How and who should tell your story with Zach Daulton

Zach Daulton is a husband, father, a filmmaker from Ohio. Zach Daulton is a writer and director, known for Mayfield (2016), Lost in Static (2019), and Impulse (2014). He is an amazing young storyteller with a gift for films that he calls empathy machines.  As it says on his website, “I make films that make people feel something.” John and Ashely have known Zach for years and could not more highly recommend someone for the work that they do.

Insights & Inspirations

  • we call films empathy machines – Zach Daulton
  •  “If I want to be a narrative storyteller, if I want to be a storyteller, then I need to immerse myself in the language in a way to where it just comes out of me, and I don’t even have to think about it.”- Zach Daulton
  • It’s a tremendous link between vocabulary and beauty. – Ashely Marsh
  • It’s easy to forget that people make emotional decisions – Zach Daulton
  • The gift that, I believe, God gave to me was that I hear what people are not saying. I’m tapping into that feeling and that emotion that they’re wanting to experience and hold onto.  – Ashely Marsh
  • So, you don’t always have to pack in as much as possible into a film or a video, because if you can just hook people, they will want to know more, and they will find more.  – Zach Daulton
  • People make emotional decisions, rich people, smart people, poor people. As much as you think you don’t make emotional decisions, you absolutely do. – Zach Daulton
  • the first step, just figuring out who your audience is.  – Zach Daulton
  • I think most people, every business, every non-profit, everyone that’s trying to develop, stories and at least these things, they’re how they communicate with people, and they’re just not realizing it, and a lot of times, a video or a film can take that hour-long story that you’re telling and tell it in three to five minutes, or whatever, and just be as effective to people. – Zach Daulton
  • Well, I think the biggest thing that people do wrong is they realize it’s important because people are telling them it’s important. They realize, “Oh, well, we need a video. We need a video.” They don’t understand why they need a video. – Zach Daulton
  • “Find a filmmaker, or director, or whatever you want to call it, storyteller. Find someone who has made work that makes you feel like you want people to feel when they watch your video.”- Zach Daulton
  • Well, in initial meetings, the first thing I say is, “Where’s this video going to live? What is its purpose? What is it? Are you putting it on your website? Are you using it before a presentation? Are you trying to get sales? Are you only showing this to a dozen people, trying to get investments for a building project you have? What is the video? What are you trying to do with it? It’s your story, but what is the purpose of telling it?” – Zach Daulton
  • Any time you lose focus in a story, you tend to lose people. – Zach Daulton

Information & Links

Closing Questions

What have you read that we should read?

  • Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

What movie have you seen that we should see?

Who do you know about doing good work in the world that we should know about?

Where have you been that we should go?

Cincinnati, Ohio