Your business will be made or broken on relationships. Building trust and being passionate is central to this. Whether it’s your team, your clients, or your competition, these relationships are crucial. Today’s guest has not only built an amazing business based on relationships but clearly loves what he does every day.

Key Takeaways

Finding opportunities to take on side-gigs will keep your skills sharp and allow you to do exciting work you otherwise couldn’t. There’s a lot of learning and inspiration that comes from branching out and trying new things that will help you constantly level-up as a filmmaker. 

When building a team, start with trust and passion. Knowing that your people will faithfully and enthusiastically get the job done whether you’re there or not is central to a well-functioning business.

About Chris Ray

Chris is a filmmaker who got his start in action sports filming skateboarding videos. Since then, he has done a wide range of work with companies such as DC Shoes, NFL Films, Ford, GoPro, ESPN, and many more.

Imbuing Your Work With Passion

Chris has a great perspective on everything that he does. For one thing, he doesn’t view other filmmakers as competition. Instead, they’re an inspiration and possible collaborators. Chris loves his work so much that he seldom passes up an opportunity to make videos. When he doesn’t have a project, he makes one for himself. This passion to keep working on many different projects has allowed Chris to keep his skills well-honed as a filmmaker.

Building an Amazing Team

Chris doesn’t do it all alone. He has built up a solid team of filmmakers to help make and produce their videos. I know many of us are hesitant to hire people, but it is an essential part of growing your video business. Chris knows that the most important place to start when taking on new people is trust. You need to be able to trust your people to get the job done without you. That’s why you brought them on to begin with. When you find the right people who are passionate about the work, you’re well on your way to building a winning team.

Have you hired team members? What qualities do you look for in them? How do you build trust in your business? Leave a comment on the episode page!

In This Episode:

• The many sources of inspiration in filmmaking [4:45]
• Taking on side-gigs to refine your craft [7:30]
• The characteristics to look for when building a team [12:35]
• Learning to manage the work-life balance [13:40]
• The power of respect to make jobs run smoothly [17:30]

Quotes

“I get inspired by others. I’m inspired by other filmmakers. I’m inspired by my team. Those are the people I want to work with. I’ve definitely learned that you can't do everything by yourself. I try to surround myself with other filmmakers that are great because it makes me better.” [5:30]

“I still get scared every single time I get hit up for a freelance job. It’s still scary every time and I think that’s because I think I’m scared of failure. I just say yes and we go for it and we figure it out. That’s always been my advice to people: just say yes. Just do it.” [10:10]

“Being respectful to people no matter what the role is, no matter what their level is, treating everybody with respect is a huge thing.” [17:39]

Links:

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Find Chris Ray online

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Additional Links:

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