We recently connected with Michael Jasper and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
Family is everything to me so it’s important that whatever I do reflects positively on my family name. LaNaMa films derives its name from the first two letters of each of my children’s names. La for Lauren, Na for Natalie, and Ma for Matthew. Doing this is a daily reminder that what ever projects I choose to develop and/or participate is a positive reflection on me and my family. If it’s something I wouldn’t want my kids to see me associate with, I shouldn’t be doing it. Surprisingly, I’ve turned down several projects for this very reason.
Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
How I got into video production is a very interesting story. I first started years ago with just doing home movies of my kids as they were growing and realized I really loved it . I especially liked video editing. I began to take classes on the weekend just as a hobby and it began to progress from there. From a hobby I began to have clients making videos about their nonprofits on a more serious basis. At the same time my corporate career in finance was growing. However, in 2016 I had a major health issue that really made me reevaluate life and my priorities. Fast forward to 2020 and like everyone else I was impacted by COVID. Also that year I had several other life events that really made me question what’s important and what I should be doing with my time. I came to the very difficult decision that I would leave corporate America and follow my passion full time. So December 31st 2021 was my last day in corporate America. This was the best decision I’ve ever made . It was a scary decision but now that I went through it it’s absolutely the best thing that I could have done.
The changes in my life that made me prioritize my family and my passion over working in a corporate environment is exactly the way I approach my projects. I tend to focus on projects that have a human interest story that otherwise would not be told. This really appeals to me. I am really interested in voices and conditions of the least in our society gaining a voice.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Your reputation is everything. I think what has helped me build my reputation is very simple but often people find it difficult to execute. The phrase “do what you say, and say what you mean” is quoted a lot. But I often find that outside of corporate America basic business skills tend to be lacking sometimes. I don’t want this to sound incredibly negative however there is a culture in corporate America that is not readily found within the content creator community. Basic things like following up, clear communications, checking in, 24 hour rule to respond to emails, etc. are things that all people in business should adhere to. I have been told on several occasions that as a contractor I am very easy to work with given the aforementioned skills. This leads to word of mouth recommendations to others. Further, I have received projects based upon my previous corporate experience. People who knew me then and now know that this is what I do for a living and were comfortable reaching out to me for projects. This has been very helpful in growing my business.
Any advice for managing a team?
Although I currently do not have a team as an entrepreneur, I have managed a lot of teams in my previous corporate experience. There are several things I feel really help manage teams and keep high morale. The first is be a good communicator. That means being clear with directions and or feedback and in describing assignments. Even when giving bad news most employees appreciate clear and direct communication.
The second thing that makes for managing teams well is to understand that your employees are human and have personal lives and problems or issues that may impact their work . I call this simply being a concerned human. What I would always do during my one-on-one meetings with my staff is I would start all of my meetings by asking them how they’re doing. If they were dealing with something outside of work we would spend as much time as possible on that topic to make sure they are taken care of even if that means cutting some of our business discussion short.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lanamafilms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaNaMaFilms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOAKFs57mG11-FjZF97G9nQ