Stafford Productions – Kelsey Stafford and Julio Neto

On today’s episode, I speak with Kelsey and Julio from Stafford Productions. Their company focuses on creating highlight videos for college recruits and more. Both were D2 soccer players and went through the recruiting process themselves, so they are able to add their perspective when it comes to the college journey.

For more about their services, visit – https://www.staffordproductionsllc.com/

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer, uh, special episode today for you. I am joined with the folks from Stafford Productions, Kelsey Stafford, and Julio Neto. Welcome guys. 

Kelsey: Thank you. Happy to be here. 

Matt: Yeah, thanks for coming on. Uh, I wanted to, I wanted to have this episode specifically cuz there’s been a whole bunch of, of talk, uh, on various message boards, Twitter threads, you name it around, uh, the highlight videos.

It’s. College showcase time of the year, so people are, Getting all this video and wondering, okay, now what do I do with it as they email the college coaches. So since you guys focus on highlight videos in your video production company, I figured you guys would be great to have on. Plus you’re both former division two soccer players at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, which, uh, I’ll have to har you’ll have to help me harass the coaches over there to come on the podcast cuz I haven’t had them on yet.

So, I’ll, I’ll ping you after you can, you can, uh, help me nudge them, uh, to get them on. But, but let’s talk a little bit. About your, your background, uh, before we get going. Um, and, and Kelsey, we could start with you. So how did you get from little youth soccer player, uh, to where, you know, playing division two and, and where you are now?

Kelsey: Sure. Um, so I grew up in Florida and I played club soccer for, uh, for Team Boca. And basically back then when I was being recruited, there wasn’t any big recruiting companies, so my mom and I basically did it ourselves. Um, we, she did my own highlight video. She [00:01:30] filmed every game herself. Um, and then we basically did our own kind of little college tour.

We drove around to schools that we were interested in. Um, we met with the coaching staff and we tried to attend ID camps that we thought of, schools that I wanted to attend. Um, and then basically I toured Lincoln Memorial. Um, I really loved it, honestly, because I kind of toured it in the wintertime and it was the only campus that had green grass and I wasn’t like, oh wow, winter’s really sad, , um, So it really stuck out to me it was a beautiful campus.

Um, and they had a very growing program. Um, so then the coach at the time, uh, offered me, uh, an offer and I accepted, and then, uh, I went there for, for school and I graduated, um, with a degree in communications, digital editing, and, um, film. 

Matt: Awesome. Well then this is, uh, you’re starting to put your, your degree to use even better, right? what, what about you?

Julio: Uh, so mine was a little different. And that’s the good thing about, uh, our company, because we got both sides. We got the recruiting side of Kelsey being American, my side, which is international. I came from Brazil. I’m from Jesus. It’s not that big of a city in Brazil. But I played academy in Brazil, uh, first Division Academy in three teams in, in my city.

So I went to, I did year 15, year one, year [00:03:00] 17, another one, year 20. And then another one this year, 20 gave me the opportunity to complain the United States. Uh, so it was great. It was a great, um, uh, like championship that we played in Orlando. Uh, he opened doors, especially. Back then, we had no idea what was college soccer.

Internet was big, but not as big as we were able to see, oh my God, college soccer is something big. So I was able to come and, and perform well. I was able to get some offers from coaches, but back then I had no English and. Like I say, back then I didn’t also have any games recorded, so I had no highlight video, so I was very lucky though that I was able to play in front of coaches.

I was able to get everything paid to come play here and then get seen by coaches. And then that way I was able to exchange numbers with one of these coaches that recruited me to go playing Kansas. So I went to, it’s literally the middle nowhere. in Kansas. But then he opened a lot of doors, did two years there, really great two years.

Then I was able to transfer to Lincoln Memorial. Then after that I had options to play Summer League. So I played NPSL play USL two, uh, that eventually got me a pro contract. Uh, we ended up being national champions with, uh, athletic Atlanta here in Atlanta. And we just, I was just playing for afc. Uh, we had a really great [00:04:30] season.

