Meet Grace & Paul

Transcript is auto-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited; it may contain small errors.

Grace: So, Griffith Media has been around for about five years — formally. But you've been doing your own thing for a decade.

Paul: Wow, thank you.

Known For podcast, episode five. Take one.

Grace: So tell us a little bit about how you got started. I love this story, I've heard it many times, so I'll add my two cents here and there.

Paul: I grew up in a house where my dad worked in video production. In the late eighties, nineties, he was an engineer, and he always had cameras around that he was working on, or systems he was trying to fix, and I got to play with them — very fortunate for that. Can't discount the impact that had, just having real tools and being able to experiment and learn and fail at a really safe age. But then I got really involved in my church as a teenager — some friends and I were doing video with kids and youth, and they probably gave me way more responsibility than they should have at 13 years old. Like, hey, do you know how to mix audio? I was like, do you know how to — I love the confidence, but yeah, we figured it out. I know a lot of our team has a similar story, so it's kind of fun, I see them smiling behind the camera right now.

But the first thing I really got plugged into was graphic design. Shortly after that, actually, it might have been web design around the same time — learning to code, my HTML 1.0 book. I got Adobe Premiere version 1.1 on floppy disk, got to install that, and the first render was going to take, I think it said 12 days or something ridiculous. Got to work with all the tools that aren't around anymore — Flash. But that kind of kept me agile, having to learn new things, new technology, it taught me that at a young age. And then I really got into graphic design, and from there it was, hey, motion graphics — it's kind of like a mix between Photoshop and Flash. So I understood keyframes, I learned that a lot of the software was really similar, and a lot of skills you pick up in one kind of transfer to the other. I had the software available, so I got to practice, I got to play, I got to do cool things at the church where we served. I got to work with next to no budget, where we'd spend our own money — I would save up and go buy lights at Guitar Center and install them and nail wires to the wall and break all the codes until they realized we were breaking electrical code and had to run it the real way. At the same time, it was this weird mix of learning in that environment where we just had to make do — if we had an idea, it was up to us to figure out how to do it. But then a few weeks later, we'd be at a conference, again volunteering, and it was like, oh, all of a sudden, here's all the real tools, go figure that out now. And it was still the same teenagers running everything, making the same mistakes, but it was fun. So being scrappy was really fun for a while, and I learned a lot of things that still carry over today — the scrappiness factor, making do with what's available.

Now, if we fast forward, I think there's more to the story, but we have a lot of tools available now, our agency's thriving, we work with really great people who bring their own tools. We're able to work with, I think, smaller teams and achieve bigger things with fewer tools, still, because of the mindset that developed from finding creative ways to get it done — because you have an idea and you go chase it, and it might not be the same way they did it in Hollywood, but we did it.

I started working with teams, kind of unintentionally, in my early twenties — like, hey, it'd be fun to direct movies, so I called some friends, and I think seven people showed up the first time. We tried a gunfight, we had fake guns, we didn't really know what we were doing, we didn't know a lot of the technical things about jumping the line, or where you're supposed to position cameras, but we figured it out really fast, and put some stuff on YouTube. It was really fun. The next time we did it, I think we had like 12 people show up because they saw the first one and wanted to be a part of it — all that momentum. And the momentum really built, we kept doing that every few weeks, every couple months. I think the last short we worked on as a group, before I had to move and some other things happened, we had 55 people there. That was all volunteer, all just people wanting to be a part of something fun, and get the opportunity to do something a little bigger, a little more unique. I learned a lot there about leadership, because I wasn't really trying to put a team together — it was, hey, I want to do these ideas, I talked to friends about it, they want to do those ideas, and then it just kind of spreads, and you learn that you need more than yourself to do those things. More skill sets, more perspectives, more expertise, and we all learn. And what's really cool is most of that crowd is now in production at some level or another — some of them are writing and directing, have stuff in festivals all over, some are in more traditional production, some have their own agencies, some have worked for some of the biggest organizations in our state, leading teams and stuff like that. And we all kind of have that shared history of rubbing elbows together for free, and just having fun while creating.

Grace: And you now have your own agency too. So talk more about the decision to work with a team again and lead a team again, versus just being a one-man show, jack of all trades.

