00;30;57;05
Jesse Sieff
what we do and we are also in the space of AI integrations too. So,

00;30;57;05 - 00;31;09;21
Jesse Sieff
talking about infrastructure for communications and internally, externally you're always building touch points and brand somewhere, right? Brand isn't just marketing. It's always it's,

00;31;09;21 - 00;31;20;11
Jesse Sieff
your, your conversations, your calls, the follow ups after your calls, how you greet your team, how your team communicates, and then that whole ecosystem.

00;31;20;13 - 00;31;32;22
Craig Andrews
Let's call. Well, Jesse, I've I mean, I've been fascinated by ever since we met. Where month, month or so ago. And love what you have going on.

00;31;32;22 - 00;31;35;20
Craig Andrews
How can people reach you?

00;31;35;22 - 00;31;40;11
Jesse Sieff
I'd say the the best way is on LinkedIn. I'm active there. That's our primary,

00;31;40;11 - 00;31;42;02
Jesse Sieff
networking channel.

00;31;42;02 - 00;31;46;23
Jesse Sieff
You can also go to Sif studios.com. You can check out our work there.

00;31;46;26 - 00;31;47;27
Craig Andrews
Can you spell that?

00;31;48;00 - 00;31;49;05
Jesse Sieff
Yeah. It's,

00;31;49;05 - 00;31;58;24
Jesse Sieff
last name is Sif CFF as in firefighter and then studios.com co.

00;31;58;26 - 00;32;02;24
Craig Andrews
Well hey Jesse thanks for coming on layers and like say semper fi.

00;32;02;27 - 00;32;07;14
Jesse Sieff
Semper fi Craig great talking to you. Thanks for the invite again.

00;32;07;14 - 00;32;34;08
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;32;34;08 - 00;32;36;03
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;32;36;05 - 00;32;59;15
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest. Tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;32;59;17 - 00;33;07;24
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up. Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;33;07;24 - 00;35;09;29
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Ally's for me.com. Or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.