Uh, we’re 10 and oh maybe 11, and. Uh, had also an opportunity to be, again, national champions, but we felt short in the national, I think round of 32. Uh, but then I got more offers, so it really changed my life to come to the United States and I’m able to play soccer and run our company. It’s, it’s a dream come true.

Matt: Oh, that’s awesome. I, I was, 20 years ago, I tried to recruit a couple Brazilians to, uh, to my division two that I was coaching at. That, again, same thing, very, very rough English. They, they did some junior college work, but, but ended up, uh, going back to Brazil. They, they, they, they didn’t take the path you chose, which, which pained me because they were really good players that would’ve helped us.

But you know, it’s what it is. Um, but, but that’s awesome. Let’s talk a little bit, you know, how, how did you get into video production with her Kelsey, with her communications degree? Did you end up taking the same degree route as she did at, at Lincoln Memorial? 

Julio: No. So I ended up doing business. She normally tells me that I never studied because, uh, back then, like I said, I was looking for a pro contract.

So everything that I was doing was related to soccer. Um, but it was great that I, that I took the business classes, that I was able to graduate in business because then I got a business. Of our company. But back then, when I was around like junior to senior, it’s when we started dating and it was very funny because it was the end of the season.

I needed a highlight video. Then she was like, Hey, I [00:06:00] study, uh, I know how to add it. I took classes and I was like, oh, that’s great. I know soccer really well. You know really well. She knows soccer too. was like that bad. I know my clips, I know everything. Can you help me make something even better? So we just sat down in the library.

I remember like it was yesterday, and she just was like, okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna use Premiere, we’re gonna use After Effects. And I was like, wait.

Kelsey: It was way over his head. 

Julio: And I was like, oh my God, that’s crazy. And it’s not very hard. Like she showed in front of me and I was like, okay, maybe I can offer that to my teammates.

I bet they’re gonna love. That’s what it happened. And then they loved it. And then eventually I started, she, she already had an Instagram back. 

Kelsey: Um, it was just a hobby. It was just a hobby. We never like planned on it to become this like, substantial business that has an influence. We were just doing it for fun and, and to, I just doing it to help people, like his teammates needed, um, highlight videos because a lot of them, a lot of males in the soccer scene, they wanna go pro so they know.

I’m gonna need a video every season because I’m gonna have to show it to coaches. So we were like, Hey, let’s just help people, you know, let’s just make videos. We weren’t charging anything. Yeah. We were just, I was just doing it because people needed it and I knew how to do it, and I was a senior about to graduate, so I was like, Hey, I have some extra spare time.

Let’s help people.

Julio: Yeah. So then, uh, it was very lucky because I, I played like a lot of seasons. I wasn’t. Stopping and [00:07:30] not playing. So I was playing spring. I was playing fall. I was playing summer. So she was basically taking care of all of our teammates. We were taking care of all of our, of my teammates.

And then when I was about to sign summer in, it was for the villages. It was 2020 summer, 2020. Then everything happened. Covid happened, and then we went. We went to Florida. We stayed in Florida. That’s when things started to change. Uh, an agent, uh, who he played college too, D one, and he was starting his business.

He needed someone to do his highlight video. Kelsey got in contact to him and he really needed someone. Like, right now, I need to go. I, I was graduating. I didn’t have a contract. We were just staying at home. Sorry about that. That’s okay. And we were just staying at home and literally doing nothing. I mean, you were working.

No. You, you weren’t working. No, not at that time. Yeah. And then we took it. We were like, why not? Then that’s when the company just sky rocked it. It was crazy. And we were doing tons of videos. We started posting on Instagram and then from there it just went up. So thank God that nowadays. Tons of companies that we work with.

We are very well known in the business and just, just doing better. Just getting better every day. Yeah. That’s awesome. 