Paul: I mean, I was a full-time freelance contractor for decades, and that paid the bills. For a while I was kind of just doing other things too, to help pay the bills — I got to play in a band, tour around a little bit, which now serves, that history serves a lot as well. Got to move across the state a few times — that's where we met. I keep trying to jump to the part where you met me, I lived so much life before, moved a few times. And then I actually tried to start a few other businesses — we did start a few other businesses, in the meantime, it was like, hey, this would be a good idea, let's go chase it, with different people, different outlets, a lot of them creative in one way or another. But moving back to Dallas, for a completely other reason, after we met, and while I was here, started freelancing again, and it was going well. And then during the pandemic, a lot of my clients needed a lot more video all of a sudden, and it wasn't like I set out saying, I want to start an agency, I want to do this — it was mostly just helping the people around me. I got clients that needed extra help, and some friends I knew could do production, even if they weren't in production at the moment — when work was scarce, it was easy to send some their way. The ones that were really good, and we worked really well together, eventually turned into our lead editor now — told me, hey, I can't do this freelance anymore, I need to be full-time. So we figured it out, figured out the business logistics of what it takes to hire somebody and do it the right way, what it takes to get health insurance as a company, to do payroll, to do all this other stuff that's kind of taken me away from some of the creative, but has enabled even more creative, more talented people to come, and now we all get to do what we're really good at together. And it's good, it's fun.

Grace: What does it feel like leading a team versus leading creatives, versus being one of the creatives?

Paul: I miss it sometimes — the creative, getting my hands dirty, so to speak. But sometimes I still have to, depending on the busy season or what. I enjoy the team aspect more, though — plugging the right people into quarterbacking whatever projects, knowing, oh, this person will be great on this job, this person will be great at this role, and finding new talent consistently, and learning that lesson of the people we kind of fall back on getting really cool opportunities to travel and be abroad — it's like, oh, they can't run camera for us anymore, I need to find more camera operators. Consistently sourcing new creatives, putting the right tests, setting the right expectations, and bringing them into the fold so we can all do what we're good at together. It's been really good — the team part's by far the best part, and learning all the business stuff and behind the scenes has been great.

Grace: I've watched you wear both hats really well, and it's really fun watching you, because when I met you, you were just the guy behind the camera, and I was in front of it. We actually met — I was in front of the camera doing something at one of the churches you were working at, and you were filming me, and that's how we met. You were just bringing your camera places and doing shoots, driving from Dallas to Houston to capture things. But it's been really cool watching you shift into the entrepreneur, business-owner role and lead creatives, because you're really good at that. I think you stepping back and forth between the creative hat and the business, the creative leader and the business leader — I think that's a skill set, just transitioning back and forth, and you do it well.

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Grace: So we met back when you were the one-man show, and then when the agency started, I wasn't a part of it yet. My creative and leadership experiences really started out in the church too. I was homeschooled all throughout my childhood — I'm one of eight kids, and I think that brings a lot of stereotypes to mind for people. Every time I tell this story, they're like, oh, you were one of those. It makes holidays fun, it really does, especially now that everyone's grown. Being homeschooled, I think a lot of people assume you got to do whatever you wanted, that you never did schoolwork. I did — I actually did pretty good in school. It enabled me to do a lot of really cool things, and it taught me a level of responsibility at a younger age than a lot of people get the opportunity to learn. I was self-directed for a lot of it, and I got to have a lot of volunteer opportunities at my church. I got to lead a lot of things at a young age, I got to see and learn from a lot of incredible leaders, and because of all those opportunities, I got to see a lot of behind the scenes — I got to see people on and off stage, I got to be on stage and speak on stages, and do a lot of that at a very young age, and just learn a lot of life lessons at a young age, maybe not even from first experience, but watching other people too.

