189: Danny Gula (Redding Creative)

Danny Gula on Innovation City

“When you stop thinking about things as they are, you can imagine what they’re going to be.” -Danny Gula

Welcome to Season 5 of Innovation City (The St. Louis Edition), a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency and Aīre Ventures, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community.

Welcome to Season 5 of Innovation City (The St. Louis Edition), a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Today’s guest is Danny Gula, partner at Redding Creative, a media company specializing in video production. Danny Gula is a renowned digital content creator, a former Vat19 employee, a star in the series Hidden in Plain Sight, a husband and a father. In this episode, Danny sits down with the team to discuss using ADHD to your advantage, creating viral video content, the power of believing in yourself, and much more!

They discuss:

Danny Gula’s Superpower
- ADHD
- Danny has supportive parents, and he was able to turn his disability into a positive trait.
How has your ADHD superpower manifested in your life?
- Danny’s mind is constantly spinning, and he has discovered that he’s an “idea guy.”
- His ADHD makes him think out of the box and ignore the world for what it is. ADHD is a characteristic that’s common among creatives for this very reason.
What have you learned about yourself?
- Danny has felt encouraged on his journey. He read a biography about Jim Carey as a kid, and the book taught him the importance of having an outlet.
- He has never given up on trying new things.
Danny’s Success in Creating Viral Content
- Danny has had billions of views on his content on YouTube.
- In Danny’s role at Vat19, they had under a million subscribers when he started, and when he left, they were at 7.5 million viewers.
- Danny is most proud of a series he worked on called Hidden in Plain Sight, an 18 episode series that went viral during his career at Vat19.
Is there a formula for creating viral content?
- There are formulas, and some people guarantee a certain level of success when they undertake your project, but many do this by paying for ads.
- Danny has focused more on building an organic audience by creating unique commercials.
- Although Danny doesn’t use a formula, he does one of two things in his content.
  - He creates content that people can easily recreate themselves.
  - He creates content that everyone is interested in or would want to do but couldn’t or wouldn’t do it themselves.
- Danny also believes in videos that tug on the heartstrings and wholesome videos. It’s all about finding what resonates with people and going with it.
What does that creative process look like when you’re going through ideas?
- It’s a constant struggle because you have to work within the algorithms.
- Creating content is all about balancing your integrity as an artist. It’s deciding what you want to do versus what people want to see.
- Danny has a partner, John, and they’ve been friends for their entire lives. They engage in the creative process together, and both accept that there are no bad ideas in brainstorming.
- Having a partner who knows his strengths and who balances him out has been crucial to his journey.
- Danny and his partner never turn it off, and they’re not afraid to fail.
What does your partnership process look like when you’re working with clients?
- Client work is tough.
- You always have a client- whether it’s the algorithm on YouTube or the physical client.
- Ask people to trust you a little bit, build a relationship, and promise them that you’ll meet them where they want to be.
Danny’s Current Business: Redding Creative
- Redding Creative is a media company that offers commercial media, video productions, consulting services, and original productions.
- Their business model grants people a different way of making commercials.
- Some of their current projects are the YouTube channel, Randomonium, and a podcast called Timely.
- Danny and his partner don’t believe in putting all their eggs in one basket, so they always have multiple avenues they’re pursuing.
- Sometimes it’s about taking risks and believing in yourself and your abilities.

Lightning Round:

What is one of the kindest things someone has ever done for you?
- Danny had a boss who took a chance on him and gave him tough love when he needed it. He could’ve fired him, but instead, he supported him.
What do you dream of achieving one day?
- Being a good father and grandfather one day
Where have you found peace?
- Therapy
What is something new you recently tried and loved?
- Oat milk
What have you witnessed that has strengthened your faith in humanity?
- The pandemic