Matt: Well, if. Towards the Thanksgiving, uh, break, I posted [00:09:00] a, a Twitter thread of the top dos and don’ts for highlight videos. Cause this point, this year, I’ve interviewed almost 125 college coaches for the podcast and kind of asked them, okay, what are your top dos and don’ts?

And I summarized it into a, a Twitter thread that if you haven’t seen, go to the Discovers CS Twitter account and it’s pinned at the top there. For the top dos and don’ts, what are some of your top dos and don’ts, uh, that you’ve seen and heard around highlight videos? Sure. 

Kelsey: Um, so I’d say the biggest ones are the very first, do I say is you have to have like a link that’s on YouTube.

Um, I don’t recommend, and neither does Julio. Um, like just having it on an Instagram page or a Twitter account, like definitely. A, a real highlight video of like all of your best clips and things on YouTube so that you can email it out to coaches. Um, it’s good to also have a Twitter account and an Instagram account because then coaches can go and do like a little bit of research and investigation where you can constantly upload new clips from new showcases.

But definitely have that real substantial like 2022 highlight video of, of all your best stuff and you can constantly update it, but definitely have. A real video. Um, and then getting into the video, you always wanna have an introduction photo that has a picture of yourself so the coach can see your face and make that personal connection of, oh, this is [00:10:30] John Doe.

Like this is who that person is. Um, and then have, you know your name? Age, um, class, weight, height position, um, and then any accolades or additional information that you wanna add on there. Um, putting your club is always good. Gpa if you wanna add SAT/ACT scores. Any of that fun stuff. Um, but you don’t wanna make it too cluttered.

That’s, you always have the description box or the email that you’ll be sending it. So just kind of keep the most important information on that intro screen so they can just get right into the video right away. Because from analytical data, from what we’ve seen on our channel, a coach is only gonna watch about a minute and 30 seconds.

So if your intro is 60 seconds, You’ve kind of lost them already. 

Julio: We normally say that the highlight video is kind of something that’s gonna put the player in the door of the coach, and then the email gonna have the rest of the, of the information that you need. Normally, you can’t attach a CV with more information.

You don’t have to put in your intro, like the tons of our conference that you were since, I don’t know, 2005, you know? Mm-hmm. . But it’s while gonna get you through the door, those minute, a minute 30. That’s what you’ve gotta make that 

Kelsey: that impact that impression. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s more like that handshake of just that kind of first introduction.

Yes. Um, so then getting past the intro, you always wanna put your best clips up front. Um, even if, like you’re a defender, I hear a lot of times, oh, but I don’t score [00:12:00] goals. Like, what do I put first? Um, every position to a coach is important. They need to recruit. Every position on that field. So if you are a defender, if you’re a midfielder, if you’re a right back, goalkeeper forward, whatever you are important to that coach.

So always put your best clips no matter what they are up front. If it’s like a really good slide, tackle, if it’s a header, if it’s you just being aggressive on the field, they wanna see it because that makes the impact for their team. Um, so always best clips up. Um, always identify yourself in every play.

Yeah. Um, no matter how far away the footage is. A lot of teams, um, they use vo, they use trace. Sometimes that camera doesn’t zoom. Yeah. So if you have the ability to zoom when making the footage, Or editing it, please zoom in. It helps the coach a lot. Um, and identify yourself in every play no matter what.

Um, we have heard that goalkeepers don’t really need to do that as much because you’re a goalie. The coach knows that you’re a goalkeeper. Yeah. Um, so that one’s kind of a given, but for every other position, definitely. Um, and make sure it’s not. A giant circle or a huge like arrow, kind of make it specific to you as a player so that they’re not a little confused and they might be looking at the wrong person.

Um, and then when it comes to filming, so if your team doesn’t have trace or vo, um, what we recommend is the iPhone. The new iPhones today, they’re great. They shoot in 4K 60 frames per [00:13:30] second. Um, honestly, you don’t need anything crazy. Always shoot horizontally with your phone. Never vertical, never, ever. Um, and if you have a tripod that would be best to like, you don’t want shaky footage.