During that time, I was kind of on a path to be a pastor and be in full-time ministry, and I was simultaneously working toward my degree in education, because my parents told me ministry is not a good career path, it's not going to help you make a living, you need to go be a teacher because that's the way to make a solid living — there's so much money in education. But I come from a long line of teachers, and so that was a surefire way to success for them, and I'm super proud of the teachers in my family. Anyway, I actually ended up enjoying teaching a lot more than I thought I would, bouncing back and forth from being in the classroom with kids every day to leading on stages at church, and with everything I was seeing from all of those opportunities, what it eventually led to was me deciding, when I graduated from college, to go teach instead of take a full-time job as a pastor right out of college. Because throughout all of those experiences, what felt true to me — and I still believe this to this day — is that even though churches make such a huge impact in the communities they serve, and pastors leave such an incredible mark on people's lives, and I can name countless people who've made a tremendous impact on mine who were pastors to me, I couldn't let go of the impact I was making every single day in kids' lives in the classroom. That impact was so tangible to me, and I couldn't give up the opportunity to make that kind of impact. So I chose to be a teacher, and I think we got married right after my first year of teaching. I still did a lot of different ministry experiences all throughout my teaching career, which wasn't very long — I was only in the classroom for about four or five years. But in that experience, it really taught me that it's those everyday moments, the daily, consistent interactions and touch points you have in a person's life, the conversations you have, the things you say to people over and over again, especially with kids — but I think we underestimate how the things we say to kids still work with adults. The things we hear, even just subconsciously, do something to the way we think.

And so in 2020, when you started the agency, I shifted from teaching and started my own business, and that led to mostly copywriting and marketing roles for the businesses I served. And eventually we married our businesses, because we realized we were kind of consulting on each other's projects, serving a lot of the same clients, just in different but congruent ways — I was writing marketing copy for them, you were turning that copy into video, and it just made sense to work together. And we've just been doing it ever since, and it's been good. We've been able to work on a lot of projects together, and that's been really fun, but we serve in different roles, we wear different hats — you typically operate more on the production end of things, and whenever there's something more story or marketing oriented, I kind of step in, and we collaborate on that, because you still chime in on marketing projects too, here and there, it's super helpful.

I think what I've been able to apply from teaching to marketing is kind of like what I said about those consistent daily touch points — and this is what we talk about all the time with our clients — branding is not just a one-and-done process. When you figure out your messaging, you're not done, you put it on your website, you're not done, it's a practice. You have to consistently be reinforcing those messages to your audience, to your team, to yourself, but especially to your customers. Because even if you say one thing one time — maybe you're pitching a product, or nurturing your audience and warming them up to a concept, talking about a pain point they deal with often, because you're about to provide the solution to that pain point with your product or service — if you say it one time, it's gone, it's lost in the noise. They haven't necessarily heard you. You have to say things over and over again, it's consistency that makes things heard. So when you're thinking about your messaging, your marketing, it's not just these individual pieces that are going to get the message across — you have to make decisions about how you're going to show up, what your presence is going to be, because it's the daily touch points that matter. People often remember what you say, but the reason they remember what you say is because of when you're there and how often you're there. People don't always remember how often you show up, but they remember what you say when you show up, because of how often you show up.

So the reason we shared a little bit of our stories today is because we believe that businesses should always be focusing on and shedding light on the stories behind the company, and we encourage businesses to do the same. If any of this resonated with you — we talked about being scrappy as an entrepreneur, you can't undervalue scrappiness, you've got to have it, you've got to be able to get places with limited resources and use creative means to maximize that time and those resources. But you're going to hit a wall eventually, and that's where a team comes in. And if building a team is challenging, our best advice, at least from my life, is: if you do cool stuff and you give good people decent opportunities, you empower them, you treat them well, they're going to keep coming back, and the team will kind of build itself — they're going to get behind your momentum.

Paul: For sure. And I think my main takeaway would be that every touch point matters — consistency matters, whether that's relationships or branding, it matters. If any of what we just talked about resonates with you, you're a business owner, creative director, and this stuff stands out, it's something you can apply as you lead your team. Stick around, subscribe, we'd love to hear from you. And if you have questions, topics you'd like us to cover, we hope you'll leave that in a review — that also helps us reach a bigger audience and serve more businesses. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Known For podcast, we'll see you next time.

Known For is a Griffith Media podcast recorded on the volume wall at Big Screen Studios in Dallas, Texas. This episode was produced by the Griffith Media team. Find out more about our agency, how we can help your business grow through marketing, video, and design at www.griffith.media. Or find out more about the studio at bigscreentx.com.