Um, but yeah, try to film up close, try to film, um, more on like, if you’re an attacker, try to film one half on the attacking side, one half, maybe on the defensive side so you can get both halves. Um, but yeah, the filming today, it doesn’t need to be crazy fancy. Um, just do what you can. Uh, I know a lot of things are with the economy now and prices, it can be really tough, so just.

Do what you can and just, yeah, that’s, that’s pretty much it. Um, that’s for the dues. Do you have anything to add for dues? 

Julio: No, that’s it for Don’s I would say. Don’t put music, 

Kelsey: but lyrics. Yeah. Music is a great area. So I did actually read your whole tweet, um, the gray area of music. Uh, we add music to all of our videos just because.

People like it, like clients like it, but we add non copyrighted, non lyrical music. So, um, if you’re adding things, make it instrumental. No lyrics and nothing pro uh, profanity. No cursing, no bad words, no nothing. Coaches, you will make an impression and a coach will skip your video right away. Yeah, absolutely.

Um, Other things, like you can make a video every season, coaches like to [00:15:00] see updated, uh, highlight videos and clips. So that’s another do. Um, do you have more 

Julio: don’ts? No, I think that’s it. That, that part of making a highlight video every season is very important, especially for young kids. Uh, that they’re right now, 2025, class of 2025, class of 2024 is very important.

They’re starting to be, to be able to get recruited. You probably know those rules. Uh, whoever is going to be a sophomore, if I’m not wrong. It’s good to get into the coach radar right now and then start updating them every season that you are still improving, that you are still playing, and on and on. So that’s something that’s very important that I wish I could have done.

You probably too. 

Kelsey: Yeah. Um, another one I thought of is, club footage is gonna be more impactful than high school footage. So if you play for like an ECNL team, MLS Next, um, or any kind of club I played for Team Boca. I didn’t play ecnl or MLS next, but my club footage, um, my, those coaches know that clubs play at those higher levels, you know, and they go to those showcase tournaments and they know that you are actively playing constantly.

That club footage will hold a little more weight than your high school footage. Yes. But if you are filming high school games, absolutely put it in there. Um, coaches wanna see you play as much as possible, um, and see you in every game situation. Um, 

Julio: yeah. A good example that I could do is Louise Lugo. We did a highlight video for a really [00:16:30] great player.

He just got recruited for fgcu, uh, D one and his highlight video. He, maybe he had like 50 goals. Let see. But. Out of these 50 goals, 25 were in high school, maybe 30 were in high school. His agent, uh, he sent to me all these clips and I done it. I love it. Okay. I’m gonna put it out. I didn’t know back then because, uh, it’s like she said she played high school, she played clubs.

She knows that the way I didn’t, yeah. Yeah. So, I put it all together. It was a great, great highlight video. I was like, this guy’s gonna go to Stanford, . Uh, I sent it back to him and he goes like, okay, delete all of this that are playing in football stadiums. And I was like, why? And he was like, all of these are high school games.

They’re so easy, like you can see. And I was like, oh my God, that is right. And he was like, but all of these clips that are not football stadiums first, and let’s leave the best ones for high school. And then, Sometimes it’s just, it looks too easy. High 

Matt: school. So, so that’s a question I’ve gotten before is do you recommend adding, you know, just like a lower third or something that says who you’re playing against?

Highlighting that competition to show that, hey, this, I’m doing this against this level, and to help it stand. I, 

Julio: we do offer that. I do recommend that too. Uh, normally we do dial a lot to MLS snacks players. They are, uh, one of them we [00:18:00] did for Ila Galaxy Player who was playing against San Jose Earthquakes.

He was playing against ffc and that was like, I think that’s a really good idea. I agree with him. Let’s go on and highlight, because this is, he’s playing a really high level. So yeah, I would definitely recommend. Now if you’re not playing against that tough of a club, that’s not very important. I mean, it’s up to you, but I wouldn’t recommend that much.

But when it’s something that’s, it can stand out. Yeah. 

Matt: And so. Well, for folks that you know, uh, who aren’t, uh, communication majors who’ve learned Adobe Premier and, and everything under the sun, do you have any, uh, just one or two tips or tricks or is there specific free software that you would suggest folks use?

I know everybody, the iPhone people of iMovie, but you know, other stuff that maybe if I don’t have an iPhone or I wanna do on my laptop, uh, anything like, 

Kelsey: Yeah, so, um, iMovie is available on your Apple computer as well. Um, and we make, uh, when I, when I was first learning, we were making, um, highlight videos using like a presentation tool.

Like you can just make your cover photo on, um, like a slideshow and just put your information and then you, that’s a really clean way to do it where you can just like bullet point information and then add it into your video. Um, for. 

Julio: Um, related to video. 

Kelsey: I know though that iMovie is for Apple. What’s the one for if I’m not [00:19:30] wrong?

Julio: It’s called filmmaker if I’m not wrong. Okay. I used that back when I was in Kansas. I didn’t have an Apple computer. I had a Windows computer, but I think it was filmmaker if I’m not wrong. But yes, there is one for Windows computer. Uh, you probably just have to put on Google, uh, editing, video editing. Uh, Software 

Matt: software for Windows Computer.

Well, and, and I’ve actually had some success, uh, with Cap Cut. Uh, most people who, if you’re May, if you’re familiar with TikTok, uh, cap cuts an app on the phone, but they’ve now created an app for pc. Uh, so then it’s just, just like on the phone. So that, that might be another good one. Well, I really appreciate your guys’ time and insights.

So, you know, can you, let’s close with, just go ahead and let us know what you guys do for players right now. If there’s any high school players out there looking for help, you know, what is it that your company does and how they can help them. 

Kelsey: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so our main focus is the highlight video.

Um, and we also focus on getting athletes exposure. Um, so Julio actually works for a recruiting company who he’s on the college placement team, so he actually. Um, gets athletes profiles and speaks with the college coaches and then finds the right fit for those athletes. Um, so with his connection through that, he’s been able to kind of share our YouTube channel, um, and say like, Hey, we just kind of post athletes here.

Feel free to just come and look for [00:21:00] your recruiting purposes. Um, so we actually get college coaches reaching out to us almost every day. In search of new recruits. Um, so the paid service is just the flat fee that we have for the highlight video. Um, and then the additional free offer is just exposure.

Yeah, tons and tons of exposure. Um, we got one kid 30,000 views on his highlight video. Um, and the average that we show on our Instagram page every day is about 5,000 to 7,000 views per video. Um, and it’s just incredible. I, I love our business so much because when I was a recruit, like I would’ve killed for that kind of exposure.

You know, like, and we didn’t have those kinds of, uh, resources back then. Like I think there was ncsa, but that was like really the only one and I couldn’t afford it. Um, so we wanted to make our business as affordable and as helpful for recruits as possible because for him as an international, And me, I mean, just an American.

Um, yeah, we, we’ve been through that recruiting process. We know how hard it can be and we know how. Athletes can struggle with so much on their plate. You know, they have school, they have grades, they have, um, practice, they have making their highlight video, they have going through that recruiting process, touring schools, talking to coaches.

It’s just, it can be so much. So we really wanted to make something just to alleviate some of that pressure and just kind of help those athletes out and put them in the best [00:22:30] light and really help their chances to just get. Awesome. Well, 

Matt: appreciate all you’re doing and really appreciate the time and hopefully this helps some folks as they, uh, put together their highlight videos and if they need some help, I’m sure they’ll reach out to you guys.

So thanks again. 

Kelsey: Thank you. Appreciate it and all your time. Take care. 

Julio: Take care. Bye bye.